I feel as though I may be beating the proverbial dead horse at the moment, so I will move on. Our educational system is in need of a massive overhaul that cannot be mandated by the government, any government, from local to federal. The changes in this field, as in most as ingrained and archaic as education, must be revolutionary. I mean we must begin this as a grassroots effort.
School boards and various other groups have held the standard for much too long. Places such as Cleveland, Ohio have taken it even further away from where it should be by forcing the State of Ohio to take over the schools. The city schools were awful to begin with so this was even more of a slap in the face for parents faced with the prospect of HAVING to send their children to such places. The system, though showing minor gains in some places, is still a steaming heap of fetid trash.
Let us look at some of things that are important in our society, shall we? Not only has the emphasis on material possessions overshadowed the basic need for human compassion towards one another and ourselves, but the import on trivial information has exceeded the value of true knowledge. Is this what we really want to instill in those who are our future? I think not.
This, I know, is not the way it is for every child, nor even for most, BUT it is the thing we see most often in the media. For God’s sake, one of our most popular shows right now is “Do You Know More Than a Fifth Grader?” Well, do we? Honestly, most of us don’t. You know why?
We are wasting our time learning inane garbage with an archaic delivery system. Yes, a fifth grader knows “more” than a rocket scientist because she is forced to memorize ridiculous trivial drivel. But does the fifth grader run the world or might it be more up to the rocket scientist? Hummmmm, I wonder.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
The Problems as I See Them
The problems with our compulsory education in the United States are myriad. Things are so out of whack, I couldn't even begin to write about them all, but I do believe in some specific things that will not only help our kids to succeed. It MIGHT even get them to like the idea of school, at least more so than they do now.
I know there are millions of you out there that have heard exactly what I am about to write. "But you get paid to go to work. I don't get paid nothing to go to school."
Most of the time we are at a loss to come up with an argument that makes sense, even to us. So... don't! Tell them they are absolutely correct in the schema from which they come. Tell them that there are things in this world that one does not get paid for but are more important than pay. Tell them that there are people starving in China, Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq, the South, whatever you want, BUT make than think. Get those haughty excuses for young humans to open their minds and ask a question, even if it is to themselves. Use the grandest words you can think of to get that, "What the hell did she just say?" look in your sons' and daughters' eyes. In short give them the biggest load of bullshit you can possibly swing their way.
They will, mark my words, try to find out what you were saying. Most likely you won't be asked, which might bode very well for you, but they WILL look for something that helps them understand what you said. When they finally come to you it is time to show them how they are paid.
You might want to take it from a literal standpoint and show them how much in taxes you pay each year to keep them in that factory sized babysitting environment. You might want to explain what you spend in school clothes, transportation, fees, food, or whatever, in order that they have what they need every day. You may want to do nothing of the sort and just tell them that life isn't fair and they have to go to school or go to jail. The choice is yours BUT, that choice is slowly being taken away.
There is a reason for this, you know. The few that do not do their best to raise their kids and expect others to do it are causing the community leaders, police, judges, and, yes, many of us to attempt legislating parental skills. It will never work. We have to take the power out of the hands of the government, meaning judges, social service agencies, police, even schools themselves, and take control. These are OUR kids and this is OUR service to be provided by those we hire using our taxes. We need to ensure that we are not EVER intimidated by the "ivory tower," of the educational institution. We all went through it in one way or another, therefore have an intimate knowledge of how things work. Why is it then that we all feel so lost when we go back as adults? It really makes no sense does it?
I know there are millions of you out there that have heard exactly what I am about to write. "But you get paid to go to work. I don't get paid nothing to go to school."
Most of the time we are at a loss to come up with an argument that makes sense, even to us. So... don't! Tell them they are absolutely correct in the schema from which they come. Tell them that there are things in this world that one does not get paid for but are more important than pay. Tell them that there are people starving in China, Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq, the South, whatever you want, BUT make than think. Get those haughty excuses for young humans to open their minds and ask a question, even if it is to themselves. Use the grandest words you can think of to get that, "What the hell did she just say?" look in your sons' and daughters' eyes. In short give them the biggest load of bullshit you can possibly swing their way.
