Education
From something simple to something complex
Our public school system is presently controlled by the government and the teachers unions. They are cheered on by a complacent citizenry. Together we are producing mediocrity in America.
Too many high school graduating students are not prepared to meet the demands of college. Too many graduates are not prepared to enter the work force. The percentage of students not completing high school is over 50% in some areas. Some of these students are dysfunctional and with minimal skills that will hinder them for life. This high failure rate indicates that there are a multitude of systematic problems. Government, bureaucracy and unions are a large part of the problem. Close behind are too many poor teachers and absentee parents.
If this were a private entity operating the educational system, they would lose their contract. There was a time when our educational system was ranked among the best in the world. This is not so now! If this situation is not corrected, the result will be a society in decline! This is a shame on our nation!
How did we come from one room schools, where parents, students and teachers were all closely involved with the education process to what we have today? We have taken something simple and made it complex!
Early education was a simple process of one person speaking and another listening and learning. It was efficient. It was local. It was inexpensive. And most importantly, it involved caring parents. Common sense was a cornerstone. The three R"s were the mainstay; reading, writing and arithmetic. Students also learned geography, history and music. Their vocabulary was nearly double the size that it is today, and they did all this without school busing! Wow!
Why can"t we just sit down and ask ourselves what studies are the highest priority and forget the rest of the drivel? The basics, we must all agree, are the foundation to more advanced learning and the preparation for life.
William McGuffey in 1883, asked himself what educational training was necessary for high school students and their future needs. He began writing learning guides that would give teachers uniform teaching methods. He called these guides The McGuffey Readers.
American students learned from these books in the 19th and 20th century. To this day, sales of the book series are still over 30,000 copies a year. They are mostly used in private schools and in home schooling. The old and proven guide is simple, successful and to the point. Below is the McGuffey six book curriculum:
The first reader taught children to follow an ethical code, to be prompt, good, kind, honest and truthful. This, I"m sure is too corny for many of you out there, but hang in there, it gets better!
The second reader taught reading and spelling. It introduced history, biology, astronomy, zoology, botany, table manners, family manners, good attitude, and the duties required of you.
The third reader was more formal and designed more for a maturing mind. Think of a junior high school level, where individual thought was slightly more acepted.
The forth reader was an introduction to literature, poetry, the Bible, world history and philosophy.
The fifth reader was designed for elocutionary exercises to increase articulation, inflection, pitch, accent, emphasis and gesture. It contained poetry and prose from the classical writers.
The sixth reader involved studies of Longfellow and Shakespeare, several forms of composition, description, narration, argumentation and exposition. There were also 17
selections from the Bible.
Completion of these six books would give a graduating student the tools necessary to step into the big world. As a modern day parent you might agree that this old tried and true method sounds pretty good. Nothing magical, just common sense.
What can we do?
Doing nothing is not acceptable.
I don"t know about you, but I"m tired of hearing about other countries whipping our tails in math and science! This is not acceptable for Americans, but don"t look to the government for answers. They are part of the problem and will not be a part of the solution!
The solution is you. The concerned citizens working together will find answers. You are strong, you are intelligent, you are innovative and you have common sense! And don"t you dare let people tell you that it can"t be done.
Some ammunition:
• Set a goal of taking back your schools.
• Take money out of the equation.
• Keep the new process local.
• Keep the process small and simple.
• Involve all local residents and businesses.
• Parents must be a major part of the learning.
• Keep the curriculum basic and simple.
• Remove all politics, unions and negative elements.
• Exclude government educated elitist types and their
cheerleaders.
• Lastly, do not let people talk about reform.
You do not want to fix the old system,
you want a new system!!!!!!
Education and common sense
Grown-ups who have been out of high school for a few years and with some work experience and/or higher education involvement, know very well what subjects and topics are important in everyday life. Most of these people will likely agree that the skills of reading, writing and communicating are highly important. They will understand the need for the sciences, the social arts and history as they will play a role in their lives.
The art of speaking and discussion. The art of debate. How to be courteous and considerate to others. How to speak with truth. How to display good manners.
We also would agree that there are some subjects that we wish would have been more emphasized in school, such as making change, balancing a checkbook, making
conversation, creating successful marriages and families, knowing good character and recognizing bad, doing the right thing and, lastly, common sense.
