Preparing Your Child for Their First Day in School
You’ve been thinking about it all summer. That day, the first day of school, has been looming in the distance for weeks and now it is here! How do you prepare your child for their first day? How can you make this big life transition easier?
Take cues from your child. Some children are nervous about new beginnings. Some, however, can’t wait for the adventure to start. No one knows your child better than you, so pay attention to his or her body language a few days before. If you see signs of anxiety or worry, reassure them, have them talk to older kids, remind them of other new things they’ve faced.
Take advantage of before school events. Most schools host Meet the Teacher nights or Open Houses. Attend as many of these events as you can so that your child can visualize being there. Your child’s teacher fully understands the hesitation that children and families go through on the first day. Allow them to interact with your child. This will go a long way to reduce fears.
Allow your child to have some control over new supplies and clothes. A child will feel more at ease if he or she has control. Have your child voice their opinion, within reason, about what he or she should wear, what backpack to carry or which notebook to buy.
Have a countdown at home. Your child often will take emotional cues from you. If you are happy and excited to be starting something new, they will be too. On your chalkboard or on construction paper, create a countdown and make it part of your daily ritual to mark off another day.
Keep home routines as familiar as possible. You know what you have to do each day to eat, get dressed and get out the door. Make extra effort to be organized and consider rehearsing with a few dry runs a few mornings beforehand. Anything you can do to reduce stress, both yours and your child’s, will make the first days easier.
Have a special breakfast on the first day. It doesn’t have to be much different from what you usually do, but even just a little something to mark the ceremony of a new chapter in your child’s life will be reassuring. Remind them of what is familiar. Your child may already know other children who are attending or know of the teachers from other contexts. Those familiar faces can calm first day jitters.
Don’t let them see you mourn any loss. Let’s be honest; first days of school are just as hard on the parents as they are on the kids. Keep sad, sentimental thoughts to yourself. If your child sees you upset, it may make it harder for them to say good-bye. With enthusiasm, good communication and organization, you and your child can have a successful first day of school, and great first week and a spectacular first year.
About this author: Brianna Kelly writes on a regular basis for Giraffe Montessori. She has over 5 years experience publishing articles on childcare education and parenting.
The Fundamentals of Starting a Childs Education Early
The term early childhood refers to children aged between twoand eight years old. Parents are strongly encouraged by educational professionals to take children to nursery. This early education gives children the opportunity to learn the basics of learning through age appropriate games and activities. Attending an early childhood education gives children a strong foundation for future learning.
Intellectual Benefits
One of the most important benefits is the improvement of learning ability and development of your child. Primary and nursery school teaching is extremely important as it lays down the foundation of your child’s learning for the rest of their lives in Maths, Science and Literature. They lean to count, write and distinguish between different objects. They will be read to, learn different letters and the pronunciation of the letters.
Social Benefits
As well as the educational side of school it also gives good communication skills with other children. To be able to socialise with other children, other than just their parent, is imperative. They learn how to share fairly and cooperate friendly to other people. Toddlers are very self-centred therefore tantrums and refusal to share is guaranteed but school teaches them to know this is wrong and teaches them the right.
Creative Benefits
Your child will get to try a range of different activities that will express their creative side. From painting, playing an instrument, writing, drawing and singing, your child will find out what they enjoy doing and what they are best at.
Emotional Benefits
Your child will constantly be praised through their time at school for things big and small which will impact on his/her confidence and self-belief. Also getting feedback on how they can improve is great as your child will strive to do better and develop skills for the future. The teacher will also be there to deal with any feelings of anger, fear, jealousy, excitement or sadness.
If you are desperate to ensure your child gets the best possible education you could go into private school and extra tuition, if you think that’s the best decision for your child. Also simple things like going through work books and playing letter games or just simply reading to them every night will further help your child to gain as many skills that they will need in the future.
Bio: This blog was written by Born Gifted. Click here for more information and tips on a child’s education or you can visit the website today if you are interested in educational toddler toys.
Kids Educational Games: The Basic Facts
Article by Vijay K Shetty
Kids’ games are meant for 2-fold purposes. These are meant for entertainment as well as for fun and learn method. These games are available both in online and offline method. Whereas online games are played with relevant websites, with CDs and toys are common ingredients for playing games. Before knowing different positive impacts of playing kids game, it is better to know different levels of games for kids.
