I could go on for hours, but it has me frustrated enough that I am seriously considering homeschooling, just so I can teach him what he'll need in the real world, not a world that existed 25 years ago.

Trina: That’s exactly it – in the box thinking. The best teachers try to teach around this, but they have a system that is structured to inhibit their success. It is sad, really, because it is human nature to want to absorb new information. I love to learn, but wasn’t really fed in my fifteen years of schooling. I was taught to memorize. That was easy, but what was next?

Randi: I’m sorry, Randi. I don’t have the space for a guest post today! Just kidding. I know exactly what you are saying. Teaching to a schedule is ridiculous. Staying on task is important, obviously, but so is taking the needs of the class into account. That’s another problem right there. Class sizes are far too large as is to be effective. Even the best teachers have so much stacked against them from day one that meeting bare minimum standards becomes something to celebrate. All I know is that it’s not good enough. We could be doing better and should be a bit more embarrassed that we’re not.

Patricia: You are keeping up. You have embraced new technology and are using it to carry out a dialogue. My state is one of the richest regions in the world and one of the poorest academic performers. Money isn’t the issue as we throw barrels at the problem. LA Unified teachers are the highest salaried in the country. The drop out rate is at half. That is inexcusable.

Quinn: Yes, kids need to learn that stuff, but it doesn’t happen through osmosis. It happens through excellent teaching. There are a lot of teachers that do not care working in systems that do not work. Yes there are countless quality teachers as well, but what can they do when forced to use their least dominant hand while holding the other over both eyes? The problem is, education isn’t evolving and it really needs to. Now more than ever.

Trina: That’s exactly it – in the box thinking. The best teachers try to teach around this, but they have a system that is structured to inhibit their success. It is sad, really, because it is human nature to want to absorb new information. I love to learn, but wasn’t really fed in my fifteen years of schooling. I was taught to memorize. That was easy, but what was next?

Randi: I’m sorry, Randi. I don’t have the space for a guest post today! Just kidding. I know exactly what you are saying. Teaching to a schedule is ridiculous. Staying on task is important, obviously, but so is taking the needs of the class into account. That’s another problem right there. Class sizes are far too large as is to be effective. Even the best teachers have so much stacked against them from day one that meeting bare minimum standards becomes something to celebrate. All I know is that it’s not good enough. We could be doing better and should be a bit more embarrassed that we’re not.

Patricia: You are keeping up. You have embraced new technology and are using it to carry out a dialogue. My state is one of the richest regions in the world and one of the poorest academic performers. Money isn’t the issue as we throw barrels at the problem. LA Unified teachers are the highest salaried in the country. The drop out rate is at half. That is inexcusable.

Quinn: Yes, kids need to learn that stuff, but it doesn’t happen through osmosis. It happens through excellent teaching. There are a lot of teachers that do not care working in systems that do not work. Yes there are countless quality teachers as well, but what can they do when forced to use their least dominant hand while holding the other over both eyes? The problem is, education isn’t evolving and it really needs to. Now more than ever.

Attending is an important skill is finishing work started…and learning how to relate to other people. My Father was state director of special education when I was born…he would have loved what he sees now, but he could not even describe it to people when he was alive -”Every child deserves and Individual Education” was the law he wrote…and was fired for taking that position….Too bad President Kennedy and My Dad died so young they were a dynamic team….

Our public school were #10 in the nation when my father was fired the first time….30 years later and all the politics we are #47 and all the smart and wealthy kids go to private school….Oh yes and all the “Christian” kids go to their schools…

My oldest two are working on how to change education one as a software engineer/the other as a librarian…

I am in awe….I just hope I can keep up..

Good post I will be watching all week

Attending is an important skill is finishing work started…and learning how to relate to other people. My Father was state director of special education when I was born…he would have loved what he sees now, but he could not even describe it to people when he was alive -”Every child deserves and Individual Education” was the law he wrote…and was fired for taking that position….Too bad President Kennedy and My Dad died so young they were a dynamic team….

Our public school were #10 in the nation when my father was fired the first time….30 years later and all the politics we are #47 and all the smart and wealthy kids go to private school….Oh yes and all the “Christian” kids go to their schools…

My oldest two are working on how to change education one as a software engineer/the other as a librarian…

I am in awe….I just hope I can keep up..

Good post I will be watching all week

Growing up, I was educated in both the public and private school sectors. As each of us four children approached high school, my dad said, “You can go to public school or private school. The private school has much better education. I can’t afford to send you to private school. If you want the better education, you will have to pay for it yourself.” The three girls in our family chose private school. My brother said, “Pay for school? Are you kidding?”

