There would be whining... I promised this in my first blog. So, today, I whine. But, it is not just any whine; it a rant about something that makes me so angry I could scream, but I know that my voice is that of someone whistling in the wind.
Education.
I think I am qualified to speak to this. I mean, I was an educator for 34 years. I served as a teacher/coach/ quasi-administrator. I earned the title quasi for 10 years as I went out of the classroom and into the office without an administrator's certificate. I had no real power, and I sought none. But I was a sounding board,and I did have the opportunity to deal with some great kids that were somewhat troubled and misguided at times. All of the kids with whom I dealt had one thing in common --- someplace along the way they fell through the cracks in the system. We were not helping them. In some places, it was our schools fault, in most cases, it was theirs and their parents, though.
I found, though, that the changes in education are not because of the kids. What? You say...not the kids fault? Where, pray tell is there fault?
We as Americans have been led to believe that our Jeffersonian education system is not very good. People from the right tell us this, people from the left tell us this. Like I said the other day, we are trying to solve the problems of society and many other things through our education system. Public education is a must, but must all students have an education? Must it be the same education? Aren't we trying, in some cases, to put round pegs into square holes? And when they don't fit, we pound the corners off until they do!
Some place along the line, somebody told us that we were not educating our children like other countries. That these foreign students were "Scoring higher" on testing. So testing became the new god of education. And everyone is trying to make sure that the new god gets its sacrifices. Let's understand something... unlike other countries, in AMERICA we test EVERYBODY, and thanks to George Bush and others and NCLB, we now lump those that have special needs in with our brainiacs and then report the averaged results to the people. This is obviously going to pull down our scores. So, the so-called experts, the people in the ivory towers, who usually have not set foot in a classroom or have only been there for a few years, begin to try and change things.
My theory is this...If you are patient and want to bring down a nation without firing a shot, invade its education system and lower the IQ of the populace. Make them so they cannot think, but rather are stumped when they run into a problem. This will make them dependent on people who have "expertise". You change the social system by increasing the gap intellectually between the haves and the have nots.
Stop and think. When we were growing up, we went to school and did the basics. We learned the times tables, we learned how to take a sentence apart and put it back together again. We learned civics and history until they came out our ears. Those that were not necessarily interested in those things went to shop classes and learned trades. Now, ask a kid what 11 x 12 is and they pull out a calculator. Ask them how to parse a sentence, or even what the parts of speech are, and they give you that blank look, like one of their computers has locked up. American education is terrible because it has tried to build the house and then add the foundation.
There is a movement out there to take all creativity out of teaching and all learning out of education. It promotes that all students need to learn the exact same things. Some people call it curriculum mapping. This movement teaches towards the test no matter what school officials say. If it is not on the map, teachers cannot teach it. Ooops, there goes handwriting; Sorry, Suzy, but your question is not in today's lesson, we cannot take time on it. Teachers will be told they must all be on the same page on the same day, so all the students have the same information; it doesn't matter if they all do not understand it. Teachers must conform.
I know there are those out there that do not agree with me. But, I ask you, What were you taught and how were you taught it? Did you love to go to school? Why? Who were your favorite teachers and why? And finally, if you have a kid that does not like school, ask them why. They will tell you it is boring and they don't learn anything. Because teachers are prohibited from making it interesting. They cannot take advantage of that "teaching moment."
E Pluribus Unum... If you had Mrs. Jones or Mr. Rundquist in Latin Class, you can translate that!
More tomorrow
Doughnut.
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