They will, mark my words, try to find out what you were saying. Most likely you won't be asked, which might bode very well for you, but they WILL look for something that helps them understand what you said. When they finally come to you it is time to show them how they are paid.
You might want to take it from a literal standpoint and show them how much in taxes you pay each year to keep them in that factory sized babysitting environment. You might want to explain what you spend in school clothes, transportation, fees, food, or whatever, in order that they have what they need every day. You may want to do nothing of the sort and just tell them that life isn't fair and they have to go to school or go to jail. The choice is yours BUT, that choice is slowly being taken away.
There is a reason for this, you know. The few that do not do their best to raise their kids and expect others to do it are causing the community leaders, police, judges, and, yes, many of us to attempt legislating parental skills. It will never work. We have to take the power out of the hands of the government, meaning judges, social service agencies, police, even schools themselves, and take control. These are OUR kids and this is OUR service to be provided by those we hire using our taxes. We need to ensure that we are not EVER intimidated by the "ivory tower," of the educational institution. We all went through it in one way or another, therefore have an intimate knowledge of how things work. Why is it then that we all feel so lost when we go back as adults? It really makes no sense does it?
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
End of the Beginnings
One of my biggest peeves is that these monstrous entities we call, "State Boards of Education," are nothing but political cluster fucks. In fact, the concept we all have of a, "board," has gotten quite skewed in the last 100 years. Most Boards of Directors, upon which such of: Education, etc. have been modeled, are composed of cronies who will help propagate the ideals of the President and/or CEO. While our State Boards of Education are elected, at least some of them, most people don't even vote for them, AND they often run unopposed. I may be over-generalizing here, but my point remains. The concept behind a State Board of Education may have been good originally but its time has passed, at least in the current inception. It is my belief we need State liaisons between the federal, Department of Education and the Local Boards. The State, at least in Ohio and in my estimation, just gets in the way, ALL THE TIME...
Saturday, December 29, 2007
My Thoughts
I read a quote recently and have no idea to whom I should accredit it, but here goes: I must do this as a paraphrase, because I do not remember it fully. If Rip Van Winkle had awakened in 22nd century America and seen nothing that resembled when he had fallen asleep, he would feel right at home within an American High School.
The truth of that statement should scare every one of us. American High Schools have been the major purveyors of status quo in our country. Nothing seems to ever change, which I know is redundant.
The truth of that statement should scare every one of us. American High Schools have been the major purveyors of status quo in our country. Nothing seems to ever change, which I know is redundant.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
The Most Recent Background
I began full time teaching as a semi-permanent, my phrase, substitute in 1990. I worked in the middle school special education classes, specifically learning disabled, for about two years in various districts. I had subbed in various social studies classes and even phys. ed. once or twice (I hated nothing more that that). I did, though, find my niche in the LD classes. At the time I was working for a special education camp in Lake County called "Camp Sue Osborn." This camp was run by the East Shore Special Educational Resource Center, which has since been re-named to make sure no one knows about "Special Education."
I worked with and learned from some of the most dedicated and brilliant people I had ever met. The camp brought kids from all over the county together in a special education only setting. We had kids with Muscular Dystrophy and other degenerative diseases, severe mental retardation, traumatic brain injury, gifted kids, kids with learning disabilities and, my favorite, those deemed SBH. The term has since been politicized as have most, but Severely Behaviorally Handicapped is pretty self-explanatory in my book. I learned more in the three summers I worked those camps than at any other time during my formative collegiate and beginning teaching years.
Through my connections at the camps, I met a Superintendent in a small Southern Ohio district. New Lexington City Schools was my first full-time, salaried, contracted position and Clyde Metz was my mentor. As soon as I began in New Lex, I was put into a position that had me flying by the proverbial seat of my pants. The middle school was new as was the LD unit, so I had to create something from nothing while not really having any idea what I was doing. I had begun taking special education classes at Ohio University and Kent State, but hadn't even completed one yet. They learning by full immersion is the best way to go. I am not sure if I agree, but it did force me to come up with a plan pretty damned quickly. I had a superb mentor in Pam Melragon whom I still keep in touch with regularly. She and I went to many a seminar to see what was going on in our SPED world. I spent three years there.
