primalmommy on wed 6 aug 03
I have been a teacher.. i did poetry in the grade schools, was a
substitute teacher (yaaaagh!) in inner city junior highs, and taught
high school french for a year between undergrad and grad school... then
taught college english at the U of Toledo for years until I started
having babies and quit.
Alfie Kohn (wrote "Punished By Rewards") points out that getting a child
to comply with your wishes is not the same as teaching. I could offer
you $1000 to stand on your head... or I could threaten you with a cattle
prod to get you to stand on your head -- but all you have learned is
that I can make you do something you don't want to do.
By the time my students hit freshman year at a small city university,
they were a lesson in what happens when you learn "or else", or learn
for the shiny gold star.
First of all, any parental teachings about alcohol, drugs, drinking and
driving, irresponsible sex, etc. -- if they were backed up with "because
if I catch you, you're in trouble" -- were suddenly null and void.
Nobody will ground you, or take the car keys, or even know. I'd guess
almost a third of the kids who don't make it through that first year
were promising students who got drunk, got pregnant, got stoned and
forgot to go to class, wrecked their cars/health/credit rating, because
they had never learned those OTHER perfectly good reasons to be
responsible. (Note, in case I sound pious: I minored in several of those
activities during my own 5 year BA.)
Next: freshmen were desperate to find out who I was, as the teacher, so
they could market themselves to me accordingly. Those who were "A"
students were in a panic, suspecting that their reputations earned them
their grades in high school, another "oh, it's her, i don't have to
grade this one, 'A'". They beat a path to my desk to tell me about their
GPAs. If we were writing an essay they wanted to know -- was I a
feminist, or not? Conservative, or liberal? because they wanted their
essay to agree with my politics or philosophies, fearing a bad grade if
they expressed their own opinions instead of mine. They had learned long
ago that the grades go --not to the smartest, or the hardest workers -
but those who learned how to play school.
And it doesn't sink in, until the money is gone and the GPA shot, that
college is voluntary.. that nobody cares if you cut class. I used to
tell them that, first day...nobody's gonna call your mom, there's no
detention, you just get to pay a bunch of money and not learn anything,
and I have one less paper to grade.
If it wasn't on the test, they didn't care. If it was on the test, they
wrote it down, memorized it word for word, passed the test without ever
knowing what the answers meant, and promptly forgot it all. Me, I just
composted BALES of notes, exams, papers I had saved from 8 years (on and
off) of college.. i really thought I would NEED this stuff one day.
Now I never take notes, at workshops. Or photos, or videos. I never
really got that part about "when I get home, i'll watch the workshop I
just viewed through a hole in my video camera". I figure the important
stuff will settle into some dent in my brain and come in useful when
it's needed.. i scribble down a few formulas, tips and some mechanics,
but it can be a distraction.
I have seen students so afraid of red ink they won't write anything they
care about, and do their third best on purpose rather than try their
hardest and risk rejection. In an attempt to unschool their brains,
first quarter, I used to give them cartoons from Matt Groenig's "school
is hell", doonesbury's comic laments of the loss of critical thinking
(baaaaa!), the essay, "a proposal to abolish grading", another that
argued high schools are just storage for kids too old to be home and too
young for the work force, and should be voluntary... i collected horror
stories from students who had been humiliated by teachers in twisted
ways, who were belittled, made fun of, hit by rulers and thrown erasers,
told they were losers, girls who were leered at and even sexually
abused... students whose confiscated personal notes were read aloud to
the class ... does anybody remember how excruciating it was, in high
school, to work out your identity, your new sexuality, popularity,
cliques, all that? All it takes is one horrifying, embarassing moment to
change a kid's life, and teachers should be above that.
A local homeschooler is also a school nurse. I heard somebody ask her
the tired old question, "what about socialization?" She said quietly,
"socialization is why kids get eating disorders. Socialization is why
kids come to school with assault rifles. Socialization is why kids
commit suicide."
There are teachers who are shining lights, who inspire and guide kids,
who listen and see past their facades and fashionably bored attitudes.
Good teachers change lives, save lives. And I have full sympathy for the
teachers who have to terrorize kids into respect and compliance. I have
taught in classrooms where behind every desk is a panic button that
summons the police, and an emergency phone.
But there are lso teachers who are burned out, hate the job but find the
teachers certificate and retirement plan their best meal ticket... so
they take all that anger and jaded surrender to work and take it out on
the kids. Some are just petty tyrants, people who have spent a picked-on
lifetime waiting for their turn to be the bully and push around those
good looking young football players, the kids of wealthy parents driving
nicer cars, the kids with the future ahead of them, the cheerleaders who
never would have dated them in high school.
My feeling is that the system needs reworking. In the tens of thousands
of years of human civilization, only since the advent of factory model
schools has "socialization" meant spending most of your waking hours in
rows of desks, in a room full of kids with your same birth year and zip
code. Socialization used to mean you listened to your elders, watched
adults doing the work of adult life, helped and learned... followed
around the bigger kids, learning, and then helped and taught the littler
kids. The real world has old people and babies, mailmen and street
people, families and workers doing real jobs for real reasons. School is
not the real world, not in our system, not today .. and now kids are in
that weird same-age-group-society from infancy onward. I am rooting for
charter schools, homeschools, teaching co-ops, waldorf and montessori
and any little school trying it a different way... (even though most of
the best ideas are reserved for those who can afford them.)
I loved mel's story about the teacher chasing off the soldiers. You
should see how big a hen can fluff up, and how scary she can look and
sound, if some critter threatens her chicks. If you don't think I am
scary, try messing with my kids some time...
