Educating the Masses
Feb 23rd, 2010 | By Linda Brady Traynham | Category: Featured, Morning Whiskey
If you were in charge of the educational system, what would you do and why? Mull that one over while I tell you how I would go about it, and I’ll make it easier by stipulating grandly that price is no object.
Snicker. Will people never stop falling for my sucker bets? Very seldom does money expended on education equal excellence of outcome, as Washington, D. C., has been demonstrating for decades. No doubt you remember that Hillary Clinton had a free hand revamping the schools of Arkansas, resulting in a national rating of dead last, so we can conclude that lawyers aren’t necessary either.
Our computers have a wonderful feature that allows us to reconfigure to the last time at which they were running correctly. This strikes me as a good, high tech idea, so let’s figure out when we last had good schools that defined “educating the children” as something other than phoney self-esteem, rebellion against parental values, and submission to authority.
It is neither vain nor hyperbole to say that your children, if they finish four-year college degrees, are extraordinarily unlikely to know as much as my generation did after being graduated from high school about the time Fidel Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista. At that time many college diplomae did not guarantee the level of erudition possessed by HS graduates in the early thirties. In the Fifties the white illiteracy rate was 5%, but the graduates of all-black Kemp High School were only a point behind. This next story is like trying to explain that there was a time when there was no MacDonald’s or iPods, but there wasn’t any other ethnicity in a town of about 40,000. The school board nearly had a nervous breakdown when the first three Hispanic students showed up because they couldn’t decide what to do with them. (DO try to see this as funny because it IS.) You see their problem: you can’t build a highschool for three kids; you can’t send them to Kemp because they aren’t black, but they shouldn’t be in lily-white Stephen F. Austin, either…eventually, they put them over with us. The only girl spent her entire time with her head hunched low probably because she didn’t know what else to do. One of two brothers was very quiet, but Anastasio Hererra was a tall, handsome, outgoing, very bright young man and he made a place for himself easily. Stash was not only my lab partner in Chemistry but went on to become the first Hispanic elected to the “state” legislature! We’re proud of him, and I had dinner with “Andy,” as he is known now, and his wife not long ago.
That is merely an interesting anthropological sidenote. The important part is what we were taught at SFA. Every last student from my class of about 400 was graduated honestly (although three of the boys had to do summer school) and Nancy whatever-her-name-was who got pregnant in the 9th grade and had to drop out — and we’re still talking about it fifty years later. Back then the white illegitimacy rate was 5%; for blacks it was 25%. The current rates have gone to 25% and 80% respectively. I took 3 years of Latin, 4 of Algebra, Geometry, Chemistry and real biology, not keeping a small shark alive all year and then watching the teacher dissect it — an actual course in Houston two years ago. We had our hands in formaldehyde frequently from the very start. Every student was required to master typing and those not going to college had to take two years of bookkeeping and shorthand, and guess what? They had sufficient skills to get office jobs whether they had spent the morning on academic subjects and afternoons as apprentices or not. Speech was required, and I studied Physics, Spanish, Texas and US History. Driver’s Ed? I think there was such a course, but I learned at home, like most kids. Home Ec? Don’t be ridiculous. We were being educated, not baking cookies, something else I learned at home. Our books were full of facts, not political correctness and “diversity.”
One obvious way for our children to learn what we know is to teach them ourselves — if there is the interest and a parent who can remain at home, the latter being an increasingly rare luxury. The home-schooling movement has been growing for some years now and perusal of the top scores on the SAT yearly will reveal the efficacy of this method. Time and again those scores demonstrate that high achievement is found in two groups: those who are home-schooled and those who have a cultural heritage of valuing education. Clearly it is not possible to provide every child Chinese parents (although many of the methods tried by legislators and unions are about that impractical) but home schooling is within the reach of many.
Given no restrictions on cost virtually all of us would enroll our children in the best private schools available — and a major goal of the Republic of Texas is to reduce taxes to the point that you can afford to send your children to the Academy of the Sacred Heart or Harlingen Military Academy or any other school of your choice. It is a given of free market capitalism that where there is demand supply will be forthcoming because there is profit to be made. Our goal will be to provide true school choice over a very wide range without taxing those who do not have children enrolled in various institutions of learning. TANSTAFL, people. There is absolutely no reason why any of us should pay for the education of the children of others. We can anticipate that private schools will both expand and spring up to meet the need — and their standards will of necessity remain high because parents will demand what will be seen clearly as value for their money. Already Academies offering music, sports, and lab sciences have been established to round out the curricula of those being schooled at home. The tuition must be an excellent swap for safety and not having to put together home biology and chemistry laboratories.
You might ask, “What about traditional neighborhood schools?” By all means, if you and your neighbors want your children to walk to nearby Travis Elementary, pool the dollars you choose to spend on their education, hire your own teachers, buy your own books, pay your own utilities, and make your own repairs. You have no right to demand that from your neighbors. Remember, we are talking of a Republic where over a hundred taxes have disappeared, including income and property taxes, fuel, alcohol, and cigarette taxes. In such a nation individual families will be able to afford whatever means of education they prefer including hiring a governess or a tutor. Yes, some people earn more income than others — and guess what? Some of us hold that what you earn is yours to spend as you like.
However, we will suppose that there are those whose income is so small that at least one “public” option is deemed necessary. Here, too, there is a simple free-market solution. Subject matter appropriate to each grade level should be made available on public TV and run twenty-four/seven. Would that be for free? Of course not! Nothing is for free. Make the sacrifice and get cable TV. However, we do have a public fund from taxes on oil production which will be more than ample. This method would be very inexpensive to set up and quite economical to broadcast. Find the very best, most erudite, most interesting teachers, choose from old textbooks for the basics, and each lecture and other segment need be recorded only once. A particular advantage of having phonics-based reading taught constantly is that this is the best and only hope for those currently illiterate to learn to read quickly, easily, and well. The length of this article precludes regaling you with details of how I know such a reading program would work, having developed and copyrighted mine twenty-years ago. If enough of you want to know I will write a separate article on it. For now, just go with the concept that reading, arithmetic, geography, and history can be taught beautifully in the comfort of your own home. Chuckle…take it from someone who has been rescuing illiterate nine-year-old boys for a very, very long time: little boys cannot sit still and do anything else. If your bright, wiggly son is sprawled on the floor eating cheese and crackers, playing with his Vroom-Vroom cars, and patting the dog he can learn a great deal more quickly. I never require my remedial students to sit still and be quiet! Sitting inhibits their learning, strains their composure, and reminds them constantly of every bad classroom experience they have ever had. Test their beginning knowledge? Whatever for?! It is far easier and far less stressful to start with “B is the name of this letter but the work it does is making the sound ‘buh.’” The child feels good when he actually knows something, he sees reading as a system that makes sense, and, sure enough, if he pays even moderate attention he will learn. Gentle laughter…the first lesson starts, “It isn’t your fault that you can’t read, and it still won’t be your fault if I don’t teach you. That would be my fault for not explaining how correctly. However, no one has failed to learn in twenty years and you aren’t going to, either. It’s even going to be a lot of fun!” And it is. I make it fun. How long does it take? Usually a couple of hours twice a week for three to six weeks, depending upon how badly the kiddo has been abused and confused by being expected to learn to read English when it is taught as though it were Chinese ideographs and not a phonetic language.
