E
Einstein
Guest
I posted this to a different forum... I feel strongly on this subject,
so I am reposting it here as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Time to talk the 6th rail of US politics.
The touch this topic and you will be the most hated politician in your
region.
The US schools are a mockery. Anyone who is intelligent either home
schools, moves to a good district, uses a charter school, or uses a
private school.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx4pN-aiofw&feature=related
and the thread Psychiatry Must Be Stopped has brought this up for me
again.
Let me tell you the tale of 3 Students.
The first is myself.
In 1st grade I sat at my chain during recess and read books.
Huckleberry Finn, choose your own adventures, Swiss Family Robinson,
Arabian Nights, Isaac Asimov Science Fiction Books, and so forth. This
would not be considered light reading to most 6th graders even. I
rarely interacted with the other kids. I rarely bothered with school
work either until the teacher noted I had not turned in some work, so
I made sure I turned in (It was tear out pages books, complete the
work, tear the page out, turn the page into the teacher) not just the
pages she wanted, but about double what she wanted... So she would
leave me alone to my reading. My reading was so advanced I had issues
saying words because I had 'sounded out' them in my head. I had my
fixations on what words would sound like, and needed remedial
'language courses'.
For this I was put on Ritalin. I also was put in a special education
class with true hyper active children (So yes I know what they look/
act like), the mentally retarded, and other children who acted unusual
to the teachers. I have to give credit however, they had an excellent
program for those wanting to learn. For any work you did you got
'points'. These points could be spent on reading books, coloring
books, fancy pens, straws, stuffed animals (for the mentally retarded
mostly), and other 'interesting' things. I always chose the hardest to
read books they thought, to challenge myself, or to act like I was
reading them... or so they thought. But I did my studies. I was kept
in this program until halfway through fifth grade. At this point they
decided to 're-introduce me to public schooling'. I was 1/2 day in the
special education program, and 1/2 in the public school. The public
school was boring for me, I already knew all they were willing to
teach. I did not however, and this is important later, learn what
nouns, pro-nouns, and sentence structure was because I had missed
those classes. In fact I had read so many books, with writers
'privilege' that the concept was alien to me.
But I was through 5th grade quick, and off to the best teacher of my
life. My 6th grade teacher. She had 4 talented and gifted students she
taught on the side. They had a 'sub-room' that connected two class
rooms. I think it was designed to be a storage room originally for the
teachers of the two classrooms to store common materials. It was a
cramped room for the 4, but they did their studies in there. So this
teacher had knowledge of smart children.
She always brought out the best in me. Daily my studies were first,
books next. She may have noticed this, may not. Regardless sadly I was
still undergoing period 'language assessments'.
The teacher then did something unusual. She made a "Hawaii Study". It
lasted for 2 weeks. During this time we were to do some work station
studies. There was work stations on the history, the geography, the
language, the customs, oral presentation work stations, painting
stations, cardboard box presentations and more. Each was unique and
educational. There were twenty in total. Being me, I went to each work
station in a hurry. It was a LOT of work!!! I was surprised at how
hard it was to do all the work stations. I kept at it. I finished a
1/2 day before the end of the Study. I sat in my chair exhausted at
all the work I had done at school and home to finish.
The grades came in, I wanted to hope for a B. Her custom was to read
the C grades, the B grades, the A grades, any A+ grades... She
started.. I was not in the C grades. I was not in the B grades... I
was not in the A grade... In my mind I accepted that I had a D and
wondered how I messed up. She read the A+ grades (4 total... I
remember... the talented and gifted kids).
She suddenly said "I have one kid which did so good, I had to make a
new grade for him. He did all the work stations (I found out later
something I had missed due to one of my language sessions... that 4
work stations was a D, 5 was a C, 6 was a B, 7 an A, and anything else
was extra credit). She said she had a banner for this student, and a
letter of approval for my parents, and more things. I forget them
all... except that banner. It was made up of each paper sheet, on old
style printing paper, one letter each (This means it was a huge
banner) of my name.
This teacher saw my potential then, and worked on it hard. I was taken
off Ritalin halfway through the year. My test scores then
significantly increased as I felt the full strength of my mind
returning to me.
