I have as usual been busy gathering together the information I need to begin to make an attempt at further self sufficiency. With spring and warmer days still a while off, I am gathering books and asking questions and plotting the new garden(s) and considering when and how to sprout and cold frame the first of this years plantings.....But planting and rotations and sprouting times are not the most of the long winter nights thoughts............
I have also been spending a great deal of time considering some of the implications of the industrial education system (I favor the term "industrial" as a better descriptor than "public") and considering our present educational dilemma of decreasing graduation rates, a perceived lowering of the level of the content and a reduction in quality (as anecdotal evidence from educators), and our ever slipping rankings as compared to other nations of the world. I have looked back at what the educational landscape was like just before the country began the astronomical rise to a pinnacle of education that has perhaps never been achieved before. There is a definite continued educational ranking decrease of our country beginning in the late 1960's and continuing till today as we are now ranked far down on the lists http://www.geographic.org/country_ranks/educational_score_performance_country_ranks_2009_oecd.html world wide on the quality of our education as a nation. I still see some interesting possibilities in the way and the timing we have been using for the last hundred years or so to educate our children.
We began with a type of system very natural to the ways of life that I assume people had in a closer more tribal setting by educating all ages and levels in the same room at the same time. This has an effect on the youngest, and the oldest, that rises the levels of the younger, and bolsters the lessons taught to the older by having the younger kids ask questions and utilize the older children to tutor and assist answering questions about lessons well beyond where they would be in a "modern" school setting. The effect of raising the level of education through teaching the higher level along with the lower I believe will raise the interest of advanced students and will bring the less advanced along if the older peer group is coached and given the task of assisting the younger and less advanced students. There is also another lesson in this approach I think needed and missed in today's school environment - compassion - Encouraging a culture of helping to bring others along and assistance when needed, can teach compassion and understanding and encourage social consciousness. These ideas seem entirely missing in today's educational system. I will need to look further into any studies which support these ideas and see if there would be a way to employ some of this thought in our present system and help in raising the standards while heping all kids to move forward at a pace which meets their individual needs.
I as an outsider parent looking in, with memories of my time in school, seem to think there may even be a more simple way to begin to achieve a higher standard and promote a better educational ethic with parents and children. Coaching. Not coaching at school but at home. I think that all kids should be read to as infants and that a "reading at bedtime" image needs a "Norman Rockwell", "American as apple pie" campaign. New parents need to be encouraged to read to and with their kids early and often. If books are needed there should be an effort to promote our libraries and if needed perhaps at birth books could be offered as a birth gift to the new parents.
I know if our children are read to the next thing they want to do is to read the book themselves. Wanting to learn to read could be encouraged at an earlier age so that when a child reaches grade school there is no need to teach the fundamentals of reading. By this simple change in culture our entire educational system may move forward several grades in reading. There has been a great deal of emphasis placed on early childhood education. However the follow through with kids in day care centers has been abysmal. We somehow need to fascinate our three, four and five year old's and spark that desire to read, count, and explore - to do what we human beings do with our minds - explore and question, learn and discover.
Another thought is to raise the grade level by teaching the second grade curricula in first grade etc. Simply sliding the "already in place" standards and moving the process one year earlier. This could be done on an experimental basis easily to see if ther is any merit to the idea and as I know there is much done to assess students ability and some remedial work done to begin each new school year so to introduce slightly more advanced material could be done as a grade k-6 experiment... But perhaps this has been attempted too....
I'm aghast at the level of education we are promoting (and paying dearly for) which does not even begin to adequately prepare children for post secondary schooling. Especially when the minimum job requirements for an income adequate to comfortably support a family call out a need for a college degree. A High School Diploma alone is not enough to make a living as our workforce becomes more and more technology focused. A Degree "two year", or "four year" has become a necessity, and this necessity is moving toward the need for a Masters or Phd. as our workforce changes and becomes more and more technological.
Although I find the idea that we are in a global competition for economic development and that the world economy will grow indefinitely is bunk. We still must have an educated population in order to understand issues and avoid the propaganda pitfalls which will be part of a voting people governing a republic. Without education and a body of understanding there is an ever present danger that the wolves will be herding sheep!
