Thoughts on Education

It is not hard to note that our education system has great room for improvement. The following are some ideas I've been having in this area. The main focus of this article will be for grades K-2. Warning out of the box thinking to follow.

First, a change in education requirements for those working with this group. A focused associates program could easily train people as teachers for the program I'll outline and the ripple effect would be to lower the staff expenses a school must outlay, as the positions would pay less than a full degreed teacher. The skills acquired at this age are not so advanced to require 5 years of higher education to be effective. This program would be greatly focused on music, art and science.

However, the lower expense of having associate degreed educators would allow room for a specialist to do early identification of learning challenges. A "Learning Differences Specialist" would work on a rotational bases (spending time in each of the classes) as a teacher assistant within the school for grades 1 and 2 to identify potential obstacles that any student may face in their future. They would also head an after school program where the learning difference issues could be addressed, not only for those in grades 1 and 2, but the higher grades as well. Perhaps they would do a directed reading program for a student so that once they enter grade 3, they would have strategies in place to be on a somewhat even footing with their peers.

The K-2 group should focus more on exposure and brain development than on specific skill development, however each step (grade) would have a goal for achievement, just this goal will be a bit different than what we've had as goals for this group, thus far. This modification will allow for greater achievement in the next level of learning.

Educating this group would work with the natural strengths of this age. Children under 8 need to move around and engage, they have a natural curiosity about how the world works. By working with the natural strengths would allow children to experience education as the joy that it ought to be viewed. The #1 goal that should be aimed for is that the child is eager to go to school.

Kindergarten is a child's introduction into the learning process. By creating a fun environment allows for maximizing growth potential without inadvertently developing mental blocks for the learning process. As most kindergarten programs are only a few hours a day, music, art and movement would be implemented as the main learning tools. These 3 activities greatly enhance brain connections that will create successful mastery of number and letter identification that will be later built upon as they progress through their education. And many of the kids will begin learning to read through this process without a directed reading program.

Memorization would be experienced through learning songs (and even though they are pre-readers they would still be exposed to the words of the song). Memorization would also be done through playground games and becomes much more effective as they would be engaged in large muscle activity. Learning letter and number recognition could be mastered through art projects. At the end of kindergarten the children should have an indepth understanding of number concepts of 1-10, read the words one through ten, as well as, a couple dozen other words as explored through letter identification (the alphabet) This would be a side effect of the directed art projects. And through this would come a greater understanding as it isn't simply a rote memorization process.

Reading would be a key element to this exposure. As it would not be a direct learning activity, the reading would be done by the teacher. Daily story time exposes kids to words and comprehension that will grow faster than the reading rate would grow if the students were compelled to "learn to read" on their own at this age. Learning to read would be a consequence of learning to write, and by the end of grade 2 the children would have developed knowledge of a few hundred words. Reading on their own would not begin until grade 3, however, exposure to reading would begin in this primary introduction period (grades K-2). This is why it becomes more critical to have a specialist who understands the nature of learning challenges. Dyslexia, for example, most teachers recognize that many young children may transpose letters, yet not necessarily have dyslexia, but most are unaware of the other symptoms of dyslexia and frequently these children fail repeatedly before their learning difference is discovered, if ever. Usually because the struggling child becomes a behavior problem or labeled as lazy, slow, deviant, goof off, etc, because they do not have the experience to verbalize that they are experiencing learning differently from their peers.

Grades 1 story time would include myths, legends, fables and fairy tales. Story that introduce concepts of group ideals. Much of the work would be done through discussion (not lecture) allowing for the development of problem resolution, personal responsibility, tolerance, or whatever opportunities naturally present themselves. Science at this grade would be daily, from the senses, to natural science. Exploring the outdoors, and documenting (drawing) their findings, and experimentation. There are a myriad of very well done books for young science activities. This age loves to "know" and are full of "why is the sky blue?" types of questions. Finding satisfaction to those questions is what propels learning. And thus achieving the #1 goal for this group of wanting to go to school.