These games for kids are available with different game levels; these games are available for toddlers, pre-school kids, and school going kids, etc. Although all these games are meant for fun and learn method of teaching, the level of comprehensiveness varies for one to another. The objectives of all educational games are almost same; it is the support and extension of learning process via improved motor skill and different cognitive processes like eye-to-hand-coordination process etc.
There are different types of educational games like memory game, geography puzzles, vocabulary games; alphabet and musical games are mainly meant for toddlers and pre-school kids for the basic learning as well as for their entertainment. Regular and methodical playing of these games helps improving memory power of kids as well as it helps in improves some additional qualities which is helpful in grasping the learning curriculum with better scale of efficiency.
Adults may frown at the kids’ habit of playing games but playing educational games can have multiple benefits. Some of these benefits are discussed here.
Playing educational games helps kids for grasping the learning process with better ability and recapitulation power. The visual effect of educational games helps in improving memory power, reflex power, and analyzing ability etc. While these cognitive skills get improved, it helps in learning the academic lessons with better scale on understanding and inquisitiveness.
Once upon a time games and education were considered as two opposite aspects of learning method. Modern educational process indulges the use of educational games as a supportive process of academic learning as it extends the tendency to explore, create, and balance different factors for accumulation of total result. The learn-and-fun method injects fun filled learning process and thus kids enjoy their learning process and produces faster result in learning a theme.
One of the most immediate benefits of playing educational games is relating the kids into quality involvement. Educational games are type of brain tonic which works for the over all development of brain and its functional abilities. The proper use of educational games can explain complicated things in a lucid way and it helps in making better level of understanding about the academic lessons for a kid regardless his/her age group.
Puzzle games for the kids are wonderful brain exercise. Playing quality educational kids game help participating kids in improving their over all learning ability and thus provides great impetus for producing better result in their classroom study process.
Parts of Body Learning Videos Free Watch a Educational Videos Online Kids Education www.onlinekidseducation.com Uploaded by Farooq Shahid August 2nd, 2011.
Why Parents Need To Acquire Kids Educational Toys For Their Children
Article by Jesse Carlson
Toys are available for children to have fun. There are an assortment of toys purchasable in the market, and it is up to guardians to choose which toy they should give to their brood. Sometimes they are left with no recourse but to submit to their brood’s desires, especially when the youthful ones go into temper tantrums. Currently, obtaining a toy is not a treat that every guardian can come up with the money for. There are more important things that should be bought, and they regularly must say no to their brood. A fine way to expend money wisely is to obtain kids educational toys instead of procuring any model of toy you find in the market.
As a father, you ought to keep in mind that it is your task to bring up magnificent kids. Telling them to consume all their time studying will not do them any good. They also have to play and encounter other children for they can learn from it. In addition, you must give kids the opportunity to relish their childhood. You were also once a child, and you know how vital playing is. It does not just permit a child to have fun, but also to grow socially and to enhance his or her interaction skills.
Kids educational toys enable your children to have fun and be trained at the same instant. Depending on the kind of toy you obtain, your children will be able to discover how to spell, add, mingle with other people, and hone their senses and imagination. Toys are available for all ages. Infants, toddlers, and preschoolers can get the fitting things for their age and their skills. Parents surely want to see their brood do well in school, and these toys will aid them obtain that goal. It is wise to train kids early for them to obtain skills that they can use as soon as they begin going to school.
There are also several fixtures, decors, and accessories available that you can obtain for your kid. You can arrange tables and chairs in your child’s room which he or she can utilize when studying or when playing with acquaintances. Wall ornaments are available, and they are useful for they can aid your kid expand his or her imagination. A different thing that you should not miss is a rug. These specific rugs carry several information that a kid can use. There are rugs that bear the alphabet and rugs that display numbers, shapes, and animals.
Parents just want the best for their offspring. Nearly all guardians will do anything that they can to make certain that they can provide anything their kids require. With kids educational toys, you can aid your lass in so various ways. It allows your offspring to spend most of their time playing without you having to worry about them preparing for school someday. It also assures you that your kids are learning the right things. For a decent value, you now have the opportunity to raise smart children without you putting excessive effort to aid them.