At the end of the year I was met with some testers... being tested so
often by "the testers" and being it was almost always someone new, I
was not in any way understanding the difference in it.
They said I had a fixed time period... well been there done that...
They had tests for English and Math.
I did the English one first since I loved reading and liked writing.
I did the math one next. There were problems I never had seen before.
If A = 1 then what is A A+A? It had complicated questions. Most were
multiple choice. Sometimes there were examples of a math question
being worked out. I sat there and answered every question on it, or
tried.
I scored a reading and comprehension of "Senior in College" and in
math I was rated as "Junior in College". At 6th grade with no real
education.
That year at least 1 institute for exceptionally gifted children
mailed my mom asking to take me into their program. One she seriously
thought of. I liked it, it sounded exceptionally fun (fun to me was
learning new things, thus reading books). She however was to attached
to me, and would not let me go.
Come 7th grade. I am in the TAG program. Two classes a day in the
program, the rest in normal classes. My courses the first 1/2 year
were: English (Tag), Math (Tag), Computers (With apple computers),
French, PE, art, and Shop. I may have had history or some other
classes, but I cant remember specifically on them
French was a mistake and the teacher and school should have realized
it. I was used to sounding out words myself and then being wrong. I
had a wrong educational background to start learning languages. I did
not realize it.
Computers was fun. I was excelling in that class, customizing programs
on my own on their Apples, and on my Commodore 64 at home.
Shop was extremely fun, but danged expensive since we had to pay for
our own materials. I started working with plastics and woods due to
the costs.
Math and English... well this is the second point of my educational
history...
I was added to these other brilliant kids. Not all of them made both
classes, some were just excelled in one class. The English class was
about 1.5 times the math class. Both teachers were there due to Union
Seniority than anything else. Both taught straight from text books
also.
English was hard for me. The teacher kept testing us and some of the
questions were always nouns, pronouns, that sort of stuff... any my
ultimate bane "Sentence Structure". The teacher had a fixation on
it... I could not understand how it worked. Oh I did learn some, like
when to use quotation marks, and how to read some isoteric and crappy
books on the left seem to like... yawn ... but that teacher flunked
me at the 1/2 year mark... just would not help me with the gaps in my
knowledge...
The math teacher... Would hand out assignments. If stuck grading
something she would hand out math puzzles, mazes (always the mazes),
and speed challenges.
I had one competitor in that class which could keep up with me, a red
headed girl. The rest were clearly behind me and her in brute skill.
We always were the first to turn in tests, sometimes even in 1/4 the
time it took the others. We were always able to answer any oral quiz
answers and so the teacher would be forced to ask others to take up
time.
Thing is.. I did math so fast, I never wrote down how I got the
answers. Indeed sometimes I would not even known how to write down how
I got the answers, but my test scores were always 99/100 or 100/100.
But man did that teacher hound me. She accused me of cheating. I
offered to do the math in front of her, I offered to change desks to
just in front of her. I offered to do what was needed to prove I was
able to do the math easily. The classes challenge to me slowed.. I got
bored... I started reading a lot in the class room. I got a D for the
first 1/2 year because I would not write down how I got the answers.
The end of the year she flunked me out.... even though I was turning
in perfect tests.
After that school was to boring, to lame for me. The system did not
want me to learn, I already knew what the teachers were teaching me.
So I drifted into my books again..
Few classes could break this pattern... History with a teacher who
cared, and challenged us to know more than the text books showed...
Science with a teacher who believed in science (Though I was to
squeamish to do the frog thing)... an electronics class... I was close
to being able to graduate as a Junior, 3 credits off... if I had not
joined the National Guard I would have done summer school to finish
the joke of my public education. By the schools accounts I was a below
average student.
Skip now to my brothers. Not biologically... My sister dad remarried
and had a family of his own there. I still visit him and still call
him my dad, but I never longterm lived with him like his two boys did.
They were home schooled. Both were taught at their learning level by
their mom. Both were able to enter college classes at age 14. Both
would be rated "excelling students" in public schools. One went on to
extensive college, and later has been doing a lot of evangelical work
in Africa, China, and SE Asia. He is also a Drummer and Guitar player
in a local band. He is still going to College, and has as cosmopolitan
a degree set up as any European would love to have.
