I'm not trying to be facetious... Well, maybe I am. Here's my beef today. What is it with expecting that teachers teach at schools?
I'm a teacher (even though I am not in a classroom) and the goal of a teacher, or maybe let's be a little more sensible, the responsibility of a teacher is to provide education for students. Easy enough, you provide education for a student however, how can you measure how well they perform in this task?
Let's say that you enroll your child in an educational environment where the primary goal is their independence and a certain freedom within limits. I like the way that all of this sounds until I through in some other words like, objectives, goals, expectations. It's really easy to put children in an environment where they play all day, if your dream is to have a class full of children who will grow up to be "players". If your goal is to have your children learn how to use those "independent skills" so that they can read and write... what should you do?
You should either place them in a different school that emphasizes this skill set or provide them with an environment that does so. When I was five years old, my parents bought a bike for me. It stood in the garage until I worked up the courage to teach myself how to ride the bike. (Yes, I did. I'm quite proud of this feat and I think that my parents always knew how independent and resilient child #3 was in comparison to #1,2,4-6).. For some reason, riding a bike made sense to me. Mom and dad provided me, "the child" with the proper environment and support to learn how to ride a bike and hopefully, I will learn that given skill. They supported me in my quench for knowledge (since independent learning was rampant in my family) so when I wanted to learn, I would retreat to the libraries with my friends. My older brother on the other hand, not so much. His interests dealt more with social activities rather than intellectual ones and so I had to assist him with college level courses when I was still in middle school. (There was even a time that I wanted to go in and take his tests in math, science and english until I realized that he would be kicked out of university for that. He liked the idea of getting grades for not doing any work. I liked the idea of learning things beyond what was expected. Nothing has changed in the last .....ty years..)
So when a school does not provide you with the tools that your child needs to succeed, you should act swiftly and with patience. Because in the grand scheme of things, this problem (unlike that of my older brother) will not solve itself.
I'm a teacher (even though I am not in a classroom) and the goal of a teacher, or maybe let's be a little more sensible, the responsibility of a teacher is to provide education for students. Easy enough, you provide education for a student however, how can you measure how well they perform in this task?
Let's say that you enroll your child in an educational environment where the primary goal is their independence and a certain freedom within limits. I like the way that all of this sounds until I through in some other words like, objectives, goals, expectations. It's really easy to put children in an environment where they play all day, if your dream is to have a class full of children who will grow up to be "players". If your goal is to have your children learn how to use those "independent skills" so that they can read and write... what should you do?
You should either place them in a different school that emphasizes this skill set or provide them with an environment that does so. When I was five years old, my parents bought a bike for me. It stood in the garage until I worked up the courage to teach myself how to ride the bike. (Yes, I did. I'm quite proud of this feat and I think that my parents always knew how independent and resilient child #3 was in comparison to #1,2,4-6).. For some reason, riding a bike made sense to me. Mom and dad provided me, "the child" with the proper environment and support to learn how to ride a bike and hopefully, I will learn that given skill. They supported me in my quench for knowledge (since independent learning was rampant in my family) so when I wanted to learn, I would retreat to the libraries with my friends. My older brother on the other hand, not so much. His interests dealt more with social activities rather than intellectual ones and so I had to assist him with college level courses when I was still in middle school. (There was even a time that I wanted to go in and take his tests in math, science and english until I realized that he would be kicked out of university for that. He liked the idea of getting grades for not doing any work. I liked the idea of learning things beyond what was expected. Nothing has changed in the last .....ty years..)
So when a school does not provide you with the tools that your child needs to succeed, you should act swiftly and with patience. Because in the grand scheme of things, this problem (unlike that of my older brother) will not solve itself.
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