When a student doesn't crave....we are a hurting society.
School is around the corner and everyone is getting ready for the structured life that comes with the change of season. Apple picking and enjoying the vegetables of the later part of the harvest are getting us in the mood for our favorite comfort foods. Cooler nights are nice, too.
Let' get back to the memories of school. I am absolutely angered and disappointed in the condition of our educational system today now that I am a parent. As I went through school I believed it was good. I wanted to learn and enjoyed most of my subjects. The subjects that were presented to me were unexciting but gave me a baseline. The professions I actually pursued in life were not presented to me in high school, but I had a decent start so I could guide myself as an adult.
But the school system decides for you what is necessary to learn and as an older adult, I hate that idea. It is dangerous. I have a child now who is subjected to a very narrow point of view. Part of it is practical. You can't learn the history of the world adequately in twelve years. It is condensed with a lot of bias thrown in. If you notice today's history books are watered down and sprinkled with a moralistic view that hate and racism must be conquered. History is what it is and history should be just facts. We can't change the past, and we should not tailor our personal opinions to fit our own dramas.
Discussion is fine, but opinions should not be graded. When it comes time for an examination of the facts, opinion should not impact your grade. Sure I hate war. But a lot of war happened. A child should not hear the drivel of adults' emotions regarding who killed who and who started what wars because the facts become twisted over time. Emotional baggage is not a good way to educate. Books have agendas and resorting to one book is not a good idea.
Science now is full of opinion. The scientific method cannot be tried on everything. Theories are still theories and should not be passed off as fact. I do not agree with certain aspects of nutrition as it is taught in grade school. And the history of vaccines is not completely taught. Bias looms everywhere. Climate change is now in children's textbooks. Again, one sided.
Math has been horribly taught. Just look at the "eye-vomit" of today's common core workbooks. There is no way a child can focus.
The reading program is pure disappointment.
When we try to reinvent the wheel every decade or so, children are harmed. When we narrow what is taught because we are so pressed for time to include standardized testing, children are harmed. Childhood is very short, we shouldn't waste it on what a government pushes on us as standard.
And now that we no longer have a common morality the schools are making a common core version of how we should treat each other. I truly see racism growing as we look too much at our differences. We are not really all that different. Why are we exploiting each other in the name of diversity?
No one looks back on school with memories of their standardized tests or how they were graded. Back then we were so busy trying to fluff up our transcripts and we now look back at our schooling much differently.
We are often shocked that we survived.
Tests don't matter anymore. And tests should not matter much at all. The most important things that change our lives for the better do not come from a state mandated curriculum. Our teachers share their lives with us and introduce us to the excitement of living. That's what counts.
Tony Robbins revealed a personal life changer for him in his documentary I am Not Your Guru. He recalled one teacher who pointed him in an individualized direction. This teacher recognized the talent in Tony Robbins and told him how to go out in the world and cultivate it. It did not come from a state mandated textbook or test.
If that still happens in school, I am grateful, but we need to help our teachers feel free to do that.
If you've ever taken private music lessons, you will understand what I am trying to convey. A private teacher, tutor, or sports coach knows how to reach a student by really studying him or her. So it's not the child who should study, it is the instructor. The teacher draws out the child's talent. The child is not to be molded to "our way."
A talented teacher takes a subject and presents it in a way so the student craves more, not to pass a test not to get it done and out of the way to plaster on a transcript.
If a student doesn't crave more, we are a hurting society.
You can hear Tony Robbins' personal story on the documentary. If you want to hear which teacher in his life made a lasting impact go to the one hour and 39 minute mark. (Warning: profanity is heard at different parts of the film.)
