Eleven District 150 schools will split $1.3 million earmarked for underprivileged students under a plan still being finalized by school officials.
Okay, remember those numbers: 11, $1.3 million.
But the plan, nearly doubling the number of schools designated as Title I, comes at a cost to 13 other schools within the district already receiving the grants.
Ah, so 13 other schools already receive Title 1 funding. If we take that number, plus the aforementioned 11 schools that will be added, we come up with 24 schools total. Got it.
Despite the district increasing the number of Title I schools from 15 to 24, it won’t receive any additional money.
Wait a minute. Now they’re saying 15 schools already receive Title I funding, but the total is still only going to be 24, which is an increase of 9. This must be a typo; I’m sure they meant to say “from 13 to 24.” Maybe the editor will catch it before the paper copy goes to press.
Essentially, it would redistribute the same $7.5 million it receives annually.
What? How did we get from $1.3 million to $7.5 million? From the article, it appears the $7.5 million is the total funding District 150 gets, and of that amount, $1.3 million is going to be going to the 11 additional schools. But how is that figured? How did they arrive at that number?
Enrollment at the 13 additional schools represents a combined 5,000 students.
I thought it was 11 additional schools. Thirteen was the number of schools “already receiving the grants,” wasn’t it? This is so confusing!
Of the little more than $7.5 million District 150 receives, $2.2 million is set aside for pre-school, $755,000 for professional development, $75,500 for parental involvement and $255,000 for administrative needs. The remaining $3.5 million goes directly to the schools.
$2.2 million, plus $755,000, plus $75,500, plus $255,000, plus $3.5 million equals $6,785,500. Where does the other “little more than” $714,500 go? That ain’t chump change, especially on an annual basis!
Not being factored in is some $4.4 million in federal stimulus money headed for Title I programs at District 150.
Good, because none of the other numbers are adding up anyway. Does anybody at 1 News Plaza have a calculator?
I have repeated suggested vouchers and real free market education. I have suggested taking the bureaucracy out of public education and allowing parents and students the choice where and what to learn. If they want to learn a trade, fine. But give them the choice where and when to spend their money. I have repeatedly suggested that school boards and administrators are the problem… not the parents and children. Children learn because they want to, not because they are forced to or trained with rewards and punishments. Desire to learn is the first instinct we develop and the first one schools destroy.
The needs of NO students can be met in a classroom run by bureaucrats. As I repeated have said, the only students that do well in school are those that would do well ANYWHERE.
Lesson plans ARE the problem. Curriculum IS the problem. Classrooms are the problem.
Indoctrination is not education. Training is not education. Education comes from drawing wisdom OUT of the student, not by putting it in.
OK, it never became just a job for you… I apologize for suggesting such a thing.
“I did say that I can’t teach any of them effectively when discipline problems continue to be ignored”
Discipline problems? Blaming the victims? They are “discipline problems” because they don’t want to be there. They are discipline problems because the schools aren’t meeting their needs… society isn’t meeting their needs. As anyone who has ever done family counseling knows, it is the one acting out that is honestly responding to the problem, not the ones fitting in. The ones maintaining the status quo are in denial.
So, if someone is to grow up and become an accountant, someone along the way needs to draw out of the child his knowledge of debits and credits? A car mechanic just needs someone to draw out of him the ability to fix my brakes? The five and six year olds in kindergarten have the ability to rewire my house if only teachpia could draw it out of them?!?
If kcdad were to be called into his supervisor’s office and he flipped him off and then told him to do something inappropriate with some part of his body, would he continue to have a job? What if he had a single parent home and his “mom” was really an aunt who didn’t really have the time to do anything with him during his first five years. He shows up at school with very few verbal and social skills. His teacher is able to talk to him about appropriate behavior and he begins to stop telling people to shut the hell up or something equally inappropriate. He learns to work together with other children instead of running away or hitting them. Along the way, he also learns his ABC’s and 123’s. Now, he may be behind someone from Dunlap or Metamora but he has learned that someone can love him and he can sit in a chair for longer than two minutes. These children need to learn how to get along with each other. They need to learn there are things you can’t do in social settings. Things like flipping off other people or saying nasty little things they’ve heard at home. If the knowledge is in the child, why does he not have the ability to write his name when he gets to kindergarten and when he leaves teachpia’s room, he does have that ability. You are telling me she didn’t teach him anything?!?!?!??!?
teachpia states “Contrary to what you might think – there IS a lot of educating going on in many District 150 classrooms.” I wholeheartedly agree and have always felt that the District and the PJS do an abysmal job of communicating this.
