Republican debates are entertaining. While candidates use sound bites for the most serious political statements, they use national media, paid ads, local and state supporters and PACs to keep voters from asking for more detail.
How do they do it? Trash the competition. Load the airways with deceitful half truths about fellow candidates.
We really should pay attention.
Karl Rove was the mastermind of trash elections and we got George Bush. He left office scurrying like a mole looking for darkness and anonymity.
Our country is still reeling from his incompetence.
I guess the Democrats timidity and good manners was perceived by the nation as weaknesses.
Perhaps we like the idea of a deceitful, vapid, uneducated and proud of it kind of guy.
If that is the case, go for Rick Perry.
Another Bush? Mitt Romney-this country has a weakness for rich, white guys who cannot relate to citizens. Go figure...
Sunday, January 08, 2012
America's Educational Standards-Are we failing our children?
I have two Master's degrees As an elementary school student I sat on the gym floor, month after month, wistfully watching the same students receive academic awards. I was told if I tried harder I too could get those awards . I struggled with math. I didn't get what the tests asked me to tell them. I could always find an argument for another answer. It was agonizing-and elusive.
The best teachers I hold in my heart are the ones who recognized the potential in me, used my strengths in reading and my ability to look at both sides of an issue and taught me how to use them for all my subject areas. Still it wasn't until high school that I realized I was intelligent and could be more than successful in school. Oh, I had moments of brilliance in my school career. A film I made about the elderly in Santa Monica made the paper. The poetry I wrote in elementary school hung in the hallways. I actually score the highest grade in a high school lit exam. The problem is, if you measured me against the standards today I would have been considered a remedial student and never, ever, would I have believed I had anything to offer the world, except perhaps, a minimum wage job.
As a teacher, I understand how important it is to keep track of what our students are gaining in terms of fundemental knowledge. As a parent, I would pull my kids from the school system the way it is curently pursuing a one size fits all approach.
The current quest for all kids to know all things at certain grades rather than see education as a developmental process throws away thousands of creative , eager, talented children in the process. If a child isn't following the same incubation period as the standards, he or she is failing. More ever, this "group think" process" provides no room for the "off the beaten path" child who sees the world and learning from not from a linear perspective, but perhaps from an off sides location, much like many gifted souls do.
Many of our most imaginative and creative citizens accomplished great things, despite our educational system. In fact, they had to leave it in order to pursue their goals.
As a parent and an educator, I want those kids to flourish in my classroom and our schools.
How can we both measure and grow our students in a manner that fits them?
The best teachers teach the student, not necessarily the curriculum as it presents itself. The best elementary school teachers teach children HOW to learn as well as what to learn. Learning to learn is an important process. We waste those precious growing and developing brain cells when we test them repeatedly, constantly sending the message that the child is a failure if they fail a test.
The question I ask parents is this,
"In this "data driven, one size fits all, education system, are you aware your child is no longer a person but a series of test scores?"
Is your acquiescence , by way of silence, of the educational system, as it now stands, providing the optimum educational environment for your child?
I cannot think of how my two year old grandson will survive the school curriculum the way it stands. It will crush his spirit. His language skills are already exceptional, he is inquisitive, he is enthusiastic, he has a bright smile on his face each morning when he wakes up. He reminds me of me when I was a child. The world was an incubator of wonder and awe. He may not follow the progression of the curriculum and the testing calendar. Is he, then a failure in kindergarten because he did not learn how to add and subtract numbers according to the calendar?
What do we tell our kids when they fail the tests in first or second grade?
As a parent I would be asking these questions.
In the hallway at our school, the walls are lined with the results of testing data. Teachers are given rewards for testing data results.
Students progress is important but we can't omit each student's personal idiosyncratic learning styles.
Lastly I want to tell you a story about a student who came to my class this year.
She moved from a midewestern state. She is ADD, and boy is she ever. By 9am her desk is a mess, papers on the floor, lost pencils, wet paper towels left behind from a spill.
