Posted on 12/26/2011 8:23:52 AM PST by Discoshaman
The Kindle and Nook may make for not only the most important advance in reading since Gutenberg, but also, quite likely, a major lesson in unintended consequences. Especially for the educational establishment, because for the first time in history, Americans should be able to envision a future without public-school teachers -- indeed, a future without public-school administrators or state departments of education with their rigidly enforced, politically correct social-transformation curriculum. A future without onerous school taxes, "education president(s)," self-preening school boards, or million-dollar classrooms. But most happily, a future without a single supercilious finger wagging in our face as we're forever lectured about how much a securely tenured, part-time, self-important, overpaid class of public employees "cares" about our sons and daughters. Really, really, really cares. And, of course, knows much better than we do how to bring them up.
And it's all possible because these cheap, handheld, downloadable reading devices such as Kindle and Nook now give parents a choice between tutoring and classroom education.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/a_world_without_schoolteachers.html#ixzz1heq4w6Z2
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
You are a point man in breaking the back of the education tyranny. Cui bono? Follow the money.
We had a lovely Christmas.
oh good, I’m glad somebody did!
Our 3 yr. old had a sudden onset of milk allergy.
With no children’s benadryl in the house - it made for the most exhausting Christmas ever.
oh well....the immediate crisis is over.
I believe your analysis is completely correct.
It’s easy to take shots at individual teachers who clearly do a bad job. But the problem lies not with the individuals who work in the system, but the system itself.
No prior warning of the milk allergy?
Having dealt with allergies for my whole life, I can understand problem.
I've concluded that the system is so rotten ( evil even) that good teachers wouldn't work in them.
Personally,...I am done with teachers! They are too evil, too stupid, or too much of a Useful Idiot to be my friend. If so-called “good” teachers could make a difference we would have seen it by now. Instead, I call them Useful Idiots an in several ways they impede real reform:
1) — When Useful Idiot teachers ( those that others call “good”), school workers, and those working for private businesses that are vendors to the schools, fill the pews of Christian churches, ministers are far less likely to open private Christian schools. How many ministers are willing to bite the hand that puts money in the collection plate. By the way, in my county the school district has the largest payroll and number of employees than any private business in the county. No private business comes even close.
2) —When sweet little Mrs. Honey Bun ( who loves her cat) works in the government schools, inexperienced parents are fooled into believing that their local socialist school can't be **that** bad. Hey! sweet Mrs. Honey Bun works there.
Personally....Useful Idiot teachers ( the ones others call “good”) are doing more harm than good that's my opinion. Children need to be rescued from these godless pits of ignorance. Trying sneak in a little Christianity or conservatism is like sneaking crumbs of bread to concentration camp victims in line for the gas chambers.
The Nuremberg trials concluded differently. Individuals are responsible for the system. Even there were no individuals willing to working the system then the evil wouldn't be perpetrated.
It’s true that most Americans been indoctrinated into believing that public schools were built for knowlege and education. The most indoctrinated people of all are the people who work in them.
Our small chain of charter schools is growing nationwide and worldwide. As we grow, however, we learn more and more about the state and national regulations that make it almost impossible to deliver a quality education with the time, funding, and teachers available.
Private schools are subject only to the market, not to a vast array of government rules. This article reinforces the thought that perhaps our organization’s goal should to be leverage technology to make private schools affordable to all — and public schools unnecessary.
To things are needed:
1) Academic content.
2) Certifiable, reliable, and secure testing.
Both the content and testing could be **free** to the consumer if the producers were willing to accept advertising. They could easily become as rich as Mark Zuckerman.
By the way, I like Kahn Academy but there doesn't seem to be any way that those who finish the courses can prove to a school, university, or employer that they have, indeed, mastered the material.
Courses could start at the kindergarten level and continue onto the graduate school level. Once the child learns the material for a specific subject ( for example addition math facts from 1 to 20) then he could be tested. He could take this to his private or government socialist school and insist that he be moved to the next level. Of course if he were homeschooled or privately tutored this would be unnecessary.
Think about this. Children could finish 12 th grade years earlier and be moving onto college, apprenticeships, or technical training. Two of my children finished college at age 18. Four extra years in the labor market adds up to a **lot** of money in their pockets.
Read this article and consider your response again, to me Education needs to evolve desperately and my wife is a teacher in a continuing ed program
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/08/26/new-orleans-s-charter-school-revolution.html
The change is underway and the old Industrial age, agrarian calendar based system will change from necessity
Just my 2 c but I am involved in some massive programs that back it all up elsewhere around the world. Either we evolve or we lose, we must change.
Learn at home at your own pace, with the ability to go back to steps & concepts you do not fully grasp. Come to class to work your “homework” problems, even collaborating with classmates, while the teacher circulates, observes, corrects...TEACHES!
IMHO Khanacademy.org is the proverbial bell which cannot be unrung. It is a demonstration of one way to make "free, world class education" available on a mass scale. There undoubtedly can be others, but there already is one. I don't know if Khan is actually good for anything but math and (presumably) science, but I know it is good for math.As it is, the videos can pretty much supplant textbooks so far as initial exposition of a topic, and the automated drill tells the student if s/he needs to go over the video again in order to attain mastery. IMHO there are two pieces which could/should be added to the puzzle. For one thing, Khan should not be the only lecturer available; someone else should make similar lectures available on YouTube, giving their own different, individual slant to the material. And the other thing I might add would be a digital text, summarizing the material for review.
But those are quibbles compared to the excellence of Khan's first cut at the problem. per the testimonies he cites, this is already a powerful educational tool. I only mean that it need not be the last of all words. But as matters stand, education which is inferior to Khanacademy education and costs more is flatly obsolete and a dead man walking.
Indeed!
1) Academic content.
2) Certifiable, reliable, and secure testing.
I think those are useful, but we see education as going far beyond academics. We help children become whole, happy, successful adults, which -- we believe -- requires more than just academics. We believe in the home school rule of thumb, which is that two hours a day is all you need to learn what's traditionally taught in a six-hour school day. That gives you plenty of time to also develop life skills, work skills, financial skills, and entrepreneurial skills, among others
no warning whatsoever.
She does have a virus and a nasty cough, so maybe her immune system is compromised right now.
I’ll keep milk out of her system until she is feeling better then I’ll see what happens if she has a sip in a few days.
At least she slept last night. This kind of thing only happens when the walk-in clinics are closed!
Be very careful. Even if the allergy being triggered was a result of the virus, once you’re sensitized, you’re sensitized.
Maybe you can test by rubbing some on her skin and see if she raises a welt.
Or talk to her doctor and see if you can challenge her under medical supervision. Or just plain have her allergy tested.
Once the food is in you, it’s in you and it takes a couple days to work its way out.
thank you. I will call her doctor before I try the milk again.
My allergist told me that quantity is everything in an allergic reaction. Small amounts trigger a small reaction, larger amounts trigger a worse reaction, enough can trigger anaphylactic shock.
But some foods are worse than others in having a tiny amount trigger a bad reaction, those being peanuts, eggs, milk, tree nuts, sulfa, and shell fish.
For some reason, they seem to be particularly inclined towards being problems.
From experience, and my problem is more being stung, I ALWAYS have Benadryl on hand in my purse and carry an Epi-Pen with me everywhere. Also learn to read labels. Milk is in stuff you’d never think it’s in.
And if she is sensitive to milk, you’ll need to look into calcium supplements.
Oh, and FReepmail me and let me know how it works out.
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