3--ditto. How about the phone call I made (in 2018, I think) to a parent, after I had found a 7th grader, while taking a Latin numbers test, cradling his phone in hand, with screen open to a Wiki page on "Roman numbers"-I had noted the very odd hand position, kept an eye on him, walked around the room ostensibly observing all, said nothing to the boy, just took the phone from his hand and walked to my desk. The phone call: the mother absolutely, forcefully, denied that her son could do such, refused to believe me. told me I had to call the father (divorced, natch) and he only said, 'well possibly my son might have done this'
#4--I started doing this in 2017--had a plastic box in the room labelled "telephona in hac arca" and students deposited their phones in it as they entered the classroom. I was surprised at how willingly they complied.
#5--as I have said to you before, I do not think that most public school teachers are intelligent enough to engage in critical thinking themselves, let alone teach it.
#7--adding more laws is a bad idea. the government is too top-heavy already---and prohibition will simply encourage the true believers to find ways to skirt the law
#8--yes indeed, that self-esteem business is garbage. I watched it going on 30 years ago in my children's elementary school.
#9--sp.; relativism
#10--dress code. Yes , my school had one but principals somehow felt unable (?) to enforce it--though they talked about doing so. I do suspect they were afraid of lawsuits from parents--I watched the school admin cave on a number of issues. I think I remarked in an earlier comment that principal had, in the monthly faculty meeting (maybe 2014) , announced that teachers should not wear flip-flops any longer--unprofessional dress. Next morning, a math teacher, an older woman, was doing the flip-flop waddle right down the corridor which ran from her room to the main office. Arrant thumbing of her nose to the admin.
#11--single sex education I am all for, a product of it myself for four college years--about 90 miles west of your own B.C.
#12--Don't know how this could be possible. I think better move is finding more affordable ways for parents to move their children out of the public school. Voting with their feet. Children are too precious to waste.
In my last few years, my assigned duty period had me providing "coverage" for teachers--in essence, being a one-period substitute. I am grateful that the principal chose this assignment for me, as I was able to see what goes on in other teachers' classrooms. One can assume that when the official teacher is absent, the students will display less disciplined behavior--as in "when the cat's away. the mice will play"--my experiences were eye-opening in many cases. And in some cases some of my own Latin students were present in those classrooms, and were behaving very differently from the way they behaved in my classroom.
VVV: Sorry for any confusion, but I didn;t mean to imply that everything listed here was brand new. Yes, some of these are being done, but it's mostly piece-meal. I'm trying to present a fairly comprehensive checklist to go through. Re #12 it IS possible, as the link I provided proves. TY for your good comments.
1. Too much curriculum has been watered down, out of date or irrelevant and suffering from a watering down of the values (and related content) that allowed us "oldies" to get through life thus far unscathed.
2. About 15 years ago I was studying education methodologies around the world and came to the conclusion that how we learn hasn't really changed much from the old, old days of rote learning. New tools sure, though they often bring their own problems. Some educators and administrators today seem incensed with the idea they have found "new" ways of learning. Moving forward in this field is admirable but if kids have difficulties learning there may not be anything wrong with using the tried and true where relevant, and younger children respond better to shorter achievable steps than over-thinking material. New ways of learning tended to be more about finding new ways of presenting and testing material in the curriculum, and educators should always be mindful of the fact that education is a two-way street - teaching AND learning. In my experience many educators miss that last point.
Possibly part of the problem may be related to the trend in the last 20 years away from writing and towards keyboarding everything. I personally can think and type at the same time but am not sure that I could have retained the same amount of information that I learned in college (by constantly immersing myself in the information by writing and rewriting and arranging and rearranging (on actual paper) my thoughts on the material being learned). There is something about putting data/information on paper with your own hand that seems to impart it into (at least my) brain. Some topics obviously do not require such rote type behavior but many information laden ones do (BS in Pharmacy did anyway). I wonder if they have looked at information retention in students who type notes, write (and then re-write for clarity) notes, or take no notes at all (assuming they are all of relative equal intelligence and one isn’t eidetic). I used to have other classmates ask me how I could take a test so fast and get such good grades on them but honestly (although I’m not stupid) it was hard work. I studied the material, I wrote and re-wrote and arranged things in an order that made sense to me. I didn’t panic because I was prepared so why worry? Learning is truly just work and instilling that into as many kids as possible is what they should be doing NOT discussing their genitalia or sexual preferences which have no bearing or business in a school environment.
I've noticed that students who are able to make progress with their studies, even in small steps, seem to exhibit fewer behavioural problems over time. I was once given a class where one student sat in a corner of the room alone and refused to co-operate. So I prepared some material that the class would enjoy and have some laughter along the way. Within a very short time, when the loner realised the others were having fun she edged closer and closer to the others over a few days and her anger passed away. She became one of the higher test results in the end. All I'm saying really is that if you can manage the time to create strategies that keep the learning flow going while you try to address behavioural problems and not appear to be doing so it's worth a try.