Every Spring, I wait anxiously for the publication of the area Top 10 High School Graduates. I love to read about where the students are attending college and their study plans. One measure of a high school’s performance is the caliber of university its graduates attend. Hands down, District 150 Top Ten graduates out shine the other area schools, and yet, year in and year out, no recognition of this is given.
Richwoods Top Ten are attending Williams College (#1 liberal arts college in U.S.), MIT, Stanford, and Washington University. Central has a grad attending Northwestern and Purdue engineering. Woodruff has a graduate attending Howard University. All three of these high schools have graduates attending the University of Illinois, which is highly selective as well. On the whole, the profiles of the graduates for each of these Peoria schools, is much more impressive than those of the surrounding communities that were published.
Unfortunately, the detail of Dunlap’s Top Ten was not published nor Metamora. The only other school coming close was Pekin, of which one of its graduates was accepted to Harvard and another is to attend Princeton.
So, bottom line, a fine education can still be had at District 150, regardless of the perception that is out there and the propaganda that many seem more than pleased to perpetuate.
kcdad offers this nugget:
“Training is not education. Education comes from drawing wisdom OUT of the student, not by putting it in”
Yeah. I’m sure Socrates would agree, what with all the wisdom there is in those to be educated.
I get what you’re saying, believe it or not, but training and educating are two different things. Secondly, to fix your semantics problem, I would state education comes from helping the student find relevance in the material.
Frustrated – Appreciate your comments. It seems you truly understand what it takes to educate a young child, show them their possibilities and encourage them to become all they can be. This time of year it’s common to look back and try to recall your students at the beginning of the year and reflect upon their growth throughout the year. There are so many areas of growth that may not be reflected on our infamous ISAT test. Just tonight I was telling my husband about the level of maturity that my students have reached, how their social skills have grown and how curious they have become about their world this year. This is just one more reason why I love my job.
kcdad: “Teachers do well with students that would do well on their own or with only a book and a peer beside them. Teachers don’t do very well with the students that really need them. ”
This is quite a broad statement and you seem to think you know it all when it comes to a wide variety of students. In my room this year I had a student with very little support at home. He came to my room not knowing how to write his name, serious communication/speech issues, low self esteem, and no pre-school experience. With constant support and encouragement, he is now a more confident student who has made great gains this year. I had another student whose own parent couldn’t think of anything “special” about her son when the year started … pretty pathetic, in my opinion. After spending the year building this child up and showing him he was worth something, he blossomed by year’s end. Several conferences with mom throughout the year, and she is finally beginning to believe her son has some special qualities. Never thought I’d have to teach a parent what was special about her son, but I did. We never gave up, and in the end, it paid off.
So much for “Teachers who don’t do very well with students that really need them.” You really shouldn’t make such broad statements. You insult the profession and those of us who work hard each and every day. I suppose there are some teachers who prefer to work only with those who excel – but that is the minority in my experience.
ERIK BUSH: “Yeah. I’m sure Socrates would agree, what with all the wisdom there is in those to be educated.”
And there you have it from an adviser to our district’s woes…
THOSE kids are stupid and only WE can save them. You are wrong Erik, and I suggest you go back to accounting or where ever you came from.
” I would state education comes from helping the student find relevance in the material.”
Why isn’t education finding material relevant to the student???
teachingrocks: is that what you are spending 15,000 a year per student for? To teach some one a job skill? Is that what you think schools are for? You can do that is 30 days on the job training.
OY VEY!
teachingrocks:
“If kcdad were to be called into his supervisor’s office and he flipped him off and then told him to do something inappropriate with some part of his body, would he continue to have a job?”
So far I still do. What is your point? If my boss is worthless bureaucrat that can’t find his way in to a classroom and yet is setting department policy… how do you suggest I communicate with him? How much ass-kissing would you do?
Unlike you, I don’t think life is about “a job”. I think there is more to life, more to education and certainly more to our kids than”a job”.
