A little Unschooler Fun! :)
I need to make a few things clear; One is I do believe there are many good schools and tons of fantastic teachers. I'm an educator myself. I've been vice president of a PTA. Tons of volunteer work in the school district. But things have changed! Not for the better either. I pretty sure I've pinned it down to "No Child Left Behind" law. This is just my opinion and I could totally be wrong. But with what some of my teacher friends have told me, it kind of sucks to teach public school in my school district. They have to teach certain subjects in a certain amount of time. Push the stupid MEAP testing down the poor kids throats. And do you know the real reason behind it all....MONEY! Our government (who shall remain nameless) is worried that our children are falling behind China and other countries and they are making super humans. Well the U.S. can't have that! We have to be bigger and better! Who is paying the price.... the children. the teachers... parents. It really takes a super teacher that has lots of energy to have any fun and excitement in the classroom. I have seen recesses disappear, outside lunch time disappear, gym time 1 hour a week, art 1 hour a week, science 1 hour a week at the elementary school in my neighborhood. Not only do teachers have to deal with cooped up kids all day that start misbehaving because of the stale classroom environment, their pay. well... kind of sucks! The teachers have to have terrorists threat drills with the children, along with the fire and tornado drills nowadays! And I hate to mention that some of the children are off the wall! The behavior is more and more crazy. What a first grader said or did just ten years ago is way different then now.
I love teachers I really do! Bless their hearts! We home school because I love teachers and I love my children. I want them to learn above and beyond what the government says they should, I want them to have as many hours of gym, art, music or science as they want. Which happens to be much more than 1 hour a week. I want them to feel safe and not like another calf in the herd. I want them to have freedom. My children can be come super humans without the government's advise. And hopefully....... will be responsible, law biding, tax paying adults!
Once again, this is just my humble opinion.
20 comments:
That is the reason we decided to unschool max.. it was all the things they took away that was the worst and trying to create little clones all destined to sit obediently in cubicles, wait in line and take no for an answer.
I don't think it's any recent program that ruined school, but I have no doubt that the recent program (any of them) failed to FIX schools!
People have been becoming teachers and then losing the joy with with they entered the profession as long as there have been schools.
What makes schools seem sparkly and vibrant and full of hope is the point of view of the new teachers. And I think there's a "new beginning" feeling in most of the kids each year. Maybe this year will fulfill the potential and be a fantasy-good year.
I lasted six years before my guilt and dismay curve met my hope and joy curve. Jr. High English. The midst of the fray.
Oh Gwen, We have three young adults between us, and if you ask me they are pretty awesome, intelligent, creative humans!:)Thank God they are not clones!!! Oh and then there's Noah of course and we all know about Noah! lol...
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Hey Sandra,
My son Caleb and I were kicking around some ideas for the contest this afternoon!
You're right on about teachers losing the joy they started with. The teachers in our district are dealing with so much stress right now! Pink slips and all...
I'm glad I chose Pre-school level, sometimes I feel tired, but I never ever lose my joy. The kids at that age are amazing to be with! They are almost always happy to learn and play!!! Our philosophy is playing is learning!
I work at a privately owned parent co-op school and have a pretty nice boss!:) I am very lucky. But we have been struggling with enrollment being down; free public preschools/day cares and the economy has made our enrollment decline in the past few years. We are the last parent co-op school left in the city.
Jr. High English, wow! that would be a challenge!
Here is a quote from Dr. von Franz's book Alchemy that I believe to be true:
"The assimilation of the collective consciousness is in fact the function of the school, and therefore the originality of individual consciousness generally fades and at 20 people are a sack of collective knowledge. If you ask their opinion about anything, they just repeat what their parents or their friends say, or what they have read in the paper, and you have the greatest difficulty bringing them back to one unique conscious personal reaction"
I really believe her quote to be true; that our education system is as much about social conformity as anything else. I have always felt deeply that it is not a healthy atmosphere to try and "find yourself". What I have always wanted for Zoe is to know her own mind, and to live life true to herself, to know her own soul, and to follow her own truth unapologetically. So I never saw throwing her in a room of 25 other children all vulnerable and in their formative years, day in and day out, as very conducive to the end.
That being said, I do feel that every child's needs are different and every family's dynamics are different and that for some kids school is the right choice.
I didn't know they have "terrorist threat drills"!
I remember when we started to have those. We'd get an anouncement in the class room saying "We're out of yellow or red construction paper." Yellow signalling lock your doors and close the blinds. Red signaling to lock the door close the blinds and get under desks.
I figured it out when they did it the first time; that it was some code.
But we'd get another anouncement back saying they've just got some more yellow/red construction paper and everything would go back to normal.
At my school we do have a plan in case of an emergency also. But it's one that we don't practice with the children. They are way to little to deal with that!(3 to 4 year olds.) It's hard enough to do the fire and tornado drills with them. Our school is always locked to the outside and we have a secretary with cameras that view all of the doors. I feel pretty safe there, but it is something we have to think of. Very sad... but true!
Wow... I didn't know about the secret code! Very smart though!
Great quote from Sharon.. That is exactly what I always fear.. no individual thoughts... everything becomes homogenized... nobody questions..
I say... question everything... Be skeptical... Don't believe much if anything that you hear... try to be self sufficent... Think of things ...
