When the teacher is in the home, children learn better. When tests are puzzle games, children excel. Who’d have expected to read this in the NY Times:
AS Department of Education officials consider how best to spend billions from the economic stimulus plan, they would be wise to pay attention to which programs actually help children’s achievement
A series of studies on closing the race gap shows that standard school practices hurt kids, but practices more like homeschooling help kids. That raises the question: why should the nation keep pouring billions of dollars into an educational system that does so much harm to kids?
(Anna)
2 responses so far ↓
1 Lou // Jun 8, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Hi, I hope you are having a good day. I had some down time, a rare moment lately, which led to the discovery of this website and your post. It sparked a few thoughts, so, in an effort to be helpful, I thought I might share them.
A while back I read Homeschooling, A Family’s Journey. Within it I was pleasantly surprised to discover an understanding that I seldom encounter. Indeed, few see parsnip swallowtail butterflies. Of course even the most aware can miss them at times. It’s easy to stray from the moment when coping with an environment where many think understanding is something to arrive at, promote and defend. When understanding ceases to be a continuous journey, parsnip swallowtail butterflies are seen as what they are thought to be instead of what each is.
When I read your post I thought of the nature of good and bad, and the story about the Chinese farmer and his neighbor. It begins when the farmer’s horse runs off and the neighbor offers his condolences. The farmer simply replies, “Who knows what’s good or bad?” The next day the horse comes back with a herd of horses, so the neighbor congratulates the farmer on his fortune. The farmer simply replies, “Who knows what’s good or bad?” Then the farmer’s son breaks a leg trying to ride one of the new horses, so the neighbor offers condolences again. The farmer simply replies, “Who knows what is good or bad?” The next day the army passes through conscripting men for war, but chooses not to take the farmer’s son because of his broken leg. The neighbor congratulates the farmer on the fortune of having his son spared. The farmer simply replies, “Who knows what’s good or bad?” The story could continue, but the point is the neighbor never lets himself see what the farmer clearly does – no solid unchanging good or bad can be established. For the neighbor, Reality is frozen bits limited to extremes, absolutes, good, bad, right, and wrong. He doesn’t notice they are static narrow focused ideals of a vast multifaceted ever-changing environment. Instead of attempting to capture, freeze, Reality, the farmer just does his best to continually see it enabling him to notice and flow with the perpetual change and complexity all live in.
Reality’s characteristics make it impossible to hold on to, and yet most are trained to think, see, like the neighbor. From earliest childhood we are taught and encouraged to tightly embrace absolutes, simplified static ideals. Though these principles and ideals can be useful, they tend not to keep pace, mesh, with Reality as well as we hope or think. Their static nature makes them brittle and vulnerable to our complex environment. Even simple stalwarts like not lying fail us in certain situations. Couldn’t it be appropriate to lie if doing so kept someone from certain unwarranted death? If such failings are noticed it usually leads to the study of bits of what was once Reality followed by the conjuring of ever-increasing complex ideas, rules, and laws. These attempts to improve can be beneficial, but the products of such efforts are still static ideals of something that is not static. Reality’s tenacity to be different in each moment often leads to mistakes being made by those who place too much confidence in them.
As you know there are many methods and practices used with success in homeschooling environments. Many could benefit from their increased use, but recognizing the nature of Reality suggests not all will. Certain circumstances could lead to the current system being the best for some. “So schools may be very good for a few children who happen to learn in the ways that schools emphasize, but very bad for many other children.” (Home Schooling , A Family’s Journey) Hardly an endorsement for the current school system, but it does recognize the system has merit in certain circumstances. Reality has a way of making what’s thought to be the worst, the best. Have there been moments when saving a life made ending a life appropriate? Being able to notice Reality like the farmer makes it apparent that what’s best cannot be reliably predetermined.
“The risk of a good, clear map is that we may put too much focus on the map and fail to see what is all around us.” (Home Schooling, A Family’s Journey) This and other things mentioned in Homeschooling, A Family’s Journey suggest you are familiar with what I have tried to convey. It’s likely it hasn’t been as foreign to you as I know it can be, and at best has served only as a reminder of the nature of Reality and of how answers don’t live longer than the moment they are born in. For various reasons we will always find ourselves trying to grasp or predetermine what’s good, bad, right, or wrong, and we will continue to be compelled to encourage others to notice what we have captured. These efforts may prove useful, but how much we benefit from them will be determined by our efforts to continually see what’s around us. It’s very easy to become so enamored with ideals that Reality, truth, is not seen. Many unwittingly submit themselves to a prison of their own making never realizing they missed what they sought. Understanding, when it remains a continuous journey, sheds light on just how primitive a tool concepts, ideals, are. Sure they are useful and will continue to be needed, but seeing beyond them is where truth is seen. Each moment is an opportunity to be bound to ideals or an opportunity to provide the freedom to see and do what each moment, Reality, suggests.
Well, sorry for rambling on for so long. Hopefully my challenged writing skills were able to produce something that was understandable and possibly of some use. I wish you the best of everything.
Lou
2 HSCC // Oct 2, 2009 at 3:34 am
The most ironic thing about the government’s philosophy towards education and money spent on it, is that those school districts which spend the most per child also have the worst academics as well. Interesting.
Leave a Comment