[Yavanie]

Rous,

I could climb right up on your soapbox about the education of our children!!! My oldest son has struggled for years! We tried homeschooling but his needs are beyond my abilities to research and taylor a program to. We also spent the last two years doing the go around with the public school system, and sadly I know more than the diagnostician and the special education teacher (like how to actuall speak and write a complete sentence). Their goal was to have him reading at a first grade level by the end of the year (he'll be 10!!!). His problems lie in a lack of putting together the little pieces of common language and logic that most people do naturally. They wanted to dumb down the material so he could get by. After much research and numerous experts in many fields, he is now in private school and is one of six kids in his class, all with similar problems. He has been in school for six weeks and is reading on a second grade level and the goal is to be able to write multiple paragraph stories that have topic sentences and and outline by the end of the school year. A high goal but the teacher is confident they will all reach it. He is in a boderline second/third grade class. I just couldn't leave him in public school to get held back yet another year. Anyway, it costs as much as our mortgage but I am begining to think it will be worth it. This school designs it's program to equip these kids with the basic skills they need and then builds on that so they can be mainstreamed in 3 or 4 years , depending on each child's progress. Most of their graduates succeed even through college. The public school system was trying to convince me he would need to consider a more menial job. My child who just a few months ago struggled to read a sentence is seeking out books (still needing a lot of help, but wants to do it and is succeeding).

Oh way more than anyone wanted know I'm sure (goes to put her own soapbox back in the closet)

[Rous]

And yet, it is a testament to our wonderful school system. I, myself have two in special ed. Michael is ADD and cannot process information properly. He can read a question, answer it out loud, but cannot get it back down on paper. And yet, he understands my poetry and fiction. Both boys tested at higher than average, but cannot function in normal classroom settings. I am sure it is not the fact that the class holds twenty-five kids and only one teacher. And with the pressure to pass, some just get left behind. I considered home schooling, but, one of the three of us would be dead before Christmas. Which, thinking back, is why I decided not to go into my life-long dream of teaching. And with four kids, there was no way we could go the private route. I checked. It would have been $1700 a year for the first one, and half for the second. Unless we wanted to convert, then after the first year, it was free. I just did not think God would buy that I converted for my kids' education. I think he would be unforgiving in that respect. LOL They both have wonderful teachers, finally. Michael actually is at a ninth grade level in English, but is in the seventh grade. And Brian is a very good artist. So much for my 'slow' kids.

On another note, how is your husband's grandmother. Do I not remember that you had to make a trip earlier this summer? Just been thinking about it lately.

[dolarabee]

[Viv]

I'm in grammar-geek love.

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors

(Paul Brian's Common Errors in English Usage)

[Yavanie]

squeel! thanks viv!!! even beatas need help now and then!!!!

[Eruanna]

I used to be in education. The whole thing is frightful. Children, I tell you, are NOT--I repeat, NOT--the priority. It's all about funding, money, administrator agendas and teacher ego-gratification.

Teachers (many of them) want a paycheck and suffer from burn-out, headmasters want money and accolades.

I apologise to anyone who is a good teacher--they are out there, but sorely in the minority.

Get your children to a private school if you can afford it--and check out the credentials of those private schools. Drop in on the classroom, meet with teachers.

Poor children in the school system are drowning in the morass.

--Eruanna

[SpaceWeavil]

[Eruanna]

Weavil:

I commend your mother for her dedication to teaching. It is such a loving and giving profession. I salute her! In many ways, I miss teaching.

For me, alas, I was in my first year of teaching, and loving it. Then one day, some sore student had a very bad day and chose to knock objects out of my hand and start shouting at me and threatening me. I remained very calm. BTW, out of the bonds of the schoolroom, this (under law) is called by police as assault and a threat. (Threat to bodily harm.)

I sent her out to the (read as: highly-paid) administrator to be dealt with. She was sent right back to the class; he stated the student was just "expressing her opinion," to which she had a right. (I wonder if he would feel the same if one of his charges choose to "express" himself by vandalising the paint of his brand-new import car--parked right in the middle of the guest/parent parking spaces!) Of all things! This student was also calling a colleague a bunch of four- and five-letter words. Nothing was done to her because the admin was afraid of a lawsuit. The teachers' union stood in, but the administrators' tails were between their legs. The girl (who was 16) and her mother insisted that I had insulted the girl, wanted an apology, and they alledged that other students might also feel the same way but were too afraid to come forward. (I think they saw some money in this, I am sure. When one starts talking "lawyer," one can see this coming.)

Ah, America, the land of the frivolous lawsuit! Millions to be had overnight by one's own ignorance! (European colleagues continually are amazed by this.)

I saw the handwriting on the wall and left after one year. I hear from a current colleague (whose husband still teaches at that school) that things have become worse. That administrator was "transferred" to another school when he punched another (male) administrator over matters dealing with his son's sports eligibility. (Yes, the son was attending the school and had poor grades, barring him from team sports. A long story...)

Fate has smiled upon me in my choice to leave when I did, sad though it was.

BTW, the U.S. has an enourmous "shortage of teachers." The teachers "drop out" as much as do the students. Sad state of affairs, this. As a result, many "teacher retention programs," are set up. All filled with psychobabble--they do nothing but take up a newbie teacher's time, which is already at a premium.

As you noted, tenure is a big issue. I was a probationary instructor and no one seemed to want to help me. The system let me drown.

Again, I salute your mother. Teaching is a noble profession. I guess I just had the misfortune to get thrown in with a bunch of bad apples.

--Eruanna

[ellisk]

Yes, the education topic is a very difficult one that I also feel passionate about. I taught for twenty years in the US and in Spain at the Middle School, High School and University levels in private, public and parochial schools so I think I can honestly say that I have seen a lot. I have seen teachers that are desperately dedicated to teaching get wonderful support or get fired. I have seen funding problems and policy problems and management problems and disciplinary problems and parent problems. And I have seen those in all schools--public, private and religious. For me the most frustrating thing was that policies tend to made by people who don't know anything about teaching--possibly with good intentions for the benefit of the kids and sometimes because someone had a political agenda.

I don't have children but I take a great part in my niece's life. The number one thing her parents and I do is to be involved ourselves with her education. We do her homework with her (not for her) and if she is studying XYZ then we find something related to that to do on the weekend to make it come to life for her. If she doesn't understand the way the teacher explained something, we work with her and show her different ways until there is one she understands. I think parent interest/involvement is the key to education. My neice knows education is important because the adults around her are interested in her education.

The problem is, in this world, not every parent has the time to be involved or the network of family support to help them be involved or the financial resources to be involved or the education themselves to help another's education. And that is sad.

[Eruanna]

[ellisk]

[Eruanna]