Cut now to the third student. That student... well surprise it is me.
I went to private college. I paid well to join a class of about 16
students. The course was "Corrections Officer/Crime Prevention
Officer". Some of the class work was English. I explained to the
teacher that I had exceptional reading skills, but everything else was
'junk' for me. The teacher smiled and taught me anyways. Sentence
structure, adverbs, pronouns, etc. Everything I was missing I was
taught in 5 months. This teacher was being paid to deliver by us
students, failure to deliver meant no more students. She cared. She
'put out' the education where other teachers, guaranteed a specific
wage, job security, and protections anyone else would envy... would
not.
I learned from her an 'a' becomes an 'an' if there is a vowel coming
directly after it. I learned a lot of things that I never did learn in
12 years of public school.
I am different, I know I am. When my mind works well I can make a
spreadsheet in my head, and do a table of math with each cell having a
different value change of 12x12 proportions. Depression has sadly made
times hard to do this, depression being a separate topic however. I
can read a book, type in math problems and think up several different
things simultaneously when I am at full capacity. I read 1500 words
per minute. This is not bragging btw, these are facts pertinent to the
argument.
Some children are beyond any belief in skills and abilities. But all
children are being dumbed down by our education system, especially the
most smartest and brightest of us all. We must break this monopoly.
This should become the level of a "Crusade" if it can be. We must do
what we can to destroy the broken system, so that we might see the
excellence we can obtain.
To quote Black_Wing quoting someone else "Those who can, do. Those who
cant, Teach."
Why are the failures teaching us? Why do we not do what has proven to
be successful around the world, and change the model? Why do we put
our most important asset, our children, through a broken system? Ask
for change. Go to your representative, goto your senator, goto your
States congressmen, goto your governor, goto your Mayor, your city
council, your county officials, and DEMAND CHANGE NOW. To wait even a
day is to long. To wait a year is to destroy a many peoples futures,
to wait a generation, is a failure of the highest magnitude.
so I am reposting it here as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Time to talk the 6th rail of US politics.
The touch this topic and you will be the most hated politician in your
region.
The US schools are a mockery. Anyone who is intelligent either home
schools, moves to a good district, uses a charter school, or uses a
private school.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx4pN-aiofw&feature=related
and the thread Psychiatry Must Be Stopped has brought this up for me
again.
Let me tell you the tale of 3 Students.
The first is myself.
In 1st grade I sat at my chain during recess and read books.
Huckleberry Finn, choose your own adventures, Swiss Family Robinson,
Arabian Nights, Isaac Asimov Science Fiction Books, and so forth. This
would not be considered light reading to most 6th graders even. I
rarely interacted with the other kids. I rarely bothered with school
work either until the teacher noted I had not turned in some work, so
I made sure I turned in (It was tear out pages books, complete the
work, tear the page out, turn the page into the teacher) not just the
pages she wanted, but about double what she wanted... So she would
leave me alone to my reading. My reading was so advanced I had issues
saying words because I had 'sounded out' them in my head. I had my
fixations on what words would sound like, and needed remedial
'language courses'.
For this I was put on Ritalin. I also was put in a special education
class with true hyper active children (So yes I know what they look/
act like), the mentally retarded, and other children who acted unusual
to the teachers. I have to give credit however, they had an excellent
program for those wanting to learn. For any work you did you got
'points'. These points could be spent on reading books, coloring
books, fancy pens, straws, stuffed animals (for the mentally retarded
mostly), and other 'interesting' things. I always chose the hardest to
read books they thought, to challenge myself, or to act like I was
reading them... or so they thought. But I did my studies. I was kept
in this program until halfway through fifth grade. At this point they
decided to 're-introduce me to public schooling'. I was 1/2 day in the
special education program, and 1/2 in the public school. The public
school was boring for me, I already knew all they were willing to
teach. I did not however, and this is important later, learn what
nouns, pro-nouns, and sentence structure was because I had missed
those classes. In fact I had read so many books, with writers
'privilege' that the concept was alien to me.