On the other hand, there are also a multitude of subjects that may be a waste of time.
These subjects may be different to each of us, but there are most likely, subjects that we could all agree upon that are not necessary, even harmful, such as cultural or ethnic studies that may cause division or resentment in the early years. Remember the bottom line is, we firstly want to teach basic subjects that students can build upon.
I believe that the most important thing that young students can learn, is “how to learn,”
“learning to learn.” Sounds simplistic, but I contend that many people are not taught
“how to learn.” They are not capable of recognizing a problem and finding a solution.
The closest that we get to learning how to learn may be at the college level when students are taught where to go for answers. But shouldn"t that be a priority much earlier in one"s education?
Parents and interested citizens could collectively make a list of subjects that we feel are in the best interest of our children. Has anyone from the educational system asked you lately for your opinion?
Education. What do I know?
The lighter side
• I don"t understand why we lump all kids according to age. Later in life we definitely don"t get lumped. Well, maybe some of us get lumped.
• I don"t understand why we don"t have nap time like the children do. Taking a nap seems so civil and natural. I say the same thing about play time. Why do we have to be so damn adult?
• There"s got to be a better way to establish the projected direction of any given child.
What am I good at? What do I do poorly? What are the things in life that make me smile?
• Preparing for life"s daily needs. Balancing a check book. Balancing expenses and income. Counting change. Saying the right thing. Treating people right. Learning common sense.
• I could have done much better with my studies, if I wasn"t so infatuated with the opposite sex. Co-ed wasn"t good for me.
• Riding a bus 2 hours a day gives kids with mush for brains more time to do stupid stuff.
• Name tags for life. Somewhere along the line they should have taught students to remember names. It is important.
• Study hall remains a giant waste of time. It falls into the same category as busing.
• Lunch. Not great, but hey, it"s free. We discover later in life that it"s not free.
• Remember the teacher who was just passing the time, maybe day dreaming about retirement. Not much was learned from him or her. Isn"t tenure wonderful?
• I remember the bad teachers more than the good. Sad!
• I"ve always wondered why they can"t inject knowledge into your brain at night.
Someone work on that!
• I"ve also wondered why they can"t slow down the testosterone in teenage boys.
• Too many subjects taken, means too little known about a lot.
• Educated kids are happy kids. I like the happy kids angle.
• Summer vacation is nice, but is it really necessary?
The answer is yes. It"s a time to get acquainted?
• Learning makes all of us experts. Really?
• I would like to have learned more about the personal side of life. What makes us tic, how to help others, how to recognize good from bad, learning to be a good person, and lastly, learning how to balance your life. Unbalanced is not good.
• Why does it cost so much to learn? Seems to me it"s just one person teaching and one person learning.
• Why does it cost more each year? Using the same above thought process, spending does not coincide with learning.
• The gambling lottery was supposed to pay for education.
Well, I guess not.
• With up to 50% of kids dropping out of school, shouldn"t the costs be dropping????????
If so, shouldn"t we encourage drop outs?
• Private schools, charter schools and home schooling seems to be working. Shouldn"t we be finding out why?
• Maybe state run public schools aren"t working too well.
Well, that"s certainly right wing negative hate speech, designed to hurt kids and teachers.
I pull my question. Back to my side of the cave.
Words / language and learning.
The speaking side
Where would we be without speech, without language and without the ability to communicate with one another? This is a gift of life, like our senses of sight, hearing and smell. Without these gifts, life could not have continued as we know it. The ability to speak and to form words allows intelligent thought to be communicated. Language has allowed mankind to exist, to flourish, and to record our history.
Without the use of words, we may have remained in a primitive state, possibly in the age of “hunter gatherers.” Thinking, would have remained largely on self preservation stuff like shelter, tools, water, fire and food. Some third world countries would fit that description today. The scenario would not be unlike small individual and remote villages in parts of Africa. Without words and communication we would likely have lived in small villages, individual societies, and would not have related with others too far away.
These small communities would most likely not have spoken the same language.
Certainly there would be none of this global community talk that we hear about today.
Remember no talk equals no communication. All innovative thought would evolve around the basics of life only. Hey, maybe that wouldn"t be so bad!
I find it difficult to understand how we moved from the words of William Shakespeare to the lingo coming out of the mouths of some. They do however, have some words down pat, such as “like” and “you know.”