In addition, such instruction can be made available easily and inexpensively through the home computer. This would be particularly useful as the students advance and allow for inter-active testing. Remember: we’re going to clean the reading mess up first. So far as I’m concerned — should I be named Secretary of Education anywhere — you may have your HS diplomas any time you are able to pass all the exams. I don’t care if you are nine or ninety, only that you can demonstrate mastery of reading, writing, arithmetic, history, algebra, civics, “keyboarding,” and such other subjects as I deem wise and necessary. (Hey, anyone else who wants to set up a course of study, have at it. For fun, ask Google to show you an 8th grade exam purported to have been given in Kansas about 1870. Bear in mind that eighth grade was as high as school went, then. I can pass it, but I doubt that I could cover myself in glory, and I have three degrees and have done graduate work in five fields! Why? For fun, of course! Other than contract work after the children were older — editing, writing instructional materials, and doing analytical project reports — I was a classic stay at home Donna Reed housewife. We all adored summers because I taught the kids daily…) Hey, I probably won’t demand more than 90%.
Now, I do not suppose that my plan will be popular with teachers’ unions because we won’t need nearly as many teachers, will we? The best will be employed privately, and it may be that those who school at home personally or through multimedia might like to hire a retired teacher once a month or once a week to do the icky things like give tests and soothe any anxious feelings that Mama isn’t doing a fine job. The rest of them can take up more productive work or move to some state that still thinks class size and money are important.
We don’t have classes that are too big or too few teachers; modern public schools teach the wrong things with the wrong methods. Well, sure, if you insist I’ll agree modestly to let you call me a genius but the simple truth is that all of the kids in my schools learned well, and all the kids over at Kemp did nearly as well. I wasn’t even Valedictorian or Salutatorian, despite being the class nerd! (BITTER subject! PE was a required subject, and I am and always have been an Olympic class klutz. It doesn’t matter if you make all A’s, that courtesy “C” you get for showing up, suiting out, showering, and trying not to have a nervous breakdown destroys your GPA. I assure you, if the game involves a ball, sooner or later I will get hit with it. In eight miserable years no teacher ever succeded in teaching me to play even one sport acceptably.)
That only leaves us one small problem: those whose native tongue is not English. Once again, the experience of many decades and having attended quite a few different schools suggests an answer: put all those who need it in special schools where English is taught and don’t let them out until they have learned. Spanish is as simple as phonetic languages get, and almost anyone can be taught to read it in about fifteen minutes. Teach the kids to read and carry on instruction in arithmetic in Spanish while focusing on English. English is the language of business and they must learn it, but understanding how to read Spanish will be a great help when they get to English because the basic principle is the same: see the letters, say the sounds, and run them together to get words you know that make sense where you find them. Any kiddo with an average American television addiction has at least an 8th grade working vocabulary. The “test” I just gave you develops enormous reading comprehension because the student is concentrating on whather or not what he said makes sense; if it doesn’t, he made a mistake. He isn’t trying to tell “cat” from “dog” by appearance, that being what “Look-Say” is all about. He already knows most of the words he needs to read a wealth of material, and once he has mastered my idea of the basics (ALL there is to know) he can use a dictionary. He already knows it isn’t “The princess sayed.” It ought to be, but we have an agreement to say “sed” when we see “said.” D’you know, there are only about two dozen of those little horrors and your preschool child knows all of them?! Yup. You won’t hear one say, “I loave you, Mot-her.” The only word Andrew, then 5, missed on an eighth-grade Reading Assessment Test was “carburetor.” He didn’t know that Americans say “CAR-buh-rayccb-tor,” so he read it as “car-bew-ret-or.” Which it should be. How long does it take to go through the ten rules of reading and about 250 sounds and letter combinations encompasing everything there is to know about what reading really is and how we really do it? About an hour and a half! After that the child masters one segment at a time. Takes about six weeks, working just a little every day, to teach a child who has not been exposed to “Look-Say.” Think of all we can teach in those endless hours they won’t spend for five years learning to read somewhere between third and eighth-grade level in most cases. Further, an extensive study done in Seattle showed the 90% (you read that right: 90) of all juveniles who went before a judge that year were functionally or totally illiterate. Do you suppose there is a correlation, there?
Right now you and I are usually the sole guardians of what our children and grandchildren are learning. If we can regain responsibility for choosing the schools and teachers they have even if we lack the luxury of teaching them ourselves test scores will rise again. Unless you would prefer to argue that children today are inherently more stupid than those born about 1940? Obama cut a program in DC which provided $7,000 vouchers for a few lucky kids. The kids learned, and each voucher saved $4000 that would be spent if they were in vastly inferior public schools. Parents loved it, the children delighted in it, but unions and statists loathed it. The argument was the same — although unspoken — as at the time of the Industrial Revolution: “Send them to school? Teach them to read? Whatever for?! They’ll get ideas above their stations.”
For over fifty years our schools have been under the control of those who lean very far left. The only way to take them back is through propositions, referenda, or restoring the Republic. That’s either republic, folks, the Republic of Texas or the republic the founding fathers set up and hoped we would be able to keep.
Regards,
Linda Brady Traynham
February 23, 2010
Linda Brady Traynham
Linda Brady Traynham is a former editor and analytical project report writer and is now a Whiskey & Gunpowder field correspondent on a ranch in the Republic of Texas. She studied Counseling at Boston University and got her Masters degree in Philosophy from the University of Hawaii.