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The audience size may vary from 30, 60 to 100 or more. Form groups according to names of colors, seasons, months in a year or days in a week. Once done ask the members to sit in their respective groups. If a group contains 10 participants the trainer should be able to provide topics where whole group can participate.
It houses the Southeast’s largest collection of art objects from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Near East, and the ancient Americas. The museum was named for the late Atlanta philanthropist who donated nearly million to the facility.
Kids are also taught to value peaceful resolutions over violence, and to respect every single one of God’s creatures. Although non-denominational songs and books are used during class, children say a blessing during snack time and have chapel time once a month.
It is a thin piece of metal with a hook on the end. The way you use it is by sliding it down between the window glass and the rest of the door and catching the hook on the locking mechanism. Most police stations have these tools.
You can buy tension wrenches from security, hardware and locksmith catalogs as well as some places online, or you can make your own. The best way to make your own is to use a small Allen wrench and file down one side so it fits into the lock you are working on.
I like tomatoes in my salad as much as the next person, but when fall and winter roll around, it’s time to change the menu. Rather than buying the common summer vegetables normally associated with salad toppings, consider adding snow peas, broccoli or endive.
Freshwater springs like Wakulla Springs and Jennie Springs became outdoor meccas for new Floridians and served as a unique feature that other states couldn’t match. Wakulla Springs in particular became famous as the backdrop for the classic film ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’.
Although, construction work is suspended in some countries during the winter season, but still this equipment operators may have to use scrapers or bulldozers if they have to clear dirt and snow off the roads to make it fit for public use. Pile driver operators are trained specially to mount their large machines on barges, skids, and are taught how to hammer piles.
It took nine years to complete the Statue of Liberty. After completion, this statue was sent in the 214 crates to the United States of America. French engineer, Gustavo Eiffel was done the entire steel framework of this statue. This engineer is well known for his work of Eiffel Tower in Paris.
A central air conditioning system that keeps us cool during hot summer needs a blower motor strategically located in the furnace, to allow cool air through a duct system, thereby allowing us a comfortably cool working atmosphere.
Your Baby Can Read takes advantage of this stage of development by focusing on the audio visual approach.
Kids Education for Small kids even before they are born on this Earth ! Educate your child even when they are in the womb. And Once they are Born, you can continue educating them , and when they reach the age to attend school, they become experts at schools, they become magnets for Education, thanks to your Training very early in their life, they become Brilliant students and school and Very observant and grasping.
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Factors Involved in Assessing How Much a Culture Values The Education of The Children
There are also cultural differences even when it comes to education. But whether you are an Asian, European, American or Chinese, education has the same goals and objectives and that is to gain knowledge. Education differs only in how each culture values it. Some people do not value education that much. Some value education too much and make education the core responsibility of a family.
In the Philippines, education is tantamount to success; that was always the belief of the Filipino people since education was introduced by the first colonizers. My mother was raised in a culture where women were prohibited to go to school because according to their belief, girls will be brainwashed by the modern teachings. For them, women are for the home to do the household chores and raise a family; yet my mother raised us with education foremost in her mind. She was very concerned about our education. We all went to school and most of us have finished college education.
Education to Filipinos is a legacy that is never removed nor stolen from a person; this is the reason why Filipinos value education so much to the extent of parents going without shoes just to be able to send the kids to school.
Although the Philippines belongs to the third world country and it has a poor economy, it cannot be found wanting where education is concerned. Filipinos value education too much and even little kids go to school in the hope that this will be a stepping stone for a good job and success in the future.
What are some of the factors involved in assessing how much a culture values the education of the children?
Economic condition
The Philippines may be an impoverished country but where education is concerned, the people are mostly educated. Money is not a problem where education is concerned. There are lots of free schools from elementary to college and students could go to school even without money. There are situations when some moneyed people provide for the needs of students. They could get scholars to support in school. There are many instances when a poor boy finally finishes his studies with the help of some kind folks and finally lands a good job. If he becomes successful then he shares his blessings too to the next generation and it goes on and on like a cycle. This makes it easier for the poor people to be able to go to school even without money.
I believe other poor countries are like the Philippines. They could make education an important factor in determining the success of the children and send them to school even if there is no money.
