Posted on 05/14/2010 12:23:51 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
A mother in Oregon left some provocative comments on an article I posted about dumbing-down. She didn’t like what was going on in her local school; neither did her children apparently. They were evolving ways to deal with this problem. Maybe there are ideas here that others can use.
People seem to assume there are two roads: homeschooling (which isn’t practical for millions of parents); or living with the nonsense (which is killing the country).
This mother’s “third way” was talking to her kids, explaining things, openly sharing her concerns, trying to undo damage as fast as it happens.
These quotations are from one parent. Please add ways you’ve dealt with dumbing-down. ---
“I ask them a lot of questions about what they are learning in school. I ask them what they are being told in history class. I ask them if the teacher has some kind of agenda they are pushing. If one of my kids has been told something weird, I correct it. If I am not sure of the answer, we research it together.”
“I feel like the school takes the very simplest concepts and make them so convoluted that kids can’t get around them sometimes.”
“My daughter was so upset with her homework that she was crying. Once I showed her the simple steps of solving the easy math problems made into a puzzle, she started doing them very quickly and angrily.”
“Both of our kids tell us (mom and dad) that they learn more from us here at home than they do at school. The really sad thing about that is we don’t spend that much time really teaching them. All we are doing is helping them with their homework or debriefing them when they come home brainwashed.”
“My daughter gets frustrated because she has to show her work for the simplest thing that she already knows--like 2 times 5 is 10. Neither one of us can understand why it isn’t enough to simply know the answer. Instead she has to waste her time making 2 groups of 5 little dots or x’s. She is doing all this silly busy work instead of moving on to meatier stuff.”
“I believe this is an insidious way of muddying things up and making a person second-guess their thinking and trick them into believing they are stupid and render them incapable of thinking for themselves.”
“My son can’t believe all the people he comes into contact with at school that simply have no clue, and the way the teachers lie to the students about history and current events is literally breathtaking.”
“I work with them about a lot of things and I either make them read or I read to them a lot. Reading is half the battle and the key to everything in life.”
“I don’t know if this is a dirty trick on my son or a survival thing--you decide. I told him to do whatever he has to do to get through the system and pass. Put down the answers they want to hear and play their game. It hurts, but remember this and it won’t hurt so much: They think they are winning. Let them think they are winning. Think of it as getting over on them as you quietly educate the friends and acquaintances of yours who will listen to reason and are strong enough to think for themselves.”
“Maybe that’s the answer. We infiltrate all their systems and change from within. Use all their own Gramscian planks and Alinsky rules against them to further OUR agenda. Maybe we need to use all their dirty tricks and rules against them and rebuild from within just as they destroy from within.” ---------------------------
[The Education Establishment is always claiming--dishonestly, I think--to teach something called “critical thinking.” But that is precisely what this mother is teaching her kids to do--think critically about their own education. Priceless....The link at top is to the article that prompted these comments: "The Secrets of Dumbing Down Revealed, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2505833/posts ]
#1) Remove your child from public school
Home school
Ha! That’s exactly what I was going to write! :-)
We’re homeschooling our three kids, FWIW.
Encourage them to read for the sake of reading. Recommend books to them. The trouble with schools is that so much of the lesson plan is indoctrination and “mental floss” of some form or another.
Homeschool. Keep them out of the typical public sports like soccer. Teach them yourself. Take them and do things.
You two beat me to it...remove your children from the clutches of public school and home school them. Or, a well chosen private school might be an option.
Flee government schools.
Just WHY is homeschooling “impractical for millions of families”?
If it’s a priority, you’ll make it happen.
You can tell what you value by what you prioritize.
Free time?
Wife’s career?
Second income to support your lifestyle?
Cable TV?
Adult toys?
Expensive vacations?
or, homeschooling your kids.
“#1) Remove your child from public school”
If this is practical, then do so; however, this is not always possible and when it isn’t, do as I (and the lady in this story) do: talk with your kids, show them the truth and be sure that your kids questions their teachers!
I was called to the school more than ten times (that’s how I knew I was doing a good job) to discuss my daughter’s refusal to accept the teacher’s point of view on things. During the last meeting, I asked the Principal if he wanted mind-numbed followers or students that wish to learn and really find the truth. He didn’t answer and I haven’t been called back to the school.
My daughter has a 104 in that class! She knows their answers, but always asks for clarifications and additional details. Other kids have started asking more questions in class too - she said the class has much more “conversation” about the history book and less “reading” of it!
You could buy good books for the kids and make them write you book reports or hold “saturday” classes for an hour or two to ingrain a love of freedom and real facts about history and things.
I want to see cooperative homeschools.
Why can’t I be paid to homeschool other peoples kids too? Just a few should be OK.
“I believe this is an insidious way of muddying things up...”
That is exactly the reason. They do not want children to learn easily.
Education makes people easy to lead, difficult to drive but impossible to enslave.....................
Homeschooling is good and I have personally been associated with some of the best products. One of my scouts was a twelve grade homeschoooler and National Merit Scholar.
To say an average mother is capable of doing a better job of educating than the schools system is a stretch. Many can but for many the kids will not be better off.
My view is that a proper course is to parallel teach. Follow the classes closely and implement and strengthen as required. Develop library skills,surfing skills, testing skills, political awareness skills ans interest and fun skills. All of the above strengthen and counter weakness.
The kid will be an adult and in the real world. To be kicked out into the world after a sheltered and unprepared for life will be a real shock. I’ve had first hand bad experience with scouts like that too. The realization dawns that part of life was missed. It can be a real problem with a teen.
“Education makes people easy to lead, difficult to drive but impossible to enslave.....................”
which is bad business for democrats.
There are no laws opposing private tutors, are there?
I don’t see how your proposal falls outside of that definition.
And yes, there are plenty of homeschool co-ops around.
We have “math nights”, etc, amongst the folks that homeschool.
Frustration is the proper response. There's a reason why multiplication tables are MEMORIZED: it's because, like addition and subtraction of single-digit numbers, they're one of the raw building blocks of higher math.
Eeesh.
Feeding my children is a priority in my home.
Homeschooling is very commendable, but I find that homeschoolers tend to make the rest of us feel like bad parents.
Other kids are drawn to my sons...if I teach them properly (after I explained taxes to my six-year-old, his response was, “But that’s STEALING, Mom!”) perhaps they can actually help lead other children to the truth. Like I did in public school.
Do you have to be vigilant? Of course. Is it something that can be done properly, even if both parents have to work just to meet the house payment? Absolutely.
Is it legal for you to find someone who already is homeschooling & pair up with them? If you have to work- can you pay another mother or dad to homeschool your kid? Is that legal?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.