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EZ Thoughts On Education | |
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After that first day when mom apparently left us with all these screaming kids, it was different; it became an exciting time. For perspective, that day was one year after World War II Victory and my dad, stationed at Great Lakes Naval Base moved us to Milwaukee near grandpa and grandma. My first school was Congress, 'Congress Street Elementary" six blocks north of Milwaukee's Capitol Drive. Isn't that a phenomenal ? See, back then, if you didn't meet Miss Narron's first grade expectations, you were recycled until you did. I made it on my first run through all four of grades after kindergarten. A stool placed furthest away from the windows was reserved for those who disrupted her teaching or who didn't complete the homework. Scary part was that it was very close to my seat alphabetically. PTA every month we had to go play one night in the gym/cafeteria while our mom's attended a meeting that lasted a very long time - relatively. One other event I recall was running home one day in October trying to stay ahead of the school bully, ran across busy 51st Street and was car butted into a very wet-soggy field. I was so embarrassed, but got four days off school the next week. Fifth and sixth grade were at 38th Street School after dad found a bigger house on 46th and Center. Planning ahead it was three blocks from Washington HS. I was a crossing guard, and student PA announcer, and nerd, they tell me now. Note a subliminal prediction in schools - Congress / Washington & Capitol Drive? Before middle schools, my twin and I attended an institution referred to as Junior HS. Ours was named Peckham. It no longer exists. We commuted to school on our bicycles, because both of us had jobs delivering newspapers in the morning and working at different neighbor owned "drug stores". Classes at Peckham required changing rooms every 50 minutes. We still had recess back then and a school break at noon. Those three years went quick with many good lost memories, now. You probably recall your locker and hall passes, being hall guard or student government representative. Yah! Washington High School was memorable. I was totally involved and projected to be a lawyer/Senator sometime in my career. My role included morning PA announcements as well as student treasurer for bookstore, cafeteria, and extra-curricular sales accounting and banking. I also taught the coeds ballroom dancing and jitterbug. No trophies, tough. Enough information to bore you. All this relates to how I view public schools. What happened to them? We were held accountable to our teachers for reports, test scores, and behavior. There were no Policemen in our halls. Doors weren't locked. Parents attended PTA meetings, but we didn't have to go. Unlike my friends, I could walk to school after the bell rang and still make it to homeroom in time to report the news from the principal's office. Other, after-school, activities I participated in included camera club, drama club, golf team, and was financial-promotion manager of our Prom events. Background be dammed. Our schools were neighborhood oriented. Teachers lived amongst us. My English teacher lived next door. My shop teacher worked a second job at T.A. Chapman where my mom managed its fashion accessory lines. Teacher's were encouraged to continue their education. If you failed you repeated - I never had to. School systems provided our study materials, extra stuff we could buy in our in-school book store. We had adequate operating capital because we didn't have school buses. At that point in time, they were just a budget away, though. Our crossing guards taught students safety through example with student assistants. My assigned corner had a drug store on it that had a soda fountain where we all gathered for "Fuzzies" (Root beer floats - black cows). I hope this monologue brings back memories when each of us was responsible, busy, excited, and not stressed over nonsense. Our football teams won or lost without incident. Our basketball teams played without injuries. Oh, after each, our clique came back to my dad's house for a party that lasted into wee-hours. Sometimes we had live music. It was nice that our across street neighbor was a policeman and he helped keep our "guests" safe. In 1960, I graduated with expected up-grade to college - The University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Seven years in EE, Sci, Journalism with emphasis on Broadcasting. | |
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Most of my post-graduate life has been documented
in great depth. Click that link on the left sidebar.
This section is dedicated to rationale for education reform: For example, working as a programmer on a basic reading course for inmates had learning on both sides. From their point of view they learned to read and phonetically spell. On my side, I learned from their frustration how not having that skill put them in a penitentiary. In their own words, "without reading they had little idea of what they were eating, or for that matter stealing to eat. Without reading they had no idea jobs were available. Math, too, has changed from learning basic arithmetic to higher math equations up to Differential Equations. In our schools, this topic has either received extremely good attention or none at all. Competitive global math is regimented and disciplined to the highest level at early ages. For American students, our schools must teach to highest level or our future will be in jeopardy to foreign competition. This paradigm change is necessary and easily a catalyst to bringing neighborhood public schools back into the education profile. Integration never really solved any problems. It did have a comfort factor that provided opportunities to breakdown barriers. However, Bus time destroyed discipline, responsibility and respect for others by disrupting home-work study time with bus rides for all classmates. As the fleet grew, so did risk presenting untold wealth awarded through litigation denying up to 85 percent of school budgets needed to support student learning. Students face risk today from failure of parental guidance suffering from time constraints resulting from double and triple jobs just to support their households. States are beginning to realize cost of operation and litigation as being detractors to education. Basics only because: funding, athletic , music, driver's ed, and other life skills have been eliminated through budget cuts. There is a tendency to believe that Federal Government has responsibility for your kids future through education until realizing that communities develop their own culture and need to teach within that environment. This concept is under attack as government empowers third parties taking operating capital from school districts to reward non-performance with bogus cash rewards to Union executives and local teamsters in classrooms. Are academic achievement guidelines good? Yes and No. Each classroom needs to achieve objectives to reach a desired goal. One way to assess this is by conducting entry or placement exams during first week of new school-years. There is no real cost in this because it is only to assess at what level of subject matter the classmates are at. Teachers can prepare their test to match their curriculum and monitor progress. It would help teachers create sub-classroom groups that could bring everyone's academic achievement up above other nations. Standard tests provide guidelines for students learning and offer schools benchmarks taking administrations , teachers and parents outside of their comfort zones. And, Union leaders direct for simplicity, cheating to achieve idiotic federal standards instead of student intellectual achievement - can't excel higher than a Union leader! If not too many classmates are unqualified, special classes or in-school tutors can bring those students with learning deficits up to second quarter standards before students fail. In fact, students can assist others in joint academic achievement - earning student tutor's credits toward honors at high school graduation; while their "mentees" earn graduation. Program cost is individual motivation and time resulting in teamed achievements - a great way to instill responsibility and self-less service to a community or neighborhood school. Another great motivator is a graduated achievement level - that curve that makes or breaks hearts - but encourages success. Is it required, like at Harvard, that everyone graduate with honors earned or unearned like income after every semester. Really diminishes the motivation to excel - ambition. Not meeting expected performance can result in failure. However, cheating or passing without, without, earning grades is more damaging than selling drugs in school rooms. In most instances definitive grades raises academic bar from a scale of 65-100 to maybe 80-100 where no one fails unless they cannot pass next year's teacher entry exam. However, Ivy League schools have 91 percent honor grads ... how can that be? gene
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