This is a Canadian based site.... so the hype of the election does not have me glued to the tv tonight. I will patiently wait until tomorrow morning for the news. So I will, instead, take this time to post the first page of my blog. A blog about education, the public school system and how this mom plans to rework the experience my three children will have in that institution.
Don't get me wrong, my children use the public school system, I am a product of the public school system and I have the utmost respect for teachers and professors. I think much more credit should be given to teachers who spend their weekends correcting papers, researching ways to engage a 7 year old, learning new technologies to apply in class. They definitely do not get the recognition they should.
Don't get me wrong, my children use the public school system, I am a product of the public school system and I have the utmost respect for teachers and professors. I think much more credit should be given to teachers who spend their weekends correcting papers, researching ways to engage a 7 year old, learning new technologies to apply in class. They definitely do not get the recognition they should.
That is not where I am going with this blog. I will look at the greater picture that is our public school system and I do hope to spark some discussion and controversy and new ways to engage your children.
I'm going to attempt to find the answer to a question that has been on my mind since grade 1 began for my big girl: Can you mix the public school system with the principles of homeschooling: today, in grade 2; and tomorrow, through high school?
I appreciate the regularity that the public school system offers. The fact that I don't need to think outside my bubble to discover how I need to introduce them to the basics of math, science and phonetics. I like that a list of homework is sent home each night so we can sit down, check things off and accomplish what has been laid out.
What saddens me is the effect that a less the great grade has on my 7 year old. What saddens me is that at 7 years old she puts enough pressure on herself to perform that she has driven herself to tears after a spelling test, before it was graded. What saddens me is that homework feels just like that..... work.
I am not an educator.... professionally that is. But I am a mother of three young children, each of whom I want to ensure have a world of knowledge available to them at the blink of an eye and have fun discovering all there is to learn. Therefore, yes, I consider myself an educator.
My sister is a homeschooler and my nieces, ages 9 and 12 have a much different view of learning. They are learning at home, on the road, at the beach, the museum and at classes put on through their community which includes dismantling and rebuilding a computer, building real rockets from paper and robots from lego.
Moving forward, I will create and share new and existing tools to help with the continuation of learning once the school bells ring and our children have returned to their comfort zone.
So I lied, the elections are on in the background, Romney is leading at the moment. I wonder if a result of this election will be a change to the school system in the United States. There are many different views on where the school system should go. Our current system is centuries old and definitely needs some attention. Follow this link to a Ted talk by Sir Ken Robinson, one very interesting view on changing education paradigms.
