Reforming education has become a political football. There are those who promise revolutionary change and those who talk without doing anything.
Surely, there are many great techniques and shifts in tactics to improve output. BUT the real problem is the broken home. Without mom and dad at home pushing Johnny to get the grade, reform is doomed to modest results at best.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for honing. I favor paradigm shifts. What I oppose is charlatan fads exploited by unscrupulous politicians (forgive the redundancy) that sway public opinion momentarily without delivering better graduates.
I realize that there are those who make their living promoting reform. I congratulate all sincere efforts that seek better results. But I’m a bit skeptical. Learning will always involve some amount of plain, old, boring work. You can sing the times tables, if that works for you. But at the end of the day, you had better know how to sing your way through a complex multiplication and division problem. Results are what counts.
A change-up in methodology can be good. Hocus pocus, not so.
However you approach it, at the end of the day, students need to know how to write, to do math, to analyze, to think critically. No doubt teachers play a critical role. But a heartbreak from home to ruin a student in class. It’s great to be dynamic teachers, but if Sarah Sue is crying inside, she might not be paying attention to anything Mrs. Summersault is saying.
Please, please, please, for good of students, keep your home together.
Related articles
- A Teacher’s View: We Need the Reforms (wnyc.org)
- Philadelphia Youth In Dire Need of Education Reform (phl17.com)
- ZeroHedge: China’s Third Plenum Concludes Big On Promises, Hollow On Actions (silveristhenew.com)
- Film presents St. Benedict’s Prep as model for national education reform (nj.com)
- Anti-Common Core Protest Wants Parents To Keep Kids Home From School (huffingtonpost.com)
concernedforeducation 
Personally I like the goal of transmitting a love of learning, (as opposed to ‘hard slogging’), and reinforcement like the personal empowerment that comes from becoming a really good reader, for example. I found this interesting too (looking at ‘future’ ideas): http://ww3.tvo.org/video/184224/classroom-2030
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It would seem to be quite a challenge, to communicate that love of learning.
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Yes I think so. But there are some obvious everyday examples. Like people who love reading tend to be people whose parents read to them as children, and loved reading themselves. One my theories is that children need to develop the lifelong foundation of excellent reading and math skills – before they discover the opposite sex. After that it’s harder to concentrate š
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LOL! LOVE your theory! Yeah, I was on the college honor roll until I met my wife-to-be.
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I think that, more than anything, a teacher needs to connect with his or her student – each of them – in SOME minute way or the other. It’s surprising what one tiny link a student can lean on will do for the way they look at learning.
And I’m completely for the sincere “fad-less” reforms.
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This is a very very very important point. Teacher, as mother- or father figure.
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ā¦.yes; and the ‘connection’ would obviously be easier in much smaller classrooms š
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Yes sir! That would help!
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