In my next group an eleven-year old boy seemed to be dong well until one day he announced he would go home, get his father's gun and come back and shoot me. Can't win them all.
Each item you’ve listed, at one time, not so long ago, were the rules, today they’re the “exception”!
Why? Why has this happened and who allowed this?
A little research will explain. More importantly is the fact a Marxist Ideology has taken root! Not only throughout government agencies, but more importantly, Higher Education and society in particular.
Government Education, In particular the NEA, the Internet, social media, and all the MSM agenda driven “dumbing down” scenarios, have taken apart, torn away, destroyed, each line item you’ve mentioned.
They’ve destroyed each one and now control the “Purse Strings” in order to nurture and grow, this “Hatred of America”! We see it happening, In our faces, all around America!
If in fact each action items you’ve listed were enacted, it would still taken a generation to implement. I’m not suggesting not to do this, I’m simply being a realist.
The problems are far worse. As you’ve stated, teachers resign, good teachers, excellent teachers! Why? Because they’re being forced to teach propaganda in disguise! They know what’s happening and they can’t change it, so they resign.
This is not the teacher’s fault whatsoever. This is government destroying good / once great education systems and flipped it around! The breadth and depth of how deep and wide, this disastrous Marxist Ideology has become and have been forced upon students is astounding! They have driven a stake in the American Education System, turning education into a “Propaganda and Activism Machine”!
The stakes are so high, the resistance so great, it seems insurmountable to strip away, as I call it, this “Stench-Rot” which has also been embraced and forced upon us by the “Globalists Elites”!
They’re the reason why this has happened. Conservative leadership has been well, “Nonexistent”!
What we’ve been left with simply isn’t aligned with the founders thought processes. More importantly, this ideology goes everything America has stood for!
I suggest try to implement and or begin by the following:
1. Dismantle NEA! Extermination wouldn’t be enough, IMO, vaporizing, possibly!
2. Increase the number of Charter Schools. Implementation and duplication of the successful ones.
3. Mandatory Tax Rebates and or reduced taxation / mandatory school vouchers. Allow parents to decide and or have a choice where to send their children. (Government Education Has Created This Nightmare)!
4. Home Schooling Incentives.
5. Disenfranchised the known entities representing this disaster!
I believe if America’s Education System is not completely dismantled and completely overhauled, the inevitable will most certainly be, inevitable!
AJR: It seems like we are on the same page. My focus was on collecting reasonable solutions in one spot, rather than identify the causes. I alluded to what I believe is a significant factor: bleeding heart liberal academic "experts" who are literally out in left field.
I’m couldn’t agree more with you John. I understood what you were asking and I responded the way I did for one reason alone.
Which is, everyday I’m face to face with customers repairing network and network connectivity issues.
Each day, everyday I come across people who believe “everything will work itself out”.
Sadly, when I get into conversations about your article and others, literally people look at me and say, “You’re Nuts” that’ll never happen in America!
When we look back not to long ago, life seemed much less convoluted, but the signs were everywhere.
Fast forward to today and yes John, it’s happened. On a level 10 years ago people would call us crazy. Title VIIII is the an absolute classic example of what’s been happening behind the scenes and now it’s become reality.
Parents I’ve spoken with are still saying, “No they’re not doing that”!
So you see John, I’m trying the best way I know how to open the eyes and ears of as many people as possible and as quickly as possible.
I’m not wealthy, not in the least otherwise I’d take every penny I had to bring this “Marxist Ideology” and the American destructive forces they’ve unleashed, to light!
I thank you for allowing me to express myself. I am truly grateful for so many people on Substack.
AJR: Very much appreciate your support. I am an optimistic person, who believe that things can change if we intlligently work together. On the other hand there is 100% certainty that if we do otherwise, that things will get worse...
I agree with you, John and intelligently work together. That’s the truth sadly that isn’t happening and that’s the problem with facing. I’m trying to get people to understand what’s happening to the schools. My four year old grandson tells me a boy can be a girl. It’s insanity at every level and I’m an optimistic as you are, something has to give someone has to step up and God help us. No one does thank you John.
Factual, logical, well thought out, and well presented. Educators will hate it! But I love it!!! In today's edition. Rich
Thank you!
I particularly like your “cameras in the classroom” suggestion; that addresses a number of classroom issues.
Case: I appreciate your support.
EVERY ONE OF THESE NEED TO BE REINSTATED IN OUR SCHOOLS, COMMUNITIES. CHURCHES AND HOMES.
Carolyn: Yes. I made this so that a checklist should be used by every school...
