The Prez Speaking To School Kids

[Arab Nights (imported)]

This post has nothing to do with showing/not showing the Prez's speech (sorry about that), but about some of the comments about education.

Back during the last boom, I had a couple of possibilities for working in places where the kid's education would have been a major consideration. None ever panned out, but in the process we went thru the decision tree. Home schooling was an option. At first I was not in favor of that because I am not like the people who home school in the US However, after chatting people on the 1.5 hour van ride to the airport sitting around at gates, I changed my opinion. As one guy said, he home schooled his because when he was a kid his sister had broken her pelvis and was out for a long time healing. Their parents had hired a home teacher for her. When she was finally ready to go back to school, she had jumped a grade in abilities and that was with (from memory I think it was 4 or 5) hours daily tutoring. He said that if you think about it, a kid is in school for something like 8 to 3. If you take out all the time herding the cats and going at a pace that no kid is left behind, how much actual time is there for teaching. Mentoring is one on one and the time is focused. That seems fair enough. So I changed my mind and we were ready to go, as long as it was not for too many years. All the chaos and social interaction is still a part of growing up and I would not want my kids to miss having to deal with that.

[Dave (imported)]

This post has nothing to do with showing/not showing the Prez's speech (sorry about that), but about some of the comments about education.

Back during the last boom, I had a couple of possibilities for working in places where the kid's education would have been a major consideration. None ever panned out, but in the process we went thru the decision tree. Home schooling was an option. At first I was not in favor of that because I am not like the people who home school in the US However, after chatting people on the 1.5 hour van ride to the airport sitting around at gates, I changed my opinion. As one guy said, he home schooled his because when he was a kid his sister had broken her pelvis and was out for a long time healing. Their parents had hired a home teacher for her. When she was finally ready to go back to school, she had jumped a grade in abilities and that was with (from memory I think it was 4 or 5) hours daily tutoring. He said that if you think about it, a kid is in school for something like 8 to 3. If you take out all the time herding the cats and going at a pace that no kid is left behind, how much actual time is there for teaching. Mentoring is one on one and the time is focused. That seems fair enough. So I changed my mind and we were ready to go, as long as it was not for too many years. All the chaos and social interaction is still a part of growing up and I would not want my kids to miss having to deal with that.

I've had to help with Home Schooling and I do not have the temperment of a teacher to go for six to eight hours a day -- planning and teaching. Yes, you have to plan the lessons. Even if you have a teachers guide for the text book, you have to understand it ahead of time.

Home Schooling is easy for everyone for the first four, five or six years. That's because it is reading, writing, literature, history and basic math. Then science ad symbolic math (like algebra, trigonometry and statistics) rears it's head and that involves a different level of understanding. Even if you understand science and math, you have to break it down into components and teach the basics. Otherwise, most science becomes the equivalent of Shakespeare being taught to second grade. That's when home schooling hits a wall. Many parents join in groups so that the one parent good enough to understand how to teach mathematics and science can teach all of the kids.

I did mathematics for a neighbor kid and he never did figure it out until he was in one of the Arts Schools and they reviewed algebra. He came over and told me he finally understood symbolic math (like algebra and differential equations).

In Pennsylvania, we needed a huge binder of all the lessons, the coursework and the evidence that a kid did the work. That was tedious and time-consuming to keep but a good lesson in organization for the kid. I spent one year of Saturday mornings reading a history text chapter by chapter, paragraph by paragraph and writing out the daily lesson plans complete with questions to help her understand then giving it to my relative (16 or 17 y/o) for the next week.

As for English Literature. We needed three days to make it through MacBeth from beginning to end. I collected thirty poems for the kid to read and I had commentary on each one. The dame with novels. I had to read them first (Even if I had already read them. you need to have it in your mind and at your finger tips)...

That's all work. If you can do it, good for you. But that what you pay taxes to the school district for the teachers to do...

[Slammr (imported)]

Dang I thought obama was going to save this country not make every one mad.

This is not about Obama making people mad, it's about MAD Republicans being more interested in shooting down Obama than they are about saving the country. They don't care if they destroy the country as long as Obama goes down with it.

They don't care that no fix for Heath Care is going to ruin the country as long as not having a fix ruins the Democrats and Obama.

[Arab Nights (imported)]

Thanks for your comments, Dave. As we all know, everything has tanked and opportunities slammed shut as of last fall. I appreciate your comment about the early years being easiest and they get tougher as the level rises. I am now in the position where I should be the one to get the card next Mother's Day. It seems in the past year that helping them thru their homework is disproportionately more time consuming - which is a good thing. But I know what I spend on homework and I can just imagine spending time on top of that to prepare and then to teach. My feeling is that your comment is spot on.

[gareth19 (imported)]

This is not about Obama making people mad, it's about MAD Republicans being more interested in shooting down Obama than they are about saving the country. They don't care if they destroy the country as long as Obama goes down with it.

They don't care that no fix for Heath Care is going to ruin the country as long as not having a fix ruins the Democrats and Obama.

But the kids did learn a valuable lesson, contempt for the presidency and contempt for the United States. It is a perfect example of the the neo-fascists' willingness to destroy instead of compromise or construct.

Eventually, they will either totally destroy the United States or vanish as a political party and remain only as a psychological aberration.

[chilliwilli (imported)]

Children need to enjoy learning and take interest in the world around them. If that means the President speaking directly to them great. Wasn't Bush with an elementry class when they blew up the trade centers?

Besides my computer knows more than your Princeton grad anyway!

get over it.

chilli-

[Riverwind (imported)]

This is not about Obama making people mad, it's about MAD Republicans being more interested in shooting down Obama than they are about saving the country. They don't care if they destroy the country as long as Obama goes down with it.

They don't care that no fix for Heath Care is going to ruin the country as long as not having a fix ruins the Democrats and Obama.

It is shame but you are right on the money.

River

[JustAGuy (imported)]

You would think that people would be like "Yeah the president is gonna be talkin to my kids, cool" well thats what I would say or be like, hell when I was a kid I would have loved to do something to try and help out President.

[Paolo]

Slammr said it best so far.

Every time Obama so much as sneezes, the Republicans jump all over it because they're just like a bunch of spoiled little kids who suddenly aren't getting their way.

After 8 years of running this country into the ground, you'd think they'd all be happy with the amount of money they and their corporate friends have sucked out of the working class.

Apparently, there is no level of largess that is ever enough.

[Riverwind (imported)]

Today watching the sunday news even the republicans thought the President talking to kids was a great idea, one Tom Fieldman reporter, (spelling) called the attacks STUPID, JUST PLAN STUPID.

I think he got it right.

River