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[...] Educating the Masses by Linda Brady Traynham Reading the article that Miss Traynham has written moved me to the point that I got sad, because I have been saying this to anyone who would listen for about 4 years. Keep in mind while I was drinking I cared for nothing else but drinking. It took 2 years of being sober to clear the cob webs, so I could actually think for myself. Which is why it took so long for me to understand this. If you don’t read anything else I have written or never return to this site I urge you to really read this article and think about it. Educating the Masses [...]
dear linda-
As a high school teacher myself, I’d like to point out just a few things in response to your generally admirable essay. Since we are more or less the same generation, perhaps our educational experiences had some things in common.
Do you recall what happened when you failed a test or did not turn in a homework assignment? I do. When a student does poorly today there are no similar sanctions. In fact, failure is usually the teacher’s “fault”. Surely the parents and their darling kids can’t be responsible! Once teachers had some credibility and some authority and could count on parental support. No longer.
Years ago, many of my contemporaries went to Catholic schools where they studied under the tutelage (and the brass rulers) of devoted Nuns, Priests and teaching Brethren. Try to find those folks now. Catholic school tuition in this area exceeds $12,000 and the teachers are the usually underpaid educators who couldn’t find public school jobs.
When you were in school were schools and teachers expected to deal with pregnancy, drug/alcohol abuse, child abuse, non English speakers. Did difficult and disruptive students have one-on-one aides to control them? Do you recal;l ant school shootings in the 1950′s and 60′s?
Schools have changed a lot since the 50′s. We are required to address a whole set of social issues that once were the province of parents, churches and police. Does this detract from educational outcomes? Of course it does but this is the unfortunate result of social failures that are beyond our control.
I tell my students about being smacked by Mrs. Sullivan back in the first grade (also when Batista got the boot) and they just laugh. The idea that there should be some consequence for failure is utterly alien to them.
Society has placed more burdens on us to compensate for broad social failures and taken away any real tools to do our jobs.
Back in the day we used to lament that “Johnny can’t read. Today, neither can Johnny’s parents, and no one seems to care much, especially Johnny’s parents.
Thanks for letting me rant.
Jay
As you know, Linda dear, this ‘un grabbed me! LOVE it! We kids were brought up in a home with a library that rivaled what the local school had. We’d read labeks in syrup bottles at the table if other material wasn’t available. Without strong reading skills, one can do little in life, for almost everything balances on being able to read and comprehend the written word. It’s fundamental, yes, but integral. Even comic books – considered the domain of the trash-with-no-class in the 1950s and 60s – generated skills IMO.
When we had four young’uns at home, sibling squabbelry, and I had a publishing career I was scrivenering at, I came up with an unusual “punishment”. When the kids fought – I didn’t threaten to knock the daylights out of them – I simply handed them each a book, had them seated decently far apart, set the buzzer on the stove – and informed them they were going to READ for 30 minutes. And they DID.
What I always loooooooved about this “punishment” is that they would get so embroiled in what they were reading that the stove buzzer would go off thirty minutes later, and their noses would still be in a book, and they found it so riveting them continued to read and not bother to fight! I recall hiding under the blankets as a youngster, almost suffocating as I continued to read late at night. My kids were able to have lights on in their bedrooms and read ’til all hours. They could grab a needed nap on the long school bus ride, LOL. They are passing it on to their children – and I’ve been known to purchase bookshelves for grandkids!
Those who read a lot usually tend to bootleg some excellent writing and mental organizational skills that put them in good stead for homework assignments and classroom writing whether doing term papers or essay questions.
You must be reading my mind. My wife isa retired teacher. She taught special ed and used phonics and some of the old books “see Dick run, see Jane run”, McGuffy etc. The powers that be gave her a lot of grief, but she did teach those kids to read. I have said many times that we ought to go back to what works. I have tried to convince my wife to tutor kids in reading at our home. I got a very good public education (Father was in the Air Force) and a good college education that I would put up against any Harvard educated individual. PE was required beginning in the 7th grade through the 11th grade. The President’s physical fitness test was given every six weeks. During the spring of my 9th grade year, ballroom dancing was taught. The coach loved to ball room dance and so did the lady who taught girls PE. By the way, the coach played middle linebacker for ND state. The man could dish out corporal punishment when needed.
Well I could carry on, but I better not.
Linda, I’ve written to you previously. I am comfortable sharing my thoughts as we share so many values. Years ago, I postulated that classes of 12-15 would be productive in achieving an acceptable level of educational accomplishment. Problematic, of curse, but the current failure rate is unacceptable. I am not qualified to discuss details as you have. I offer concepts. Schools are unoccupied most of the day and evening. We have capable, educated people, without teaching certificates that can instill discipline, teach in the lower grades, demand and get cooperation from parents and achieving a degree of learning and foster a desire for more. In higher grades, the oportunity to attend special schools for achievers, would be offered as a reward for excellence. Strict disciplinary standards would be in force or goodbye. We had such schools in Chicago years ago. May still do, I do not know. Small classes would increse responsibility by the parents, teachers and students. I love school choice and vouchers, but that would meet the needs of only a small portion of the problematic students.Most likely, the less problematic would benefit by these programs. The price would be high monetarily. We are already spending huge amounts. Not to do so would be the continued higher price of failure.
Dear Kenny: What great anecdotes! Carry on any time. I did my Practicum in Gifted Ed. GE isn’t just for “bright” kids; children increase their intelligence and ability by using the materials.
What a great school you went to! Tell me that your experiences matched mine, that we had pranks, but we didn’t have violence and sex in the halls. There wasn’t any such thing as “social promotion,”
Are you aware that some places I cannot say that I “teach” people to read? By law, only “teachers” can teach! Tony De Maio and Tex Norton have both held forth on how regulations are for restraint of trade, not to ensure “standards” which are written by the industry. I’m allowed to say that I teach Phonics because the trade union doesn’t believe in them!