Frustrated: “So, bottom line, a fine education can still be had at District 150, regardless of the perception that is out there and the propaganda that many seem more than pleased to perpetuate.”
ridiculous and unacceptable…
the fact that a small percentage of kids from district 150 and other central illinois schools go to college is NO indication of the districts might prowess. Those kids would be going to college and probably be done already if they had been home schooled. You measure an organization by its failures, not its successes. You look at the 40% drop out rate…not the 10% go on to some big name college rate. (By your figures more like a 1% go to big name college rate)
teachpia: “You insult the profession”
yes… the profession. (Tell me how “professional” you are. Who sets your schedule? Who does your paperwork? Who does your research? Who selects your students? Who sets curriculum?)
I know there are teachers out there who try very hard to make a difference in students’ lives. I also know that THAT KIND of teacher doesn’t last long in the SYSTEM. The profession wants machines, not people. They want worker/citizen cookie cutters not educators.
For every anecdotal story you can tell, I can find dozens more about kids the system fails… the drop outs, the kick outs, the stigmatized and tracked. Schools should be about all the kids… not just the “chosen” few.
kcdad
normally, i wouldn’t respond directly to an anonymous blogger who spews so much venom, but really…do you not see how ridiculous you come across?
you’re anger and cynicism are a fool’s way. you are so blinded by trying to paint everything so negatively you can’t even see when someone vaguely agrees with you. do you not understand what the “socratic method” is…?
you’ve been rejected by the district (your own words) so all you do in post after post is use your words to tear it down. great. cool. nice that cj allows you the forum. i will note that at the end of the day, though, you’re really nothing more than an intentional source of white noise trying to piss those off around you so you feel more comfortable in your anger.
yeah, i want to surround myself with that kind of person.
kdad- I couldn’t agree more with erik bush … you’re obviously angry and bitter. I’m just grateful you DON’T teach the children in our district. I’m fortunate to work with a great group of professionals that put kids first EVERY day despite what you think. I feel sorry for you …
Thumbs up to erik and teachpia.
Erik: don’t be so disingenuous…”Yeah. I’m sure Socrates would agree, what with all the wisdom there is in those to be educated.” is not agreeing with me even “vaguely”… you were being sarcastic and condescending. But thank you, anyway. I think it proved my point about your interests.
Rejected by District 150 is much less an insult than being rejected by a leper colony… except for the $80,000 a year I could have been making for doing nothing.
teachpia: I do teach the children of the district… I get them after the district has failed them… I try and put some critical thinking skills and curiosity back into their worn out heads.
“Kids first”… that is a billboard slogan, not a reality.
What you obviously don’t understand is that I believe in education.. that is why I do it… not for the money nor the praise. You think, however, that the schools and administration have something to do with education… YOU ARE WRONG. they are stand in the way of teachers, students and parents.
What I am angry and bitter about is people who get rich promising all kinds of education when in reality they are wasting time money and space doing nothing. Yes I said rich. If you get paid more than $40,000 a year you are in the top 25% of income earners in this country. For a plumber or construction worker who actually creates or builds something I can understand it, but for a teacher or administrator that pats themselves on the back when anywhere from 1/4 – 2/5 of their charges are left behind to fail and they call that success… well… let’s just say I expect more from highly educated professionals.
You wonder why so many fail… they don’t! Students don’t fail… schools fail. Teachers fail. Curriculums fail. Come teachpia, you are teacher… be honest… when a student doesn’t do well in your class, don’t you ever wonder what YOU did wrong? Of course, you should. Your job is not to impart information, but to create interest, curiosity and a desire to learn… not force feed the goslings to make your pate de foi grois.
If going to school is about getting a job… I think the schools are doing a WONDERFUL job… we got Walmart, Sears, Penny’s, restaurants and all kind of businesses looking for minimum wage workers… the schools are doing a great job of providing them.
After all, there are only so many doctor, accountant and engineer jobs available. Doesn’t seem a little disingenuous to talk about the promise of our economy when you KNOW that 50% of the students you are telling this to are going to be poor? (Right now 50% of the WORKING population earns less than $20,000 a year… The Federal Poverty Rate is around $19,000 and minimum wage pays about $16,000)
Oh yeah… “but some do real well”… SOME? 30% or so go to college, most don’t complete their second year.