#2--we teachers have been doing that for forever
3--ditto. How about the phone call I made (in 2018, I think) to a parent, after I had found a 7th grader, while taking a Latin numbers test, cradling his phone in hand, with screen open to a Wiki page on "Roman numbers"-I had noted the very odd hand position, kept an eye on him, walked around the room ostensibly observing all, said nothing to the boy, just took the phone from his hand and walked to my desk. The phone call: the mother absolutely, forcefully, denied that her son could do such, refused to believe me. told me I had to call the father (divorced, natch) and he only said, 'well possibly my son might have done this'
#4--I started doing this in 2017--had a plastic box in the room labelled "telephona in hac arca" and students deposited their phones in it as they entered the classroom. I was surprised at how willingly they complied.
#5--as I have said to you before, I do not think that most public school teachers are intelligent enough to engage in critical thinking themselves, let alone teach it.
#7--adding more laws is a bad idea. the government is too top-heavy already---and prohibition will simply encourage the true believers to find ways to skirt the law
#8--yes indeed, that self-esteem business is garbage. I watched it going on 30 years ago in my children's elementary school.
#9--sp.; relativism
#10--dress code. Yes , my school had one but principals somehow felt unable (?) to enforce it--though they talked about doing so. I do suspect they were afraid of lawsuits from parents--I watched the school admin cave on a number of issues. I think I remarked in an earlier comment that principal had, in the monthly faculty meeting (maybe 2014) , announced that teachers should not wear flip-flops any longer--unprofessional dress. Next morning, a math teacher, an older woman, was doing the flip-flop waddle right down the corridor which ran from her room to the main office. Arrant thumbing of her nose to the admin.
#11--single sex education I am all for, a product of it myself for four college years--about 90 miles west of your own B.C.
#12--Don't know how this could be possible. I think better move is finding more affordable ways for parents to move their children out of the public school. Voting with their feet. Children are too precious to waste.
In my last few years, my assigned duty period had me providing "coverage" for teachers--in essence, being a one-period substitute. I am grateful that the principal chose this assignment for me, as I was able to see what goes on in other teachers' classrooms. One can assume that when the official teacher is absent, the students will display less disciplined behavior--as in "when the cat's away. the mice will play"--my experiences were eye-opening in many cases. And in some cases some of my own Latin students were present in those classrooms, and were behaving very differently from the way they behaved in my classroom.
VVV: Sorry for any confusion, but I didn;t mean to imply that everything listed here was brand new. Yes, some of these are being done, but it's mostly piece-meal. I'm trying to present a fairly comprehensive checklist to go through. Re #12 it IS possible, as the link I provided proves. TY for your good comments.
I have two thoughts for you:
1. Too much curriculum has been watered down, out of date or irrelevant and suffering from a watering down of the values (and related content) that allowed us "oldies" to get through life thus far unscathed.
2. About 15 years ago I was studying education methodologies around the world and came to the conclusion that how we learn hasn't really changed much from the old, old days of rote learning. New tools sure, though they often bring their own problems. Some educators and administrators today seem incensed with the idea they have found "new" ways of learning. Moving forward in this field is admirable but if kids have difficulties learning there may not be anything wrong with using the tried and true where relevant, and younger children respond better to shorter achievable steps than over-thinking material. New ways of learning tended to be more about finding new ways of presenting and testing material in the curriculum, and educators should always be mindful of the fact that education is a two-way street - teaching AND learning. In my experience many educators miss that last point.
Possibly part of the problem may be related to the trend in the last 20 years away from writing and towards keyboarding everything. I personally can think and type at the same time but am not sure that I could have retained the same amount of information that I learned in college (by constantly immersing myself in the information by writing and rewriting and arranging and rearranging (on actual paper) my thoughts on the material being learned). There is something about putting data/information on paper with your own hand that seems to impart it into (at least my) brain. Some topics obviously do not require such rote type behavior but many information laden ones do (BS in Pharmacy did anyway). I wonder if they have looked at information retention in students who type notes, write (and then re-write for clarity) notes, or take no notes at all (assuming they are all of relative equal intelligence and one isn’t eidetic). I used to have other classmates ask me how I could take a test so fast and get such good grades on them but honestly (although I’m not stupid) it was hard work. I studied the material, I wrote and re-wrote and arranged things in an order that made sense to me. I didn’t panic because I was prepared so why worry? Learning is truly just work and instilling that into as many kids as possible is what they should be doing NOT discussing their genitalia or sexual preferences which have no bearing or business in a school environment.
IRun: Good point!
Daniel: I'm all for paying much more attention to the curricula — but this commentary is focused on how ti reduce behavior issues.
