Creative Homeschool Exerience

Ugh

    Was going to blog about my six year old and I doing his volcano lesson today (we made a volcano model and made it erupt LOL) but I saw an article that I decided I wanted to discuss on here. You see I am a bit nosey LOL so I went and subscribed to this this thing called Great Schools a while back just to see the schools in my area do and find out what's going on and what not. Well this doesn't have to do with my area but thought I would discuss this.

    Over at Bill's Blog "Bill Jackson GreatSchools Founder and President on helping parents choose , support and improve K-12 schools." did an article called "How to Improve a Low Performing School." It’s talking about Charter Schools and how they are improving things for “low performing community‘s.”

    There is a lot I really disagree with and I will name some now. “First they require many more hours of class time than a typical public school.” Ok since when does spending hours at a desk listening to a teacher and being easily distracted improve anything? Is it just me or is this ridiculous? It also say’s they only take about a month for summer vacation off but do things like field trips and music class and a few other things but still when does a kid get to be a kid? I know a lot of homeschoolers school through the summer. But it’s not eight hours a day and it’s not being made to sit still when there are kids all around them where they would rather be playing. I just don’t get it I guess

    Another thing that bothers me is this statement. “ The Schools’ leaders believe in frequent testing , which, they say, lets them measure what is working and what isn’t, and they use test results to make adjustments to the curriculum as they go.” What does a test really prove? For one you teach a child something and then test them on it and right after the test how much do you want to make a bet they forget what they were supposed to have learned because after the test the teaching isn’t continued and two I know for me when I was in school I could study for hours and still not do well on a test. Why? 1) I was never really taught how to study 2) I would get so nervous about it by the time we took the test I froze and forgot ½ the answers. Not saying I don’t test my boy’s on what they have learned but I don’t put pressure on them to “Pass a test”. And guess what they do well on them. (well maybe not so much my soon to be five year old since I just do verbal test for him not written just yet. But with what he does he does well in.)

    One other thing that bothered me was this. “Third, they make a conscious effort to guide the behavior, and even the values, of their students by teaching what they call character. Using slogans, motivational posters, incentives, encouragements and punishments, the schools direct students in everything from principles of team work and the importance of an optimistic outlook to the nuts and bolts of how to sit in class, where to direct their eyes when a teacher is talking and even how to nod appropriately.”

    Ok so when did schools start teaching our children values? And what values are these? Do we really want teachers and principals teaching our children values and character? Shouldn’t they be learning values from us, the parent’s and character they should be building on their own along with teaching from the parent’s of course. Am I right? Oh and they teach the kids “how to sit in class and where to direct their eyes when a teacher is talking and even how to not appropriately?” So they are programming our children to be robots? I mean it’s one thing to let children know to look in a persons eyes when they are being spoken to but come on this is just ridiculous!! There’s more to it then just that but I really wanted to address those quotes. What do you think?