Thanks for writing, and I hope you’re enjoying your snow. We’re having one of our “three times a century” occasions and I love it. Linda
Linda, a very good read and I agree that the way public schools teach are not the best for everyone. To funnell all those little critters into classrooms is like forcing cattle into the loading chutes and away we go. There will be some fairly unhappy kids who will not learn very well. I know a former public school teacher who quit teaching to take took over the family business. Dan still coaches swimming as he was a record holder when he was a teen and enjoys it still. Dan thought that since he was only fifty years old he would someday go back to teaching. When talking to another teacher Dan was told he certainly would not fit in anymore, things had changed at school and he had changed also with the experience of running the family business. The final words on the subject a few months ago were that most teachers are like sheep, they have been trained to follow the easiest path and their unions dictate where they are to go.
I am teaching my employees continually on some of the very basic thinking abilities that will get them the skills needed to survive. I believe the basic survival instincts have been methodically trained out of students by modern teaching methods. I am talking twenty five year olds and older here.
Linda you have the credentials and experience to back up what you have written. Hopefully you are able to pass it on to your children and they will at some point in their lives be able to help implement these methods that you have put forth here. It is interesting to me that I too did not take well to Phys Ed, actually I hated it, so I drifted off to the weight lifting room when my glasses were again broken during floor hockey. On the other hand, let me into the metal working shop and I didn’t want to leave. Why couldn’t I stay there all day every day I would think? Do you know what I did for a hobby when I got home? Hah, I read books, magazines, newspapers anything I could get ahold of. During the weekends my friends and I would tinker with angle iron, small engines, wheels, nuts ,bolts spindles and we would make things that went down the back roads, through the bush or wherever. Where did we get the desire to do this? Popular Mechanics and Popular Science Magazines were the early start of it and then Hot Rod and Rod & Custom Magazines plus every other automotive magazine a young kid could afford to buy with a skinny allowance. But do you know what? None of our group of about 6 young guys ever smoked cigarettes either. Why? It was choice between what was popular at the time or our magazine money. The cigarettes lost that battle easily.
My point is that every kid is different to some degree, give each individual the basics of learning, i.e, reading skills, math skills, logic skills and then let them loose on what motivates each individual. Our society would end up with a more diverse and socially balanced system. I often wonder if those kids that took a gun to public school and caused so much grief would have taken a different road in life if they were able to build on their own skill sets as individuals rather than what was crammed at them in public school?
Best Regards, CanadaNorth
Linda,
Great ideas! Can you write a bit on the factor of motivation in learning? Good teaching involves infecting students with a viral love of learning. What are some effective ways to spread the contagion? Not to say that all children aren’t already born with the disease. Why and how are some cured into dumbness so quickly?
Bill
Hi, Bill, great to see you back. Here’s a secret: children LOVE to learn! That’s why they always want to “play” with adults and older children, because we do more interesting things. One of about 30 signs of “gifted” behavior (what an offensive term) is the ability to convince older children that you are an equal because you know and can do about what they can. Teaching begins at home–and even in the womb. Play good music and talk to that baby. I could write a book answering your wonderful question. Here’s a fun task. The next time you see a youngster, say 4-8, ask him/her how many genuinely stupid kids are born in America every year. All I’ve ever done that to concentrate fiercely for a moment and guess, “5?” Or some other very low number. NONE. Supposing they weren’t without oxygen for 4 minutes at birth and nobody dropped a tire iron on their young heads, most kids are BORN bright. We beat or bore it out of them with, “No, because I said so, we don’t do it that way, don’t ask so many questions–oh, go watch TV and clean up your room.” One of my rules is that by the time a kiddo is over 2 there is always SOME way to give him/her a task similar to yours. I have a photo of my redheaded moppet in her droopy diaper standing on her high chair making cookies. So long as YOU control the salt, any kid can make a meatloaf and have a great time squishing yucky stuff together. I was working on some remodeling and gave Andrew, then 3, a tube of tacks, a tack hammer, access to the 2 X 4 studs are fastened to, and the instructions, “Do not hit your thumb or bash in your irreplaceable brains on the backswing.” I demonstrated–and yes, I talk to kids like that. They’re ignorant, not stupid. No kid wants a dumb “cobbler’s bench” with six wooden pegs he pounds down with a dinky wooden mallet, turn the bench over, repeat. He wants a REAL hammer and the sense that he is building something. ‘Drew was fascinated. He pounded tacks in circles, spirals, squares, and tic-tac-toe. Yes, I hovered over him anxiously from behind for a couple of tacks, but my son was, indeed, bright enough to pound tacks! Read to them. ABOVE ALL ELSE TEACH THEM TO READ AT HOME EARLY. In general girls are “ready” at 3 and boys at 4, primarily because boys are little bundles of explosive energy. Read together–you read one page, the child reads the next. Switch occasionally so that you take the page with the most text. Evil chortle…a great punishment for minor infractions of the rules is a Holey Card with 100 arithmetic problems. They’re reusable; the answers are written on plain paper through the holes. SOME things can ONLY be learned by rote memorization. Andrew was “Mad Math Minute” of his school four years running, the mischevous imp. When they’re a little older let them “read off” punishment. No, that doesn’t make them hate reading; it exposes them to things they wouldn’t choose on their own and teaches them to respect the rules. The summer he was 9 Andrew read Bill Bennett’s entire “Book of Virtues” one chapter at a time! Kids LOVE to memorize. Think of how many commercials they can sing. The thing your young child prizes most is your time and access to your skills and knowledge, so give generously. Come up with projects that teach about their interests, be those horses, airplanes, or sea shells. That’s a good place to start. Now tell me how old your children are. Regards, Linda
Kenny…dunno why the SPAM filter ate my reply to you, but if it doesn’t show up I’ll rewrite. I would love to hear more about the wonderful school you went to and how what you learned gave you an edge one way or another for much of your life. One of my anecdotes is about the 2-year requirement for taking typing. I was studying to become a concert pianist–I began playing at three–and to me typing was just another kind of music. They threw me out of the class at the end of the first semester and told me to go take some more Latin or anything else I chose because they were wasting my time and they had better uses for the typewriter. What’s a riot, though, is trying to hunt and peck messages while I’m on the telephone. My right hand doesn’t know what my left hand does! To this day the mandatory course in Business Law has been useful many times. It is shameful that we waste our children’s youth under the pretext of educating them. THESE days 15 hours at college is considered a “heavy” load. In my day you had to take 18 and a lot of us did 21. I even knew some who took 24. You are not ALLOWED to do that any more. That’s why it takes 5 expensive years instead of four, to learn less. Linda
Hi Linda,
Took the luxury of printing out your latest blog to read at my leisure. I try not to print too much having seen the devastation of the rain forest first-hand in Indonesia but another subject entirely and don’t want to drift too much! Sitting in my virtual bunker here in Almaty I did enjoy your comments, but let’s face it, your ideals will never be accepted.
