School: Good, bad, decisions
School school school.
Some people think that No Child Left Behind, and the corresponding drop in gifted education, is a strategy to move toward vouchers. Illinois and Michigan eliminated all state funding for gifted programs. All resources are going into that bottom slice so that all children can read. Did we really have an illiteracy problem in this country before NCLB?
I recently made the decision to keep the children at our neighborhood elementary school Laurel (where Lindy went for 3 years!!!) instead of moving them to the Music and Arts Montessori Magnet school, North Shoreview, across town. A big part of that decision was the commute. Walking to school is good for family time, health, getting the boys’ brains ready to learn each day and the environment. NS had a fantastic curriculum with the creative art and commitment to music that Laurel is sorely lacking. But a 15 minute drive (minimum) each direction, when the 3 boys will still be on 3 different schedules next year was too much for mom.
On top of that, we don’t know when we’ll move again. We know we will move sometime in the next 5 years. Glen loves Burlingame, which does have great schools. We didn’t want to make Ethan change schools twice.
Ethan got his report card yesterday. He is performing at or above grade level on everything except penmanship. We’re working on those fine motor skills!
Jared, otoh, has been hating school. Every day he says he doesn’t want to go. He also says he has no friends (except Tait Hollis (Ethan’s school mate) who “cares about his feelings). His pre-k and regular nursery program teachers are taking this seriously with me. Teacher Nancy met with him outside of school on Wednesday to talk about how he’s feeling and why nursery school is important.
Jared gets the “academic” part of the curriculum very quickly. He’s a little obnoxious about it actually. He was the first to memorize his phone # while other children still had to read theirs off their cards. He would put his card in another room and then come and recite his to PROVE that he knew his and isn’t this EASY and so on.
But he is apparently the most sensitive child on the planet. If you so much as bump into him at school on your way past him, you might get screams and wails of – “you did that on purpose! you wanted to hurt me!”
School, an educational institution or formal babysitting? I think I understand that tough choice that a parent has to make regarding where a child spends a very large portion of their day. I am convinced that public schools are not designed to help children become intelligent, well-rounded, prepared citizens. I believe they are designed to provide a structure where kids can learn to socialize and be protected when their parents are at work. This isn’t to say school can’t be a well-designed learning experience; it is just to say that it isn’t. And no child left behind only hides this fundamental problem (although it does indentify certain issues of concern, while providing no resources to solve them). For example, why do student learn script or penmanship? Does this help them in any way, shouldn’t they learn to type instead? Why not teach them to write in Verdana instead? Why do children learn only of past history and not current issues? Why are there no ethics classes or time management classes? Why do we teach children according to rigid age groups, when this is often non-appropriate. Why do we keep both genders always together, when there is evidence that they develop different skills at different time (if a majority of girls learn math at a later age, why force them into it early and thus make them hate math. Of course, hard rules for genders are just as bad, the school should evaluate the learning needs of the children. However, if you accept school as it is, there is no reason why a child can’t learn everything they need to at home. I think kids learn better at home, but there is less of a well-rounded ideology when there are only a few adults and a few kids over a long period of time.
Jared is a perfect example of the public school system letting a kid down. School doesn’t have to be fun, but a child should feel that it is necessary. However, I am confident that the strong family he belongs to will pull him through the pitfalls of school and help him find his way. I think Jared just need some time at uncle Daniel’s school for the frustrated and gifted. However, more important, the public school system is letting down the millions of kids who don’t have the type of family structure that can make up for the stagnation of schools. These kids are not prepared to succeed. No child left behind will help them move towards basic skills, but at the expense of the opportunity to become a fully well-rounded person.
Just a quick example of schools taking the easy way out; in High School chemistry we learned about the structure of an atom and we saw all these little electrons flying around in circles. The past page of that chapter said that there was a new theory called the “electron cloud” theory that was actually correct and the older one was really just an easy way of understanding things. Actually the electron could theory wasn’t new at all, it has been accepted for almost 20 years already. Why did we learn the old, wrong way? This is atomic theory, why not just teach what is right. If a kid doesn’t understand it, well than he won’t grow up to be the .00001% that actually used these theories during his normal life. Better yet, teach it, but don’t test it. Therefore, everyone has the opportunity to learn the right thing and if they can’t then who cares. Ok, enough ranting. I have to get back to work. My boss needs me to write “I will not talk in class” 500 times on the blackboard. Well at least that is something I got to practice in school.