So I am having a little trouble writing about my life itself, mostly because of what is going to happen over the next few days. After it happens, I will likely write up a storm about it. For now, I want to talk about education for children. Children in this case including anyone up to eighteen years old.
Education is a problem near and dear to my heart for several reasons. For one I consider myself a moderately intelligent person who owes literally none of it to the school system. If the public school system can receive any credit for my education it is that they left some good books around in their libraries. I had a few precious years in private schools to which I owe almost all of my critical thinking faculties. My parents provided documentaries, cultural education, summer camps, and other enrichment programs that helped form my mind into what it is today. Is it perfect? No, I frequently feel I fall far short of the potential my genetics and economic status growing up should have assured me.
So here we are, and I am doing what I can to undo any untruth poured into my head, while building up the good education I have received. I am pretty firmly into the adult period of education, which while enriching and wonderful in it's way does not smack of hope the way childhood education does. So I am working on figuring out education for my children. I have yet to have any, but the education of the next generation is important. How well educated my children are will inform how they make decisions for me should anything bad happen, like getting senile.
So, what flaws caused my primary school education to be unsatisfactory. First the perceptions of disability and it's correlation to intelligence. Not all impediments are a sign of low IQ or diminished ability to absorb information. It sometimes only means that they need different approach. This is not to say more money, more people, or more time in class. It means the right person. The right teachers are vital, and sometimes that means more money for private schools.
Second is inconsistency in content which meant I played catch up for too much of my academic career. At some point it became intensely frustrating to the point I ceased attempting to excel and began focusing on survival. When that shift occurred my education in many senses ended. Surviving to pass tests and get into the next class is not learning. It turns education into a menial and tedious job of memorizing facts. So providing a steady learning environment, meaning one school for most of the childhood would likely help.
Finally focus is important. In high school I found a passion for tinkering again and attempted to apply it. I was sidelined entirely by a horribly frustrating focus on morality. My parents had provided an excellent framework for building my personal morality, and I found it horribly offensive to spend a day out of five a week hearing backwards red state morality. Much of that has turned out to be the worst sort of propaganda and tripe, and I will do whatever I have to if it keeps my child from having to put up with that from a learning institution. They are there to learn, and while it is an important lesson for a child to learn there are idiots in this world, they shouldn't have to think of the people controlling their education as those idiots.
Education is a problem near and dear to my heart for several reasons. For one I consider myself a moderately intelligent person who owes literally none of it to the school system. If the public school system can receive any credit for my education it is that they left some good books around in their libraries. I had a few precious years in private schools to which I owe almost all of my critical thinking faculties. My parents provided documentaries, cultural education, summer camps, and other enrichment programs that helped form my mind into what it is today. Is it perfect? No, I frequently feel I fall far short of the potential my genetics and economic status growing up should have assured me.
So here we are, and I am doing what I can to undo any untruth poured into my head, while building up the good education I have received. I am pretty firmly into the adult period of education, which while enriching and wonderful in it's way does not smack of hope the way childhood education does. So I am working on figuring out education for my children. I have yet to have any, but the education of the next generation is important. How well educated my children are will inform how they make decisions for me should anything bad happen, like getting senile.
So, what flaws caused my primary school education to be unsatisfactory. First the perceptions of disability and it's correlation to intelligence. Not all impediments are a sign of low IQ or diminished ability to absorb information. It sometimes only means that they need different approach. This is not to say more money, more people, or more time in class. It means the right person. The right teachers are vital, and sometimes that means more money for private schools.
Second is inconsistency in content which meant I played catch up for too much of my academic career. At some point it became intensely frustrating to the point I ceased attempting to excel and began focusing on survival. When that shift occurred my education in many senses ended. Surviving to pass tests and get into the next class is not learning. It turns education into a menial and tedious job of memorizing facts. So providing a steady learning environment, meaning one school for most of the childhood would likely help.
Finally focus is important. In high school I found a passion for tinkering again and attempted to apply it. I was sidelined entirely by a horribly frustrating focus on morality. My parents had provided an excellent framework for building my personal morality, and I found it horribly offensive to spend a day out of five a week hearing backwards red state morality. Much of that has turned out to be the worst sort of propaganda and tripe, and I will do whatever I have to if it keeps my child from having to put up with that from a learning institution. They are there to learn, and while it is an important lesson for a child to learn there are idiots in this world, they shouldn't have to think of the people controlling their education as those idiots.
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