By grade 2 the story time will start to include a sense of history and lead to discussions about what came before. Because the reading is not dependent on the reading level of the student, teachers can use more advanced material to bring the subject matter to life. By now, the students would have been read to daily for 2 years and would be exposed to how language works in a way that is more advanced than typical daily speech. They've not wasted their time reading inane books that do little to advance vocabulary or more complex thought. While their other class activities have been building a reading vocabulary they can use when they embark on an individual reading programs the following year.

I'm sure there is much more detail that could be added and needed to research this out fully. But wanted to post it as food for thought.

Less Homework Revolution

Todays ripple was inspired by a segment on the Today Show (NBC) this morning.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28624181/

For me modern public education generates a HUGE ripple, and frankly, not a very pretty one. This is why the piece on Today was inspiring to me, and has potential to make a view small ripples in a positive direction. Basically the idea is to set appropriate homework levels based on the age/grade of the child. Ten minutes per grade was the recommendation I heard. This was followed up with the reasoning behind it which included such things as student motivation, stress reduction, lack of training to teachers on a uniform standard for dispensing homework.

As I listened I thought of my daughters 2nd grade teacher. We were at a new school and the first day my daughter came home with a 10 page homework packet. To be fair this was for the whole week, however, there were multiple subjects covered within this packet, each with a daily requirement. That first night we spent a good 5 hours working on just 2 of the 4 sections required for the first day. Now for some children, each segment could potentially be done in 15 minutes (which still would come to 2 hours of homework). But my daughter did not understand any of the assignments, and did not understand my explanation, either. (Some may be familiar with this refrain, "That's not how Mrs. X said to do it") So after a grueling 5 hrs I decided to let the teacher see her errors so that she could be familiar with how my daughter is understanding the material. I also noted the time we'd spent on the homework, and my observations (that she did not have a basic understanding of the task).

The following day the prior days homework was sent home with a note from the teacher "Please ensure that all the questions are answered correctly before returning to school"

HUH?

How is she going to know where my child struggles, if I tell her all the correct answers on her homework? What was the point of having a teacher if the teacher was not teaching the material, but instead sending it home to have the parent teach the material? And did she not notice the point I made that her "incorrect and unfinished" homework took us 5 hours. My daughter was 7, not 17. And as the guests pointed out in the Today Show segment, the ripple was in true form--my daughter HATED school, was highly stressed and developing anxiety issues.

Solution? Or should I say potential solution?

Revamp of the entire educational system. Ok, if I can only eat an elephant one bite at a time, than a simple and reasonable homework guideline is a good start.

Primary Care Doctors

Todays topic: Shortage of Primary Care Doctors

How did this problem grow to be? My personal thought is that we need to look to the medical schools. Why would they allow the students to dictate the numbers in various fields of medicine? Should not the more specialized areas (ie, more lucrative) be something earned not by who is willing to simply invest a bit more upfront, but those who are the most talented in that area. A select group. Could there be a correlation between the increase in medical mistakes and the generic hodgepodge of medical specialists that grows out of the fact that making 100K/year is not enough income, so they want to specialize to make 250K+/year.

HUH????

Why has financial incentive driven the medical profession? Wasn't there some sort of oath of service associated with medicine, that has nothing, whatsoever, to do with financial gain? Are they truly intimating that people would not go into medicine unless they can be insanely wealthy? Perhaps those who have that particular motivation have no business in the medical field to begin with, and should instead go into finance?

Is it the financial ethic that has driven medicine these past 40 years, the main reason that the cost of healthcare has grown in epidemic proportions? I say there is definitely a ripple effect in action here and that the AMA better wake up and reintroduce ethics and use their influence to see that all doctors are trained to be primary care physicians and only those who have a true talent (in other words, compete for the specialized fields, based on those who demonstrate a true commitment, as well as, the skill and instinct to perform with excellence) should be allowed to take on specialties, and only as the demand requires it.