I am not sure your comparison on home schooling is quite fair either. I expect those that home school care a great deal more about their kids than, generally speaking, those that don’t. And I remember my mother complaining about low cost lunches back in the early 60‘s. More socialism but where does one draw the line? Hungry kids? Now we have raised that bar to free healthcare. Everyone is entitled to healthcare as long as it is someone else paying! Dubya added prescription drug care to Medicaid and hey, why not? We can’t afford it but our kids can pay!
And let’s face it Linda, those wanting English as a second language prefer to have all those poor swarthy types begging for handouts in Spanish. Afterall, if we insist on English, well, they might be competing with us for our jobs!
On another subject, have you seen this one? According to the New York Times, Albany Police Officers Union President Chris Mesley says that, regardless of the faltering economy, a no-raise new contract is unacceptable. “I’m not running a popularity contest here… If I’m the bad guy to the average citizen . . . and their taxes have go up to cover my raise, I’m very sorry about that, but I have to look out for myself and my membership”. Mesley went on to say “As the president of the local, I will not accept zeroes. If that means . . . ticking off some taxpayers, then so be it.” Now it is reported that Mr. Mesley makes close to $100,000 a year, or about three times the average salary of those working in the private sector in Albany. Houston may be in the same boat, I hear it’s flat broke.
Keep your head high and keep up the good work,
Jeff
Reading is foundational. To succeed at anything, one must be able to read and comprehend. You might be internally brilliant at math, but if you can’t read the mathematical “word problem” the numeric talent cannot apply. We kids in our family grew up with an inhome library that rivaled what the town and local school system possessed. As a home builder just pre WW2 and off to the Pacific Theater Daddy had built-in bookshelves everywhere – Mama’s request. Impressive.
I used ‘reading’ as a delightful form of child discipline. When our four got to fighting, I didn’t bother to yell and scream and become the fifth member of The Fight. Instead I handed out books by reading level, set the buzzer on the stove for 30 minutes, plopped kids into the comfy livingroom sufficiently spaced apart to hinder further squabbles and it was quiet/reading for 1/2 hour. Worked beautifully. Often when the buzzer went of signaling that the “punishment” time-out was through, kids never even looked up and kept their noses in the book. They are raising our grandchildren the same way.
And our kids got phonics at home – they heard, “Sound it out!” puh-lenty regardless of what they shoved at them in the scfhool system locally. Too many let the TV be the babysitter/faux parental educator by proximity. Kids DO love to learn – and even preschoolers can get into levels of philosophy (they are such lil’ thinkers!) that would goggle-adult-eyes if they’d ever truly converse with young’uns and assist the kidlets in plumbing their own minds and developing their intellects.
Great Article, Linda.
(Testing…testing..testing…)
I have seen the test from the 1800′s, God forbid, I have a 4 year degree and I was a little ashamed after I looked it over, but hey I didn’t study very hard, plus at age 56 now I have forgotten a large part of my public education and I never could diagram a sentence. My english teacher was actually very good, I just couldn’t get it. By the way my high school graduating class numberd 23.
I would like to tell a short story of a kid who was failing high school and life but was so determined not to fail that he turned it all around. He was my son, he fell into the trap of most sophmore level high school kids, the wrong crowd and peer pressure. Minor drug use, alcohol, and a mind that just isn’t developed in teenage boys at that time. At one point he was in 3 different courts for various offenses, and needless to say we considerd pulling him out of school and educating to get a GED he was failing that bad.
His probation officer, God bless her soul, helped us to get him into an alternative school for troubled kids, which is supported by donations, It was called the slacker school by all the kids in the public school. But here were the terms. You had to maintain a “B” average, and you could have no more that three absents per semester, no exceptions including those for court appearences, otherwise they kicked you out and you had to come back the next semester.
This school taught my son discipline and gave hime an education, he actually enjoyed it. The personal attention made all the difference. It was the beginning of the change in personal growth and self esteem, he felt like he was someone.
He graduated from college 2 years ago with and MBA from a minor college with a 3.75 GPA, he won every award the College of Business had to offer and he earned a bit of cash as a tutor. Could he pass the 8th grade test of the 1870′s, I doubt it.
I only wish to say, that those who want an education will get it, those who don’t won’t. I do not belive it is up to the goverment to decide who get’s the education, it is a massive waste of money. If you take away the free ride paid for by the taxpayers, it might open the eye’s of both the children and the parents to what a real education is and how valuable it could be. I think we try to teach to many different things in our school systems and offer to many activities. School is about learning the funddamentals and the basics and developing a foundation to learn from. If we would just teach the solid fundamentals we would improve the literacy rate exponentially, then those who wish to purxue higher education, can and would have a solid foundation to build onl
Just my thoughts, and loved the article Linda.
P.S. It was three years of hell to have that story to tell.
P.S.S. Say Linda do you have coursework on how to think and analyse. LOL. And I really with this thing had spell checker.
I am interested in learning more about your reading system. I have young children my wife and I would like to homeschool.
