I watched "This Week with Christine Amanapour" yesterday and the discussion centered around teachers, achievement by the students, and the gap socioeconomically and by race. The opening sequence showed teachers responding to the issue of merit pay for the teachers who have students that are growing academically while in their classrooms. One section really resonated in me. A teacher was quoted as saying that she had our children's minds in her hands more than we do (as parents).
I respect teachers. I think that it is a calling in some cases, and that the vast majority teach because they want to help children. But the test scores while not showing the whole picture are the only concrete measure we have to go by, and there are some teachers who are not performing for the students. We can not keep doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result. The solution can not be throwing more and more money at the problem. Teacher pay is not the answer. Unless we tie performance to pay. The teachers who are innovative within the confines that tie their hands need to be rewarded. Others need an incentive to find out what they are doing right, and parents deserve to know what type of teacher 'holds their children's minds in her/his hands more than we do.
We as a nation do need to view this an economics problem, because until we do no one really pays attention. There is a reason why we are comparable until 4th grade with other nations and then the gap begins to widen. It isn't that our children are less intelligent. It isn't TV because may nations that out perform us also have children with all time high viewership. It can't be just family life or poverty, because other nations have equal social problems. So what is it?
As a home school parent I need to know that answer. It is imperative that I find that answer because the responsibility is on my shoulders to make sure that my son is thriving academically, socially, and civilly. I started researching home education because of first hand experiences in my own education and that of my older children. My two older boys were extremely smart, and my equally bright daughter had a learning disability, so I was able to see the schools from different ends of the spectrum. My boys were often bored, and my daughter often felt like she was stupid and would never catch up. In fact when my daughter was in high school and could not pass algebra after her 3rd try and absolutely could not pass the Standard of Learning test for the subject, she went to her teacher to discuss things that she should do and the teacher took a piece of paper and wrote GED on it. Then she kept the paper. Did that teacher think a GED was the only and best option for T? Did she feel comfortable telling a teen to quit school and pursue her GED? I don't think so. I can't help but wonder if she thought it was best for T, or best for the school's score? My sons took two different tracks. The innately most intelligent became a problem child. He didn't see the point of what he was learning, and he certainly didn't respect school. Until middle school he jumped through all the required hoops and made fantastic grades without even trying. After Middle School he quit even putting forth an effort. He did quit school and took his GED test without even studying and had the highest recorded score in the history of our county. Our second son lucked out in part, I believe because of sports. He wanted to play so that is where he found the value of school. He also had a few teachers that thought outside of the box and allowed him to stretch. Instead of just having him just read Animal Farm he taught his classmates an entire period where they discussed how it related to the Cold War. Yet even though he seemed to 'get' school, he never appreciated it or respected it either. He could sit down the night before a semester project was due, grind it out, and get an A. Both boys have learned more in their time out of school then they ever learned inside their walls, and both excel in their professions. T on the other hand refuses to read a book, or do anything that resembles school.
So now I have younger children and I want to and need to be more involved in their education. Before I didn't know there were options and choices. I blindly followed the prescribed education track because it was all I knew. I didn't know enough. I still know I don't know everything, but I am trying to know enough. We are deciding year by year, what is the best option for our children. I am reading everything I can find about theories in education, comparisons of curriculum, and even more important, examining what we thing a well educated child needs to learn. It is freeing and terrifying all at the same time. I want to hold my children's minds in my hands more than a teachers, because one thing I know without question is that I care more about my children than they do.
No comments:
Post a Comment