Tag Archives: teaching

Being DUMB about EDUCATION

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One of the most significant challenges facing our nation lies in its approach to education, spanning from elementary school through advanced academic pursuits.

Reading is the cornerstone of learning, and without strong literacy skills, personal growth becomes significantly challenging. Successful individuals often attribute their knowledge and achievements to extensive reading, with research suggesting that over 90% of their learning occurs through written materials. Developing robust reading comprehension is essential for anyone seeking to expand their understanding and advance in their personal and professional endeavors.

A failing primary education system reveals its deepest shortcoming when students graduate without mastering fundamental literacy skills. Similarly, higher education institutions are fundamentally flawed when their graduates struggle to secure meaningful employment or achieve professional sustainability.

Despite the allure of higher education, many prestigious institutions perpetuate a cycle of academic detachment from practical life skills. The real-world education gained through four years of hands-on work often surpasses the theoretical knowledge acquired within the sheltered confines of academic campuses, leaving graduates more intellectually burdened than professionally prepared.

In short, looking back over the years, I would have to give our public and college education system a grade of F in teaching the basics and an F- in advanced subjects. I would certainly have to give them a B on teaching students how to fail. I say this because some have succeeded despite the quality of education.

Despite substantial financial investments in education, particularly in urban and well-funded school districts, academic performance appears to be declining. Conversely, smaller rural school systems demonstrate more effective educational outcomes. Historical evidence suggests that educators in the past, such as those teaching in single-room schoolhouses, often achieved greater academic success with students, despite many teachers lacking formal higher education credentials. This observation raises important questions about the relationship between educational spending, teaching methodology, and student learning achievements.

Are we potentially misdirecting educators in their professional development and training approaches?

Simple Question, Complex Answer

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Memories eluded me at first, a blank canvas of experience. Yet, as I delved deeper into the recesses of my mind, a handful of extraordinary moments emerged, standing against the backdrop of my past.

Nonetheless, they all had one big failure. While I was never diagnosed as dyslexic, I definitely have many of the symptoms. By the fifth grade, certainly by the sixth grade, I should have been tested. I went all the way through high school, and apparently not one teacher suspected anything.

Before I go further, I should probably say that the influence does go both ways. My seventh-grade world history teacher did so much to discourage me that I virtually threw my hands up in frustration and gave up. It did have a bleed-over effect into other subjects, but, well, I did get my high school diploma. This post would have to be too long to explain it all. However, he essentially made it impossible for me to succeed. Try or not, I failed. So, why try?

During my eighth-grade year, my US history teacher stood out as an exceptional educator who possessed a remarkable ability to engage students and inspire learning. Her teaching style was so compelling that I developed a solid understanding of US history, with a particular depth of knowledge about the Constitution. Despite her instructional prowess, she, like the others, did not recognize the underlying signs of my lifelong struggle with dyslexia.

Dyslexia often manifests through slow reading speeds. Despite my best efforts, I can only manage around 150 words per minute, which is significantly below average. Auditory learning is my strength; I can effortlessly retain information from hour-long lectures with remarkable clarity. In contrast, reading the same material proves challenging, with comprehension and retention markedly reduced. This learning difference created significant obstacles, particularly in my seventh-grade history class, where the teacher predominantly relied on reading assignments rather than engaging lectures.

Actually, I deviated from my original destination. The meandering nature of my journey speaks volumes about my perspective on the experience.

Daily writing prompt
Who was your most influential teacher? Why?
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We aren’t all sixth-graders

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Honest, I don’t remember exactly when it was, but it seems it was before I went into the Marines that I heard on the TV that commercials are designed for six-graders. Most people don’t like more complex things explained to them. So, if you hope to sell your product, you make sure the commercials are simple and don’t require a PhD to understand, even if your target sales is for PhDs.

