This had me shaking my head and saying DUH -
1. better teachers and principals
2. parents who are involved
3. politicians who raise the standards
4. neighbors who invest in the neighborhood school
5. business leaders committed to raise the standards
6. student who come to school rather than text
We all know that these things are important and I think our school and the community is started to step up to the plate. I'm sure I am not the only one who gets many email and phone calls from parents. If you look up in power school you can tell which parents are checking the grades their kids have in each one of their classes and it doesn't matter the level of the class - academic or cp (these are the only levels I teach - but I'm sure the honors parents are checking just as much)
the last one was mentioned later in the chapter 6 where there is a girl who gets and sends 27,000 texts a month. - are you kidding me I think my fingers would fall off.
I agree! The six things to improve education that are mentioned in this book are all clearly important. In our school, we are very lucky to have many of these six things already happening in our building and throughout the community. Not every school is so lucky. I think if these six things were happening everywhere, education might be a bit different.
ReplyDeleteI was excited to get to the chapters on education--like all of us, I'm always interested in the latest. Once again--disappointed. All of the same broad issues and problems were mentioned with no solutions (they admit they aren't education experts). I didn't come away with any real sense of not just a solution, but coherency about the problem--and it's not the author's faults, it's that the roots of are ills are just so far-reaching, and the solutions often contradictory. The authors are right about one thing--we need far more people spending far more time on this. And, as they suggest throughout, it should be bottom-up vs. top-down. Case in point: one of H-H's latest attempts at reform: satisfactory vs. commendable, seems an inept solution. Will we have a say in the way these criteria are being set going forward? Not sure--connects to the trust issue they raise in the chapter about the military.
ReplyDeleteKim, I agree with your post/comment that the education-based section of this book was a bit disappointing. Interesting, but disappointing. Similarly, I felt this way after reading Price of Privilege earlier this year. I found that book and the psychologist's reports so interesting, but found the solution area to be lacking. Yes, involved parents are necessary for better education, but the correct involement is what we need. Athletes can practice as much as they want, but if they do not practice correctly, they'll never improve. If parents only involve themselves to be critical of a teacher's attempt to challenge, then that child will never improve. Each of these six solutions is true, but each requires a great deal of effort and involvement in order to work. And, I cannot say as of now that our authors really provide viable examples or road maps (!) for any of them.
DeleteI find parts of this book in direct conflict with others I have read recently. After reading The Price of Privilege, I wanted to hug my sons and tell them that regardless of what they do, everything will be ok and not to worry too much about the whole school thing. When I read this book, I find myself turning off the video games sooner, tossing the boys off the computer, and upping the hours we have of reading/educational time we have each day. We are more or less at war, a globalization war where our victory is demonstrated with jobs.
ReplyDeleteTo digress somewhat into education, I do think we need the best teachers we can get – I will admit I do not know how to do this, but I would be willing to try any idea that makes sense. The area I think is as critical to reform is parenting/greater society. I think of this aften during the summer, home with my boys. I know I want my children to be happy with all of my heart, yet I know that a focus on keeping them happy all of the time would erode their minds as well as their souls. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “happiness isn’t a goal, it’s a by-product.” If we only want our children happy, we fight with teachers for better grades instead of fighting with our children to work more. If their happiness is our primary objective, we remove any obstacle we can to make the path easier for them. The sweet spot for supporting but not doing too much for them seems so thin to me at times, and I know that I would be more comfortable erring on the side of support. If I, and I assume I am not alone, have this issues, with all the books we read and time we devote to these issue, does the average working stiff and his/her family stand a chance?