A brilliant reader. Not just a brilliant reader, a child with the potential to write amazing stories, high verbal skills, great comprehension skills. Barely hanging on at her last school. Once she learned testing strategies she was able to demonstrate her high language apptitude.
Mostly she needed to see her strengths and develop confidence.
She is still a work in progress. Her writing is all over the page, she is not neat but her thoughts and ideas are wonderful!
She is moving to another state! Will her next teacher see the potential? Will the next teacher see beyond the messy, scattered desk and the scrawled writing?
Or will she return to the status of "remedial student" because she tests poorly?
The best teachers I hold in my heart are the ones who recognized the potential in me, used my strengths in reading and my ability to look at both sides of an issue and taught me how to use them for all my subject areas. Still it wasn't until high school that I realized I was intelligent and could be more than successful in school. Oh, I had moments of brilliance in my school career. A film I made about the elderly in Santa Monica made the paper. The poetry I wrote in elementary school hung in the hallways. I actually score the highest grade in a high school lit exam. The problem is, if you measured me against the standards today I would have been considered a remedial student and never, ever, would I have believed I had anything to offer the world, except perhaps, a minimum wage job.
As a teacher, I understand how important it is to keep track of what our students are gaining in terms of fundemental knowledge. As a parent, I would pull my kids from the school system the way it is curently pursuing a one size fits all approach.
The current quest for all kids to know all things at certain grades rather than see education as a developmental process throws away thousands of creative , eager, talented children in the process. If a child isn't following the same incubation period as the standards, he or she is failing. More ever, this "group think" process" provides no room for the "off the beaten path" child who sees the world and learning from not from a linear perspective, but perhaps from an off sides location, much like many gifted souls do.
Many of our most imaginative and creative citizens accomplished great things, despite our educational system. In fact, they had to leave it in order to pursue their goals.
As a parent and an educator, I want those kids to flourish in my classroom and our schools.
How can we both measure and grow our students in a manner that fits them?
The best teachers teach the student, not necessarily the curriculum as it presents itself. The best elementary school teachers teach children HOW to learn as well as what to learn. Learning to learn is an important process. We waste those precious growing and developing brain cells when we test them repeatedly, constantly sending the message that the child is a failure if they fail a test.
The question I ask parents is this,
"In this "data driven, one size fits all, education system, are you aware your child is no longer a person but a series of test scores?"
Is your acquiescence , by way of silence, of the educational system, as it now stands, providing the optimum educational environment for your child?
I cannot think of how my two year old grandson will survive the school curriculum the way it stands. It will crush his spirit. His language skills are already exceptional, he is inquisitive, he is enthusiastic, he has a bright smile on his face each morning when he wakes up. He reminds me of me when I was a child. The world was an incubator of wonder and awe. He may not follow the progression of the curriculum and the testing calendar. Is he, then a failure in kindergarten because he did not learn how to add and subtract numbers according to the calendar?
What do we tell our kids when they fail the tests in first or second grade?
As a parent I would be asking these questions.
In the hallway at our school, the walls are lined with the results of testing data. Teachers are given rewards for testing data results.
Students progress is important but we can't omit each student's personal idiosyncratic learning styles.
Lastly I want to tell you a story about a student who came to my class this year.
She moved from a midewestern state. She is ADD, and boy is she ever. By 9am her desk is a mess, papers on the floor, lost pencils, wet paper towels left behind from a spill.
A brilliant reader. Not just a brilliant reader, a child with the potential to write amazing stories, high verbal skills, great comprehension skills. Barely hanging on at her last school. Once she learned testing strategies she was able to demonstrate her high language apptitude.
Mostly she needed to see her strengths and develop confidence.
She is still a work in progress. Her writing is all over the page, she is not neat but her thoughts and ideas are wonderful!
She is moving to another state! Will her next teacher see the potential? Will the next teacher see beyond the messy, scattered desk and the scrawled writing?
Or will she return to the status of "remedial student" because she tests poorly?
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