Dear Jeff…it is always a treat to hear from you. I’ve never been called an idealist before (by implication) although a fellow philosophy student (in the midst of losing a philosophical debate) once referred to me as “the finest mind of the eighteenth century,” which I thought a magnificent compliment. I’m as practical as they come. My plan for education would never even be considered in the US because it muscles in on too many rackets, but it would work beautifully in a smaller political unit. It was designed for the Republic of Texas, although I would be glad to consult, gratis, with any other free society that is not mired in socialism. I think home-schooling parents should be described as “desperate and determined” rather than as “caring more.” When the only way to get a job done right is to do it yourself, some of us do it ourselves. Homeschooling is a sacrifice economically. Mom is an unpaid school teacher, and the family is still whacked for their “share” of school taxes. The difference is the family gets what it is paying for. My kids went to traditional schools but they were also schooled by me–year around. My progeny are high achievers who think clearly and write extremely well because I sacrificed most of my adult life rearing them. I got what I paid for and had the luxury of studying and writing myself. THERE is an old-fashioned concept! Live on what your husband makes and take care of your home and family! I know homeschoolers who eke out on very little because they are working towards the future, not living in the present. They care more about the future than they do about electronic toys and racing rats. Most of them live on at least a couple of acres and raise chickens and goats on the side–and their kids are learning responsibility and the connection between our labor and reliability and the food supply. It is a matter of priorities no matter where a family lives. Quite frequently an analysis of costs vs. rewards reveals that what little the lowest-earning spouse brings home minus expenses is very little. Lunches, taxes, drive-through meals, gas, an auto and insurance, and wardrobe expenses bite deep. A stay-at-home “mom” is an enormous luxury, and if one can be had at the “cost” of giving up cable TV, multiple cell ‘phones, gym memberships, and going to the movies, go for it. “Just” being home until the children go to school gives them a “head start” that lasts. Day care is no substitute for a mother. This supposes, of course, that the mother is someone with knowledge to impart. Oh…y’all know all that. I don’t have to explain why those “raised” as opposed to “reared” in ghettos don’t do well. The concatenation of generations of those who did not succeed, did not strive, did not learn, did not achieve, and have no ambition or even any grasp of any other life. How depressing. “Welfare” and statist “education” are unmitigated evils. Kenny’s great letter shows that his experiences in school were like mine–we really learned academics and skills and traits which lead to success in life. Must quit or the filter will get me! Hugs in far off Almaty, Linda
Sorry, Bill, I left out “champion” describing Andrew’s grasp of arithmetic as shown in “Mad Math Minute.” I have trouble reading this small print, particularly at night. Laughter…I’m a fiend when it comes to making the punishment fit the crime! Andrew and I were trying to remember, recently, what he did that made his doting Mama so furious she made him memorize the kings and queens of England in order of succession. With dates. His grade school teachers loathed him…except for the 5 days a year devoted to scholastic testing. ‘Drew’s scores were always so glittering half a dozen failures were hidden by them. He had some childish ailment in the 2nd grade, and I picked up every bit of work the teacher assigned that week. Andrew did it all flawlessly in eight minutes. Anyone who expects a healthy, active little boy to be “good” given 8 minutes of work a week can keep on writing little notes that start, “Andrew chose…” to shuffle his feet…to talk in the lunch room…to…” I might have had sympathy with his 2nd grade teacher because Andrew was reading on an 8th grade level and doing 4th grade math, but she didn’t have to be stinky to a very sweet little boy. You take your choice between boredom and failure if you don’t teach your child to read and cipher yourself. Aha! The hospital gave Charles back!.
50% of Americans cannot accept or understand evolution, 54% believe in physic healing, 50% in extrasenory perception, 42% in haunted houses, 38% in ghosts, 34% in telepathy, 33% in extraterrestials, 28% in astrology, 28% in communication with the dead and 25% in reincarnation. Each generation of Americans need a war if only to teach their leaders geography lessons..
Linda:
Hopefullly this will not be to long and boring. I attended three different elementary schools, then 7th- most of the 11th grade in Minot, ND. We had english, math, algebra, history -world-us, civics, speech, literature, foreign language -french-spanish-german-russian ( one semester required to graduate)office machines, bookkeeping, bus law,physics, chemistry, biology, anatomoy, sex education, health, drivers ed, , music, art, international relations, western democracy, shop, auto mechanics. In pe swimming was required ( had indoor pool) and you had to learn to swim to be promoted to high school. My father then was assigned to Korea (isolated tour) and we moved to Sarasota Fl, so my mother could be close to her brothers. The last six weeks of my junior year were a repeat. We were just ahead of their schools. Did not have to work as hard my senior year. I had very good teachers at both high schools. Weakness was probably in both schools not much career counseling. What has really helped me? speech, reading, history, No we did not have any violence or sex in the halls. When I was a sophmore one of the girls got pregnant and was shipped off to a girls home. Pranks, many and most very funny and harmless. Changing high schools was a cultural shock, strict dress code in ND, Sarasota, laid back-jeans, t shirts, girls bra less, flipflops.
College- went to the university of central arkansas. Standard load was 15 hours a semester. Earned a degree in business with an accounting major. In my opinion, got a very good education for the money. Worked my way through.
I could go on, but will stop for now. If you are interested I could tell you about being stationed in Puerto Rico during the Cuban missle crisis and Dominican Republic crisis.
My final thoughts on public education is to do away with it.
Dear Stanley: Welcome aboard, and thanks for a terrific post. What a horrifying set of statistics. I am glad to be able to tell you I am immune to all of those things with the exception of…which one do you suppose? I’m a rancher, a dog owner, and a gardener, so I’m with Darwin, who said he didn’t really believe it, either, but it COULD have happened that way. Consider the work of Gregor Mendel, too. When animals are left to interbreed and survive as best they can the result is a very few fine specimens and regression in the rest; a simple test of that statement is to look at photos of herds of mustangs. Three new breeds debuted at the recent kennel club show; those were developed by years of selective breeding and culling ruthlessly…which could be used as an explanation of evolution. We could also see it as an indication of how very unlikely it is that all of the species on earth developed over an enormous amount of time from primordial ooze. I tend to file this one with Armageddon and other things which are unknowable and beyond my power to influence. “One man’s religion is another’s superstition.” You left out phrenology, the Luscher Color Test, and handwriting analysis. Depressing. As for geography, history is written in it, just as you said. I was thinking the other day of how long Switzerland has survived by fortunate terrain and a banking system so advantageous no one wanted to rock the boat. One of these days that won’t be enough, particularly since the secrecy of accounts is under stronger attack than ever…thanks for writing, hope to hear from you again. Linda
Essie, dear, thanks for adding your version of what I worked out for my children. Teach a child to read young, and he/she will almost always do it for pleasure and knowledge…and it STILL makes a great “time out” or excuse to have them read something they would not have chosen at their ages. And the stories we have to tell of them! Frequently I handed mine exercises to do, so Andrew wasn’t surprised, at 9, when I gave him several pages. For no reason I understand he was watching Murphy brown, eating a snack, and playing with the dog. I started the timer when he picked up his pencil. 9 minutes latter (in a commercial) Andrew asked if he could have the key to check his work. He took one horrified look at it and blurted out, “You didn’t tell me it was an intelligence test! A couple of them looked kinda hard so I didn’t even try ‘em but I’ll bet I could have gotten them!” Mother smiled malevolently and replied calmly, “Mama always expects you to do your best, son.” He had gotten all of those he tried right. This was a short one from Mensa with a 30 minute limit for adults. The moral here isn’t just that I got to be a better mother with practice but that all children do better when we teach them ourselves and set high standards. About a quarter of us in GE hold that ALL children are born with the capacity to be “gifted,” but that the trick is to keep them that way through stimulating their minds and providing interesting materials and tasks. This is also a lot of fun for parents!