On the brighter side, with all the confusion surrounding language and communications, perhaps we ought to pat ourselves on the back for getting along as well as we do!
The listening side.
The receiver of word and sound.
Words used are worthless if no one is listening. It reminds me of the question, “does a tree falling in the woods make a noise if no one is there to hear it?”
Humans are generally terrible listeners and right along with that, we have short attention spans and even shorter memories. Most teachers can attest to that! Good student listeners get better grades. People who are good listeners are generally more successful in business and are well liked. So why aren"t more people good listeners? Common sense would indicate that this learned art would, well ……….. Want to be learned!
Listening involves attention, focus and concentration. Ah! That may be the problem.
Good listeners are practitioners. Learning and practicing this art, takes dedication and hard work! If everyone listened and had better memories, the world would be a better place and it wouldn"t be necessary to keep reinventing the wheel.
The perception
Perception is listening and forming a mental image of what you have heard. Did the person mean what you believe they said? This may be one of the biggest problems in day to day communications. All of us have had an experience where what we said, and how it was received, somehow got twisted and turned around. That"s the reason why many people in authority will put a directive in writing, or ask the person to repeat the directive, so as to see if both parties are on the same page.
Solving this problem, at least to some extent, is by following the same recommendations given for listening -- attention, focus and concentration. Additionally, we should never add or take away from what the person has said. If there"s a question, it"s a good idea to ask them to repeat it for clarity. Failed perception is mostly caused by a lack of interest.
Parents and their children may be the biggest culprits, with husbands and wives coming in a close second.
Two way communication.
One on one and beyond.
Things were bad enough when it was one person speaking directly to another. Then along came new distractions including telegraphy, telephone, wireless radio and the most recent communications via the internet. What new technology will arrive tomorrow?
“Texting” on cell phones is one of the latest trends. It even creates a new language (not that we did so well with the old one) and the younger generation is buying into this new technology, big time! Once you learn the language, it is fast and efficient.
The problem, as I see it, is that this new communication is way too impersonal and therefore may be a passing fad. Never mind, it is already obsolete.
The world"s language
The lack of communications is certainly a divider among nations of the world. It is possible that because this world does not speak the same language, confusion, greed, jealousy, hatred and wars are seemingly endless.
There are over 4000 different languages in our world. Is it any wonder that we have trouble getting along? It is interesting that English is international and many have thought that if any language could be used worldwide, it would be English. However, any common language learned and used would be beneficial.
The ten most spoken languages:
• French. By 80 million people
• Japanese. By 125 million people
• Portuguese. By 170 million people
• Arabic. By 175 million people
• Russian. By 170 million people
• Spanish. 150-180 million people
• Bengali. By 190 million people
• Hindustani. 150-350 million people
• English. 275-400 million people
• Mandarin. Nearly 1 billion people
In all of these, there is one truth in common and that is, that they all can tell a lie in a different language. No matter how it is spoken it remains a lie!
Perceived opinion.
Taking in what is handed out.
We spend a good portion of our lives taking in information, as we see it, hear it, or read it. It may be in a formal setting as a classroom, or it may be just two people conversing.
The words from the sender to you, the receiver, are his or her perceived opinions. You then will take that which was directed to you, and form your own perceived opinion.
Remember in school when the teacher would whisper a short statement to a student and they in turn would whisper that statement to another and this process would be repeated throughout the class? The results were always the same. The final message was not the original message.
There is an old saying, “Believe most of what you see, some of what you read and nothing of what you hear.”
Perception changes facts, bends or eliminates the truth. It goes against common sense.
The process works like this:
- You take in / receive words or attitudes.
- You then selectively choose from these words.
- You selectively interpret, ignore, add or take away.
- You now have birthed your own perceived opinion.
- You may now pass your words on to others.
- This new conduit will continue this cycle.
As dumb as this sounds, this is the way it works. Don"t let the facts get in the way.
On the positive common sense side of the sender to receiver scenario, “learning” happens as a result of this process. It is up to the receiver to select out what they need and disregard what they do not need. The receiver must selectively use wisdom and good judgment in their selection. They must learn that the sender may be biased, misinformed, ignorant, lying or may have an agenda.