Priorities of the people
Most Filipinos prioritize on education before the other needs such as clothing and other less necessary things in life. Children are taught to save and conserve in order for them to be able to go to school. Education is too expensive especially in college and the family needs to tighten their belts if they want the kids to go to college. People in my country value education too much. They could sacrifice other things in exchange for education.
People must prioritize education before other non-essential needs of the family. Why not save on shopping and other things so that you can send your kids to school? Education is very important to a person so people must always put more effort in sending the children to school.
Government programs
Except for the private schools, all elementary and secondary schools are free in the Philippines. Recently, pre-school was included in the program but with a little financial help from the parents. Actually the contribution from the parents of the pre-schoolers is very minimal so it cannot be considered a tuition fee. Since schools are free, most Filipino children are going to school. Although some parents still could not send their children to school because of the need for the child to have food allowance. In some public schools, especially in places with extreme poverty, a feeding program from the government and private sectors are often carried out in order to feed the hungry children and keep them in school.
Of course, no matter how parents want to send their children to school if the budget does not permit it, the children are abandoned. Many government programs are being carried out to help the street children go to school. Public school students are sometimes given free rice in order to help them have a meal for the a few days.
Financial status of the family
The rich families could send their children to good schools while the poor families go to public schools. There are of course more opportunities for students who graduate from good schools. Although there are also plenty of good government schools, those who could qualify are the only ones who could be accepted. The number of students is just too much in order for good government schools to accept all students. So the weaker students will go to schools that are usually too crowded for students to concentrate on their studies. With so much problems and an uncomfortable environment, many students drop out in the middle of school. But of course more students are still left in school and are able to finish their education.
Assessing how much a culture values the education of the children greatly depends on the belief of the people about education. There are people who believe that children need not go to school and there are also people who value education too much to the extent of sacrificing so much just to be able to send the children to school. Either way, there are differences in culture even where education is concerned so people must also take into consideration the culture of the people.
Posted in Kids Education | Assessing, Children, Culture, Education, Factors, Involved, Much, Values | Leave a commentKids Educational Games – Fun And Learning
Article by Jan & George McNaney
Kids educational games can be a excellent way to learn and they should form a crucial part in your child’s development.
Kids educational games prepare a child’s mind to learn to think logically, and educational games can be a fantastic way for your children to have fun while they are learning. From now on the irksome task of learning, specifically in the lengthy school holidays, can be as fun and entertaining as you are able to make it.
Here’s one idea for a fun educational game which teaches the concept of time and meeting targets.
Give your child a blank sheet of paper. Have a stopwatch or clock to hand. Now tell your child to draw as many different items as they can in say 3 minutes. If your child is able to write, they can write down as many words as they can in the allocated time. At the end of each individual minute, announce to your child how much time is left.
Once you get an idea of the number of different things your child can draw or write, ask them to try to do an extra item every time you play the game subsequently.
This simple example introduces achieving something within a set time frame and reaching a goal. Your children use their resourcefullness to think of lots of words or pictures, they feel a real sense of pride and accomplishment when they complete a task successfully, and they improve their spelling where applicable. And if they do this regularly when they are youngsters, it becomes second-nature and carries through with them to later life.
Another idea is to present coins to your kids by asking them to sort them according to their size or color. With older children, the coins could be positioned in order of monetary value. This easy game can be an effective debut to understanding the value of money for your children.
When kids educational games happen to be fun, then the kids learn without realizing they are learning. You can create learning games out of every day activities, such as putting the groceries away and counting the items as you go. This makes learning fun. Reading what is on the labels also teaches your kids new words.
When you are outside, encouraging your children to read the words on shop windows or on street signs – this really helps to improve their reading skills and passes the time effectively.
Whether your kids are learning the alphabet or numeracy, recognizing coins and learning money, or learning the concept of time and achieving goals, kids educational games are an invaluable part of their education and development.
For your kids educational games to be effective, fun must be in the learning.
To special educate or not (Part 1)
To special educate or not . . .