I guess, in a way, we as commercial watchers are lazy. We really don’t want our minds taxed after working hard all day. On the other hand, maybe the PhDs are too smart too buy products they don’t need, especially the overpriced ones.

I suppose it does have one other side effect. It might actually make it so the commercials aren’t as expensive. After all, isn’t it all about that important bottom line?

I have taken writing tests before. I don’t know if they still have them, but according to the tests, I write at about sixth grade level. Now isn’t that convenient. My readers do not need to strain their brains in order to understand what I have to say. I guess I could say that it is convenient to be less intelligent.

Thing is, (Shouldn’t use those words so much. I’ve been trying to break myself of that.) I was considering what I heard way back then and associated it with something I heard yesterday. If it works better to write commercials for 6th graders, maybe it is good to write political ads for 6th graders.

I got to thinking, is this a good thing. Do we really want the politicians to talk to us as if we are all sixth graders? Yet it would appear It’s common practice. Reagan was known as the great communicator. Maybe it was because his ads didn’t require so much thought. As the guy said, “Keep it simple stupid.”

Just so there are no misunderstandings. it’s not my words. I did not mean to imply that my readers are stupid. However, the saying has been altered to a short abbreviation, KISS.

It is something of a disadvantage for Republicans. The dems make a simple statement that sounds good and it takes hours for us Republicans to explain why the statement isn’t true. For instance, the dems say how nice it is to tax the rich and provide for the poor. Sounds good. Doesn’t work. Never did. And yet we spend hours and hours explaining why and the general public still can’t understand it.

The same thing can be said of many things the dems try to tell us is good, open borders, weak military, and de-funding the police. (Hint: Since de-funding police, crime has sky rocketed. Since the border was opened, fentanyl has gone from about 50 thousand deaths a year to about 150 thousand a year. Tell me how that worked out, but it sounded good didn’t it. In a way, that is perhaps one of the most expensive decisions Old Joe made. It cost us more lives than Vietnam, both sides. It is why I don’t call him president. He will answer to God for all those deaths.)

It is why I don’t like what the dems are doing. It is especially why I don’t like the methods and the means of Old Joe.

At one time, Democrats and Republicans tried to maintained a closed border, a strong defense and strong law enforcement. Since Obama, not so much. Since Old Joe, even worse.

Then again, if they can successfully treat their followers as 6th graders, what can we expect.

When They Want to

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I wish I could say for sure, but I thought I heard something about big improvements in the reading and math test for third graders this year. If so, I guess it would show what a little encouragement will do. When they knew they’d get promoted regardless, the students and teachers did not put that much effort into it. When they realized the students would not be promoted without good scores on the tests, both the teachers and the students improved.

That is sort of the way things work. When the teachers started really looking bad, they did better. Moreover, they encouraged the students to try harder. In a way, it is the purpose of the test.

When I went through instructor training, they told us there were three reasons for tests. It measures the students individual progress. It measures the teachers effectiveness. Finally, they alert management to trends. Is just one student having problems, is one class having problems, or as in Memphis school’s case, is there something wrong with the system. I mean the whole school system was failing, not just one student, class or even school. It was a school system wide failure. That’s when the administrations start having to answer questions. That’s when they have to start making changes.

Finally, if they are having some success now, it does show, when they want to do it, they can. If we let them come up with excuses they will.

A Simple Question, Which Requires a Very Complex Answer

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When I first went to instructor training, about the first words out of my instructors mouth was that, in order to teach, the teacher must motivate the student. That is to say, before any student will learn he must want to learn. Indeed, the rate at which any student will learn will depend on the motivation of the student.

That, however, is only the beginning. The second thing, at least to some degree, the teacher must take what he knows and place it in the students mind. This, to be sure is an art within itself. There are a myriad of things standing in the way. For the young man, perhaps baseball, football and basketball. A few will be thinking about cars, and of course girls. Young girls, of course, have their own distractions such as that good looking quarterback.

