The "Early Childhood Education" lab at my school :-) ...
"Why are our babies cuter than everyone else's babies?"
"Because they look like you, Bill!"
Posted on 01/23/2007 7:01:50 AM PST by shrinkermd
The small rural schools tend to turn out more rounded students because the students are able to take part in more activities.
Someone told me the monster high schools exist only by virtue of football.
Should the nurturing cocoon of elementary school be extended for another three years, shielding 11-year-olds from the abrupt transition to a new school, with new students and teachers, at one of the most volatile times in their lives? Paul Vallas, chief executive of the Philadelphia school system, thinks so, and he has closed 17 traditional middle schools since 2002, ( from, the Article) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Parents are in the best position to know if their own children should be in a middle school or grade school setting. Parents know better than any Philadelphia bureaucrat what is best for their child.
Solution: Begin the process of privatizing universal K-12 education. Let these decisions be made privately by parents, teachers, and principals in private settings in private schools!
Re: The Institutionalization of Children
It is my opinion that institutionalizing of children in factory-like schools is unnatural and unhealthy ( both physically and emotionally) for children. That people are debating over grade school or middle school settings is merely trying to decide which poison is less damaging.
Homeschooling is the most natural and healthy way to raise a child. Yes, it is unfortunate that many children can not be homeschooled. Yes, it is a shame that some parents are so poor, or dysfunctional, or were so poorly educated by the government that they are incapable of teaching their children. These children will need to be institutionalized. If institutionalization is necessary, then parents should be determining if it is middle school or grade school.
Yes, some children will need to be institutionalized for their education. We need orphanages too but no one is arguing that orphanages are the best way to raise a child.
would solve a lot of the problems in public schools.
I have joking posted that all education majors should be required to take and pass Calculus I. Even requiring them to take and pass Calculus III would be better. Why? Answer: It would assure that those teaching our nation's children had the minimum IQ for the job.
Abolish the Federal Department of School Board and you'd solve quite a bit more.
Agreed!
Throw in decent parents who help their kids with their homework, and you're well on the way to creating a productive and smart generation.
Even if children attend school, if they are academically successful, it is due to the "homeschooling" done by the parents in the evening around the kitchen table. What the school is doing is sending home a free curriculum. It is the parents who are seeing that the homework is complete, neat, and mastered by the child. Once the child is reasonably literate, it is the child who really self-educating himself, and the parents who are creating a home in which the child's efforts at self-education are encouraged and rewarded.
The parents of academically successful schooled children are doing everything that I did as a homeschooling parent. The only difference is that the schooled child has far less time for active and creative play, and tend to be fatter.
would solve a lot of the problems in public schools.
I have joking posted that all education majors should be required to take and pass Calculus I. Even requiring them to take and pass Calculus III would be better. Why? Answer: It would assure that those teaching our nation's children had the minimum IQ for the job.
Abolish the Federal Department of School Board and you'd solve quite a bit more.
Agreed!
Throw in decent parents who help their kids with their homework, and you're well on the way to creating a productive and smart generation.
Even if children attend school, if they are academically successful, it is due to the "homeschooling" done by the parents in the evening around the kitchen table. What the school is doing is sending home a free curriculum. It is the parents who are seeing that the homework is complete, neat, and mastered by the child. Once the child is reasonably literate, it is the child who really self-educating himself, and the parents who are creating a home in which the child's efforts at self-education are encouraged and rewarded.
The parents of academically successful schooled children are doing everything that I did as a homeschooling parent. The only difference is that the schooled child has far less time for active and creative play, and tend to be fatter.
Or WHAT?!?!?!
... depending on the respondent :-).
On the topic, I don't think I'd prefer to have my 7-year-old at school with a lot of 13-year-olds ... and I don't want my 13-year-old at school with 18-year-olds. Especially my daughters.
The "Early Childhood Education" lab at my school :-) ...
"Why are our babies cuter than everyone else's babies?"
"Because they look like you, Bill!"
My kids also attend a K-8 (Catholic) school, and like your own kids' experience, ours has been nothing but good with this system.
The younger ones are never EVER upset by the looming presence of some of the eight graders, even though to them, they are "grown ups" just as much as any teacher. The older ones seem charmed by the little ones, and love the responsibilites given to them ("Church buddy" is one of them...each K-2 child has a church buddy from the 6-8th grade). Everybody enjoys the relationship between the two groups, older and younger kids alike. I often see a little one spy his church buddy in the hallway and, when they pass, there is always a kind word, a smile, even a small hug between them. It's lovely to see.
My big guy is in 5th grade this year, and my little guy in 3rd, so neither has a church buddy this time around, by the 5th grader can't WAIT to be the "big" church buddy, and the 3rd grader still has a wave and a big smile for his former buddy who is now assigned to a kindergartener. (I think he's a little jealous.)
Anyway, I like the K-8 system. It gives the younger students someone to look up to, and it offers the older ones the opportunity to BEGIN to have some responsibilities in a safe environment that is well chaperoned by the adults in the building.
Regards,
Too cute! You are blessed.
Well hell the NYTimes in a recent frontpage story, included 15 year olds as never been married putting them in the same bracket as 20 and 30 year olds.
I am always amazed at the gall of homeschool critics who say parents should not be allowed to educate their children ,because most parents are not well educated. Well, most people are not well educated because of the public school system. Many people seriously have no trouble demanding parents use school systems which have failed them in the past.
"Put the bad kids with the bad kids"
Yes,but pity the poor teacher that gets stuck with a class of thirty of these bad actors.
I went to Junior High (7th through 9th grades), it was fun beating up 7th graders as a 9th grader....
reason # 3,012 why homeschooling (done right) is the best way to go. i know not everyone can or wants to do it. but the benefits are so incredible. and you get to know your children at a level that is impossible if you're at work all day, and they're at school.
Me either. I also want my money back for my years spent in middle school. Taxpayers spent $30k to torture me for three years. It would have been cheaper to keep me at home and force me to watch "Wally Gator" reruns for three years.
Actually, the state colleges are the farm teams for the NBA and NFL. What's worse is that the employees don't even get paid, except with worthless degrees in Hotel Management and Phys Ed.
The Intermediate School and Middle School concept seem to work better (here).
Thanks! I've got five boys, and three of them look like clones of the oldest. (Not sure where the other one came from ... ;-)
BT, DT. I'd rather have spent the time sewing shirts in a sweatshop.
My Bill there in the picture, 12 years old, runs marathons, plays drums, rocks babies to sleep ... I'd go to jail before I'd send that boy to middle school. They'd want him on drugs within a week, even though he's up to grade level in every subject and gets the best test scores of any of my children.
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