For many reasons we as a society and educational institution can’t accept that some kids will always be behind. One reason for this that you don’t hear discussed is grade levels, which have a negative cumulative effect for roughly half the school population. In college everybody has heard of or learned about the bell curve; which tells us it is normal and expected to have a range of abilities. Yet it amazes me how society, politicians, and educators seem to forget this fact. In education classes teachers even learn that in a given class you can expect a six year grade range. In other words, in a 5th grade class there will be kids with reading levels ranging from 2nd through 8th grades. Time out; did anybody ever tell the general public this? Also, how did this information apparently get erased from the memories of every professional working in the schools? Getting back to grade levels, consider this. The bell curve tells us that half the children will be below average. So in any grade, half the students will be behind. Think about when students start out in first grade. Half of the students will leave first grade below average (or below their peers), or below where they should be at the end of first grade. This cycle continues for most of these kids school years because they don’t catch up. And we wonder why so many kids drop out when they reach high school? They have already experienced years of failure. Grade levels tell them, and remind them daily that they are failures. If you don’t think so, try explaining to them year after year why they are behind.
Another way society has denied the real-life differences among children and tried to deal with the crippling effects of grade levels is through special education. The development of the categories of special education was influenced more by politics and social pressures than by research. Even today, the few categories that include the vast majority of children in special education (Leaning Disability) are highly subjective in their definitions and decisions of who is labeled and placed into special education. Research into the effectiveness of special education has shown that once a child is placed (get a label), his/her chances of graduating greatly decrease. Of course, nobody tells parents this at an IEP meeting! The child in special education receives an Individualized Education Program (IEP), which sounds impressive. Who wouldn’t want an education program tailored to their needs? Well, the problem is that the goals in an IEP are at a level far below his grade placement. What’s even worse is that most of these students never get up to grade level, or catch up. So what happens when one of these children gets to high school and they’re still reading at a third grade level? I have been in many uncomfortable meetings trying to explain this to parents. But hey, they have a label, and have received professional help, so it’s ok to be years behind, or sometimes even nearly illiterate. The IEP becomes a license to fail.
Special education is just a reflection of the problem with our unrealistic expectations. We can’t accept the fact that some kids will always be behind, no matter what we do. Since the 1970’s, when the government passed massive special education legislation, the numbers have swelled, and it has been plagued with controversy. It’s interesting once again how people in education so readily accept research when it seems acceptable, or they are told by the higher ups that they will accept it, but when it’s to the contrary educators and legislators turn the other way. The research has shown for a long time now that special education is not working. Kids who are in special education don’t catch up, and they are more likely to drop out. I believe this research because I see it every day. Another thing the research tells us is that there are no clear and consistent interventions (treatments) that distinguish the children identified with the disabilities that represent the majority of kids in special education. The disabilities that comprise the majority of kids in special education are Learning Disabled, Mentally Impaired, Emotionally Disturbed/Behavior Disorder, and Other Health Impaired (this one has so many kids because ADHD falls under it). In other words, when an Individualized Education Program (IEP) is made for these children, which specifies the goals and objective of how each child will be taught, they differ very little from disability to disability. A learning disabled (LD) child’s IEP will look very much like a mentally impaired (MI) child’s IEP, and so on, with all the various comparisons. And I believe this research because I have seen thousands of IEP’s. The interventions always involve something like repetition, a multisensory approach (hearing and seeing it, and hands on), having directions read to them, and extended time limits. If you looked at a child’s IEP goals and objectives, and didn’t know their eligibility, you would have a very hard time figuring out what their eligibility (disability) was. What it really boils down to is we are bringing the material down to their level. If a learning disabled child is reading at a second grade level, he will have the same (or very similar) goals and objectives as a mentally impaired child reading at a second grade level. What needs to happen is that we need to teach kids at whatever level their at (remember the bell curve); but we have to stop pretending that all kids are the same, and hiding as many of the one’s that we can get away with that aren’t at grade level or behaving in special education. This is malpractice and we have to stop doing it.
