10th grade graduation?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20081107/us_time/shouldkidsbeabletograduateafter10thgrade

I read this article earlier and was completely befuddled by it. One the one hand I might be able to agree with allowing kids who are ready to move to do so, but on the other hand, I also think that the way they are proposing doing this will exacerbate an already out of balance educational and socioeconomic system. In other words, it won't change anything for most kids, it *may* change for the better for a select few, but it will very likely make it worse for others.

Lyonel Tracy, New Hampshire's Commissioner for Education, was quoted saying some things in the article that sounded good on the surface, but that didn't make as much sense to me when I really thought about them. First he said that those kids who were "ready and able to move on" should be able to do so. Sounds good. But then he said that educators could then "focus more on those kids who need more help getting there". Hmmm...that didn't sound quite so good though. It probably sounds good from the educator's perspective, but what about from the kids'? Imagine being one of the kids who "needs more help getting there" for just a moment. Not the ones who choose to stay in school so that they can go on to prestigious universities, but those who don't pass the tests in order to move on to community or technical colleges and are *STUCK* in school for another two years. I think it will perhaps have the opposite effect on those kids. (I also predict that universal pre-K will eventually add to our drop out rates as well, because kids will be so burned out by the time they reach high school. But that's a topic for another post.) Do they honestly think that most of those kids are going to just suck it up and stick out those last two years? I doubt it. Some of them will probably look at the situation and see no way that they can "win". They probably hate school in the first place and would love to move on, but they couldn't pass the test to be allowed to do so. They may also know that even if they stay in school they will never go on to college. If I were in that position, dropping out would be sounding like an awefully good idea.

There were a couple of things in this article that had me excited at first. One was when Marc Tucker, co-chair of the New Commission on Skills of the American Workforce and president of the National Center for Education and the Economy in Washington, stated that "most American teenagers slide through high school, viewing it as a mandatory pit to stop, hang out and socialize." YES! Yes, they do! But why is that, Mr. Tucker? Why do our kids consider high school a "mandatory pit"? Perhaps because it *IS*? Thank you for actually saying so, Mr. Tucker.

Another point that excited me was when the author asked "But can less schooling really lead to better-prepared students at an earlier age?" YES! Yes, it can! The author goes on to mention that outside the US the idea isn't as radical as it sounds and that some of the very countries who are passing us by in the education department expect their children to be college ready at 16. But that was the end of my excitement because the author then goes on to quote William Brock, one of the chairs for the New Commission on Skills of the American Workforce and a fromer US Secretary of Labor. Brock said that "40 years ago, the United States had the best educated workforce in the world. Now we're #10 and falling." That may very well be true, but how is more testing and a more rigorous curriculum going to put us back on top? If US education was so much better 40+ years ago, why not go back to some of the fundamentals of that era? Or better yet, why not go back even further to a time before mandatory education when literacy rates were at their highest. (Since the implementation of mandatory education, literacy rates have declined fairly steadily. Check out this link for some more reading on the subject of literacy rates: http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/3b.htm)

It was the last line of the article really irritated me though. "We're simply telling students that it's okay to go at your own pace", Mr. Tracy says. That part sounded really good...too good to be true, as a matter of fact. Maybe that's because it WAS too good to be true, because Mr. Tracy then went on to add "especially if that pace is a little quicker than the status quo". Grrr! Arrrg! *gnashing my teeth in frustration* It's okay to go at your own pace AS LONG AS YOU GET THERE QUICKER???? Why did he even have to say that? What about those kids who will NEVER be "quicker"? Not every child is going to go on to college, or even trade school, but EVERY child is important. Why not let every single child in our educational system go at their own pace? Get rid of all your useless "standardized" tests, your one-size-will-never-fit-all curriculum, and your mandatory education policies and meet the children's INDIVIDUAL educational needs. Then maybe you'll start to get somewhere close to an educational system that really does work for everyone.

The way I see it, the so-called "experts" in education are still focusing on the wrong area. They continue to focus on the teachers - how much training they should have, how much they should get paid, etc. They focus on the curriculum - what should be taught, when it should be taught, how it should be taught, etc. They focus on the tests - what should be on the tests, how often they should be administered, what are the consequences of failing said tests, etc. They aren't focusing on the REAL issue, which is THE CHILDREN. As long as our education system is focused on TEACHING and EDUCATING (things that are done TO the children) instead of LEARNING (which is an internal process that can not be controlled by another), it will not succeed. It will continue to decline because they aren't addressing the REAL problems with our education system.