Before lunch, everyone thinks of hunger and what they will eat. When they get back from lunch, it is a matter of keeping them from falling asleep. As it nears the end of the day, there are hundreds of things which distract child and adult alike. They are anticipating their afternoon plans, whatever they might be. This makes Friday afternoon one of the most difficult times to teach.

Teaching and learning is not just passing information from a teacher to a group students, though. It is easy to think of it as such, but it is so much more. Ultimately, it comes to a point where the teacher teaches, not what to know or think, but how to learn and think. In the end, the student will know so much more than the teacher. It is the way knowledge grows in a society. After we finish school, we must know how to teach ourselves. It is the ultimate thing that a teacher can teach. I suppose close to 95% of what I have learned, I learned from doing or reading. I only learned about 5% in school.

It certainly starts with reading and writing. The person unable to read and write is seriously hampered in our current society. It is not enough for the cobbler apprentice to learn the craft of making shoes. Nowadays we make machines that make shoes. Then too, some people must occasionally repair those and other machines.

It means thinking beyond knowing our current world but what it will be decades from now. The current teachers might teach Edgar Allan Poe, but more important, how to write even better than Edgar Allen Poe. It must be new, different and, of course a joy to read.

At one time, society didn’t believe that bridges could be made from steel. One day, someone built a bridge from steel and they’ve been doing it ever since. I would hope the really great teacher would prod people into such things in a wide variety of various fields far beyond the knowledge of the teacher’s knowledge.

However, the basics cannot be overlooked. The things a child learns in the first 6 grades may very well determine the success of the students later. Indeed, the teacher that teaches the more advanced subjects relies very much on how well the teachers teach in the the lower grades.

Then too, just how great a teacher might be somewhat based on what is expected of him. Is he supposed to teach physics or how to fix an air conditioner. Each has his own problems and each has its own methods. Each student is different and presents a different challenge. For instance, try telling a sixth grader learning algebra the importance of being able to represent values with letters. Quite frankly, I am still at a loss of knowing the importance of knowing anything about the fictitious character of Silas Marner. Let’s face it, for some teachers, their task is simply improbable at best for some students.

Perhaps two of the biggest requirements of the really great teacher is really strong determination and very thick skin. I’m sure a love of teaching and the subject they teach is important.

Then, oddly, occasionally, you see a student react to something you teach and you see that little light inside their mind come on. As an instructor, I have seen it happen. It makes the difficulty and frustration worth it.

Daily writing prompt
What makes a teacher great?
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The Experts

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I actually did have some college. I had 1 semester in electronics, in which I carried a B+ average. I really should have stuck it out but there was a lot going on back then an I ended up in the Marines. There were downsides, but the Marines did give me the equivalent of a 2 year degree in electronics. By the way, they did teach me a few other things too, such as how to shoot.

Going back to the college, I had a teacher that said a thing that really stuck with me. He said that an expert is someone who knows a whole lot about very little. His argument, of course, was that we should never zero in so much on learning one thing such that we remain ignorant in all others.

It is so true and, as I go through life, it only becomes clearer to me how true it is.

However, it is also true about turning things over to so-called experts, people who know a whole lot about so little. So I ask, are teachers experts? Have they become highly knowledgeable on teaching while not really knowing what they should teach and why.

I have seen teachers I could not understand. I have seen English teachers that sent notes to parents with subject verb disagreements. My son’s teacher accused him of losing a book later found in the teacher’s lounge. Now just what does all this teach our kids?

We have turned our government over to experts who know how to write laws without knowing what kind of laws are needed. Some of them have never run a business or even held down a real job. A great many of them don’t understand the basics, such as the law of supply and demand.

Some experts seem to think they know about gender changes when they never learned the difference between wrong and right.

As you can well imagine I can go on, but you get my point, or I hope you do. I suppose you might be one who wants to turn the world over to a bunch of people who have a great deal of knowledge on very little.