After special education legislation in the 70’s it was common for schools to have self-contained classrooms. These are classrooms in which special education students spend most or all of their school day. The class size is small, with paraprofessionals to assist the teacher. As with many things in our society, there were more than enough researchers and experts to provide the “proof” demonstrating the reasons and benefits for these classrooms. Well in the 90’s this all changed with self-contained classrooms being gutted from school districts. When I started in the field in 1990, I worked under a principal who had already been in education for about 25 years. He told me how they (people in education) had worked so hard to get these classrooms and now they were getting rid of them. And of course the experts had all the research to show why we needed to get rid of these classrooms. I guess they got it wrong the first time? I don’t know, but maybe somebody should tell the taxpayer! The research and experts once again helped lead us on another humongous, costly wild goose chase, which only delayed the inevitable. For years the learning and progress of students who were learning and behavior problems were sheltered and protected from scrutiny and real accountability. Basically, as long as you had an IEP it was OK to be far behind all of your school years. And if your behavior was so bad that you weren’t learning, that was OK because you had an IEP. I know this sounds harsh and cruel, but don’t misunderstand me. Teachers, schools, and districts were doing what they could, and trying to work within the rules they were given to try and educate these problem children. As more kids were becoming more problematic, the schools were expected to deal with them. So kids were often given a label, and any label would do. By the 90’s it became obvious that there were too many kids in special education. After all, how could there be that many disabled children? So of course the research was provided to show that self-contained classrooms and labeling were actually detrimental to these children. Nevertheless, the reason the number of children in special education was growing is because there was a growing number of children that the regular education classrooms could not deal with. But that didn’t matter, and we were pressured to reduce the number of kids in special education!
More to come on this topic.
Fun Learning – People At School – Kids Animation Education. Learning about People working in different public organisations and different Public places is essential to your child’s fundamental education. These Animated Cartoon Education videos make learning fun for your kids. So let your child grow with just a click. Click on www.rajshrikids.com to watch more of these Animation videos and learn more.
Video Rating: 3 / 5
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Great Philosophies that Apply to Education
Everything has a philosophy that can be applied to it. You can put your own spin on any event you encounter in your personal life. How about applying philosophies to your education? It is something that is very important; therefore, you should look for various ways to get the most out of your learning experiences. Let’s discuss examples.
The learning process starts after birth. Babies begin learning things right away; however, they can only learn a limited amount of things on their own. If you are a parent, talk to your babies to help them develop their speech and vocabulary skills. Read to your babies while showing them your book to help them learn to read.
After your babies become a little advanced, do your best to teach them how to spell and write. Teach them basic math. For example, you could put five apples in front of your kids and ask them, “If I take away two of these apples, how many will be left?”
There are other things you can do to boost your kids’ educational development. Teach them how to behave and think rationally at all times. Introduce them to PBS and “Sesame Street”.
Education can be fun. If you are a student, think of your classroom and homework experiences as adventures that will take you to a paradise above the clouds. If you choose to have fun when you attend classes or study, you will have more educational success and increase your chances of living a life of utopia.
Good behavior will allow you to have more fun at school. The less time you spend serving a punishment, the more fun you will have; furthermore, you should not want your classmates to ridicule you for standing in the corner or taking a trip to the principal’s office.
Learning can be accomplished through special tools. You are likely to have an easier time grasping some of your material through great gadgets such as flash cards, vocabulary games, educational games and software that focuses on education.
Learning is sometimes accomplished visually. If you are a kid, learn geography by looking at a map of a country such as The United States and then fill in the names of the states or territories of that country on a blank map while you are not looking at the completed map.
Motor skills must be learned. Do things that will help you develop physical dexterity and hand-eye coordination. Work on jigsaw puzzles. Play video games. Grip and lift a quarter between your fingers. Touch a mark on a wall with each finger on both hands a few times.
It is your responsibility to physically learn to do things through personal application. You must start doing what someone shows you because you actually become competent at something by doing it in addition to watching how it is done.
As we move ahead in the Technology Age, it is becoming more important to learn how to type quickly and accurately. Work on typing exercises and games. Concentrate on how to type the various letters on your keyboard. Use your left hand to type a ‘T’, ‘G’, ‘V’ and all letters to the left of them. Use your right hand to type a ‘Y’, ‘H’, ‘B’ and all letters to the right of them.
You must take learning proper grammar and punctuation seriously. You will improve your odds of finding a good job and earning job promotions if you speak and write well. If you have good writing skills, you can directly increase the amount of money you earn throughout your life by getting many articles you write published by Internet sites that pay for article submissions. If you submit enough quality articles, you could receive a high ranking and earn more money than poor writers.
