Re: Digest Number 161
Nancy Bracewell
Joel, as a public school teacher for 23 years, your description of Educationese as "gobblelygook and bafflegab" made me laugh out loud. When I am alone and laugh out loud, I KNOW it is funny! Not really funny in the long run, however! I taught in public schools, knowing full well that classroom education is a poor last resort for parents who just don't have time to teach their own children! I am excited now to be participating in the home education of my granddaughter. As a teacher, I participated in the search for the appropriate educational phrase for something simple. It is an ongoing thing, this search for the bafflegab that will satisfy the reader and keep him from asking more questions! I think it is done more for the purpose of making "education" sound "professional" than for any other reason. Some people really do not know what professional means!
Keep on keeping on! I really enjoy this list. Also, unless you write and tell me not to do it, I would like to post that short reference to g and b to my home list, http://www.heartofalabama.com We would all enjoy it.
Enjoy!
Nancy
---
Nancy or Brandy or Mildred, probably Nancy
Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre,
but they are more deadly in the long run. --- Mark Twain
Keep on keeping on! I really enjoy this list. Also, unless you write and tell me not to do it, I would like to post that short reference to g and b to my home list, http://www.heartofalabama.com We would all enjoy it.
Enjoy!
Nancy
---
Nancy or Brandy or Mildred, probably Nancy
Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre,
but they are more deadly in the long run. --- Mark Twain
>Message: 8Angelfire for your free web-based e-mail. http://www.angelfire.com
> Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 23:24:58 -0700
> From: Joel Hawthorne <jhawthorne@...>
>Subject: Re: journals and portfolios
>
>Somebody should provide a service wherein you send the activities of daily living of your child and then they send you back a log with everything translated into educational gobblelygook and bafflegab. I've seen something like this in Growing Without Schools newsletter wherein someone did just that by which I
>mean they wrote an article translating their kid's everyday play into >educational goals stated in that arcane blather educators use. They eat it up.
>And what's more it was all true. Tossing a rock, doing somersaults, playing with Playmobile, all contain every aspect of "Education" and many that schools don't provide.
>
>
David Albert
Dear Nancy --
Glad to see you're out there! After my new homeschooling book comes out
(in about a month), I'm starting work on another on "Teacher
Turncoats". There will be information on it when my website goes up
(www.skylarksings.com) in about two weeks, but I thought I'd send along
a snippet of description so if you know anyone...
And that's true for the whole list too!
"TEACHER TURNCOATS" � I'm putting together a book on schoolteachers
(mostly public school, but I'll accept material from all kinds) who have
chosen to homeschool their own kids. Some of you may still have
continued in your teaching careers; others of you may have deserted. I
want to know about your own teaching experiences, and what prompted you
to teach your child(ren) at home. Was it a difficult decision for you?
If you continued schoolteaching, what kind of response did you get in
the school? Were there things which you learned in your teacher
education that was helpful or harmful in providing a better learning
environment for your child? Were there things the school could have
done differentily which would have convinced you to keep your child
there? What does the decision look like in hindsight (and how are your
kids doing?)
Again, I'd love to receive your recollections and your thoughts on the
subject. As above no names will be used in the book, though it is
possible my publisher will end up preferring full interviews with a
small number of you, so I may contact you again via e-mail.
David Albert
Glad to see you're out there! After my new homeschooling book comes out
(in about a month), I'm starting work on another on "Teacher
Turncoats". There will be information on it when my website goes up
(www.skylarksings.com) in about two weeks, but I thought I'd send along
a snippet of description so if you know anyone...
And that's true for the whole list too!
"TEACHER TURNCOATS" � I'm putting together a book on schoolteachers
(mostly public school, but I'll accept material from all kinds) who have
chosen to homeschool their own kids. Some of you may still have
continued in your teaching careers; others of you may have deserted. I
want to know about your own teaching experiences, and what prompted you
to teach your child(ren) at home. Was it a difficult decision for you?
If you continued schoolteaching, what kind of response did you get in
the school? Were there things which you learned in your teacher
education that was helpful or harmful in providing a better learning
environment for your child? Were there things the school could have
done differentily which would have convinced you to keep your child
there? What does the decision look like in hindsight (and how are your
kids doing?)
Again, I'd love to receive your recollections and your thoughts on the
subject. As above no names will be used in the book, though it is
possible my publisher will end up preferring full interviews with a
small number of you, so I may contact you again via e-mail.
David Albert