To this day, I am so grateful for the education I received. It is almost inherent in a private school setting that the students or at least their parents, value education, else why pay extra for it? I also noticed that competition is stiffer, which in me at least, encouraged my growth.

Just like public schoolers, I had to take classes in subjects that at first glance have nothing to do with my life today. I don’t use geometry, trig, math analysis, statistics, or chemistry lab on a daily basis. But the thought processes I learned in those classes are invaluable to me. Learning how to follow a logical sequence of events in geometry enabled me to do many of the jobs I’ve had as an adult. I never use the mathematical equations I learned in statistics, yet I learned in that class–one of the hardest I’ve ever taken in my life!–that I can conquer any subject!

When I moved to a rural area eleven years ago, I had a decision to make. Do I enroll my children in the public school? Do I homeschool after work hours? Luckily I found a homeschool co-op, and have placed my children there.

Why do I say luckily? As a manager of a business, I was responsible for hiring new employees. I was appalled at what I saw coming out of our public school system. Many young people and even adults would respond, “What’s a resume?” when I asked them to bring one in. Too many resumes looked like this: “Honors: class Valudictoan. Hobbies: Just hanging out. Experience: I done many things for lots of places. I could of did more but I had basketball.” [sic] My favorite was this one: “Special Skills: I like to laugh. Sometimes I will just sit around and laugh to myself.”

I gave every applicant a basic math test. I needed to know if he or she could do simple computations if the power went out. Over 75% of the applicants failed! These were not difficult questions, but were things like:
“If a customer’s purchases come to $25.98 and they pay with a $50 bill, how much change do you give?” or
” A cell phone case costs $20. If the tax rate is 6.25%, how much does the customer owe?” Many times applicants would handle the math test back to me blank, saying, “Sorry–I don’t know how to do story problems. Do I have to know how to do them to work here?”

Off to the homeschool co-op went my children. For the past two years I have taught there. But even the homeschool co-op environment gives me heartburn on occasion. Why? Because the parents want to run it in the only way they know how—-as a public school system clone.

I have a 5th grade student who fails every spelling test I give him. He no longer even tries. He just says, “I suck at spelling.” If I had my choice, I would give him a third grade spelling book and let him rock and roll. Nope. I have to give him an F, semester after semester. If he’s in 5th grade, he has to do the 5th grade book. Ludicrous, I say. Why not let him work at his own level?

I have a 5th grade girl in my class who breaks my heart. The whole time I am teaching, she has her hands in her desk manipulating tiny pieces of paper into beautiful origami. On every assignment she turns in, are beautiful intricate pictures of clothing she has designed or exquisite flowers. She rarely hears a word I say. She’s too busy in her creative world. After reading Eric Hamm’s article on ADHD, I realized that she is “scratching the itch.” So I told her that as long as she maintains eye contact with me or the board, I will no longer take away her paper. She can fold paper to her heart’s content as long as she pays attention. She is so much happier! She was also a terrible speller until one day when I caught her muttering to herself as she spelled a word. I asked her, “What did you just say?” She replied, “This word is easy because I can sing it.” After asking her many questions, I finally was able to determine that she hears a melody in the pattern of certain letter combinations. Now, in spelling, I try to help her “hear the music.” (a good example would be the way we all “hear the music” when we spell Mississippi.” )

For both of those kids, I know I am doing them a disservice. Yet most of the parents want to see results in the textbook. “How far are they in the book?” “Are they on track for finishing the book by the end of the year?” “I noticed that the fourth graders are further ahead in the math book than the fifth graders. What’s the problem?”

We do get behind at times. We got behind in spelling because the words all related to documents in American History—declaration, constitution, amendment, etc. Yet none of the kids had ever read the Declaration of Independence. They had no clue what the Constitution said. We spent three history class periods, explaining the significance of their spelling words. And now they know better than to let anyone take away their guns. :) The downside was that we were now officially three days “behind” in the history curriculum.

What’s the answer? How do we encourage questions and answers and exploring and experimenting and researching and hands-on discovering while making sure THE BOOK gets finished? How do we get parents more involved when most of them feel it’s “not their job” to educate their children? (I actually heard one person say that she wants nothing to do with her son’s education. That’s what teachers get paid for.)

You raise some very interesting questions…the same ones that drive me crazy day after day.