(Jay P. Greene, Ph.D. Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research Marcus A. Winters Research Associate, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research )
“Nationally, the percentage of all students who left high school with the skills and qualifications necessary to attend college increased from 25% in 1991 to 34% in 2002.”
How many of those would go to college anyway without a public education?
teachingrocks, what do agree with them about? That I am angry or that I am wrong?
I don’t see any stats or data suggesting the schools are being successful. I don’t hear any wonderful stories about “how 12 years of public education made me a better human being”…
What I do see, is “well, we got all this money and we can’t seem to make a difference. It must be the parents’ fault or the students’ or the curriculum’s or NCLB’s or the building or … or … or… anyone but MY FAULT.”
My point wasn’t about getting a job. It was about knowing how to interact with other human beings. Unfortunately, a lot of our students come to us without those skills. I want my students to understand the world is bigger than they are and they can make a difference. I want them to understand they are important beings on this Earth with the power to change things if they make an effort. I want them to want better for themselves than what they have now. I want them to find the positive in situations and work on fixing the negatives. I want them to grow up and not be kcdad.
kcdad: Do you feel like there was ever a time in history that public education wasn’t a failure?
kcdad – I am sorry, but what is your point? Not every child that enters the public education system is going to be able to attend college for a whole host of reasons, especially in a school district like 150. How does that make the teachers failures?
Your solution is vouchers, right? What a bunch of political poppycock! Just what private or parochial school do you think is going to take all these challenged learners? Most private schools do not even employ resource teachers to offer special services to those that need them. Some of these kids could come with 3 vouchers in their hands and they would be turned away by private schools.
Oh, I know, you are all in for homeschooling. Have you read the typical family profile of a homeschooled child? Most are middle income, two parent families, with college educated parents, in which one parents stays at home and educates the children. Sounds so much like the typical District 150 family, right?
Kcdad has made me realize something about my own complaints about the district. Of late, I have tended (more than tended) to focus on what is wrong with the district. I still believe there is much wrong with the district. But, contrary to what Kcdad thinks(?), many teachers in the district are the unsung heroes. It’s the little things that happen in classrooms everyday–things that teachers never get credit for because they don’t go around tooting their own horns. The sad part is that even District 150 administrators do not acknowledge (or even believe) that these good things happen daily. Everyone is too focused on the NCLB status of each school–no one can see the “trees” for the “forest.” Much of what teachers do and students learn cannot be measured by any tests–but there is success, nevertheless. Of course, teachers make a difference in the lives of individual students. Of course, we lose many more than we wanted to lose. I can think of many–but, at least, 10 students come to mind right now–students that I really loved and they knew it. However, so many things (not school) went wrong in their lives that they ended up in prison or died early deaths due to gang violence or drugs. The great thing is that Kcdad is really not our judge and jury. Amazingly, there are times when Kcdad does agree with many of us and vice versa–so there is probably room for dialogue, but I think we’ve tread this same ground long enough and we no longer need to defend ourselves against his ridiculous accusations. I will let my students judge me any day–whether they liked me or didn’t like me–their judgments are still fairer because they spent many hours with me.
kcdad
i love you. don’t ever change.
just because i was being sarcastic didn’t mean i didn’t agree, sort of. your statement was semantically challenged in my mind.
i operate from the premise that wisdom is the application of knowledge gained through tested observation. if you see condescension in that, so be it.
have a wonderful day. it’s awesome out. we’re headed off to the contemporary arts center.
kcdad–I agree with what I’ve read of your educational philosophy. If you were homeschooling your children (let’s say they’re elementary school age), what would your typical day look like?
kcdad: Do you feel like there was ever a time in history that public education wasn’t a failure?
Often. Especially when it was created to socialize immigrants into the workforce. Unfortunately, the same pedagogy for immigrants is being used on our children.
Frustrated: “Your solution is vouchers, right? What a bunch of political poppycock! Just what private or parochial school do you think is going to take all these challenged learners?”
The ones getting paid for it and who risk losing that money. Duh.
“Sounds so much like the typical District 150 family, right?” No. All those families have already left the District. Why do you suppose there are not many two parent/one working/one at home families in the district? Can’t be because of our predatory and oppressive minimum wage economy could it?
