At 02:09 PM 1/17/99 -0400, you wrote:
>> The school system's inabaility to deal with anything other
>> than the mean (which they insist on defining) is one of the
>> primary reasons home schooling has really taken off the last
>> few years.
>
>It's worse than that. It's not even the mean anymore. It's the
>lowest student.
Um, no. The teachers at my girlfriend's school (and all the schools she
works with) spend many (unpaid) hours every year planning the classes so as
to accomodate the differing needs of all their students. Things like
slower 1st graders are combined with advanced kindergartners so that
they're best able to meet the needs of all the kids.
There are many reasons why kids these days are not being educated as well
as they should be. Perhaps some of the blame belongs to the "System" --
any bureaucracy can thwart the best efforts of the dedicated -- and there
are indeed some people who should not be teachers.
BUT, Much of the problem, if not most, however, should be placed squarely
on the shoulders of those at fault: The parents[1]. (Aka voters.) No one
likes to think they've screwed up their own kids and done a crappy job as a
parent, so they blame the teachers. The politicians don't want to insult
the voters, so they blame the teachers too, and add to the bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, you have underpaid teachers, buying their own supplies, working
12 hour days, trying to teach kids whose parents proclaim "I AM NOT A
TEACHER!" on the kid's homework, and tell their kids that if someone does
something they don't like, they should hit them.
I've done some teaching back when I was young and stupid. I got smart and
gave it up because a) it's way too much work to do it right, b) it pays
pretty crappy, and c) kids are a PITA. Give it a try, and then come back
and tell me it's the teacher's fault.
[1] If you read to your kids every day, spend your non-working time taking
them to museums, plays, camping, etc., work with them on what they're
interested in, even if it means giving up watching football, spending time
with your friends, and so on, then this doesn't apply to you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger_at_sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California
http://www.sinasohn.com/
Received on Tue Jan 19 1999 - 16:38:26 GMT