Although I am American, I was born and raised in a "Third World" country. I went to school at 7:30am, and was released at 5:00pm. That was a full day of school for me, not this rinky-dink in at 8:00am, and 2:30pm dismissal. I can honestly say I am grateful, and lucky, that my schooling occurred elsewhere. I am constantly reminded of that when I read news articles from major news outlets, or actual printed literature, riddled with misspellings and misused words and written by people in my age bracket. I know of people in positions of authority, making important corporate decisions for large companies, yet unable to properly punctuate. These things simply didn’t happen when our parent’s generation ran this place(U.S.). Don’t get me wrong. I am not infallible, I make mistakes, but at least I try to produce the most accurate product I can when it is to be exposed and disseminated to the the public.
Our country, as advanced as it is, is so plagued with bureaucracy that it is affecting our kids’ learning. Public school classes will retard a whole class’ pace for the one child that can’t learn at the same rate as all the other kids. This seems wrong to me. You’re probably going to see a rhythm, or common thread, every time I get on these soapboxes, so I might as well just spill the beans. I worry about the direction this country is headed, and I worry for the future of our children, educationally, spiritually and morally. This country’s lackadaisical attitude towards learning is a co-culprit in all this.
My son is kid number 2 for me, but is really my first exposure to the school system since daughter#1 lives with my ex-wife. His teacher told me that spelling is not something they focus on at this point (2nd grade), but that they would do it in later grades. That tweaked me a little bit. If they learn the wrong way first, chances are they’ll never learn the right way. At least that’s how it is for me personally. My wife and I take great pains in raising our kids, and as a result our son has great diction, and great language skills. I am proud to say that he is at a 4th grade reading and comprehension level. We don’t sit him down and use Gestapo learning tactics (directional bright light in a dark room), we simply converse with him without using baby talk, or using non-words, like ain’t. The results are phenomenal.
I know that the teachers in this country are grossly underpaid, specially for the task of helping us raise and teach, our children, but I have to take issue with the amount of in-service days, and general days off scheduled in the school year. If anyone reading this is a school teacher, or knows the answer, please explain to me what goes on during an in-service day.
Just a little bit of personal wisdom, "Spel Chek"(sic) is just a tool, not something to stake your reputation on.
Interesting entry.
For what it’s worth, this is not just a US phenomenon. ‘Dumbing down’ is happening all over.
This is also the case in the educational systems I have some knowledge of, the well respected Dutch, and the seed for many an international success, the Irish system.
Where it will end up, I have no idea.
Great post, and I hear you! Having been a public school teacher and a school principal (along with raising my own three boys who have attended public school), I understand your frustration.
I can respond in two ways. Here’s the principal’s version: As the manager of the school, I was responsible for organizing staff development days. Our district had about three of them during the year. We used to have more, but the teacher’s union voted them out because the belief was that teachers already knew everything they needed to know. At my schools, there were a range of activities teachers were involved in. For example, at the beginning of the year, test scores and other data were analyzed and decisions made about adjustments to curriculum to better support students. Grade level groups or subject matter groups were formed so teachers could work together to plan units of study, lessons, and arrange for cross observations where they would watch each other teach and give feedback on the effectiveness of the lesson and suggest possible ways to improve. That’s the tip of the iceberg. From my perspective as a former teacher, our professional development days varied depending on whether we were stuck in a room together having to listen to a person talk all day to one full of hard work we’d later benefit from. We wrote curriculum, planned workshops that we’d give to other teachers who wanted to learn some of the instructional strategies we used, and we also looked at our student’s work together to examine what their strengths were, and areas of weakness as well, to help us make changes in our instruction. (And I’m sorry I’m writing a post, here, but am just giving you an answer to your question, so thanks!)
I will say that the quality of the Teacher Work Day is dependent upon the school district, the administration of the school, and the dedication of the teacher to be involved in continuing his or her own learning. Did we go out and have a nice lunch (no school food shoved in our faces in 20 minutes…) with one another and talk shop? Absolutely. Did we have a glass of wine or a beer? Very, very rarely since we returned to school to work afterwards. We did, however, occasionally go out for happy hour with each other after regular days because like many other jobs, teaching can be a bit much, and going out with friends is fun.
And I totally agree with you that US public education is in crisis. Truly. To fix it, we’d have to start completely over with the first step being to dismantle the teacher’s unions. How can you have an organization that is adult-centered when the focus should be 100% on the students? It’s been completely backwards for much too long.
@kellypea,
Thanks for “schooling” me on the ins and outs of an In Service Day. (groan)
I also needed to know more about a teacher’s work day. In at 8 and out at 5? What happens between the hours of dismissal and the end of the work day (5pm). Is there a lot of data entry involved(you’d think computers would alleviate all the drudgery involved in grading)?
Thanks for commenting.