> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-extropians@extropy.org
> [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]On Behalf Of Chris Russo
>
> Notice that you started out blaming the system and forced curriculum,
> but then admitted that the problem is more directly associated with
> poor teachers. Not that I'm completely against more flexibility in
> determining your own curriculum, but how would it solve the problem
> of having poor teachers?
I gave my child the option of going to school or not, and she chose public
school because she wanted to be with her friends. My child's elementary
school teachers were all excellent. Every one of them seemed to truly care
about the kids and to love teaching, and every one of them complained about
the inflexible curriculum, the requirements only to use certain books and so
forth. It was impossible to do a good job teaching 25 or 30 children of
variying abilities and experience using the same curriculum and text books
for all.
However, we were fortunate in having a school system that encouraged
parental involvement. Parents were welcome into the classroom at any time
with no appointment, and the teachers were always thrilled to have the extra
help. It's surprising how much difference one extra person can make in a
classroom. Based on my experience, one way to change schools for the better
would be for more parents to participate in the actual teaching. We had to
stick with the state mandated curriculum, but with extra help for the
teacher, you can do lots of other things too.
Barbara
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:56:25 MDT