Sharon: “many teachers in the district are the unsung heroes” I don’t disagree with that at all… why are they unsung? Why isn’t the district recognizing these heroes?
Thanks Erik. We will probably continue to disagree about wisdom… I think it is the ability to see truth where there is little, confusing and or no facts. It is the ability to draw from a wide range of experiences and knowledge to come up with new visions, solutions and ideas. THAT is what I think we should be teaching our students. That is what Dewey promoted, that is what all wisdom is directed toward… the future, not the past. We should be, but are not, teaching for the future… instead we are teaching to maintain and continue the past traditions. (Economics, politics, technology, consumerism, natural resources, religion, etc)
Janel: Depending upon the day… whatever I could find my child was interested in… take a look at Albany Free School…
http://albanyfreeschool.com/testing/about+the+free+school
Whatever I did it would be a lot of hands on activities, outdoor, colors, numbers, words… ideas, questions, make believe, conversations, songs, games, meeting neighbors and strangers.. play… lots of play.
I’m stealing this idea from another teacher. He has long said that schools should be judged by what students do after graduation. If we could just find a way to get that information ten years after students graduate, we would know how the education system is doing. Today that same teacher is taking a group of his high school students fishing. It isn’t a club or any kind of extra-curricular activity. He doesn’t get paid for spending Sunday with students. That’s just an example of the little extras that 150 teachers provide all the time.
Kcdad: All those things are what parents should be doing all the time–at night and on weekends and all summer with their kids–that’s not homeschooling. I do some or all of those things with my “borrowed” grandchildren every time I see them–so do their parents and older sister (the same way she was taught). Schools can never be and have never been the sole provider of a child’s education. I received much of my education (certainly socialization) at church, in Sunday School, Bible School, etc.
kcdad: That’s what I thought you’d say. You remind me of a modern day John Holt. Have you read any of his work?
Sharon: People homeschool in different ways, and the kind that kcdad described is one form of homeschooling, often called unschooling.
@ kcdad:
You are a pill but a very necessary additive to these blogs. I appreciate you and your passion for education. The dialogue you are opening up is necessary.
The common theme here appears to be that children and parents need to be reached earlier – pre-k. That is something we can focus on – a place we can make a real difference. Let’s do that.
Jane: A rose by any other name…. What Kcdad described is mostly what should happen at home before children enter school and also during the preschool and kindergarten years. I have also observed those things being taught in the S.T.A.R.R. pre-school program in 150. Things get a bit more complicated starting with 1st grade, right? Also, what he describes is fairly traditional fare. Kcdad makes it sound as though he has a whole new curricula in mind–I was hoping to find out what his ideal subject-matter is for middle school and high school students–and how it would differ from what is taught in public schools now.
Of course, I agree that more courses (electives) should be offered to meet the needs of more students. Before 150 went to a 6-hour school day for high school, many more electives were offered besides but including industrial arts and home economics. Whitaker’s mantra was “Back to basics.” Well, that’s all 150 is left with–watered down basics, at that. 150 went backward instead of forward. Kcdad, do you think those industrial arts courses were meant to prepare kids for the factory system? Just exactly–other than maybe the rigid time schedule–would indicate that that kind of preparation is what is going on today? Kcdad believes that kids aren’t taught to think for themselves in public school. I don’t think he’s right, but that’s a hard one to prove–and would vary from teacher to teacher. Even the system can’t keep teachers from presenting their own philosophies, etc., to students to consider. Here I am again having dialogue with Kcdad. He is a good devil’s advocate and makes us all think about our own philosophies of education, etc.–to defend or discard. That’s a good thing.
Emerge: We were composing at the same time and, amazingly enough, my last sentence presents the same sentiment as your last post.
Sharon: “All those things are what parents should be doing all the time–at night and on weekends and all summer with their kids–”
Why? Because that is what it takes to get kids interested in learning? So why aren’t the schools doing that?
Thanks Janel, and Emerge. Thank you for seeing the truth behind my rantings. I just read an aticle today: Before entering kindergarten children in the highest socio-economic groups have cognitive scores that are 60% above the average for children in the lowest socio-economic group. Low income 3rd graders have a vocabulary of 4000 words compared to 12,000 for middle income kids.
