Posted on 11/27/2006 7:04:44 AM PST by meandog
Schools With Good Teachers Are Best-Suited to Shape Young Minds
There's nothing like having the right person with the right experience, skills and tools to accomplish a specific task. Certain jobs are best left to the pros, such as, formal education.
There are few homeowners who can tackle every aspect of home repair. A few of us might know carpentry, plumbing and, let’s say, cementing. Others may know about electrical work, tiling and roofing. But hardly anyone can do it all.
Same goes for cars. Not many people have the skills and knowledge to perform all repairs on the family car. Even if they do, they probably don’t own the proper tools. Heck, some people have their hands full just knowing how to drive.
So, why would some parents assume they know enough about every academic subject to home-school their children? You would think that they might leave this -- the shaping of their children’s minds, careers, and futures -- to trained professionals. That is, to those who have worked steadily at their profession for 10, 20, 30 years! Teachers!
Experienced Pros
There’s nothing like having the right person with the right experience, skills and tools to accomplish a specific task. Whether it is window-washing, bricklaying or designing a space station. Certain jobs are best left to the pros. Formal education is one of those jobs.
Of course there are circumstances that might make it necessary for parents to teach their children at home. For example, if the child is severely handicapped and cannot be transported safely to a school, or is bedridden with a serious disease, or lives in such a remote area that attending a public school is near impossible.
Well-Meaning Amateurs
The number of parents who could easily send their children to public school but opt for home-schooling instead is on the increase. Several organizations have popped up on the Web to serve these wannabe teachers. These organizations are even running ads on prime time television. After viewing one advertisement, I searched a home school Web site. This site contains some statements that REALLY irritate me!
“It’s not as difficult as it looks.”
The “it” is meant to be “teaching.” Let’s face it, teaching children is difficult even for experienced professionals. Wannabes have no idea.
“What about socialization? Forget about it!”
Forget about interacting with others? Are they nuts? Socialization is an important component of getting along in life. You cannot teach it. Children should have the opportunity to interact with others their own age. Without allowing their children to mingle, trade ideas and thoughts with others, these parents are creating social misfits.
If this Web site encouraged home-schooled children to join after-school clubs at the local school, or participate in sports or other community activities, then I might feel different. Maine state laws, for example, require local school districts to allow home-schooled students to participate in their athletic programs. For this Web site to declare, “forget about it,” is bad advice.
When I worked for Wal-Mart more than 20 years ago, Sam Walton once told me: “I can teach Wal-Mart associates how to use a computer, calculator, and how to operate like retailers. But I can’t teach them how to be a teammate when they have never been part of any team.”
“Visit our online bookstore.”
Buying a history, science or math book does not mean an adult can automatically instruct others about the book’s content.
Gullible Parents
Another Web site asks for donations and posts newspaper articles pertaining to problems occurring in public schools.
It’s obvious to me that these organizations are in it for the money. They are involved in the education of children mostly in the hope of profiting at the hands of well-meaning but gullible parents.
This includes parents who home-school their children for reasons that may be linked to religious convictions. One Web site that I visited stated that the best way to combat our nation’s “ungodly” public schools was to remove students from them and teach them at home or at a Christian school.
I’m certainly not opposed to religious schools, or to anyone standing up for what they believe in. I admire anyone who has the strength to stand up against the majority. But in this case, pulling children out of a school is not the best way to fight the laws that govern our education system. No battle has ever been won by retreating!
No Training
Don’t most parents have a tough enough job teaching their children social, disciplinary and behavioral skills? They would be wise to help their children and themselves by leaving the responsibility of teaching math, science, art, writing, history, geography and other subjects to those who are knowledgeable, trained and motivated to do the best job possible.
(Dave Arnold, a member of the Illinois Education Association, is head custodian at Brownstown Elementary School in Southern Illinois.)
I don't have any experience with the sort of problem you describe. There are homeschool groups focused on children with learning problems. Even though you may not want to HS, it might be helpful to talk to some of those parents in your area if for no other reason than to see if they have any useful ideas.
On a lighter note, I was convinced my 9 year-old had a speech impediment because he was always mixing up "THs" and "Ss". In fact, I was convinced that I was going to have to learn to do the necessary therapy myself or hire someone. One day I saw a link to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrYRY6kx550 . After I watched it, a light went on. My sons speak fluent German and the 9 year-old is kinda-sorta tone deaf (normal hearing, but he won't be singing professionally anytime soon). I had him watch the video, which he found hilarious, and he was instantly cured. I think he could actually tell that he was mixing up the sounds, but didn't care enough, or was too lazy, to fix it. The humor did the trick - the "speech therapy" was 100% effective, required 40 seconds, and was free.
I'm pretty up on treatments for my daughter. I've been to homeschool groups, special ed groups, etc and a private evaluations done by a neuropsychologist and a learning specialist.
Thank God for the internet. I get lots of supplemental worksheets and things to help her from the homeschool groups. We do a lot at home, especially in the summer.
She has brain damage, and she is very different than a lot of other kids. She has little short-term memory, but above average long-term memory. She can't hear the difference in sounds well, and she can't pronounce things clearly.
She's a lot like an adult whose had a stroke, and in fact that is where I get a lot of information about her.
She's doing okay. She's at grade level for reading/writing/spelling, but she will probably never be a great reader/writer. I think she will always struggle (and the research backs this up).
We're just lucky that she is great at math (95%).
What Public School did Jesus attend?
Nobody in my family has ever done anything the right, sensible, or easy way and I am a traditionalist at heart. Far be it from me to be a renegade and adopt a normative lifestyle. Folks back on the Ol'Sod and Reservation would disown, (or dissemble), me.
LOL!