It is a mistake to be too proud to get help to improve your grades. If you struggle with a subject, get tutoring or spend time with your teacher when your class is not in session.
A good education is the best gift you can give yourself. Put these philosophies to use every day to get a great reward!
Public Education 101
Imagine that you want to be a soccer coach. I approach you and tell that I’m willing to give you the position of head-coach on my soccer team. As expected, you’d be excited and willing to take the offer. However, there’s one stipulation. Your team can never play a soccer game. They can practice all the moves, techniques, etc., but they can never play a game amongst themselves or another team. After hearing this, you would say, “No thanks,” because how could this possibly work? Your team will never have any experience using what they learned. Similarly, public education doesn’t provide real life experience, despite its popularity.
Books have been written on the many problems with public education. I’m going to focus on just a few. Public education is failing to do its job (teach students, getting them ready for life). For example, Glenn Beck, in his book, Arguing With Idiots, notes that 2.5 billion dollars is spent every year on college students who need to take “catch up” courses. Wait, but why on earth would these young-adults have to take “catch up” courses? I thought the public schools job was to teach them? Now I know the argument: “Well, that’s the student’s decision, you can’t blame the schools,” which, to a certain degree, may be true. However, isn’t it fascinating how we never had problems like this in the 1950’s? That’s because responsibility was expected and students were responsible. These classes were not necessary because students came to college prepared. By the way, in the past we put much less money into education. Yet, today, we continue to dump more and more money into education, resulting in more and more failure.
Another reason as to why we see so much failure is because public schools allow students who don’t want to be in school to stay in school, causing harm to students who want to learn. Walter Williams, professor and well-known columnist, gave an analogy similar to this: if you want to have a good bushel of apples, you can’t mix the bad apples with the good apples because the bad apples will rot the good apples. Similarly, you can’t take good kids and mix them with bad kids because the bad kids will ruin it for the good kids. Does this mean that you cast out the bad kids and never allow them to have an education? Of course not! But you should separate them from the good kids, enabling the good kids to learn without distraction.
Public education not only mixes the good with the bad, but it’s also unrealistic. I say unrealistic in the sense that it doesn’t prepare you for life. Sure, can a high school or college diploma help get your foot in the door (an advantage) when looking for a job? Yes it can. However, why is it that when a young man or woman gets a job, they have to learn how to do the job? In other words, what was the point of going to school for twelve to sixteen years if you have to learn how to do your job anyway? Why didn’t you learn that while you were taking classes? Why aren’t there options, starting at a younger age, that enable you to only take classes that pertain to what you want to do? Forgive me, but doesn’t public education take you out of the realm of reality? For example, I know a woman who went to school for nursing, and was forced to take classes that are irrelevant to her profession. Then, after she graduated and was hired, she actually learned to do her job. What were all those classes for? Perhaps to generate money for colleges, departments, professors, textbook companies, etc.?
Today, public schools discourage being unique. You’re probably thinking, “Hey, that’s a bold statement, you better back it up with good evidence.” Consider this—your kid is the type who enjoys joking around a little bit more than most other kids. He isn’t harmful to others. He just enjoys fooling around more than others. Today, that’s considered to be “unacceptable,” all on the basis of, “He is too hyper—he needs to calm down.” This example may not seem like a big problem to some parents. However, some parents fail to see the writing on the wall. What teachers are really saying is, “He needs to be just like everyone else—he can’t be too different.” In other words, let’s make everyone the same. This shouldn’t be a surprise to parents, because this has been the goal of public education for a long time: take every culture, tongue, and people—mix them together, make them the same, and make them good workers. However, time has shown us this doesn’t work, because you can’t force cultures together, tell them to get along, and expect everything to be joyous. When you force people to get along with other people—trying to make everyone the same—you get bad results. This has happened with public education. Don’t enable teachers to take away your child’s uniqueness. Remember, uniqueness is extraordinary, don’t let it go to waste.
Finally, students in public schools rarely have beneficial real life experiences, and they aren’t allowed to be unique. Public education is also dangerous for those who really want to learn because they are robbed of time and resources by the bad kids who are not there to learn. Consider what you learned in public school. How much of it do you really use in your life?
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