More money, more tests, more time in school, more teachers, more schools...none of these things will ever be able to change the APATHY in our students, which is what I consider to be the real problem in American education. Continually re-creating slightly different, more extensive version of the same failing system will never fix it. Adding more and more of the very policies that created the conditions in which student apathy took root in the first place will never fix it. Getting to the source of the apathy is the only thing that will. I believe that apathy takes root when a person (no matter what their age) is put in a situation in which they feel they have little or no control over their own life. They may fight it at first, but eventually most of them give up. They give in. They stop caring. They may continue to go through the motions because they feel they have no choice, but they don't actually care about what they are doing. That pretty much describes most of the public schooled children in America, doesn't it? They have no control over where they have to be, when they have to be there, what they get to do with their own time. They have no control over what they get to read, watch, listen to, see, etc...most of them don't even have control over when they get to go to the bathroom. They go through the motions of "learning" but they really don't care and only truly *learn* when a topic or a very special teacher brings to life a spark of their innate desire to learn. (It's rare, but it does happen in public school.)

Imagine spending your every waking moment under the control of other people - being told when to eat, when to sleep, when to work, when to rest, when to have fun. Imagine being told that you don't have to right to even complain about the way you are treated because you aren't capable of understanding. (Not that they would explain it to you anyway.) And then imagine being told that they are "doing it for your own good". ("Someday you'll thank me for this.) Ugh. I don't know about the rest of you, but the very idea of living life like that is sickening to me. No...there's no way that more of THAT will never fix our education system. The way I see it, giving students more control over their education, not less, is the only thing that will fix this system because that is the only thing that will fix the apathy that is at the core of the "educational crisis" in America.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Someone on one of my lists just posted a link to this speach by a 12 year old girl at the UN Earth Summit in 1992. Her words are just as potent now as they were at the time, so I thought they deserve repeating. I have seen this clip several times, yet I am moved to tears every single time...perhaps moreso now because I know what she will say, but I also know that we have moved *backwards* from where we were when she first said these words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g8cmWZOX8Q&feature=related

Rambling Thoughts

Why is it that whenever a discussion turns to unschooling *someone* will come back with something to the effect of "that's great for your kids, but if I let my child do whatever he/she wanted, he/she would do nothing but sit around and play video games/watch tv/use the computer all day"? What is up with that? Do people REALLY believe that, or is that just what they are AFRAID will happen? How do they know that's what their child will do if they have never tested this theory for longer that a few days? And why is sitting around doing workbook pages or reading a book BETTER than sitting around doing anything else? Sitting around is sitting around.

Yeah, I realize there's not really a point to this post. Just thinking out loud.

Nature Find of the Week

I wish I had had my camera with me this morning, but I'm not in the habit of taking the camera with me to work in the garden. I went out to the barn to get my gardening gloves so that I could pull weeds before the kids got up, and guess what I saw. All over the side of my barn there were teeny tiny praying mantids! I mean these were seriously small. They were smaller than the fingernail on my pinky. We have praying mantids all over our yard in the summer, and we've seen plenty of little ones, but these must have just hatched because they were the tiniest things I've ever seen! So freakin' cool!!!

Some Fun Questions

On one of my favorite e-mail lists, someone posted a few questions as a convo starter. I had so much fun answering that I thought I'd post my answers here too, especially since I'm not exactly coming up with new blog posts on my own lately!
These questions originally came from:
http://www.bzoink.com/S53948/

If you could rid the earth of one thing, what would it be?

child abusers, especially child molesters

If you could eliminate one emotion from your life, which would it be?

unnecessary guilt

What is one personality trait you've tried hardest to change in yourself?

Impatience. I feel like I'm very impatient, yet some of my friends think I'm uber-patient for some strange reason. Maybe because I've worked on it so much? I don't know. But my kids and husband can tell you otherwise!

What would you say is the most beautiful word in your own language?

YES!!

If you had the gift of magic for one day, what would you do?

Use a time-turning spell over and over and over. I could visit people who have died, right some of my wrongs, and relive some of the bestdays of my life so far.

If you were 6 inches tall for a day, what would you do?

Well, first I would raid my daughter's doll clothes because obviously nothing I own would fit and I'd be running around naked. Then I would sneak up on a bird and take it for a ride just to see what it's like. I would take up residence in the fairy house in the woods behind our house and take a nap on a bed of bird feathers and thistle down. I would sip flower nectar straight from the flower and dine on berries from a wee little acorn top bowl. Then I would go for a walk in the forest of grass in my yard (because it hasn't been mowed in two weeks). Of course I would have to steer clear of all the snake holes and spider webs. I should probably avoid the mud puddles too since I can't swim. And the cat. She doesn't see very well anymore and I don't want her to get me confused with a mouse. And I should probablyavoid the dog too since she's a better mouser than the cat. And we have hawks and owls, so I'd have to watch out for them too. And...hey...wait a minute...this isn't sounding like so much fun anymore!

Did you ever have an imaginary friend? How would you describe them?

