Reading, Writing, Arithmetic- Learning How To Survive The Real World.

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Authored by Dave Webb

I look at how I was educated and I have a problem. We were basically educated to be assembly line workers in a factory. Oh, we have history, English, math skills, etc.

But, the basic orientation is 9-5 education. It starts at the beginning of training in the schools. We all are trained to sit in chairs and listen. This prepares us for a 9-5 regiment in a factory when you grow up. Never mind that training someone to make his own way in the world might be more valuable in the long run. Like learning to run a store or a business might be better for everyone or not.

Since that day years ago when I started school, things have changed drastically. The problem is I do not feel that education has changed with it. I think we need a new approach.

I think back then the most valuable courses were shop skills. Whether it was automotive, printing, sewing, home economics, electricity, these are the things I have used the most. I want more practical teaching. What is going to get them a high paying job? What skills will they need to maintain a home. Can the children cook? How about repairing clothes. All of this is necessary in life.

I am not saying that an education in literature, English grammar, spelling, basic math skills, are not necessary. I simply think practical skills might be more worthwhile for someone starting out.

Then we come down to how the human mind actually works and how that is used in an education system to make children remember what they have learned. I have heard numbers like 80% is retained. I have heard opposite numbers on long term memory. Studies have shown low numbers of retention after testing a year later.

Most of what I know about memory comes from the Memory Institute of Illinois. My own memory has been average. So I have to work hard to learn new courses in keeping myself educated.

They have researched human memory. Their research indicates the trick is in the filing information in memory. Most human memory is images. We are basically a picture taking creature memory wise. So anything memorized must be associated with an image to be retained. None of which is utilized well by the school system.

There is a reason why the Electric Company, Sesame Street, and more recent education programs are a success. The reason is images. The more images associated with memory, the better it is retained.

The other retention is to use. The faster you put the information into practice, the longer you retain it. That is why small intensive participation classes work so much better than 40 student classes where everyone sits around and sleeps in class with their eyes open.

Other societies recognized that years ago. In the Orient, typical school sizes are limited to 10 students. To be number 10 is to be at the bottom of your class. It is a social stigma to be Number 10.

A lot of Oriental Learning is based on rote. That means they repeat the information until they remember it. Seems a little painful to me. It memorizes but gives no indication to how and why things work.

The other problem with the lower grades is I think we get what we pay for. I think sometimes the kids are in an over glorified babysitting system. It is there to keep the kids occupied while their parents work.

If the system were truly efficient, then standard challenging out would be in effect everywhere. That means you could take a test and challenge out of any course in school. You would be put where ever your level of competence places you. You would get credit for whatever courses you have been able to challenge out of. Instead we have an inefficient system that standardizes children according to age. I figure challenging out would have put me at least 3 grades higher than what I was at. When tested most of my skill levels in 9th grade were at 11th and 12th grade levels. My reading and spelling skills and vocabulary were at Freshman College level. My math and algebra skills were low. I needed special help in those areas at the time. I got it in the USAF. Not in school.

I have always had minor vertebrae problems in school. I had restless legs. It is difficult to concentrate when something in the middle of your knees is giving you torture. I had this problem in algebra. The chairs were old wood variety and gave me torture every time I used them. I had trouble concentrating under those circumstances.

Now in the military they recognized this problem. If you needed to you could simply stand and go to the side of the class. End of problem. Sleep was a problem. So standing made it easier to concentrate. That is still not done in our schools. There is too much of a hormone problem between sexes at the critical ages. It would be better to separate the sexes during the teen years for education purposes.

Not enough attention is given to grading teachers. I have known good teachers and bad teachers. One older female teacher was my claim to misfortune. She was a rote teacher. She picked on me constantly. Something about our personalities grated on both of us. But she did painfully make me learn to an excellent level despite my own lazy leanings. She drilled everything into us by rote. Repeating over and over again until we learned it all. She was not a good teacher. She was a drill instructor. I was never one to learn by rote. But she did give me skill levels I might not have otherwise learned. This was basically because we used the material right away after it was presented to us.

The reason we have the current system is money. The teachers make a lot more money in college if there is no way to challenge through the courses. Also they lecture not teach. They figure all the real teaching was done at the earlier levels which most times it is not. This is a great way to eliminate people from higher education.