I've noticed that students who are able to make progress with their studies, even in small steps, seem to exhibit fewer behavioural problems over time. I was once given a class where one student sat in a corner of the room alone and refused to co-operate. So I prepared some material that the class would enjoy and have some laughter along the way. Within a very short time, when the loner realised the others were having fun she edged closer and closer to the others over a few days and her anger passed away. She became one of the higher test results in the end. All I'm saying really is that if you can manage the time to create strategies that keep the learning flow going while you try to address behavioural problems and not appear to be doing so it's worth a try.
In my next group an eleven-year old boy seemed to be dong well until one day he announced he would go home, get his father's gun and come back and shoot me. Can't win them all.
Daniel: Good comments. IMO the takeaway is that every problem student can not be fixed, so the objective is to keep them to an absolute minimum.
Each item you’ve listed, at one time, not so long ago, were the rules, today they’re the “exception”!
Why? Why has this happened and who allowed this?
A little research will explain. More importantly is the fact a Marxist Ideology has taken root! Not only throughout government agencies, but more importantly, Higher Education and society in particular.
Government Education, In particular the NEA, the Internet, social media, and all the MSM agenda driven “dumbing down” scenarios, have taken apart, torn away, destroyed, each line item you’ve mentioned.
They’ve destroyed each one and now control the “Purse Strings” in order to nurture and grow, this “Hatred of America”! We see it happening, In our faces, all around America!
If in fact each action items you’ve listed were enacted, it would still taken a generation to implement. I’m not suggesting not to do this, I’m simply being a realist.
The problems are far worse. As you’ve stated, teachers resign, good teachers, excellent teachers! Why? Because they’re being forced to teach propaganda in disguise! They know what’s happening and they can’t change it, so they resign.
This is not the teacher’s fault whatsoever. This is government destroying good / once great education systems and flipped it around! The breadth and depth of how deep and wide, this disastrous Marxist Ideology has become and have been forced upon students is astounding! They have driven a stake in the American Education System, turning education into a “Propaganda and Activism Machine”!
The stakes are so high, the resistance so great, it seems insurmountable to strip away, as I call it, this “Stench-Rot” which has also been embraced and forced upon us by the “Globalists Elites”!
They’re the reason why this has happened. Conservative leadership has been well, “Nonexistent”!
What we’ve been left with simply isn’t aligned with the founders thought processes. More importantly, this ideology goes everything America has stood for!
I suggest try to implement and or begin by the following:
1. Dismantle NEA! Extermination wouldn’t be enough, IMO, vaporizing, possibly!
2. Increase the number of Charter Schools. Implementation and duplication of the successful ones.
3. Mandatory Tax Rebates and or reduced taxation / mandatory school vouchers. Allow parents to decide and or have a choice where to send their children. (Government Education Has Created This Nightmare)!
4. Home Schooling Incentives.
5. Disenfranchised the known entities representing this disaster!
I believe if America’s Education System is not completely dismantled and completely overhauled, the inevitable will most certainly be, inevitable!
May God Bless America and The Entire World!
AJR
AJR: It seems like we are on the same page. My focus was on collecting reasonable solutions in one spot, rather than identify the causes. I alluded to what I believe is a significant factor: bleeding heart liberal academic "experts" who are literally out in left field.
I’m couldn’t agree more with you John. I understood what you were asking and I responded the way I did for one reason alone.
Which is, everyday I’m face to face with customers repairing network and network connectivity issues.
Each day, everyday I come across people who believe “everything will work itself out”.
Sadly, when I get into conversations about your article and others, literally people look at me and say, “You’re Nuts” that’ll never happen in America!
When we look back not to long ago, life seemed much less convoluted, but the signs were everywhere.
Fast forward to today and yes John, it’s happened. On a level 10 years ago people would call us crazy. Title VIIII is the an absolute classic example of what’s been happening behind the scenes and now it’s become reality.
Parents I’ve spoken with are still saying, “No they’re not doing that”!
So you see John, I’m trying the best way I know how to open the eyes and ears of as many people as possible and as quickly as possible.
I’m not wealthy, not in the least otherwise I’d take every penny I had to bring this “Marxist Ideology” and the American destructive forces they’ve unleashed, to light!
I thank you for allowing me to express myself. I am truly grateful for so many people on Substack.
Thank you again John.
AJR
AJR: Very much appreciate your support. I am an optimistic person, who believe that things can change if we intlligently work together. On the other hand there is 100% certainty that if we do otherwise, that things will get worse...
I agree with you, John and intelligently work together. That’s the truth sadly that isn’t happening and that’s the problem with facing. I’m trying to get people to understand what’s happening to the schools. My four year old grandson tells me a boy can be a girl. It’s insanity at every level and I’m an optimistic as you are, something has to give someone has to step up and God help us. No one does thank you John.
AJR