But I was through 5th grade quick, and off to the best teacher of my
life. My 6th grade teacher. She had 4 talented and gifted students she
taught on the side. They had a 'sub-room' that connected two class
rooms. I think it was designed to be a storage room originally for the
teachers of the two classrooms to store common materials. It was a
cramped room for the 4, but they did their studies in there. So this
teacher had knowledge of smart children.
She always brought out the best in me. Daily my studies were first,
books next. She may have noticed this, may not. Regardless sadly I was
still undergoing period 'language assessments'.
The teacher then did something unusual. She made a "Hawaii Study". It
lasted for 2 weeks. During this time we were to do some work station
studies. There was work stations on the history, the geography, the
language, the customs, oral presentation work stations, painting
stations, cardboard box presentations and more. Each was unique and
educational. There were twenty in total. Being me, I went to each work
station in a hurry. It was a LOT of work!!! I was surprised at how
hard it was to do all the work stations. I kept at it. I finished a
1/2 day before the end of the Study. I sat in my chair exhausted at
all the work I had done at school and home to finish.
The grades came in, I wanted to hope for a B. Her custom was to read
the C grades, the B grades, the A grades, any A+ grades... She
started.. I was not in the C grades. I was not in the B grades... I
was not in the A grade... In my mind I accepted that I had a D and
wondered how I messed up. She read the A+ grades (4 total... I
remember... the talented and gifted kids).
She suddenly said "I have one kid which did so good, I had to make a
new grade for him. He did all the work stations (I found out later
something I had missed due to one of my language sessions... that 4
work stations was a D, 5 was a C, 6 was a B, 7 an A, and anything else
was extra credit). She said she had a banner for this student, and a
letter of approval for my parents, and more things. I forget them
all... except that banner. It was made up of each paper sheet, on old
style printing paper, one letter each (This means it was a huge
banner) of my name.
This teacher saw my potential then, and worked on it hard. I was taken
off Ritalin halfway through the year. My test scores then
significantly increased as I felt the full strength of my mind
returning to me.
At the end of the year I was met with some testers... being tested so
often by "the testers" and being it was almost always someone new, I
was not in any way understanding the difference in it.
They said I had a fixed time period... well been there done that...
They had tests for English and Math.
I did the English one first since I loved reading and liked writing.
I did the math one next. There were problems I never had seen before.
If A = 1 then what is A A+A? It had complicated questions. Most were
multiple choice. Sometimes there were examples of a math question
being worked out. I sat there and answered every question on it, or
tried.
I scored a reading and comprehension of "Senior in College" and in
math I was rated as "Junior in College". At 6th grade with no real
education.
That year at least 1 institute for exceptionally gifted children
mailed my mom asking to take me into their program. One she seriously
thought of. I liked it, it sounded exceptionally fun (fun to me was
learning new things, thus reading books). She however was to attached
to me, and would not let me go.
Come 7th grade. I am in the TAG program. Two classes a day in the
program, the rest in normal classes. My courses the first 1/2 year
were: English (Tag), Math (Tag), Computers (With apple computers),
French, PE, art, and Shop. I may have had history or some other
classes, but I cant remember specifically on them
French was a mistake and the teacher and school should have realized
it. I was used to sounding out words myself and then being wrong. I
had a wrong educational background to start learning languages. I did
not realize it.
Computers was fun. I was excelling in that class, customizing programs
on my own on their Apples, and on my Commodore 64 at home.
Shop was extremely fun, but danged expensive since we had to pay for
our own materials. I started working with plastics and woods due to
the costs.
Math and English... well this is the second point of my educational
history...
I was added to these other brilliant kids. Not all of them made both
classes, some were just excelled in one class. The English class was
about 1.5 times the math class. Both teachers were there due to Union
Seniority than anything else. Both taught straight from text books
also.
English was hard for me. The teacher kept testing us and some of the
questions were always nouns, pronouns, that sort of stuff... any my
ultimate bane "Sentence Structure". The teacher had a fixation on
it... I could not understand how it worked. Oh I did learn some, like
when to use quotation marks, and how to read some isoteric and crappy
books on the left seem to like... yawn ... but that teacher flunked
me at the 1/2 year mark... just would not help me with the gaps in my
knowledge...