Those who do well in school do well because they are prepared to do well … ANYWHERE. Why should we have to “prepare” our kids for 13 years of public education?
So yes, I see pre-k as a place to better prepare kids as one way of dealing with an ineffective school system (i.e. make the kids “school proof”) OR change our thinking about schools are supposed to do.
Janel: I will immediately read Freedom and Beyond and Instead of Education: Ways to Help People Do Things Better. They look right up my alley. (I hope I can download them…) I have been reading this article :”WHAT’S WRONG WITH TEACHERS?”
[JH:] The cover story of US News and World Report, 3/14/83… FASCINATING
http://www.holtgws.com/gws32p.5of13.html
Thanks again. Maybe I am not such a nut case after all.
Janel: I thought the name sounded familiar.. I have How Children Learn in my collection already. GREAT BOOK.
No, Kcdad, that’s what it takes to be a good parent. What I really want is for you and all those who write things like “What’s wrong with teachers” to get into classrooms, even if you have to start your own schools. Then I want you to get into classrooms with the struggling, misbehaving students (not the ones whose parents prepared them for school). Then–don’t write about your experiences–let us come and watch you teach every day for a semester. Then we can judge your methods, and your successes and failures.
in loco parentis… remember? That is the role of the school. Too many parents don’t know how to be parents… that why there are schools.
You are welcome to watch me teach ANYTIME. Just ask Eyebrows how to get a hold of me. Do you want to read some of my teacher evals from my students?
Kcdad: Well, this is scary, I am starting to agree with you but still don’t understand your point.
Your stats about the variety of learners entering school. I agree. I don’t think my familiy falls into the highest
socio-economic group, but my children were able to read, write, and add simple numbers before they entered kindergarten, SO . . . kindergarten and to some degree first grade was a big waste of time. I advocate more ability grouping or breakout groups within the classroom for reading and math. What is your solution?
I agree that many strong families have left the District and that is a major part of the District’s demise. I advocate for the develop of a MST charter school, vocational education, and a selective college prep high school in order to entice these families back into the fold. What are your solutions?
Sharon: in my last class I had a convicted murderer, drug addict, armed robber, a couple of drug dealers and a rape victim… we talked about Chekov’s The Bet, Prejean’s Dead Man Walking and capital punishment… not planned but highly educational. So I lost a day of lecture about something out of the text…. it was something THEY, the students wanted to talk about. They just volunteered their criminal histories.
That’s what my 43 students needed to learn that day… last year I had a radio “talent” in class to talk about advertising and responsibility of the commercial stations to the community…
Frustrated.. look again … the first stat is about highest income kids as a contrast, but the second one states that even middle income kids have 3 times the vocabulary… which in elementary school translates as 3 times the intelligence.
My solution… put me in charge. Pay me $250,000 a year with a guaranteed 10 year contract and a no fire clause… and then I won’t do anything.
Seriously. We need to to properly educate teachers to be able to educate children. There are studies upon studies about teachers being the lowest achieving students in both high school and college. Teacher score lower than any other professionals on basic skills tests…unfortunately the maxim is too often true… “Those that can’t do, teach”. Right now we train teacher to control students… and students rebel against being controlled… what a surprise. Half of my teacher certification courses were about classroom management and other logistical expertise… 1/4 was technical stuff like AV and Computers, and 1/4 was teaching methods. ONLY ONE CLASS was teaching reading, ONLY ONE CLASS was Social Science Methods. ONLY ONE CLASS outside of the methods classes made any sense or seemed useful to me as a prospective teacher and that was the one in which we read Teacher Effective Training by Thomas Gordon…
What can you or I do before next Tuesday? Start thinking about schools and not how to fix them, but think about if they didn’t exist at all… what kind of system for educating our youth would you invent from the ground up? And then do it. Start all over. Give parents vouchers and provide them some information on how to choose a school. Close whatever schools can’t afford to stay open, and give them to the teachers who want to educate free, independent and community minded young people.
I tell you… for $15,000 per student or even $5000 per student… or even $1000 per student I can provide a well rounded freedom loving, community aware young person ready to enter society.
How many teachers would give up the school system to earn $5000 a month to teach 5 students? Or if you are really confident, $10,000 a month to teach 10 students.