I then spent two years on Put-in-Bay, South Bass Island, as the SPED Director. There were only about 90 kids in the entire K-12 school but I was the only SPED person, so I was able to be named director. This position afforded me the ability to attend State Directors of Special Education conferences in the State Capital of Columbus and various other events furthering my knowledge of the Special Education world. I was also a member of the CEC (Council for Exceptional Children), which was once the definitive organization for SPED professionals, for most of the 1990s.
Needing to leave the stifling confines of the island as well as the prohibitive nature of travel in the winter, I took a position as a part-time LD tutor in Parma at Valley Forge High School. From Parma I spent four years as a middle school LD teacher in the Cleveland Municipal School District under the Barbara Byrd Bennett regime. That did me in for about four years. After my stint in Cleveland, I felt totally worthless. I felt that our entire system was too far gone to ever make a difference. Thank God, the years away re-vitalized my need to help kids find wroth in themselves. My work is just beginning, but, as you all now know, I do have some background giving me the right to voice some of the opinions herein being discussed.
A change MUST come and soon. We are losing our greatest asset at an alarming rate, and the tide must not just be stemmed it must be reversed. I have some ideas and would love for you to take them and use them to help me help the world.
I worked with and learned from some of the most dedicated and brilliant people I had ever met. The camp brought kids from all over the county together in a special education only setting. We had kids with Muscular Dystrophy and other degenerative diseases, severe mental retardation, traumatic brain injury, gifted kids, kids with learning disabilities and, my favorite, those deemed SBH. The term has since been politicized as have most, but Severely Behaviorally Handicapped is pretty self-explanatory in my book. I learned more in the three summers I worked those camps than at any other time during my formative collegiate and beginning teaching years.
Through my connections at the camps, I met a Superintendent in a small Southern Ohio district. New Lexington City Schools was my first full-time, salaried, contracted position and Clyde Metz was my mentor. As soon as I began in New Lex, I was put into a position that had me flying by the proverbial seat of my pants. The middle school was new as was the LD unit, so I had to create something from nothing while not really having any idea what I was doing. I had begun taking special education classes at Ohio University and Kent State, but hadn't even completed one yet. They learning by full immersion is the best way to go. I am not sure if I agree, but it did force me to come up with a plan pretty damned quickly. I had a superb mentor in Pam Melragon whom I still keep in touch with regularly. She and I went to many a seminar to see what was going on in our SPED world. I spent three years there.
I then spent two years on Put-in-Bay, South Bass Island, as the SPED Director. There were only about 90 kids in the entire K-12 school but I was the only SPED person, so I was able to be named director. This position afforded me the ability to attend State Directors of Special Education conferences in the State Capital of Columbus and various other events furthering my knowledge of the Special Education world. I was also a member of the CEC (Council for Exceptional Children), which was once the definitive organization for SPED professionals, for most of the 1990s.
Needing to leave the stifling confines of the island as well as the prohibitive nature of travel in the winter, I took a position as a part-time LD tutor in Parma at Valley Forge High School. From Parma I spent four years as a middle school LD teacher in the Cleveland Municipal School District under the Barbara Byrd Bennett regime. That did me in for about four years. After my stint in Cleveland, I felt totally worthless. I felt that our entire system was too far gone to ever make a difference. Thank God, the years away re-vitalized my need to help kids find wroth in themselves. My work is just beginning, but, as you all now know, I do have some background giving me the right to voice some of the opinions herein being discussed.
A change MUST come and soon. We are losing our greatest asset at an alarming rate, and the tide must not just be stemmed it must be reversed. I have some ideas and would love for you to take them and use them to help me help the world.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
More Recent Background
I began my professional career with a need to write about something. At first I had no specific goal as to what it might be, but I DID know it had to be something that had a basis in reality and that people needed to know about. I began by writing constant letters to the editor, which, while in high school, I thought was me being well on my way, what a farce that was. I found that I needed to have a reason for my opinions, even if they would not appreciably change, which I must say they really haven't. Education, I knew, was the way to go.
