If you’re relying on America’s public schools to prepare your child for adult life, you’re in for a very rude awakening! Not only has its practice of standardized testing failed to live up to its 2002 promise of ‘leaving no child behind’, 22 years of scaring teachers into giving students answers rather than teaching them to find the answers, has resulted in a generation who lacks the fundamental skills to think. Consequently, we have a population of young adults who have problems but look to others for solutions. They recognize hard work but look to others to help them or do it for them. Why? Because THAT is what their public school education taught them to do.
Scared teachers, Scared Parents
What’s worse is that two decades of scaring teachers into giving answers lead to schools scaring parents into abandoning their real responsibilities. While teachers feared the repercussions of poor student outcomes on their pocketbooks and their reputations as educators, parents feared for their children’s academic futures. They fell for the lie that poor assessment outcomes meant their children were doomed to a life of failure. So, rather than teach their children the fundamental life skills they would need to navigate life in America, they focused exclusively on end-of-year reading and math test scores. Like public school teachers, they too robbed their children of those precious life experiences that naturally develop fundamental life skills and frankly, good old common sense.
“You Got Played”
Here’s what today’s teachers and parents need to understand about learning. Real, meaningful learning cannot happen without life experience. It’s basic educational psychology. Children cannot truly master reading, writing, and math without experiencing its deeper life meaning, its practical usefulness.
For those misguided adults who think worksheets, APPS, Chromebooks, SmartBoards, and tablets count as experience, you’ve been played! Let me say that again, for the people in the back, “YOU GOT PLAYED!” You spent the money and made a lot of people rich at your child’s expense.
Regrettably, a generation of children, now fledgling adults, had to suffer from this delusional practice. It’s an expensive lesson that I can only hope future generations don’t have to learn.
Back to the Basics!
If you’re the parent or grandparent of a young child, listen up. Your child can develop reading skills by following cooking recipes with you. They can develop reading fluency and fluency by reading instructions to board games, the signage above grocery store aisles, and the back of the cereal box while enjoying breakfast.
The same is true for Math! Using measuring spoons and cups while cooking goes further in teaching fractions than an APP ever will! Reading price tags in stores, the receipts from your grocery bill, and even sorting clothes while doing the laundry can deepen your child’s awareness of numbers and their importance. Real learning is fundamental!
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