The math teacher... Would hand out assignments. If stuck grading
something she would hand out math puzzles, mazes (always the mazes),
and speed challenges.
I had one competitor in that class which could keep up with me, a red
headed girl. The rest were clearly behind me and her in brute skill.
We always were the first to turn in tests, sometimes even in 1/4 the
time it took the others. We were always able to answer any oral quiz
answers and so the teacher would be forced to ask others to take up
time.
Thing is.. I did math so fast, I never wrote down how I got the
answers. Indeed sometimes I would not even known how to write down how
I got the answers, but my test scores were always 99/100 or 100/100.
But man did that teacher hound me. She accused me of cheating. I
offered to do the math in front of her, I offered to change desks to
just in front of her. I offered to do what was needed to prove I was
able to do the math easily. The classes challenge to me slowed.. I got
bored... I started reading a lot in the class room. I got a D for the
first 1/2 year because I would not write down how I got the answers.
The end of the year she flunked me out.... even though I was turning
in perfect tests.
After that school was to boring, to lame for me. The system did not
want me to learn, I already knew what the teachers were teaching me.
So I drifted into my books again..
Few classes could break this pattern... History with a teacher who
cared, and challenged us to know more than the text books showed...
Science with a teacher who believed in science (Though I was to
squeamish to do the frog thing)... an electronics class... I was close
to being able to graduate as a Junior, 3 credits off... if I had not
joined the National Guard I would have done summer school to finish
the joke of my public education. By the schools accounts I was a below
average student.
Skip now to my brothers. Not biologically... My sister dad remarried
and had a family of his own there. I still visit him and still call
him my dad, but I never longterm lived with him like his two boys did.
They were home schooled. Both were taught at their learning level by
their mom. Both were able to enter college classes at age 14. Both
would be rated "excelling students" in public schools. One went on to
extensive college, and later has been doing a lot of evangelical work
in Africa, China, and SE Asia. He is also a Drummer and Guitar player
in a local band. He is still going to College, and has as cosmopolitan
a degree set up as any European would love to have.
Cut now to the third student. That student... well surprise it is me.
I went to private college. I paid well to join a class of about 16
students. The course was "Corrections Officer/Crime Prevention
Officer". Some of the class work was English. I explained to the
teacher that I had exceptional reading skills, but everything else was
'junk' for me. The teacher smiled and taught me anyways. Sentence
structure, adverbs, pronouns, etc. Everything I was missing I was
taught in 5 months. This teacher was being paid to deliver by us
students, failure to deliver meant no more students. She cared. She
'put out' the education where other teachers, guaranteed a specific
wage, job security, and protections anyone else would envy... would
not.
I learned from her an 'a' becomes an 'an' if there is a vowel coming
directly after it. I learned a lot of things that I never did learn in
12 years of public school.
I am different, I know I am. When my mind works well I can make a
spreadsheet in my head, and do a table of math with each cell having a
different value change of 12x12 proportions. Depression has sadly made
times hard to do this, depression being a separate topic however. I
can read a book, type in math problems and think up several different
things simultaneously when I am at full capacity. I read 1500 words
per minute. This is not bragging btw, these are facts pertinent to the
argument.
Some children are beyond any belief in skills and abilities. But all
children are being dumbed down by our education system, especially the
most smartest and brightest of us all. We must break this monopoly.
This should become the level of a "Crusade" if it can be. We must do
what we can to destroy the broken system, so that we might see the
excellence we can obtain.
To quote Black_Wing quoting someone else "Those who can, do. Those who
cant, Teach."
Why are the failures teaching us? Why do we not do what has proven to
be successful around the world, and change the model? Why do we put
our most important asset, our children, through a broken system? Ask
for change. Go to your representative, goto your senator, goto your
States congressmen, goto your governor, goto your Mayor, your city
council, your county officials, and DEMAND CHANGE NOW. To wait even a
day is to long. To wait a year is to destroy a many peoples futures,
to wait a generation, is a failure of the highest magnitude.