I dont know much about Socrates and alot of the theories on teaching and such. I just did to my kids what my mom did to me……….give me the tools to be able to learn before I attended and while I attended school (Bartonville), teach respect, support my learning process. I tried to do the same to my 2 boys, both D150. One has graduated and one will graduate this year. And to be honest I am glad to be done w/ 150………..I think things started to stink w/ the hiring of K Royster…what a phony person she is……and then the best they can do is K Hinton? Was he even qualified for the job?
I also believe teachers should live in the district that pays their salary, or at least the same city. I know that is probably not feasible and would open a big can of worms…but that is what I believe.
just rambling…………
Sharon: Why do things have to get more complicated starting with 1st grade?
kcdad: I love that book too, and ALL books by John Holt. Also check out Raymond & Dorothy Moore, especially “Better Late Than Early”. I don’t think you’re a nut case at all. Swimming upstream and doing things differently than everyone else can make you feel isolated and like a nut case, but the wide road is not always the best.
A few of my favorite quotes on the subject of education:
“Nine tenths of education is encouragement.”
–Anatole France
“To keep alive the spark of curiosity and the natural love of learning with which all children are born.”
–Bill Greer
“There’s been no delineation in our family between “learning” and “living.” As we live, we learn. It’s as simple as that.”
–Mark & Helen Hegener”
“An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t. It’s knowing where to go to find out what you need to know; and it’s knowing how to use the information once you get it.”
–William Feather
kcdad – Why don’t you simply start a home school with parents paying you to “home school” their children? Local parochial school averages around $300 a month or so. 20 kids= $6000 per month. Add a few more and hire another teacher/assistant to help out.
The district has to certify you… I believe that is right, anyway.
It isn’t about money… don’t you get that? It is about the future of our world. I hate to sound dramatic but look at what our education system is putting out right now… greedy selfish scared narcissists.
Janel… can we run away????
Janel & Kcdad: Janel, you’re new to the blog, so I don’t know whether or not you are presently a teacher or if you have ever been in a classroom. I have no objectipn at all to the two of you starting your own school–do it already. Kcdad, I think it’s great that you have the kind of freedom in your classroom to do whatever you want to do–District 150 teachers don’t officially have that freedom, but many of us exercised it anyway, at least, on occasion and when appropriate. Kcdad, I’m sure that I can match you in terms of how many students I taught that eventually ended up with the same kinds of criminal records as those in your classes. Especially, 20 to 30 years ago, in the classroom these kids were often indistinguishable from the more law-abiding kids. They often were some of the brightest. In the later years of my career, a few of them were much more hardened criminals already. One sophomore who destroyed my classroom every time he walked in (and the deans, etc., kept sending him back no matter how bad his behavior) is probably on his way for a long stint in prison on a recent armed robbery charge. I still maintain, Kcdad, that your students at ICC still need classes that will help them make a living–not sure yours will. However, you are right that some subject matter should just be for the purpose of making students better people. (And success at that goal is even harder to measure). That’s one of the reasons I loved to teach literature–what better way to introduce philosophical questions, discussions, etc. The ideas about education that you have presented are wonderful (and sound a bit unrealistic to me), but until you both put all your theories into action, they are just that untried “theories.” You alluded to the old saying, “those who can do, those who can’t do teacher, and those who can’t teach teach teachers.” Also, I agree that most college education methods classes are useless. Too often teachers spend too much time learning how to teach instead of getting an education for themselves. I agree the system of educating teachers does need to change.
Sharon: Yes, I am currently a teacher, and I have already started my own school, so I am putting my theories into action. I don’t claim to have it all together, but I’m doing what I believe is right. My students amaze me, and I have learned more in the last 7 years of teaching them than in all my 12 years of public education. Actually I don’t “teach” them so much as I just watch them learn and facilitate when asked.
Janel, just read a quick excerpt from “Better Late than Early Homeschooling for Success How Parents can Create a Superior Education for their Child ”
Just a thought, all parents don’t have the wherewithal to “create a superior education for their child”. Does not mean that as a result those children should languish in inadequate pre-school programs, or even worse be in homes where there is no positive social interaction; no music to stimulate them; no garden to learn in; no materials for art; or no one to read to them? These children are the most vulnerable. The public education system needs to reach them AND their parents sooner rather than later.
