Posted on 10/31/2007 11:27:33 AM PDT by Froufrou
The surgeon general really needs to slap a health warning on the New York Times. My blood pressure increases a few points every time I read it. This week, the newspaper of record pimped the Next Great American Education Fad: In-school yoga classes.
According to the piece, “Less Homework, More Yoga, From a Principal Who Hates Stress,” the head of Needham High School in the Boston suburbs is pushing “stress reduction” through better stretching and breathing. Principal Paul Richards, who last earned nationwide mockery when he ditched publishing the honor roll, is part-Oprah, part-Deepak Chopra, part-Richard Simmons, and all edu-babble.
“It’s not that I’m trying to turn the culture upside down,” he’s quoted telling the Times. “It’s very important to protect the part of the culture that leads to all the achievement,” he said. “It’s more about bringing the culture to a healthier place.”
And here I thought high-school principals should make schooling, not “bringing the culture to a healthier place,” their top priority. Silly me. Welcome to your new nanny-state nightmare.
Yoga classes are now a requirement for Needham high -school seniors. To further ease the supposed burden on overworked students, Richards has “asked teachers to schedule homework-free weekends and holidays.” Just what we need to turn around those one in ten schools that are now considered “dropout factories,” huh? Can’t cut it in the classroom? Bend like a bridge, take five deep, slow breaths, and all will be dandy.
Why stop at yoga? Tantric chanting, here we come. And, hey, Kabbalah has done wonders for Madonna. Let’s add hypnotism and acupuncture classes while we’re at it. Hot stone massages? Bonsai tree-clipping? No Relaxation Technique Left Behind!
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
Well, that settles it! Michele hates yoga!
“What a revolting development this is!”
Frankly, I think underwater basket weaving is much more relaxing.
Either that or slinging some lead and shooting skeet.
Pull!
Imagine the uproar if the principle introduced Prayer Times to relieve stress!
Move over Cheney! Papa needs new moose ping! [ref. Rex Beach’s suggestion we shoot skeet in schools]
Whatever happened to teaching reading, writing and arithmetic? Do they still teach that in schools?
They still teach it, but not well enough to pass the TAKS tests! All my teacher friends say they have to teach to the test and not teach the course like they used to do.
I think our views are slanted because we did not have the benefit [?] of this touchy-feely crap.
On second thought, maybe this has everything to do with why so many teachers are having sex with students! If we return to ‘teaching’ and ‘learning’ and do a little less ‘exploring’...
Good point. My daughter is considering home schooling her kids. They are very young now, but by the time they are old enough to start school who knows what wacky crap they will be taught?
Ah, the well-turned phrase...the very yeast you could do!
;o)
I am afraid sometimes home schooling may not be the answer. My neighbor homeschooled her girls and when one girl went off to Southern Baptist U. I believe she was in for a bit of culture shock. All I know is, she wasn’t there more than a semester.
Both my kids attended public schools and they were still hit by a culture shock in college. I think you can find examples of both scenarios though. At least my daughter will have the benefit of that college experience if she does choose to home school and will be able to use it to prepare her children for not only college, but for life in general.
You’re right, of course. I was kind of surprised my own daughter wasn’t shocked when she finally took some college classes. I guess her culture shock hit in high school!
And I think some people are more impervious to that kind of thing than others.
Now that’s what I’m talking about!
They oughta teach the kids about yogarithms first before this New Age gobbledygook!
>>“Watch a short clip on YouTube (as long as you are not addicted). The amazing and often funny feats on the site are inspiring and often leave you feeling, ‘Hey I want to do that!’ This is a great attitude to have towards your work.”<<
Scary.
But what's that on the right side, with the 3x5 boxes and diagonal lines? It seems to be another way of displaying the carries and partial sums of the same multiplication problem, but I don't recall seeing it before. Does anyone have a google-worthy search term describing it?
The method on the right is called the lattice method.
Here’s a good video that critiques alternative methods used to teach multiplication and division in schools these days, including the lattice method.
“Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI
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