The best that humankind can be is in every baby that's born... all the
screwed up adults you have ever met are proof that we have not yet
evolved as a culture to a point where that potential can be realized,
that we are not yet able to raise, nurture, parent those children to the
best they can be... even those of uswho are doing OK as adults are
walking wounded, with our own scars and baggage...
Yours, long winded as always.. Kelly in Ohio. Still convinced that the
hand that rocks the cradle rules the world... sadly these days that hand
often belongs to whoever will accept minimum wage to do it...
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Roger Korn on thu 7 aug 03
primalmommy wrote:
>I have been a teacher..
>
Hi Kelly,
You describe a nightmare world that I escaped through pure luck. I had
teachers (only three that I remember)
that would constantly challenge those of us who were the "bright"
(straight-A syndrome) students to dare to disagree,
and make a case for your position, any position, even one with which you
disagreed. The point being: you will need to
be able to eloquently argue all sides of any argument if you are ever
going to be able to understand the points of view
held by others. Instead of merely leading to a legal career, this
equips the student to be a compassionate, positive
member of society.
Sitting around with age peers in a non-disruptive environment merely
trains students to be drones. That's why reality is
so much more varied than fiction can ever hope to be. Our imaginations
are the first things to go in the interest of
"good order" and "shared values". Learning passion in your beliefs and
how to implement your beliefs in a diverse world
should be the aim of education. Pretty hard to do with 30+ students in a
time-bounded educational structure.
The strongest arguement for education these days is negative: the better
the education, the less likely the students are to steal
your stuff. Pretty hard to grow a civil society from ignorance.
Roger
>
>My feeling is that the system needs reworking. In the tens of thousands
>of years of human civilization, only since the advent of factory model
>schools has "socialization" meant spending most of your waking hours in
>rows of desks, in a room full of kids with your same birth year and zip
>code. Socialization used to mean you listened to your elders, watched
>adults doing the work of adult life, helped and learned... followed
>around the bigger kids, learning, and then helped and taught the littler
>kids. The real world has old people and babies, mailmen and street
>people, families and workers doing real jobs for real reasons. School is
>not the real world, not in our system, not today .. and now kids are in
>that weird same-age-group-society from infancy onward. I am rooting for
>charter schools, homeschools, teaching co-ops, waldorf and montessori
>and any little school trying it a different way... (even though most of
>the best ideas are reserved for those who can afford them.)
>
>I loved mel's story about the teacher chasing off the soldiers. You
>should see how big a hen can fluff up, and how scary she can look and
>sound, if some critter threatens her chicks. If you don't think I am
>scary, try messing with my kids some time...
>
>The best that humankind can be is in every baby that's born... all the
>screwed up adults you have ever met are proof that we have not yet
>evolved as a culture to a point where that potential can be realized,
>that we are not yet able to raise, nurture, parent those children to the
>best they can be... even those of uswho are doing OK as adults are
>walking wounded, with our own scars and baggage...
>
>Yours, long winded as always.. Kelly in Ohio. Still convinced that the
>hand that rocks the cradle rules the world... sadly these days that hand
>often belongs to whoever will accept minimum wage to do it...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________________________
>Get the FREE email that has everyone talking at
>http://www.mail2world.com
>
>______________________________________________________________________________
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>
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>
>
>
Wood Jeanne on fri 8 aug 03
Hi,
Kelly since you gave a lot of interesting anecdotal
evidence, I'm going to as well with a different angle.
Rather than homeschooling, Charter Schools, other
alternative methods of teaching, etc. as the only
reasonable solution, I suggest they are an alternative
and a choice that the educated Middle and Upper
classes have the luxury of making.
The anecdotes:
Some kids I have known quite well who were
homeschooled upon adulthood ran into the social
problems some public schools children have as well.
Made irresponsible and terribly selfish choices when
they had families of their own.
IMHO a parent I know well who homeschooled because she
didn't want any influences on her children other than
her own.
Homeschooled children who were not reading by age 12
(last time I saw the kids) because the parents thought
that lessons were too middle class & structured.
My smallish town has two charter schools. I have heard
horror stories from both students and teachers
involved in those schools. I put my son in a the new
charter school one year, and it was the worst
educational mistake I have ever made.
Put one of my kids in an "alternative" school in early
years with required parental volunteering, last kid in
Public school. Public school kid was best prepared,
although the first kid caught up rapidly.
All my kids are doing great now even though none are
potters yet. (clay related ;-))
In spite of this I don't think alternatives to Public
Education are a bad idea. Depends on the kid and
parent; some children will thrive at home when they
wouldn't in a classroom. Indeed, if I was in an area
in which I believed had terribly bad schools I would
have figured out a way to homeschool my kids too.
IMHO the problems are a society that doesn't respect
children and education; scary, horrifying, negative
media influences; not enough social support for
parents, especially those with problems, and, not
enough support for teachers & schools.
Regards,
Jeanne W.
--- primalmommy wrote:
major snippage:
> My feeling is that the system needs reworking. In
> the tens of thousands
> of years of human civilization, only since the
> advent of factory model
> schools has "socialization" meant spending most of
> your waking hours in
> rows of desks, in a room full of kids with your same
> birth year and zip
> code. Socialization used to mean you listened to
> your elders, watched
> adults doing the work of adult life, helped and
> learned... followed
> around the bigger kids, learning, and then helped
> and taught the littler
> kids. The real world has old people and babies,
> mailmen and street
> people, families and workers doing real jobs for
> real reasons. School is
> not the real world, not in our system, not today ..
> and now kids are in
> that weird same-age-group-society from infancy
> onward. I am rooting for
> charter schools, homeschools, teaching co-ops,
> waldorf and montessori
> and any little school trying it a different way...
> (even though most of
> the best ideas are reserved for those who can afford
> them.)
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