As an aside I also need to let you know that, because I was such an incurable know-it-all in high school, I failed the eleventh grade and in turn had to graduate a semester behind my class. (Look closely and you will see that I failed and ENTIRE year, plus half of tenth grade, but only had to do one extra semester to catch up, this will be important later.)
My first thought was to get into juvenile probation because I had been put on this ridiculous thing at the age of sixteen for cutting fucking school. That had to have been the most asinine things I had ever had happen to me. Anyway, I figured I could help those having problems. I took about a year's worth of classes and then decided I would MUCH rather get to the kids BEFORE they needed incarceration or probation. The idea to go into education had been born. As you may have already seen this was natural since it IS what I had done when younger, but my "brilliant" ass didn't see it until I had wasted a year or so in another field. That's what I get, I guess.
I decided to go to a local college because I could not really afford to go away, AND I really didn't want to leave my friends. That was quite the misnomer as I was to find out, because I left them anyway in theory. They thought I had changed because I often talked of my schooling and I thought they had changed because that's all they ever wanted to talk to me about. We were both right.
Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio had just opened its doors to men in the previous couple of years and was actively recruiting. I happened to have the correct credentials and happily enrolled in the social sciences program headed toward a degree with a minor in secondary education. I was going to become a junior high or high school social studies teacher. (At least that's what I thought.) I started in August of 1988 and graduated in December of 1990. Again, look at the time frame. Even if we use all the credits I got while in Community College, I still blew off about a year of my regularly four-year degree, but most of those Lakeland credit did NOT transfer. I also took about 1 year off between high school and Lakeland, then another year between Lakeland and Lake Erie. Both intervening years were spent traveling to different parts of the United States in order to see what things were like out of my so call comfort zone. Strangely, except for the temperature and in some cases the terrain, things were not that odd. The ethnic make-up in Bakersfield, CA; San Diego, CA; West Palm Beach, FL, and other places was different than good old Cleveland, but I could find enclaves of most enthnicities if I looked hard enough. The big difference is that everyone was more homogeneously mixed in West Palm and San Diego, most certainly not in Bakersfieled though. I stopped in various places along the way, like Denver, Oklahoma City, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, El Paso, even up to Niagra Falls and Toronto. Again, I have a reason for telling you this. I want you to know that I am not talking from a tunnel vision type of perspective. I love to learn about people and culture and have done so through travel throughout various portions of my life, which, I believe, gives me a right to speak on what I have observed.
As an aside I also need to let you know that, because I was such an incurable know-it-all in high school, I failed the eleventh grade and in turn had to graduate a semester behind my class. (Look closely and you will see that I failed and ENTIRE year, plus half of tenth grade, but only had to do one extra semester to catch up, this will be important later.)
My first thought was to get into juvenile probation because I had been put on this ridiculous thing at the age of sixteen for cutting fucking school. That had to have been the most asinine things I had ever had happen to me. Anyway, I figured I could help those having problems. I took about a year's worth of classes and then decided I would MUCH rather get to the kids BEFORE they needed incarceration or probation. The idea to go into education had been born. As you may have already seen this was natural since it IS what I had done when younger, but my "brilliant" ass didn't see it until I had wasted a year or so in another field. That's what I get, I guess.
I decided to go to a local college because I could not really afford to go away, AND I really didn't want to leave my friends. That was quite the misnomer as I was to find out, because I left them anyway in theory. They thought I had changed because I often talked of my schooling and I thought they had changed because that's all they ever wanted to talk to me about. We were both right.
Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio had just opened its doors to men in the previous couple of years and was actively recruiting. I happened to have the correct credentials and happily enrolled in the social sciences program headed toward a degree with a minor in secondary education. I was going to become a junior high or high school social studies teacher. (At least that's what I thought.) I started in August of 1988 and graduated in December of 1990. Again, look at the time frame. Even if we use all the credits I got while in Community College, I still blew off about a year of my regularly four-year degree, but most of those Lakeland credit did NOT transfer. I also took about 1 year off between high school and Lakeland, then another year between Lakeland and Lake Erie. Both intervening years were spent traveling to different parts of the United States in order to see what things were like out of my so call comfort zone. Strangely, except for the temperature and in some cases the terrain, things were not that odd. The ethnic make-up in Bakersfield, CA; San Diego, CA; West Palm Beach, FL, and other places was different than good old Cleveland, but I could find enclaves of most enthnicities if I looked hard enough. The big difference is that everyone was more homogeneously mixed in West Palm and San Diego, most certainly not in Bakersfieled though. I stopped in various places along the way, like Denver, Oklahoma City, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, El Paso, even up to Niagra Falls and Toronto. Again, I have a reason for telling you this. I want you to know that I am not talking from a tunnel vision type of perspective. I love to learn about people and culture and have done so through travel throughout various portions of my life, which, I believe, gives me a right to speak on what I have observed.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
My Background
I will quickly go through the beginning for you, so you have an idea as to my qualifications to factually speak on the subject at hand. Many people would have you know they are, "experts," but have never really been in the proverbial trenches. I have, and there are ways you can actually do the research to find this out.
While still in elementary school in Mentor, Ohio, I was tapped by my fifth and/or sixth grade teacher, I am not positive when I started this, to go down to the 1st grade classroom and help them as a tutor. I did this for one or two entire school years, helping the little kids with their phonics or doing grading of some sort. I was also crossing guard of the year, as voted by my teachers, in the sixth grade, which allowed me to go on a free trip to Washington DC. That was a HUGE vote of confidence for a Mama's boy crybaby from the suburbs (though I was born in East Cleveland), but it definitely opened my eyes. I think, that the first night away was the last time I was worried about being away from home. I was never homesick again afterwards.
Being a teacher's pet allowed me to gain access to things most people didn't even think of. While my best friend had our fifth grade teacher wrapped up like a Christmas gift, I had the sixth grade homeroom goddess. I was just sneaky enough, and curious, to look at things that were not really my business, in the guise of looking for something else of course. In fact, I found our intelligence test scores one time. Although I hate to admit it, my best friend, she still is to this day, had a score about three points higher than mine. I scored at 128 and she was at 131, putting her at Genius level and me just below at Upper Above Average. I told her and she has never let me live it down. Anyway, since I found that out I kept it in the back of my head. In fact, it has pretty much ruled my life since then, because I refuse to let people talk down to me just because of their perceived knowledge or position. So the reason for the above is to let you know that I have worked with kids since I was a kid AND that I have innate intelligence. Oh, I also babysat a low functioning mentally retarded neighbor boy when I was 11 and 12, which was my introduction to Special Education.
While still in elementary school in Mentor, Ohio, I was tapped by my fifth and/or sixth grade teacher, I am not positive when I started this, to go down to the 1st grade classroom and help them as a tutor. I did this for one or two entire school years, helping the little kids with their phonics or doing grading of some sort. I was also crossing guard of the year, as voted by my teachers, in the sixth grade, which allowed me to go on a free trip to Washington DC. That was a HUGE vote of confidence for a Mama's boy crybaby from the suburbs (though I was born in East Cleveland), but it definitely opened my eyes. I think, that the first night away was the last time I was worried about being away from home. I was never homesick again afterwards.
Being a teacher's pet allowed me to gain access to things most people didn't even think of. While my best friend had our fifth grade teacher wrapped up like a Christmas gift, I had the sixth grade homeroom goddess. I was just sneaky enough, and curious, to look at things that were not really my business, in the guise of looking for something else of course. In fact, I found our intelligence test scores one time. Although I hate to admit it, my best friend, she still is to this day, had a score about three points higher than mine. I scored at 128 and she was at 131, putting her at Genius level and me just below at Upper Above Average. I told her and she has never let me live it down. Anyway, since I found that out I kept it in the back of my head. In fact, it has pretty much ruled my life since then, because I refuse to let people talk down to me just because of their perceived knowledge or position. So the reason for the above is to let you know that I have worked with kids since I was a kid AND that I have innate intelligence. Oh, I also babysat a low functioning mentally retarded neighbor boy when I was 11 and 12, which was my introduction to Special Education.
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