unschackled
harmony
I was at my lifeguard training tonight and I was talking to the 3 public school teachers in the class. One teaches world history and she said the kids hate being in her class but she doesn't know how to make it any more fun for them because she has to follow her curriculum. The other teacher teaches science and I commented on how much fun it is, unless you have to learn it from a book. He said "We're shackled by standards"
This doesn't really pertain to unschooling, I guess, but the quote was good and I am so glad that I learned that there is more to life than school while my kids were still young.
This doesn't really pertain to unschooling, I guess, but the quote was good and I am so glad that I learned that there is more to life than school while my kids were still young.
Ryan
This really caused me to stop and think about how schools are as much
traps for teachers as for kids, and that the institutional setting
wastes an enormous amount of passion and skill and intelligence in its
teachers as well.
I spent nearly 30 years of my life inside educational institutions,
both as student and as teacher (sometimes, during graduate school, both
at once) and, to be quite honest, I loved school. Sort of. I didn't
particularly enjoy the school-ish part of school, but I loved the fact
that I could surround myself with people, teachers and other students,
who had interests and skills and passions similar to my own, writers
and musicians and literature-lovers and scientists and mathematicians.
Since I came from a very working class background (coal mining), where
acceptable interests were quite limited (hunting, drinking, and bar
fighting topped the list - nothing wrong with that, I guess, but not
the past time of choice for a sensitive little boy who cried easily and
read all the time and couldn't kill anything if his life depended on
it), my teachers were always my first source of connection with a world
of ideas and art that just didn't exist in my daily life. Teachers
were my heroes, my friends.
But even then, the teachers I admired the most were always the ones who
taught the least, in the standardized sense. They were always the
teachers who had the most difficulty inside the system and who always
managed to connect with kids despite the institutional aspect of their
jobs, not because of it. And right now, I'm certain that most of the
teachers I loved the most, the people who helped me most, would have a
very difficult time surviving in the current school environment.
All of my favorite teachers would be suspended, and all of my favorite
students would be expelled.
traps for teachers as for kids, and that the institutional setting
wastes an enormous amount of passion and skill and intelligence in its
teachers as well.
I spent nearly 30 years of my life inside educational institutions,
both as student and as teacher (sometimes, during graduate school, both
at once) and, to be quite honest, I loved school. Sort of. I didn't
particularly enjoy the school-ish part of school, but I loved the fact
that I could surround myself with people, teachers and other students,
who had interests and skills and passions similar to my own, writers
and musicians and literature-lovers and scientists and mathematicians.
Since I came from a very working class background (coal mining), where
acceptable interests were quite limited (hunting, drinking, and bar
fighting topped the list - nothing wrong with that, I guess, but not
the past time of choice for a sensitive little boy who cried easily and
read all the time and couldn't kill anything if his life depended on
it), my teachers were always my first source of connection with a world
of ideas and art that just didn't exist in my daily life. Teachers
were my heroes, my friends.
But even then, the teachers I admired the most were always the ones who
taught the least, in the standardized sense. They were always the
teachers who had the most difficulty inside the system and who always
managed to connect with kids despite the institutional aspect of their
jobs, not because of it. And right now, I'm certain that most of the
teachers I loved the most, the people who helped me most, would have a
very difficult time surviving in the current school environment.
All of my favorite teachers would be suspended, and all of my favorite
students would be expelled.
--- In [email protected], "harmony" <harmony@...> wrote:
>
> I was at my lifeguard training tonight and I was talking to the 3
public school teachers in the class. One teaches world history and she
said the kids hate being in her class but she doesn't know how to make
it any more fun for them because she has to follow her curriculum. The
other teacher teaches science and I commented on how much fun it is,
unless you have to learn it from a book. He said "We're shackled by
standards"
>
> This doesn't really pertain to unschooling, I guess, but the quote
was good and I am so glad that I learned that there is more to life
than school while my kids were still young.