Josh…go over to http://www.thetexasring.com and leave a comment below anything I have written. The program there will send me your message personally, along with your address. One of these years I may get around to marketing my system, but I’ll be glad to tell you how to get started at home.
Steve, you menace! Thank you for an inspirational story and for your comments in general. You’ve got it–and remember that it can be far easier to learn as an adult because we’re motivated, don’t have to be made to study, and pay attention. I called you a menace because this is the second time you’ve hit me with a request for an article that would probably run to several parts, which will teach me to be careful what I ask for. (No, it won’t! I love suggestions for articles.) Hmmm…how would I teach someone to think and analyse? I suppose I’d start by writing an article on how to study for tests! You see, your brain already knows how to analyze and think; the software is in your wetware. The problem is, thinking is the art of imposing order on FACTS, and the more facts you have the easier it gets. Look at the first three responses to my latest article on SDR. Each reader’s observation made my mind go “Sproing!” A slightly different way of looking at things, a turn of phrase…quite literally, I was made to realize something which had not occurred to me in four years of considering how to ah, package and sell the Republic of Texas!
I’ve caught the SPAM filter in a good mood, so I’ll add that I’ll write the article about testing and put it up over on the Texas Ring. Hint: the first thing you have to do is find out what you’re supposed to know! Anyone still flipping frantically through notes or a textbook right before the exam isn’t prepared. In very short form, isolate the data (which is scattered all over the place), organize it so it makes sense, make up mnemonics to remember lists, and then condense the notes to short phrases. Get it down to a page or two and then study THAT. By this time you’ve handled the data several times so it’s easy. I’ll throw in “how to write an instant term paper,” too. Maybe even go through analogies, one of my favorite games. Oh…one other hint. All that is required is that you carry the information into the classroom in your head. If something is really hard for you, go in muttering the formula or whatever it is, sit down, catch your teacher’s eye, and right it down while he/she watches! Notes on your cuff or hand are cheating. Notes you write at your desk aren’t. On Sarah’s behalf, my guess is she wrote her talking points on her hand because she expected a lot of shouting, distractions, and nasty comments! It would be easy to lose concentration in such an atmosphere. LBT
Next time Americans bitch about the cost of education, health care or any other social service, let them google earth and go to Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona and take a real good look at the billions of tax dollars spent on aircraft stored in the desert there.. I bet you cannot even count the number of aircraft, nor have any concept of the cost of these planes.
Linda:
Hopefully his will get through. Pranks, many and no violence or sex in the halls. Social promotions never.
I attended 7h- most of my junior year in ND. Course work offered: math, bus math, algebra, geomentry, trig, calculus, biology, physics, chemistry, earth science,world history, US history, civics, western democracy, international relations, english, literature, speech, typing, office machines, bookkeeping,bus law, foreign language: french, spanish, german, russian, latin, health, sex ed, drivers ed, pe ( had indoor pool, pass swim test required). Finished HS in Sarasota, FL. 15 hours was standard load in college. All courses had a impact on my life.
Dear Stanley:
There seems to be no end to the number of ineffectual, damaging, or stupid things a very large government can do. LBT
I guess I’ll have to try to develop some faith in The Filter System. When I posted I felt like it retched and spat me out – so I did the try, try, try until you succeed. Patience is a virtue; I need to work on that, LOL.
Steve, your comments were a treasure. I love how people share in the comment sections expanding upon authors’ initial ideas. Kudos with your son! Sometimes, IMO, some of the most interesting folks have had their little walks-on-the-wild-side. Often that seems to be where street smarts are found – and even, an appreciation for education that one provides to oneself. I spent some time on Death Row in our state – on a work related project with an eye to writing a true crime nonfiction book – but I gave it up. “My Murderer” was small potatoes compared to Jeffrey Dahmer and some of the others who were actively homicidal in the same window of time, so I knew his story would get passed over. It was interesting to see some of the inmates develop a passion for reading and expanding “brain muscles” with books as some are known to get bulging biceps via pumping iron.
In my storage system you were so kind as to comment about, I do use some cardboard boxes, lined with stout mil garbage bags, and I have a tremendous library boxed, stored, and marked. Complete set of Shakespeare and other classics, some wonderful fiction, a lot of nonfiction and how two books, plus many terrific books slated to children. Many prep for the SHTF times that those with discernible brain wave activity can recognize is a spectre on the horizon, while hoping against hope it does NOT happen. However….
IF it does I have mentally mulled it over and considered it’d be a lot like the grunts declared the situation in Viet Nam: stultifying boredom interspersed with adrenalin zipping drama. I would consider daily survival of the SHTF to be somewhat similar and a good library, lots of reams of paper, tons of notebook and blank journals, pens, papers, art media, are a good preparation. Mankind does not live by bread alone. Feeding the spirit and the intellect is a major consideration. Life goes on. Somehow! And as Linda wrote about, don’t just prepare to “survive” prepare to “thrive”.
I second that motion. Heartily!
Public school is child abuse.
I cannot list the number of insults to the children’s intelligence the public school system embodies
NO DEGREES REQUIRED. The local home school foundation and HSLDA are a start.
Anyone who says that an education professional is better to teach than most moms and dads is sadly deluded.
I think the average cost to home school is $400 per student per year, with our guidance the children built a business that financed a much higher level of educational & recreation than I would have thought possible.
Imagine the most beautiful of God’s creations, your children, blossoming into adulthood in front of your eyes.
Think home school.
Robert, I’m with you all the way except for one thing. Most of the public school systems I’m acquainted with DO require degrees and yearly “on-going” education. Tony De Maio wrote a great article on how those have been debased, although I can’t remember if it is archived here or over on http://www.thetexasring.com.
As I have always said, “No one cares more about our children’s success than we do.” We teach them out of joy and the desire to see them understand or achieve. “Teaching” isn’t a mere job where we have no vested interest in the students’ success and get a new batch every year no matter how poor performance was.