It’s All Important

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When I was in high school, I noticed the first 15 to 20 minutes of every class started the same, more-or-less. The math teacher told us that the world would nearly come to an end, if we didn’t learn math. Of course, all communications would cease if we didn’t learn English. It was a little more difficult for the chemistry teacher, but he did manage to open with a convincing argument for us to all learn chemistry. Finally, of course, the history teacher had to come up with the impossible task of making us realize the importance of learning about what the Egyptians did thousands of years ago.

In all honesty, I wish I had paid a lot more attention to my history teachers. Believe me, if you are in high school, pay attention to history. I know it is hard to believe it, but it really is important, boring as it may be.

When I was in school, I wondered why all the teachers wasted all the time. The fact is, I for one would have much rather been playing baseball. I’m very sure I had company. The reason we were there was that we had to be there. It was kinda senseless to explain why I should be there.

Then I went through instructor training while in the Marines. The first thing the instructor taught us was that students learn better when motivated. One way to motivate is to explain the importance of the subject.

Voila! The light was turned on. I finally understood why all those teachers wasted all that time trying to increase my interest, which, by the way never worked. I mean, the reason I was occupying that desk instead of trying to throw a 90 mph fast ball was entirely because it was required of me.

Nonetheless, I did learn very much in that first day of instructor training. I learned that everything is important to special people. Some folks get horribly upset when I use rather instead of whether. To them, proper English is all important. To a mathematician, knowing when to use a sin or cosin is all important. Hopefully, I don’t need to go through the whole list. Maybe you get the idea.

My point is this. It’s all important, depending on who it is.

I have noticed, from time to time, some will take this to an extreme. Some teacher or professor put the idea in someone’s mind the importance of the subject is all important, and they just might have a tendency to think too highly of himself.

Some doctors do have a tendency to think heart surgery is more important than everything. On the other hand, that doctor might not think so if there is an area power failure and someone needs to get out in the ice and cold to restore power to the hospital.

The computer wiz might like to think how extra important he is, until he is suffering heart pains and he is waiting for an ambulance.

Then again. There are those as me. I walk into a place where they make a wonderful sandwich for me at a reasonable price and I am very much impressed. Believe me. I know how hard they work.

It is the way our economy works. When there is an important need, someone will do it, even the thankless ones, as like garbage collectors. They, too are important

Why Can’t My Son Go to the 4 Grade

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WRONG QUESTION!!

I was watching news last night and I heard a woman complaining, Why can’t my son go to the 4th grade?

I understand her grief. I understand her desires. My older son spent time in a California school. He also spent some time in a Memphis school. It is the primary reason we moved to Desoto County.

My advice to that woman or to anyone who has his child in Shelby County schools, get them out! just as fast as they can.

Many things can be done to improve the schools, but that would take time. You don’t have time. Besides, I don’t think they want to improve the schools. Their purpose is to take your money and gain power. Some teachers try, but, for them, they are swimming upstream. When they make the other teachers look bad, the union reps have words with them.

At this point, I’m not sure Desoto County schools are that good. I saw signs of degrading the last few years my sons were there, decades ago. Today, I would do what I could to keep my dependents out of any public schools completely.

Moreover, my advice to this and all parents in Shelby County is to ask the right questions. My question, above all, is why is it that OUR children can’t read. I emphasize OUR, because we aren’t talking 2 or 3, or 5 or 6. We are talking thousands. Shelby County schools are some of the worst performing in Tennessee and the US.

If it were individuals, we could say the child is the problem. The fact is, it isn’t the failure of the students I’m concerned with. It is the failure of the system, one which has money flooding in, and failure flowing out.

The long term solution, vote Republican. Get those dems out of there just as fast as you can. Fire teachers who can’t or won’t teach. Better to have 8th graders who can teach than a PhD who can’t.

Finally, minimize control by teachers unions.They have no business at all in the control of the schools, teaching methods or what is being taught.