>
Sandra Dodd
-=-One teaches world history and she said the kids hate being in her
class but she doesn't know how to make it any more fun for them
because she has to follow her curriculum.-=-
A friend of mine who was a teacher years ago, then unschooled for a
long time and then went back to teach first grade (while her kids
were still being unschooled) told me she was having to use a script!!
The curriculum was so prescribed that she had to say certain things
exactly so, and repeat it a certain way, and she hated it so much she
quit and became a 911 dispatcher.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
class but she doesn't know how to make it any more fun for them
because she has to follow her curriculum.-=-
A friend of mine who was a teacher years ago, then unschooled for a
long time and then went back to teach first grade (while her kids
were still being unschooled) told me she was having to use a script!!
The curriculum was so prescribed that she had to say certain things
exactly so, and repeat it a certain way, and she hated it so much she
quit and became a 911 dispatcher.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Nancy Wooton
On Feb 28, 2008, at 12:17 AM, Sandra Dodd wrote:
grade geography teacher's manual. It required a script, in which the
teacher was to "say to the child, We're going on a rocket into
space!!!" It was so hokey. I just couldn't pull it off. Plus, you
were supposed to withhold geography from otherwise excited and engaged
students because it was the Friday reward subject. After calling
school at home quits, I let the kids play with the books, tests, and
so on, including the inflatable globe -- it still had the Soviet Union
on it, which was interesting to compare to the relief globe dd bought
at Toys R Us in exchange for an Easy Bake Oven she didn't want. The
inflatable one made a much better volleyball, though <g> (Oh, and the
entire geography course was devoured by both dd, the "official" second
grader, and ds, who must have been 5, in about an hour.)
Nancy
> -=-One teaches world history and she said the kids hate being in herOne of the things that made me quit Calvert School was the second
> class but she doesn't know how to make it any more fun for them
> because she has to follow her curriculum.-=-
>
> A friend of mine who was a teacher years ago, then unschooled for a
> long time and then went back to teach first grade (while her kids
> were still being unschooled) told me she was having to use a script!!
> The curriculum was so prescribed that she had to say certain things
> exactly so, and repeat it a certain way, and she hated it so much she
> quit and became a 911 dispatcher.
grade geography teacher's manual. It required a script, in which the
teacher was to "say to the child, We're going on a rocket into
space!!!" It was so hokey. I just couldn't pull it off. Plus, you
were supposed to withhold geography from otherwise excited and engaged
students because it was the Friday reward subject. After calling
school at home quits, I let the kids play with the books, tests, and
so on, including the inflatable globe -- it still had the Soviet Union
on it, which was interesting to compare to the relief globe dd bought
at Toys R Us in exchange for an Easy Bake Oven she didn't want. The
inflatable one made a much better volleyball, though <g> (Oh, and the
entire geography course was devoured by both dd, the "official" second
grader, and ds, who must have been 5, in about an hour.)
Nancy
Sandra Dodd
-=-(Oh, and the
entire geography course was devoured by both dd, the "official" second
grader, and ds, who must have been 5, in about an hour.)-=-
NANCY (I say, with my meanest generic critical voice of imagined
older female relative):
If you let them have all the geography they want, they're going to
think they can have geography every day. They're going to want
geography for breakfast. They'll grow up without any self control in
the area of geography.
I'm beginning to think your kids might devour geography all day if
you'd let them.
Haaarumph!
(Sandra's fantasy grumpy aunt)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
entire geography course was devoured by both dd, the "official" second
grader, and ds, who must have been 5, in about an hour.)-=-
NANCY (I say, with my meanest generic critical voice of imagined
older female relative):
If you let them have all the geography they want, they're going to
think they can have geography every day. They're going to want
geography for breakfast. They'll grow up without any self control in
the area of geography.
I'm beginning to think your kids might devour geography all day if
you'd let them.
Haaarumph!
(Sandra's fantasy grumpy aunt)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]