I would question education. What is the real purpose behind teaching to a college level? Why not orient the teaching to what the children are going to do with their lives in accordance with what their natural ability is? For instance, the trades. A lot of people would be a lot better off if they were oriented towards what they intend to do for a living. If they choose to learn the finer arts that is perfectly all right. Making someone’s preferences in literature mandatory reading isn’t my idea of education.

It is a great money maker for colleges though. It produces a system based on college education as the only way to break into management of a company. Most get to a lower level of management. They are then stuck for years in that position. Finally around the age of 50 they are laid off or fired. They never are able to find a job again.

All in all, I access education by how successful a person is with or without it. Right now I feel the entire system flunks out.

I can learn more from a Professor series on CD than I can from the current system of babysitting children until they qualify for a minimum wage job somewhere. I have a terrible opinion of the way we educate children in this country. I have been in a Canadian elementary system, an English elementary system, and several systems in California and Ohio. The English elementary was the best. But that was many years ago. The individual attention given the student was very different from here.

I think we have to completely overhaul the system of education in this country. That is going to take a lot of work. For one thing the system is bogged down with older people with tenure. Once tenured they are impossible to fire! And some of them need a good kick to get them up to speed.

Some have some very strange ideas. Like no one gets good grades from these teachers. They feel only the brightest get to have good grades. They hold children to a higher standard that is unrealistic. They are incompetent teachers. They are not ignorant. Most are reasonably smart. They are horrible teachers.

Finally, we need to examine children more closely for different problems. A simple chemical imbalance can keep some children from learning. Some are pre-diabetic which can produce behavior problems. Especially if their sugars are all over the spectrum. Others should have supplements to enhance memory and intelligence. Lecithin can make a big difference in clear thinking. So can Selenium in the proper amounts prescribed by a doctor. Nothing chemical should be prescribed by a school system. That is the doctor’s job and jurisdiction. Nothing in the way of vaccines should be given. That is the doctor’s jurisdiction also. Some children have severe reactions to vaccines. That is why it does not belong in the school’s jurisdiction. Pushing mercury compounds into children causes severe behavior problems. A lot of vaccines have additives harmful to children’s health.

We need to do away with drugs that calm children down. They need special education not drugs. Ritalin was one such drug. It is also in the same class as heroin. Yet schools insisted on using it to dumb down the kids so that they behaved themselves in class. They should have been sued! Unfortunately, schools are not libel. They should be. They are responsible for our children.

I think giving parents the choice of schools is a good thing. But what do I know? I couldn’t tell you from the building whether you have a good teaching system or not. Only the kids know for sure. And their opinion is somewhat suspect as they are involved in the education process as victims. I think the teaching methods need to be looked at really close. I think the teachers need to be graded as to whether or not they can teach or not. An unusually high failure rate in normal children in a class should set off an alarm. I don’t see that happening in the current systems. I do see long term teachers failing because they have tenure.

I think we need to re-examine what we allow industry to demand before they consider someone for a job. I think there are very real glass ceilings based on education rather than on experience in jobs. As a result, you end up in industry with a management class based on educational skills rather than experience on the jobs involved. You have a lot of ignorant, intelligent people trying to perform management functions when they have no idea what the person is actually doing as workers. This condition results in a lot of money lost in industry.

Otherwise good workers see this and often take advantage of poor management skills in an industry. It is difficult to manage someone you have no idea what they are really doing on the job. You cannot fake it. It doesn’t work.

We need a system of education that takes advantage of the natural skills most children develop at various times in their youth. Montessori has done this. They found that language skills develop at certain ages. Math Skills are easily learned at another age. It is different with each child but they tend to be in age brackets. What might take 2 years can be learned in 2-6 months if you approach the child at the right time in their development. Again challenge is the key. Challenging out of courses is strong motivation. It is necessary to catch these children at the right time. It is also necessary to take advantage of a more efficient regime. On one hand we need more individual attention to the child. On the other, we need to do away with the wasted time. Challenging out is one way to do just that.

We need to take advantage of the advances in learning technology in the last 10 to 20 years. To do this the education system in this country has to change the way we are teaching. There is more than one way to teach a child. What works for one might be wrong for another. There are survival skills necessary after they leave school. Those skills should be taught at school.

If we want a baby-sitting system, you are well served.

If we want a system that prepares our children for life, we have a lot of changes to make.