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| 2010 - Picture taken by Ben Gribaudo |
Just a warning: another burn notice in effect.
I think education is very important for children.....IF done correctly. If children are not educated in the proper way, you might as well forget it, because you are just wasting their time and filling their head full of MUSH (actually, a harsher word comes to mind, but I shan't use it for my daddy's sake).
Here is what I mean: I was tutoring a little 3rd grade girl in the city. She needed work on her reading comprehension. So, as we sat down to do her reading, I had in my head that we were going to read about Christopher Columbus crossing the sea, or Gutenberg making the first printing press, or something to that effect, because not only was this her reading book, but it was about 'history' too.
Boy, I could not have been more wrong about the content of this book.
Instead of reading about something that actually happened, we read about a Native American legend: how the sky came to be. This tribe of people got tired of it being dark, so they poked holes in the sky.
..........S-E-R-I-O-U-S-L-Y?!?!?!?!?........... We are reading about people poking holes in the sky? In our HISTORY book???? Somebody explain this to me please, because I am obviously missing something. I mean, I know I am only a poor home schooled kid, but really, this seems highly STUPID to me. What is she supposed to be learning from this? That those people busted up the ozone layer? Maybe that 'history' book was trying to tell us something: perhaps it wasn't evil wicked white man that destroyed the planet....
I mean, come on! Really???
To make matters worse, at the end of our 'histroy story', it didn't even say what tribal legend it was. Get that? It didn't even say which tribe of Native Americans this story came from!! I had to go home and do research to find out what tribe that legend came from! And this little girl is supposed to be LEARNING something from this? Again, I know I am just a poor home schooled kid who doesn't know anything.......
Anyway, at least I was able to teach this little girl to comprehend the story. Her reading improved drastically after 3 days of a home schooler teaching her how to comprehend her reading. And believe me, the other stories that we read in her book were no better, perhaps worse than the one about 'people poking holes in the sky'.
Back on subject: The above story is just ONE example I have of how messed up the education system is. Forget all the stupid politics involved. The kids are learning NOTHING! And of course, if you know anything, you know that if the population is ill-educated, they are easy to control....or even wipe out. Why is that? Because they know nothing: no history of themselves, and no way of thinking for themselves.
Believe it or not, history makes a very big difference. It might not seem to be important, but if you rewrite history, you can make the future and the people in it into whatever you want.
Another thing that bugs me about today's education is that it is so....so....whats the word I'm looking for? Boring? Distant? Unappealing? It doesn't get the kid's attention and it doesn't stick with them. Which, considering my last example, maybe that isn't such a bad thing....
A majority of schools are just teaching the kids: suffer through 8 hours of mind numbing torture, and just write the answers to the test like we tell you.
That's it.
Again, I am telling you what I have seen. Spending all testing season in the schools can show a person A LOT about the education system.
Seriously, the tests are just that easy: write the answers from the book, or the answers we give you, down on a piece of paper.
The fact that some of the scores are so low just go to prove: the kids aren't learning anything. Not even how to think for themselves. Yes, I'm sure their home lives have a lot to do with it, but think about it: the kids whose parents are involved with them, help them with home work, take them to fun activities, those kids are being taught how to think, how to come up with solutions! They test out well because they have parents (at home, by the way) who teach them how to think.
The kids in bad home lives are being taught how to survive.
Kids with uninterested parents are being taught to stay out of the way.
They act on the emotion of the moment. They don't have time to think. They don't know how to think unless someone shows them. The schools don't do that. All they want is for the kids to pass the stupid test so they have better looking scores.
It's sick.... absolutely heart breaking.
Every time I step foot in or even near a school I thank God that I was home schooled. Being home schooled, my parents were involved with me 24/7. That makes a huge difference in a child's life. And believe me, if I ever have kids (which I won't because I have no intention of getting married) I will home school them. Even if I am forced to send them to a school, I will be involved with their education when they are home.
Anyway, that is my take on education. And that isn't even half of it!
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