Your daughter is fortunate to have a great family. It sounds as if, even with some brain damage, she is above average overall. That is remarkable.
Regarding the shortterm memory, have you tried teaching her memorization techniques? Does she have any trouble visualizing things? I'm planning to have my boys memorize the periodic table before long - it is quite doable with a little effort.
Save money, abolish the Dept. of Education for a start. Then reduce the number of high-priced administrators by 50% and let the States run their public schools with tested, competent teachers using non-liberal texts. Will it ever happen? The RATs are back in charge and it won't happen, more's the pity, and the drop out rates will continue to increase while our kids are learning liberal junk.
she will spend as many hours as necessary to complete the job without bellyaching
My daughter does not "bellyache". She loves teaching. I am the one stating my opinion on her situation, so direct your insults to me, please.
She actually has three degrees, a Masters in Math Ed and Bachs. in Math. and Poly. Sci. All that accomplished in 5 years, while playing BB at at Big 10 school, with much blood, sweat, and tears involved. She was an all Big 10 Academic recipient 4 years straight. She could have gone into virtually any profession, however she went into teaching to make a difference. She could be making 6 figures at any other career of her choosing.
She should not be paying $900 per year to a teachers' union
In Ohio, you have no choice, they take the $900 out whether you join the union or not.
The remainder of your post is to confusing, not sure how to respond. All I know is that so many of my daughter's students, and their parents have told her they never "got" math until they had her as a teacher. And for that I've very proud.
"Compensation" includes health/dental/retirement bennies, as well. Remember that "retirement" means 30-and-out to collect 75% of final salary--and of course, one can then double-dip by taking a contract to teach in another district.
Total Comp for teachers is generally in the upper 25% of the US scale.
She's very good at visualing things. She is a visual learner. She can remember things that she sees, and she thinks in pictures more than words.
There are lots of different things online and offline that help with increasing short term memory. She's done some. That's more of a summer activity. This summer we had to work on auditory discrimination (hearing the difference in sounds) and word finding. She's doing much better in both areas. I think next summer we'll work on short term memory.
There, you did the right thing. I once moved to a different section of the town to get one of my children in a better situation. I approached the principal, and I could see that he was not sympathetic.
YOU are your child's proponent. Teachers and administrators have many students and have to make balances that you do not have to make. Unless you stand up and demand what is right for your child, your child will not fare so well.
Good points. However, unionized manufacturing workers were up there, too. That's why we have fewer every year.
That post at #655 was not at all rambling just an example of what those who were NOT dumped into public school babysitting institutions can do with actual education.
Your daughter is not bellyaching. OK, conceded that it is her mommy that does the whining for her never suspecting that boodgeum's choice of employers is the source of her misery. If she was not whining to you, you would not be whining on her behalf here.
In gummint skewels supported by the thievery of taxation, paychecks and perks and pensions are fat in exchange for minimal production. If your daughter can do better elsewhere financially, then she should flee the useless sinking ship of public education and do better elsewhere.
The late professor Russell Kirk, a conservative who could distinguish between trash posing as education and actual education in what he termed the "permanent things" (which would include mathematics) would have derided any Big Ten school as "Humungous State University" which was not a compliment (for those intellectually hamstrung by public education).
I can respect a bachelor's degree in math but never a master's degree in "math education." The first is substance (depending upon the program). The second is useless and professionally incestuous fluff (and a waste of tuition money). What on earth is "Poly. Sci"???? Political Science (Poli Sci) or some description of many sciences (Poly. Sci????) In any event, in the former instance it relates to the ability to bamboozle gullible voters into supporting tax referenda for gummint educational "needs" like fatter perks and paychecks for the gummint misedjamakashun empire to live higher on the hog at taxpayers' expense for little production.
$900 per year for union dues was strictly your daughter's choice and she made that choice when she chose union-dominated gummint skewels as her employer. It is the price she pays for the fat in her paycheck.
Your paragraph about your daughter's academic and athletic credentials is a nice expression of parental pride. On the other hand, her bachelor's degree in math is far more impressive than winning academic competitions among Big Ten athletes or (at least for academic purposes) playing BB (basketball?) on a women's team in the Big Ten.
If she hangs around gummint education as her employer for a few years, she will be making 6 figures soon enough and too soon for taxpayers well before she becomes as jaded as the system that employs her. She has hitched her occupational wagon to a falling star.
Your last paragraph is every bit as much and then some a commentary on the quality of the other math teachers at PS 666 and then some as it is on your daughter.
If you are "confused" by #655, I rest my case.
Please understand that nothing less than the abolition of gummint skeweling will suffice to guarantee our nation's future.
my son is going into the air force as an airborn linguist
I have no idea what "gummit skewling" is, therefore, I cannot answer your post.
BTW, when my daughter is with child, hopefully soon, she will be leaving the teaching PROFESSION to be a full time Mom, until her child enters Kindergarten.
From the posts I've seen on here, her work, and other dedicated teachers will never be recognized on this site. Like I've said before, GOOD teachers are overworked, and underpaid.
I guess your solution is to JUST SHUT DOWN ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS, ....and let all children be home-schooled. That solution would certainly save me tax $s.
My hope is that home-schoolers spend less time posting on here, and more time educating their children.
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Yet another patronizing diatribe from the left on how it is essential that they be in charge of indoctrinating children -- and this one is written by a school janitor.
Very quickly, home schooling, and then private schooling, will be banned. The state can not stand competition. Shortly after that, the communist dream of the state raising all children (the parents just are not qualified to form young minds you know) will be put into play.
When I was in college, we covered this in history classes. Of course, I signed up for the more interesting history classes - to loud complaints from my parents along the lines of "Is this in your major? When are you going to graduate?"
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