Max has mentioned he may go back to school for grade 10.. we'll see.. if he wants to go , he can.. but I think he will get there and quickly change his mind when he realizes the slow learning methods that he detested before... I think he feels he is missing out hanging out with his friends.. we'll see how the summer goes,if he changes his mind.
You're right Anet, that practice would freak a little child out.. that is terrible to even have to think about!!
Cool codes Caleb!!
I just deleted my comment on how the drill is done, because my teacher brain kicked in and realised that it probably left better unsaid! Just in case. Safety first!
Anet, good post! I have a few teachers in my family and the complaints are similar. My neighbor home schooled six kids as they sailed the oceans. What an education they got. Their dad was a craftsman, and between lessons they all learned enough to build their own house. Three girls three boys...
Hey Gwen, Max will probably love some of his classes and hate others, I'm not sure how your school district works but our high school allows homeschoolers to attend elective classes. Caleb took advance placement art and web design. It was just right for him. Two hours in the morning... see and connect with his friends, then home to learn what he wanted. Maybe you could check out the policy on homeschoolers for Max. It might be a good way to go! Or then again maybe he'd like to go all day. But I think your right he'd quickly get frustrated!
Wow Sandy! that sounds like an awesome life! How cool!!!
Hey Gwen, I bought Caleb a button to put on his hat that says; Question Authority.
Because he always has and always will. But now I appreciate that he does. I hope none of my kids listen to authority without questioning it first!
Anet, I wished they did let unshoolers or homeschoolers participate in some classes.. but we live in the dark ages up here.. Anyone who chooses to take on the responsibility of teaching their own child at home ( and there isn't very many) the school system will have nothing to do with them... It is never about the individual child when it comes to schools up here it is only about the system running the way it always has.. no change.. everybody is suppose to be the same...
I have talked and written letters to everyone from the bottom up to the minister of education and have gotten nowhere. They try to force people back in the system by not letting them partake in anything at all. not even using there libraries...
so we have always been totally on our own... up here you are either in or you are out.. no in between...
Hi Anet,
Perhaps you already know about Taylorism, but if not, here's a quick view of a business/factory philosophy from the turn of the 20th century that has aided us in feeling like robots coming through our 'wonderful' school system.
'Frederick W. Taylor was an efficiency expert: the first modern efficiency expert in world history. Around the turn of the Twentieth Century, he developed a set of ideas designed to get employees in manufacturing industries to produce more output. His term for this collection of strategies was scientific management, although they are sometimes referred to simply as Taylorism.
In order to implement his ideas, Taylor contracted with companies to rearrange their production processes to simplify the tasks each employee performed. Instead of doing many different things, workers in Taylorized factories would execute the same simple tasks over and over. This not only increased production, but reduced an employer’s need for skilled labor. For this reason, employers could cut their overall wage bills.
Taylor and his disciples cited the search for efficiency, “the one best way” to do a job, as justification for such changes. Because scientific management consultants claimed they understood the “natural laws” of human behavior and endurance, they argued that the implementation of scientific management would benefit both workers and society at-large.
Nevertheless, skilled workers and their unions often vociferously protested these changes because Taylorism made their work monotonous and also trespassed upon what they perceived as their traditional prerogative to manage their own time on the job. Workers and their unions objected not only to the efforts of scientific managers to determine what workers did all day, but also to efforts to tell workers exactly how they should do it.
Approaching the end of the Industrial Revolution, Taylor’s ideas provided a catalyst for increasing the output of American factories beyond the promise of technological advances alone.
After Taylor’s death in 1914, scientific management spread throughout the world, and it has influenced everything from advice to housewives on how to do their chores to how Japanese (and later American) cars have been made. Taylorism has also shaped the structure of American education.'
Sorry,folks for the long quote. Maybe a little dry reading when it gets that long, but very interesting all the same as it directly speaks to the one of the ways modern education was created!!!
Coincidently Anet, it just so happens, last evening I posted on my other blog the beginnings of my thoughts on where we could go with education up here in the east in New Brunswick.
I'm still nodding my head.
Amen, sister!
What makes me nervous is that, as droves of people leave traditional school to homeschool, the gov't continues to step in and provide tighter regulations for how homeschooling should happen. Things are still pretty loose here, thank goodness, but I wonder how long it will last.
My heart goes out to teachers. They have so much to deal with each day. It's a miracle they have any energy left to actually teach!
Ditto everything you said, Anet!
Very good post.
Hey Gwen and John, It's too bad about the school there. It really sounds like they put the wall up and are not taking it down. One reason our school district doesn't mind homeschoolers is that as long as the homeschoolers are at school on "count day" the school get a lot of money for the student. Then the student is only there a few hours a day and who cares. It's Money again! It was great for Caleb and his teachers were really great to him! I bet it would be prefect for Max. So, you don't have too many homeschoolers there? What about community college, once again I live in a great city and state for homeschoolin. Homeschoolers can take some classes at age 14 here!
But I enrolled Caleb as a college student (done with homeschooling.) Because well... he's ready. Caleb is 16 almost 17 also.
Hi Tara, I know, we've had a homeschooling bill that they were thinking of passing in Michigan a while ago. The homeschoolers were right on it! It was really amazing to see how strong the homeschooling community is! So as of right now, it's push aside. They were trying to use some sneaking wording. They wanted us to have register our children with the school district each and every year.
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Thanks Tammy!
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