My educational model

I have long pondered the failings of the current public education system.  So many children and young people either do not complete the current  prescribed educational program, thinking themselves a failure throughout their lifetimes.  Even more youngsters are pushed through the assembly line without fully grasping the concepts necessary to move forward.  Standardized tests, which the schools themselves hold up as the best method of measuring student success, show that 50% or less of students sdemonstrate profiency in English and mathematics.  Last I checked, 50% is a failing grade, and yet this failure to educate is touted as a great success.  In addition, this failing school district is my own district, the one I must report to under NY homeschool law.  I daresay that a 50% proficiency rate in my homeschool would not go over well at all.

In the perfect world, if the current education system was to be completely scrapped, and someone of great importance asked me to design and develop a new structure, I would offer the following ideas:

School would not be required until the age of 8, but would be available at the age of 4.  This would allow parents to decide when their children are ready for school, and the school could help with screening tools if the parents requested. 

There would be no grades.  There would be mastery levels, 7 for each subject.  A child would be expected to reach mastery level 7 in all subjects, but it need not be at the same time.  All levels of a certain subject would be held at a certain time, and each child would go to their particular level.  When they mastered that level, they would go on to the next, whether that took 6 months or 3 years.  There would be no passing children through the levels without mastery, resulting in a much firmer grasp of the foundational concepts of education. 

Those students who completed all mastery levels in all subjects would then have a conference with their teachers, advisors, and parents.  At this conference, the team would make a plan for the next several years.  A very good student, or one motivated to continue on in book studies, would advance to a upper level school, where again the mastery levels would come into play.  A student who struggled or who really didn't want to be in school would be matched up with a vocational program or an apprenticeship to learn a valuable skill.  Both the advanced studies schools and vocational programs would be funded by businesses and corporations, who would greatly benefit from this new educational model and the students who have been truly prepared for life and the workforce.

If a student who did not like school as a teen decided as an adult that they would like to move on to higher education, they could attend a junior college.  The elementary mastery levels and college levels could be funded the way they are now, and I venture this would still be a great deal less expensive than the current system of herding all manner and make of children through one, unbending system.  The cost to society of functionally illiterate (who now can graduate or make it through high school without much trouble) and skill-less workerforce would be reduced greatly.  Crime should go down, as children are not labeled as worth less than their brighter classmates.  Children who are taught that they have a purpose in this world and that we are not all the same are those who will succeed in life, whether that life is being a surgeon or a plumber.  The world needs both.

*For those who choose to homeschool*  Here in NY, we report to the school district we live in.  Some districts are unfriendly to homeschoolers, and some will leave you completely alone.  Instead of having so much variation, homeschoolers would report to one central office for the state (or maybe several for the state, but all run identically).  The people in this office would be supportive of those who homeschool and would also serve as a database for services available for homeschoolers.

In my perfect world...but it is unlikely to happen.  And so I wait for the current model to crash and burn, and see what society will come up with next.

As requested...a family picture

This was taken on our vacation in June.  We went to the train museum in PA, and ended up getting a membership because it was only $5 more than all of us getting in once.  Now we get to make another trip and get in for free sometime before June! 

This will be the family picture for now.  No way am I going to take these kids to get one professionally done.  I get hives just thinking about the wailing and misery that would cause.

FYI:  Brian is not still in a wheelchair.  He uses them when we go somewhere with a lot of walking.  This place had a couple of miles of walking, so we borrowed one of their chairs to use.  He walks with a cane for short distances.

Thankfulness in trial

So many weights, pulling me down. 

Another ugly custody situation over Nick.  Brian's continuing disability and lack of closure on the legal end.  Levi's almost-diagnosis and many therapies starting.  The regular difficulties of parenting and homeschooling.  My semester winding down and lots of big projects, papers, and presentations coming due.

These are the current waves in my life, and if I look at any one of them for too long, I am overwhelmed and discouraged.  If I look at them all at once for any length of time, it is easy to be overcome by a depression that no medicine can treat.

The Bible has many examples of people who have been in similar situations.  Not the same details, but this plight is common to man for as long as man has existed.  The problems of life can suck the joy of life right out of our souls.  IF we let them.

The remedy to this joy-sucking is giving thanks!  In order to even begin giving thanks, we have to take our eyes off the troubles and the pain of life.  In order to be thankful, we have to set aside our misery and complaints, the things that make us grumble and complain.

What feels better?  Whining and grumbling does for a time, because we feel we are justified in feeling and voicing these negative things.  But when we make  the choice to be thankful, we find that this has the power to raise our emotions above our circumstances.  Seeing the good things in life and focusing on those things can lift the darkest of depression.

So...this is the first day of a new month, a month that culminates in the American holiday of Thanksgiving.  Let's focus on making this a month of truly giving thanks this month, on seeing the good that even our trials have brought to our lives.  Let's eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day, and be thankful all month long!  Are you up to the challenge?