Thoughts on Education
This page is a collection of writings that I have written in various places and times to answer questions or offer opinions. Sometimes you read something and you think, hmmm, that makes sense. Other times it gives you inspiration to go do something about it. Either way, you're right.
What are the harms you see that schools are creating? 2-11-11
The harm is when creativity and innovation is left at the entrance of the classroom. The harm is when students are taught like an assembly line. The harm is in dictating non-thinking busy work and teaching to a standardized test. This is how our future of this country's leaders will learn? Wow.
Should Teachers Grade Parents? 1-30-11
It is not the job of the teacher to grade parents. It is not the job of anyone to grade parents. Families do the best that they can in their situation and until there is an understanding that the role of the school is to teach and not to judge, maybe more time will be used wisely to teach the children.
Rebuttal to Too Much Time in Classrooms? 1-24-11
It's not the amount of time that is put into school, it's the one size fits all teaching that doesn't work. Traditional schools have left creativity and innovation at the entry of the classrooms and replaced it with unthinking, memorization, busy work, that is dictated by a one size fits all mentor. Not that the teacher has a choice anymore!
It's not about teaching to the test. It's about teaching the children how to teach themselves. To give them the tools to find the answers. It's about helping curious minds stay curious and always asking questions and then figuring out the solution on their own. Asking questions in the classroom have become a sort of taboo... being too smart the kids call each other names, nerd or geek, you get my point, it's not "cool" to be smart. And the media is known to portray this type of behavior. Yea media! Okay, not!
It's the questions that are unanswered or not asked because of embarrassment by curious young minds who want to move and explore, and now they are labeled ADD. It's showing the next generation that the questions that they have are not important. We need a new perspective of how the classroom environment should be set up. We've lost all values of what's important and everyone is so politically correct and won't speak up that it can't be fixed. As soon as we can identify that this is a problem, then maybe we can move forward.
It's not about teaching to the test. It's about teaching the children how to teach themselves. To give them the tools to find the answers. It's about helping curious minds stay curious and always asking questions and then figuring out the solution on their own. Asking questions in the classroom have become a sort of taboo... being too smart the kids call each other names, nerd or geek, you get my point, it's not "cool" to be smart. And the media is known to portray this type of behavior. Yea media! Okay, not!
It's the questions that are unanswered or not asked because of embarrassment by curious young minds who want to move and explore, and now they are labeled ADD. It's showing the next generation that the questions that they have are not important. We need a new perspective of how the classroom environment should be set up. We've lost all values of what's important and everyone is so politically correct and won't speak up that it can't be fixed. As soon as we can identify that this is a problem, then maybe we can move forward.
Is All Hope Lost for Quality Public Schooling? 8-16-10
Was there ever a time when public schools were considered quality? Hmmm... it's been a long time, even before I had children. The "quality" of public schools have been slowly diminishing over the years with no help from our government who targets budget cuts to our educational programs first. For something so important such as the future of our country, wouldn't we want the next generation to be educated? Isn't that the goal, to teach our children to make smart choices which will eventually affect the entire nation? For a country so smart with the antics of Lindsey Lohan we sure are stupid about trying to fix our education system.
