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I watched a really interesting documentary last week on PBS about the epigenome and how nurturing during infancy and early childhood play a huge role in a child's ability to learn. Mothers that are attentive to their babies produce children that are more often better behaved, and more willing to learn.
Mothers that are detached, and disinterested toward their child produce children that are more prone to violent and disruptive behavior, and show little interest or willingness to learn.
I think you've hit upon an idea that many people don't consider: that education begins at birth and parents play a very large role in it. If a parent does not nurture a child and expose the child to educational opportunities then it seems to me the child is less likely to seek out enriching activities. READ TO YOUR KIDS and not just baby books but books that can challenge them and inspire them to learn more. If you treat your child like the village idiot they'll become the village idiot. Treat them like they have the capacity to learn and they'll learn. That's just my two cents.
IMHO, the problem has been teaching to some minimum standards, probably as a result of NCLB. What happens is that the students who start out above that standard get bored and lose interest. Some of the students will never meet those minimum standards, so the standards get lowered.
Those minimum standards seem awfully low to me, even in a supposedly excellent school district.
I didn't think my child was a genius or anything but now that she has started school it really makes me wonder. Some kids seem to know nothing at all before starting kindergarten, even in a good school district!
Blame should also go to Ed Schools and their goofy educational theories, and the ridiculous 'Professional Development' racket that pushes unproven educational fads for the sole purpose of financial profit. What's the next flavor-of-the-month education fad that they can make billion$ on?
Yes, and a good example of that is how many parents are sending their kids to Sylvan and other learning centers because they can make neither heads nor tails out of their child's programs. Even parents with Masters degrees are exasperated with the latest pedagogy. I have literally talked to at least 10 different parents (yes, MD's, PA's Nurse Practitioners and even an Electrical Engineer) - ALL with Masters of Sciences - who are utterly beside themselves with their kids math programs for one example. One surgeon I talked to cannot get her daughter to sit down and practice her facts without major drama. Last year, volume 2 of my son's math workbook had only a handful of pages done with the rest left completely untouched. There wasn't enough time in the year to finish it. What a colossal waste of money.
The first stop of blame for many parents may be the teachers, but I don't believe that's fair. There is a myriad of reasons that schools are failing. I just received a mid-quarter report for my daughter. Only Math and Reading were checked off with a note stating that due to the time it took preparing for testing, other subjects (like Science, Spelling, etc.) were not touched upon at all. Small wonder we continue to see kids who clearly cannot spell if their lives depended on it. It's lumped into Language Arts and rudimentarily touched upon, not truly taught as a separate subject anymore.
Our local schools went to court to stop the release of test scores by classroom/teacher. The scores indicate that kids who had the bad teachers year after year, get lower and lower test scores. The kids who get the good teachers year after year, get higher and higher test scores.
Last edited by FarNorthDallas; 10-09-2009 at 07:27 AM..
The news is full of stories recently about how terrible the schools are in America and how we are slipping behind the rest of the world. Of course the group that gets the most blame is the teachers. The second amount of blame goes to the Principal and the rest of the blame goes towards the school administrators and bureaucrats.
If a failing school in the worst neighborhood in the City does not do as well as the school in a rich suburb with parents who are doctors, lawyers, and scientists with high IQ's and PHD's, then the failing school's Teachers and Principal are fired.
Why won't the media admit the problem with American schools are: uninterested parents, a messed up popular culture and students who are more interested in acting out than learning?
Do you think the Teachers and Principals should get most of the blame for the problems in American Schools?
Have you heard of Michelle Rhee?
In any case, I think a lot of things come into play.
Around here, I see a lot of parents not taking responsibility for educating their child and placing a lot of blame on teachers. A lot of them also look at the test scores of the school without taking much else into account.
There are some bad teachers out there, everyone should be able to admit that. That's why I have a lot of respect for Michelle Rhee. It sucks some teachers are losing their jobs but I'm with Ms. Rhee, "It's about the kids." Not only that, the success of our nation in the future.
I've met plenty of students in my school years to know not all kids are interested in school. Some are having issues at home, some are more interested in getting out of school, some are bored (not being challenged enough), etc.
I think we need to raise the bar in a lot of our schools and hold kids and parents more accountable. We have to find a way to engage parents and also make school more exciting and engaging for students.
I don't think money is always the solution. I remember seeing something on ABC about a school that had a very small budget but they were producing great results with low income minority children. I hate it when people say schools or school districts need more money. I will agree some do but the vast majority need to trim the fat.
Our local schools went to court to stop the release of test scores by classroom/teacher. The scores indicate that kids who kid the bad teachers year after year, get lower and lower test scores. The kids who get the good teachers year after year, get higher and higher test scores.
Interesting.
While I generally agree with this approach, are the classrooms equal in make up? Does teacher 1 have 8 low income minority students and so does teacher 2 yet teacher 1 is doing a better job with his/her low income minority students?
I don't think you can always blame it on the teacher. I have had some great teachers and sometimes my classmates and I generally just didn't give a flip. These were in advanced classes. I remember during my IB testing I just wanted it to be over with. Maybe they should survey the kids' attitudes about school, testing, the subject matter, etc. and then compare the test results.
It's the teachers job to teach. If kids aren't learning who else are you suppose to blame. Should the parents blame the teachers for not rearing the kids to have manners.
Administration has some responsibility I believe. They mandate things that are utterly ridiculous.
You are very wise. However, I have to place blame on the kids too. If they don't come to school ready to learn, it's kind of hard to force an education down their throats.
I could, however do more teaching if I had less administrative crap to do.
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