Now that we know a little about perceived opinion, we must ask ourselves, why? Why does it have to work like this? God made a very organized universe. Why does this communication tool seem otherwise? Why can"t we digest words like we digest two plus two? We most likely will never have an answer to these lingering questions. So sit back and enjoy the ride!
Words and journalism
The written and spoken word by those who have practiced in this once proud profession, called journalism, may now be having second thoughts about their choice of careers.
They believed in their goal to communicate the local, national and world news. Their mission was to present the facts of a story in a clear and concise manner, without slant or distortion and with the idea that their words were meant to inform, not to persuade. In the 1960"s, television"s Dragnet series, it was Sergeant Joe Friday who said, “Just the facts ma"am.”
If writers had a personal opinion on a given story, they hid their feelings as it was not professional to join sides. Their professional creed ( the Cannons of Journalism ) would not allow it. There were, of course, writers who wrote opinion, but their positions were well known and published, as one"s opinion.
In recent years, the code has been down played. Journalism is not the trusted profession that it once was. Truths have been distorted, facts are twisted or omitted and sources may not be reliable. There have been cases of plagiarism and other questionable ethics and moral problems. The most important phenonamon in recent years is the political power that they have gained, using the power of the pen and persuassion to guide political events. This was not the intention of the founding fathers, when they provided for freedom of the press.
So how do we get the profession back to the journalistic creed of providing fair and balanced reporting, without an agenda? Simply we must replace agenda driven professors with teachers whose goal it is to educate each new generation of writers and journalists with just the facts. This may not be an impossible task, but it will take leaders who are strong and dedicated. It is time to redirect this great artistic profession back to center.
Trust by the American public can be won back again, if attrition is honestly offered and a new direction is sought.
The written and spoken word is, simply, too powerful a tool to be taken over by a specific ideology bent on the persuasion of the masses. This wrong must be made right.
Self education.
The day to day learning process.
• Learn something every day of your life
• Learn to be a thinker.
• Find solutions to problems. Ask and resolve
• Live a life style that does not create problems
• Strive to lead a simple life. Complex is confusion
• Always be a teacher. Someone needs to know what you know
• Strive to be the person that someone would follow
• Make reading a part of your day
• Strive to be an over achiever. Believe in no limitations
• Learning can be a walk in the woods
• Learn something from everyone you meet
• Stretch your imagination and open your mind
• Always do the right thing
• Learning leads to doing
• Learning only stops when you are six foot under
EDUCATION AND MY SPORTS DETOUR
When I was a sophomore in high school, sports was my thing. The other was my infatuation with the opposite sex which, at best, was a distraction and you might say my decisions were a bit cloudy. My life was humming along just fine. My curve ball was improving, the jump shot was almost there, I was running pretty fast and thinking quite highly of myself. That"s when sixteen year old Judy from across the street joined our Saturday afternoon touch football game. That day will live in infamy! During the game, I grabbed Judy a bit high around the chest and I held on for a long, long time. From that day forward, and with my brain disengaged, I became mediocre in everything that I attempted. Bowling, tennis, baseball, football -- you name it. I was Mr. Average!
Before that day I saw myself in my dreams as always winning the races, dunking the basketball, scoring the touchdowns and, generally, the big hero in front of screaming crowds. Boy, those were great dreams, right up there with lifting off the ground and flying. Yes, I could do that also. I was following my dad, a noted pitcher, and my mom who excelled in basketball. My dad, my brother, his son and grandson were four generations of football captains at the local high school. Me, well you might just say that I held onto that boob too long!
But common sense would tell you, being a person of reasonable judgment and able to get past the adversities of life, that this small stumbling block would not deter me from higher goals. So I took up golf in my twenties and I will never forget my first time out. I had purchased a second hand set of golf clubs and along with a couple buddies, we set out to play the local course. I shot an eighty something, no big deal, but the guys said that was a good score for the first time. We went out the next day and I shot an 83. Wow! I had finally found my sport. I was pumped so I started taking lessons. By the end of the summer, I couldn"t break 100. I have been devoted to this stupid game ever since and it never ceases to humiliate me. It beats me up and discards me on some distant fairway.
Just occasionally it will offer me some ray of hope only to take it back again. It is clear to me that all of my failures are due to the fact that I held onto that boob too long!
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