Is your child suffering from schoolitis??

AmericanThinker.com ^ | Oct. 3, 2013 | Bruce Deitrick Price

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

Observe your child carefully. Does he have trouble reading even simple materials? Does he struggle with elementary arithmetic? Does your child seem to be learning very little basic knowledge? Is your child anxious and unhappy? Is he reluctant to go to school, to the point where he seems to be sick a lot? 0h oh, your child has it bad. Schoolitis.

Remember that excitement and optimism when you child first went off to school. Everyone just assumed that children can quickly learn to read, write, and the rest. Then, one by one, the lights went out. Children are designed to learn. Bizarrely enough, our public schools seem designed to make learning impossible.

Here is a checklist to determine how bad a case of schoolitis your child has:

1) Children should learn to read in the first grade, and be selecting their own books to read by the second grade. This is the gold standard. Anything less means that your school has neglected phonics and you need to get very involved. Whole Language and Balanced Literacy all by themselves can give a child a dreadful case of schoolitis. To head off these problems, start teaching reading early, before they start school. (“54: Preemptive Reading” might help.)

2) Children should learn to add and subtract in the first few grades. They should be multiplying and dividing by the fourth grade. They should understand fractions and decimals by the sixth grades. This is the gold standard. Anything less means you’re watching educational malpractice take place before your eyes. Reform Math, in all its variations, tends to confuse children and kill off any interest in math. Reform Math is a carrier of schoolitis. Start complaining.

3) Your child should be memorizing basic information such as the days of the week, how many feet...

[Cloverfarm]

My boys are suffering from lack-of-recess-itis as they try to wind down from a summer of running all the time, to sitting still in their desks at school

*sigh*

[fieldmarshaldj]

Frankly, children should be able to read by Kindergarten and doing basic math. I already was, and it was a highly unpleasant situation for me when my 1st grade teacher was instructing us on what I’d already learned two years earlier.

[SaraJohnson]

I sent my son to school sounding out words and having memorized common words. But by the end of second grade, he could no longer do that. He was guess reading as taught at school. So glad we pulled him out of the pig sty.

[pops88]

Back in about 1964, in Kindergarten, I was near suicidal. “Color the 5 Bears Brown....” I remember (early version) face palm, with “dear God, no!” The only redeeming value of my few days in school were graham crackers and juice, and thank God, Play Dough. I soon learned- “I have a headache.” It served me well till 11th grade, graduating early, when my history teacher threatened to flunk me due to days missed, despite my A in his class. My daughter was homeschooled and had the good sense to drop out of the university indoctrination center at 16. I couldn’t argue with her. At 16, with her undergrad requirements behind her, why torture her?

[LearsFool]

Three words:

John Taylor Gatto

Compulsory schooling was never intended to educate children beyond what is necessary to keep them in their place. The author of the article above is not describing the failure of schools, but their resounding success.

Parents cannot save the schools. But they can save their children.

[real saxophonist]

I suffered from about 12 years of 'schoolitis'.

It was cured by about 5 years of 'Collegeitis'...

[Gil4]

“Is he reluctant to go to school, to the point where he seems to be sick a lot?”

My son came home from school sick as a dog Monday after school. He did his homework and went to bed by 5 pm. He slept until morning and had to convince my wife that he was better and could go to school. At report card time he was mad because in one class he had “only” a 97 average.

He’s a freshman and it’s his first year in a classroom, so maybe he hasn’t been beaten down yet. It’s also a small country school and the fascists haven’t made as many inroads there yet.

[Gil4]

“It was cured by about 5 years of ‘Collegeitis’...”

Mine was exasperated by 2 years of collegeitis and cured by 24 years of militaryitis. (I got my degree a month before my retirement.)

[Impy]

Children should learn to add and subtract in the first few grades.

The first few grades?