Having our children at home is wonderful, period. How I always loved summers! We don’t have to worry about “order” in the classroom, or political correctness, or “teaching to the middle,” which is now teaching to the bottom third. Anyone who can read decently can teach his/her own children very well, and the home-schooling supplies and curricula available are terrific. Even those who choose not to home school should think hard about the enormous benefits of ensuring that their children can read and do arithmetic before turning them over to strangers–AND enquire closely every day about what the kids are being taught.
Robert, my first answer didn’t post, but here’s a true story. Andrew, then 8, and reading on an 8th grade level, came home from the second grade one day. “Mama,” he asked perplexedly, “My teacher says I have to ‘remember’ this word ”cause it’s so hard,” but why can’t I just READ it?” I took a deep calming breath and wished I knew how to curse in Swahili or Urdu. “Andrew, write the word down for me, son.” He did. I considered the benefits of keelhauling and asked, “Andrew, how did your teacher tell you to ‘remember’ that word?” He answered dubiously, “She said to remember it because it had two tall letters and no letters below the line.” Mother did not go ballistic only because that upsets children. “Andrew, how do you read that word?” His little face lit up and he replied confidently,”"When I see TH together I say “thuh” and A all by itself usually goes “ah,” and T always says “tuh,” so I run it all together and get “that.” “Absolutely correct, son. Mama’s proud of you. Just keep reading exactly the way I taught you and tell me if your teacher says anything else that stupid.” I came up with about fifty words which could be described as “two tall letters and no letter below the line” (that is not one of them) in less than a minute. Of all the idiotic things to tell a bright child! Of course I think my ‘Drew is very special (all mothers think such things), but I am quite convinced that had I given him to a public school he would be totally illiterate and would have dropped out in his early teens. As a matter of fact, the drop-out rate for gifted kids is far, far higher than for other groups. You cannot tell a child nonsensical things and expect one to learn to read correctly. Reading phonetically is a very simple, easy to learn process.
One of the ten rules of reading I use is, “Only godless Russians ends word in V! And we don’t end words in M, either, and that’s th’ biz, kid.” Laughter–that is an excellent rule and explains why Silent E appears to break down. Rule One is “What you say must make SENSE.” Each try has to make a “real” word that makes sense in what the kiddo is reading. I teach them long vowel words first, so Godless Russians works with words like move, glove, and have. Even small kids know we don’t “mauve,” glowve,” and have pronounced as in “behave.” Try the long vowel first, you get nonsense. So try the most common short vowel sound, which will usually work. If not, go to one of the other variations you know, or “wiggle” it. We all know Bill Cosby didn’t sell Jello “puh-ding.” The E in love is ornamental/to protect consonants we don’t stick on the ends of words. The real purpose of GR is to maintain confidence; the system didn’t break down, this is just another rule. For practice, work out the phonics of why “hose” is pronounced as it is; two elements are involved. Every child I ever taught knew immediately that if he said “hoe-sssss” that wasn’t a “real” word and couldn’t apply to gardens or the stockings his mother wore. One with four possibilities is when to use hard G (guh) and when we want soft G (juh) is that thing we park our cars in. Is it a guh-rahguh? Not in Texas. Is it a juh-raj? Nope. It’s a garage, a thing I suppose every child who doesn’t live in the inner cities or an apartment building knows. And besides that, it’s French! Hope this helps somebody.
The very best rule of all is #5, which is “Say what you see!” Recall that I said I teach LONG vowel words immediately after teaching students to say the alphabet properly, i.e., phonetically. Why? Because long vowel words are the easiest way to grasp what reading really is and how we really do it! It’s 1-2-3: consonant sound, AI = A, the letter name, consonant. Run it all together and it is impossible to get the wrong answer on main, maid, pail, goad, load/toad/road and a marvelous number of other words. Short-vowel rhyming words have far too many variations. Then I teach Silent E, because we’re still looking for two vowels. When the word only has ONE vowel that A, E, I, O, U or sometimes Y isn’t going to say its letter name…so break it up into known pieces. The child NEVER sees a word in his 42 lessons (one a day for 6 weeks) that he cannot read with the skills he has mastered to that point! No pictures. I’m not telling stories, either–and you can’t guess a sentence like “”The goose ran to the caboose the day the moose got loose in the house.” That drills “oose,” but kids like silly sentences, too. Shall I keep teaching?
Think about how quickly a student can build confidence when things make SENSE. They can accept that sometimes they have to make a choice. Is it “Ow! I hurt myself,” or “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that,” when we see the OW “glow?” Well, you can say “glau” if you want to but it isn’t going to make a real word that makes sense where you find it. “Flau,” of course, works when we see “flower.” “Floors” are things we walk on. The point is…you can only be wrong ONCE! Kids can handle that. So can adults. If I ever get around to producing it you’ll get a DVD or VHS with everything there is to know about “what reading really is and how we really do it.” It makes sense. It all goes together. It works. Imagine telling a youngster–truthfully–that when he has mastered everything shown very clearly on the video he will be able to read ANYTHING. Kids love the idea of knowing it all. Of course, for his first six years in school his teachers will loathe him because they can’t teach him anything and he is bored…but boredom is better than failure. I get so frustrated, because one of life’s greatest pleasures is teaching a beloved child to read brilliantly…and sheer joy is seeing your three-year-old daughter read her own fortune cookie. Andrew was bored in an Army clinic and started reading the bulletins posted there. Aloud. Flawlessly. You get some pretty funny looks when your five-year-old kiddo can do that, but at least you know that no one else is going to be able to confuse him with Look-Say.
I’ll finish–unless encouraged–with another Andy-roo story. Kid’s still five. Comes in one day and asks, “Mama, do you know why CH sometimes says “kuh” instead of “chuh?” I never lie to children, I didn’t know, and I said so. “Because the H is protecting the C from a vowel that would make it go ‘sssss!’” Briliant, son, absolutely brilliant, and totally correct. That’s why we pronounce monarchy and architecture the way we do. Remember: I am the one who taught Andrew to read. NO ONE else had even attempted. So…how did he know something I hadn’t taught him?! Easy. He has a nice, logical mind and had +a fresh approach to language. His rule only works on about half a dozen words, but that’s one tiny piece of the universe explained correctly for all time. Once we work out sub-rules and exceptions, it turns out English doesn’t have nearly as many anomalies as we have been told. We never leave the kids bewildered even on rough/tough/enough vs. dough and bough. Linda