REVISED
Janel, just read a quick excerpt from “Better Late than Early Homeschooling for Success How Parents can Create a Superior Education for their Child ”
Just a thought, all parents don’t have the wherewithal to “create a superior education for their child”. Does that mean that as a result those children should languish in inadequate pre-school programs, or even worse be in homes where there is no positive social interaction; no music to stimulate them; no garden to learn in; no materials for art; or no one to read to them? These children are the most vulnerable. The public education system needs to reach them AND their parents sooner rather than later.
Janel: Almost any methods will work with bright, “hand-picked” kids in a small intimate classroom. The challenges of the public school are much greater–and the same techniques probably won’t work in two such different settings. When I asked you and Kcdad to try out your theories, I didn’t mean in “ideal” settings. Yes, Emerge, just yesterday I gave the 6-year-old and 4-year-old in my life some construction paper and glitter glue and they were in 7th heaven for a couple of hours. And I realized that many children do not regularly get such items (small though they seem) to try out their creative talents.
Emerge: That is actually a different book. I was talking about “Better Late than Early” by Raymond & Dorothy Moore. I’m not interested in “creating a superior education” for my children, in the way most people define education.
Nevertheless, your point remains the same, and it’s a good one. I don’t know what to do about all the children in the world. All I’m doing is what I think is best for my children for whom I’ve been given responsibility.
Janel – Good for you! And it sounds like you are just the kind of educated mother that can deliver the goods.
I have read a lot about “unschooling” but it seems the children/families that are the subject of such articles are highly educated families whose homes are stimulating — filled with books, music, art, etc. They also appear in these articles to be the type of families that engage in all the cultural and recreational activities their communities have to offer. So, it is not hard to imagine that bright children living in such environments can progress at home the first few years of schools, as well or better, than in a structured classroom. BUT, that is SOo o o o not the environment in which many children in District 150 exist. Even the District’s families that are providing a solid home and family life for their children are doing so as dual-career or single-parent families, so even these families rely on the services the public school offers to make their lives workable.
Emerge is on target that there needs to be a better “marriage” between early childhood education offered in Peoria and the District.
Sharon: I think you misunderstood…”I’m sure that I can match you in terms of how many students I taught that eventually ended up with the same kinds of criminal records as those in your classes.”
My students are normal everyday students ranging in age from 18-45 and in the course of our discussions found out that within their midst of “normal” people, there were half a dozen or so with criminal records, another half dozen or so that were victims of violent crimes, divorced, abused, abandoned by their parents, drug users, addicts, etc… These are REAL people… not delinquents, not weirdos. It is the same in elementary sand high school… there are “deviants” everywhere. Some deviants are straight A teacher pets and others are flunk outs, drop outs or kick outs.
“I still maintain, Kcdad, that your students at ICC still need classes that will help them make a living” … and why do think that is the school’s job? Why should the school be doing the economy’s bidding? In order to do that, school HAVE to teach Capitalism as THE WAY. Shouldn’t the needs of the individual dictate whether or not they work and “earn a living”?
Jim: Your, FOS (friends of Sharon’s ) have already tried to suggest that a personal e-mail I shared in response to a question was somehow “negotiating in public” and worthy of a “unfair labor practice lawsuit”.
I have been bothered by this accusation that I shared information that you wrote to me privately–I have always tried not to do that, so I retraced some steps. I was not the source of any remark that might have asked teachers to take a reduction in pay. Evidently, you speak to others besides me. Our arguments–which you have presented on the blog–have been about teachers’ working hours.
Kcdad: I have never heard anyone suggest that public education (or any education) should not, in part, provide preparation (knowledge and/or training) that will eventually lead to finding a career, employment, etc. Certainly, I believe the true education of an individual should go beyond the utilitarian–hence, my belief that the teaching of literature is important for all students, not just those planning to be English teachers. Also, your arguments might be one of my reasons for objecting to the Johns Hopkins program at Manual–that is labeled as “pathways to careers.” I believe that the education of high school students, especially at the 9th and 10th grade levels, should not be career specific. However, at ICC and at 4-year colleges, students should be gearing some or most of their studies toward a field of employment.