Now that I'm sort of back, I suppose I could post something

[lyndz.livejournal.com]

It's not Common Core that is the problem in K-12 education, it's the testing to death. It's sad that my 3rd grade students have had to take no fewer than half a dozen assessments only two weeks into the school year.

Comments

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

You can never learn too early that life is an absurd numbers game.

Do you think we want critical thinkers or something? We need
complacent automatons.

[mudryikot.livejournal.com]

Absurd and generally crooked!

As Sir Humphrey said: "Being bored stupid 90 percent of the time is a perfect preparation for the working life!"

[hindustar.livejournal.com]

My kids were constantly being tested while in school too. I don't remember having so many when we went. I think one mid-year and one at the end of the year. The testing seems so disruptive.

[hindustar.livejournal.com]

The we was including my husband not the poster, sorry when i think about the kids the hubby is always close to my mind.

[lyndz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we rarely had them either. I just teach Language Arts and Social Studies and I've had to give two writing diagnostic tests (one narrative, one informative), they've taken a scan-tron test for PE, and I know they've had a few in math as well. In a couple weeks, I'll be giving the Scholastic Reading Inventory. That's in addition to stupid spelling tests. I feel terrible for the babies.

[hindustar.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is a lot. =(

[icelore.livejournal.com]

Those tests are not required though. If your district is pushing testing, then that's a district issue, not a reflection on CC. I'm in a very competitive district (second largest in IL), and we've done very little assessment, because our curriculum guidelines don't mandate it. We used last years end-of-year assessments to decide our guided reading and math excel groups, and are moving from there.

I never understood the drive to assess at the beginning of the year. It's not like the kids have changed much from the end of last year without instruction over the summer. I think some people are so spooked over CC that they are over testing. :(

[lyndz.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's what I said in the OP. It's not Common Core that is the problem; rather the testing that is mandated by so many states/districts.

[madscience.livejournal.com]

Reason to homeschool number I lost count about twenty years ago.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

But, but, "socialization"....you know, the trump card for all anti home school arguments.

(for the record, all three of my kids home schooled)

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Did you teach your kids about evolution?

I'm afraid to ask, but I have to.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

You didn't ask "what" is taught about evolution.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

I fail to see the reason you "have to"...

[hurleyman.livejournal.com]

I am in my late 20's, no kids, but I am seriously looking into homeschooling for my future kids. And yes, evolution would be learned as well as every other logical, factual based lesson they need to learn.

I wouldn't do this without spending the next several years finding out what is the best way and researching the hell out of it, though.

The only socialization skills I learned by attending public school was who and where had the best drugs, how to adequately sneak off campus for a smoke and how to adequately make people feel inferior based on materialistic things (I went to a very affluent school, and was borderline lower income).

Public schools have just become an absolute joke these days. The influence of religion is still not appropriate in the districts I live in (and I live in the "progressive" part of Pennsylvania--near Philly). Plus I'd rather not have to worry about what attire may offend another classmate, what lunch I pack that may or may not kill their fellow classmates. I'd rather focus on education, not popularity, not giving into everyone's PC needs (cause hey! guess what? life ain't like that), or any of the other BS we seem to have to wade through just to receive a sub par education.

For the record, my high school was ranked in the top 100 schools of the country, they cheat and lie on all of the tests they needed to perform well on to obtain federal funding, we also have one of the highest rates of suicide/accidental death in that age group. If that's the best this country has to offer, I think I'll pass.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

But, but, "socialization"....you know, the trump card for all anti home school arguments.

Here in the land down-under we had kinda-sorta home-schooling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_the_Air) for a very long time.

With qualified teachers and a public curriculum.

I don't know the requirements in the U.S. but when I hear of adults being unaware of some pretty basic facts about biological evolution, I have to wonder what the hell is wrong.

[oslo.livejournal.com]

It'd also be a reason to send one's kids to private school, for what it's worth.

Though I'm not sure why one would respond to the trend toward standardized tests by completely cutting oneself off from professional pedagogical training, anyway - I mean, you wouldn't do your own electrical wiring or plumbing unless you had training in the area, would you? Gosh, it sure must suck when your kid learns from a teacher who's taught dozens of children with different backgrounds and learning styles, instead of someone whose only training consists of reading the teacher's manual a few days in advance of "teaching" a "lesson."

[madscience.livejournal.com]

You seem to have some wildly inaccurate stereotypes about homeschooling. Homeschooling does not imply "completely cutting oneself off from professional pedagogical training", at least not for the majority of homeschoolers who are not religious zealots.


"I mean, you wouldn't do your own electrical wiring or plumbing unless you had training in the area, would you?"

Of course I would. And if anything, I'd do a better job than a professional because there's no economic incentive for me to cut corners on work I'm doing for myself. And I find it astonishing and sad that you either do not possess, or do not recognize and trust, your own ability to give yourself exactly the same training that professionals have, if not better, using readily-available resources.

[catlin.livejournal.com]

Alternately, it is really nice to have my child not terrorized by nasty little bullies, who tell her every day she is going to hell.

Also, she doesn't get sick as often, between stress and the little germ havens kids are.

Also, she gets an actual comprehensive lesson on sex education, rather then the biased and inaccurate version the local schools give. (Both private and public around here tell kids condoms don't work for instance, and masturbation is damaging to the body)

Having a professional teacher in front of your child is far from the only way to guarantee the child a good education. There is also electronic programs now that handle the academic matters.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

But without all that data how would we know that the kids are learning? We'd have to like, trust the teachers' professional opinion or something, and we can't be trusting teachers to do their jobs because unions or something.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

A valid point in light of the discussion in this post:

Finland and South Korea have the two most successful education systems in the world. One is based around short hours, extra curricular activity and play, the other around rigourous rote learning, long hours and high stakes exams. They couldn't be more different.

They have two things in common: They respect teachers and they don't get to choose which school they send their kids to.

[icelore.livejournal.com]

This is true. Countries with successful education programs, as a whole, train outstanding educators. What a surprise, right?

Not that the US isn't tightening down in a lot of areas. With the glut of teachers who are "qualified," steps are being taken to ensure that the next wave of teachers becoming certified are required to jump through more rigorous hoops in regards to the standardization and objectiveness of methods for certification - edTPA for instance.

I just find it amusing how so many people think teaching would be SUPER easy and that they'd be SO good at it. Again, successful education stems from outstandingly trained educators, as the world market has shown. While there is fault with US teachers, they are still a far step above your average joe.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Just looking at a few articles on teacher training in the US, it seems there is an issue there. The scary thing is that we are going further and further down the US track (more testing, less qualified teachers) and no one sees a problem with this. There is an attitude amongst politicians that "what they do in the US is good, because it's the US" and they aren't listening to the professionals and that massive mounds of evidence that argue the exact opposite.

I'm not sure what it's like there, but here it's pretty common for 25% of training teachers to quit during or after their first rounds. So 25% of people who want to be teachers realise they can't do it within weeks of first seeing what a classroom is like. I have four undergraduate degrees and two masters degrees; a total of 10 years of post secondary education and lay people want to think they could do my job? Fuck those guys.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

Aren't you SO GLAD that you're sort of back?

[pirho-maniac.livejournal.com]

Aren't you glad to be moderating this madhouse?

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]