Glass House

I’m getting really tired of dealing with the public school system. Let me start by saying that I doubt it is the teachers who ratchet up the frustration component quite as much as it is “THE STANDARDS.” Seems like whenever one of my children shows an ounce of creativity with regard to a school project, THE STANDARDS get whipped out and are used to knock us both over the head so we understand that thinking for ourselves is NOT the object. We are only to think in whatever way has been decided to be grade level thinking by an anonymous (to us) group of alleged experts who don’t know us and, mostly likely, wouldn’t care if they did.
Here’s an example of a accomplishment that is required by the 4th grade math standards. Each student must be able to regurgitate the multiplication tables through the number 10 in 5 minutes or less and must get a minimum of 90% correct. So… if the child takes 10 minutes for this feat, he or she does not meet THE STANDARDS. This obviously discounts the fact that the child actually knows the multiplication tables, he or she just isn’t fast enough. Now, what is the point of this STANDARD? I don’t really know and I wonder if any one actually does. Or is this just SOMETHING EVERYONE OUGHT TO KNOW. Personally, I’d like to ask the School Board and the Superintendent to take this test and score them. I wonder how they would do? Do you think they might bog down in the seven times table?

Posted by Laurie Feldman at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Early College High School is an idea that is being made into a reality by the Chico Unified School District in collaboration with Butte Community College. I had vaguely heard about a partnership between the school district and Butte College that was to provide vocational technical programs to high school students. It sounded like a good idea and I recently corresponded briefly with both Kelly Staley, the interim district superintendent, as well as Sara Simmons, the director for innovative programs. What I found out is that this idea is much further along in development than I knew.
Ms. Simmons informed me that they hope to start with an initial class of 9th graders next fall (2008). These students will be transported to and educated on the campus of Butte College. The intention is to provide them with a high school education and two years of college within a five year program. Each student will have the opportunity to either graduate with an Associate’s Degree in addition to their high school diploma or will be eligible to transfer into a four year college/ university as a junior. The target students for this program are to be those presently under-represented in post-secondary education, i.e. first generation college students, economically disadvantaged or minority students.
My first reaction to this was: what a great idea! By the time a student is 18 or 19 years old they will either have a viable skill that will enable them to get and keep a decent job or will be two years away from a bachelor’s degree. As a parent, this sounds especially good. Imagine the savings on college fees and tuition! Imagine a child who can permanently provide for him or herself at age 19! But then my cynicism kicks in.
There has been story after story about the busyness of childhood. About the stress to which our young children are subjected by being relentlessly shuttled from soccer to kung fu to music lessons to tutoring to drama class, etc. (OK, I'm guilty too). About the loss of the opportunity for children to make discoveries of their own while they engage in play which is the work of childhood. So I wonder what effect this effort to push teenagers even more quickly along the continuum will have. Will it have a dampening effect on their creativity and exploration of the world? How will it effect their social development? Will they become more precocious than they already are or will it have the opposite effect of pushing them into a more isolated stance because their peer group is so limited?
These are all concerning questions. Having raised two children to adulthood with one more to go, I am very concerned about children becoming fodder for an experimental program. I’ve seen this happen with year round school, several mathematics curriculums and other less notable issues. It seems like by the time the school district gets around to evaluating the effects of their programmatic decisions the education of years-worth of students has already been impacted. And, if the program is found to be a failure, the ill-equipped students are the ones who suffer the most serious consequences.

Posted by Laurie Feldman at 12:14 PM | Permalink

Guns at schools are very, very scary. Sheer cold-sweaty terror is the feeling I imagine I would feel if someone brought a gun to my child's school. If one of my children had been at Las Plumas that day I'm sure I would have been sick with terror and that would have probably easily become anger at anything handy. The school administrators, law enforcement, the student with the gun.
For some reason, my mind keeps going back to the boy with the gun. I've read in the paper that he is to be charged as an adult. That seems so wrong. Even though what he did was terrifying and shocking, I still think that boy is still just a boy. A boy who's moved around a lot lately, maybe making it hard to make or keep friends. A boy who has had a couple of homes with a couple of different parents lately. Maybe a boy who's angry about how the world has been treating him. Sounds like he found a little comfort with a girl in Oroville for a while. I bet she got tired of trying to heal all of his wounds and finally said, enough is enough. Good for her, she's a strong girl who knows herself and is willing to speak up for her own needs. But the boy was so sad when she decided this. Maybe she found it easier to say that she had another boyfriend, maybe she really did. So the boy's sadness turned to anger, fueled by all the anger he already had pent up inside. And he got a gun and took it to school.
Thank heavens everything turned out all right. Two other self-possessed young ladies with courage to spare evidently knew the right words to say, the right things to do. And they brought everyone out unharmed, including the boy with the gun. Let's send these two young ladies to Iraq, sounds like they've got what it takes to handle that sorry mess. But where was I...yes, the boy with the gun.
Now we have a problem, what to do with the boy who had a gun? Well, I say try him as a juvenile for possession of a weapon on school property and terrorist threats. That seems about right. Then lets put him on probation, get him some good counseling and see what we can do about redeeming that troubled soul. Just like his friends want us to do, or they wouldn't have saved him.

Posted by Laurie Feldman at 03:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)