I had lots of "fantasy friends" and they changed quite frequently. Some were stuffed animals that would come to life and some were completely imaginary. If I wanted to have a koala or a polar bear or an alien as a pet *poof* I had one! Others were people - both people I knew in real life and totally imaginary people. As I got a little older many of my imaginary friends were characters from favoritebooks. For instance, I remember going through a phase where I pretended that the big tree outside my bedroom window was the Faraway Tree (from the Enid Blyton books). All the characters from the book who lived in the tree were my friends. I visited every day and we would climb to the top of the tree to visit the different lands that were there. (Oddly enough, both of my kids do this too.) As I go tolder I began to use my imaginary world to work through things thatbothered me in real life. I would bring imaginary versions of real people into my fantasy world to make things go the way I wished theyhad, or I would practice how I wanted something to go if it hadn't happened yet. Heck, I guess I still do this to a certain extent!

If you could invent one new home appliance, what would it do?

Damn, how can you possibly beat Rosie from the Jetsons?
If I couldn't have Rosie then I guess I would either invent an automatic laundry machine that would sort, wash, dry, fold AND putaway the laundry.
Or I would just invent a robot that would do nothing but go aroundand pick up after my kids. That alone would give me so much more freetime!

Sheltering One's Child

This dreadful topic has come up in my life yet again...the idea that "sheltering" ones child is somehow a bad thing. Why is being a buffer between your child and the negative things that happen in the world so horrible? Saying that my children need to have he experience of dealing with bullies and negative peer pressure in order to learn about the "real world" makes about as much sense as saying they need to be handed a loaded gun to teach them that guns are dangerous. I wouldn't starve my children to teach them that the world is full of people who don't have enough food. I wouldn't throw them in the lake to teach them about drowning. I wouldn't let them play in traffic to teach them how dangerous cars are. Most parents would not *purposely* put their children in harms way in order to "teach them a valuable lesson", so why do so many parents think it is acceptable to purposely put children in situations where they are in danger of being teased, ridiculed, beaten up, or otherwise harmed by other children in order to teach them that the world has nasty, mean people in it? I just don't get it.

I'm a PARENT. It's MY JOB to protect my children from harm. To do otherwise would, under different circumstances, be considered neglectful or abusive. If one were to suggest that parents should put their children in situations where they were in danger of the same treatment from an adult, most parents would be outraged, and rightly so, but in the case of schoolyard behavior parents are willing to accept the potential harm to their child because it's "normal".

Just because most adults in our society managed to survive the kind of pressure and abuse that is so much a part of the school experience does not mean it's OKAY! People need to get over this idea that just because they were forced to endure something and "turned out okay" that that somehow makes it acceptable to continue forcing the next generation to endure the same thing. It's reprehensible.

Gratitude Moment

I'm having a gratitude moment - one of those times when I'm almost totally overwhelmed by this feeling of *THANKS* - and I needed to share it with someone. I don't having anyone here with me at the moment however, so I'll share it here.

I can usually pinpoint what starts a gratitude moment, but this time I think it was a combination of things - a touching story here, a sweet gesture from my child there, an unexpected display of affection from my husband. This time no one instant triggered it though. It just sort of...built up. It's especially strong this time too, perhaps because I have been very UNgrateful these last few weeks.

I've been having a "bad mom" phase. I feel like I'm failing at everything where my children are concerned. Logically, I know I'm not, but I *feel* like I am. I'm unhappy with the way I look. I've also been having a minor mid-life crisis, I think. I've just been so unsatisfied with my life, and that's not really normal for me. I find myself saying "I want" a lot lately. I want to go back to school but can't afford it. I want to travel in order to take some training, but I can't afford that either. I've considered getting a job but I can't figure out how I could possibly fit it in and not lose my sanity. Besides, I know a job wouldn't help with this problem anyway. I've just been in a funk and have had trouble pulling myself out of it.

Then suddenly, today, it was like the sun broke through the clouds and I felt this wave of *thankfulness* flow through me. Nothing in particular caused it. It just happened. Out of the blue...just like (snap) that. And it was beautiful!

It seems like there should be some ritual, some ceremony, or...something to mark an occasion like this, but I'm drawing a blank as to what such a ritual would look like. Maybe just noting it is ritual enough. Or perhaps I should say *acting on it* is ceremony enough. What better way is there to celebrate gratitude than by showing it?

I have no idea where I got this or who wrote it, but it is fitting, so I'll leave it here for someone else to find, just as I once found it.

Be Thankful

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire. If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don't know something, for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times. During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations, because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge, because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you're tired and weary, because it means you've made a difference.

It is easy to be thankful for the good things, but a life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are also thankful for the setbacks. GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive. Find a way to be thankful for your troubles and they can become your blessings.

~ Author Unknown ~