Today, I read an article in Time entitled “The New Smart Set”. An article that will probably have the House, the Senate and every state in the union having a fit about who is going to have control over the education system in this country. As one of those kids who went to 14 different schools in 6 different states and graduated when I was 17 years old, I have a very strong opinion about the whole subject. Oh, I didn’t graduate at 17 because I was that smart. It was because my mother told both me and my sister that if we didn’t graduate on time, she would kill both of us. We believed her and made sure to graduate on time. Thank you mama. But, getting back to the subject. Moving around so much was definitely anything but fun. Move to one school and it would be several months behind the last school gave us a bit of a breather. Moving from a school that was several months behind the new school made it hell. The rest of the school year was spent playing “catch up”, just to be able to pass on to the next grade. If that wasn’t bad enough, we were always the new kids on the block and having to make friends all over again. By the time I was 14 years old, I decided it hurt too much to always have to be leaving a good friend behind. So, I made books my friends and only allowed myself to become acquainted with the other students for fear of having to move again. But, that isn’t the worst part. In a very little known lumber town in Pennsylvania, students were already talking about how many credits they had to earn to get into college. That was in 7th grade. I don’t even know how my high school ranked with the other schools nationwide. That is ok because, our schools here are so far behind schools in Mexico, Japan, Thailand, China, Canada, England, Belgium, France and all of the other European countries. And, what do we get, local schools shoving bond issues down our throats because they can’t stand to stay on budget and actually teach. The public school system in this country needs a complete re-organization and make over. No more football coaches who are supposed to be teaching Biology but, who are spending the entire hour drawing and talking football plays on the board. No wonder I failed the 1st half of Biology in the school where I graduated and had to take it over in summer school. Some teachers who firmly believe that Math is a boy’s subject and neglect the girls in the class or that English Composition and Literature are for girls and over look those boys who would excel in those two subjects. I firmly believe each and every student has his/her own strengths and weaknesses and it is up to us as parents and teachers to find out what those strengths and weaknesses are and work with the children to bring out the absolutely best in them. No more public school being nothing more than a baby sitting center where bullying rules and socializing is more important than education. No wonder we are the laughing stock of the world. I have some old books from the early 1900’s that I used to help my children when they were little. I even used the Arithmetic book to test a 16 year old only to find out that she couldn’t function in Math and 3rd grade level. I was appalled with that. 16 years old and had no idea what multiplication was, what’s more, how to work the problems. I finally had to explain to her that Multiplication is merely a shorter way of Addition and show her how to add the number 6 to itself 7 times to find the answer of 42. I’m not even a certified teacher. I only did some substitute teaching many long years ago. If I had that teaching certificate, one school superintendent told me he had a position for school librarian and part time Spanish teacher. That would have been a nice position for me since I love books so much and enjoy languages. So, what is going to happen with out schools over the next generation? Are all of the schools nationwide going to be on the same page or are they going to continue the way they are. One school well advanced while another school is lacking. If we don’t meet a federal standing we just as well go back to the stone age. Look at the present unemployment rate and ask a few questions. Do we have the education we need and employers desire to land a decent job? Probably not. Ok. I give. Enough of an old woman rambling.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 04:48:15 +0000
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