[Geology2] Re: your opinions

Boy, do I feel silly; in the first line of my last message I complained about "...how bad the spelling and grammar is..." instead of "are". Tenses are one of those little errors that sneak up on you. Did I just do it again?

Good for you on the home schooling. I've read that those students are generally better educated and more successful in life.

Complaining a little more,here, I want to say how badly the whole idea of PTA has been handled, at least the ones I've had any experience with (btw if you want to keep from ending your sentence with a preposition you can add at the end a suitable word describing the recipient, such as "sir", or "punk", or, as one lady in her blog humorously did, "bi_ch"). The PTAs could be an opportunity for parents to learn about the education process, but are mainly devoted to fundraising and trivia. I know from my wife's experience as a teacher that the schools don't want the parents to know what goes on; it would only give them something to complain about. There is some truth to that. Just about everyone wants their children exposed to certain "values" (political, religious and moral) and shielded from others, so the school is caught in the middle.

The biggest lack, though, is in giving the children a sense of who they are, how they fit into this big world, and how that world operates. Everyone wants to know these things, and the schools could be a great place to begin that education in self, the formation of self, that takes a lifetime, if ever, to finish. I keep wishing that I could go into the nearby school and talk to a class, get them to imagine themselves living in a medieval setting and how life would be different, what they would lack and how that would affect them and make the world look different at that time. There must be many other things like this that would help young people to see themselves as they are and as they could be and maybe will be. It is the most basic step leading to a good life. Is this happening anywhere? Not in the public schools. It might never. Many parents would see it as indoctrination.

--- In geology2@yahoogroups.com, Allison Maricelli-Loukanis <allison.ann@...> wrote:
>
> I homeschooled mine. There are issues with science but we got around that by joining with a few  other families for physics and biology lab. The homeschool groups are very good about providing ways for kids to get just as good an experience in science if not better than what they would get in school. I joined the Milwaukee Geological society and took my daughter to the meetings. She really enjoyed the field trips we took with that group and my yard is covered with rocks we picked up, many of them with fossils. 
>  You are not kidding about the roadblocks in education. So many parents just want a babysitter and are not willing to put the work into acquiring better quality schools. Allison
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: fossrme <fossrme@...>
> To: geology2@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Sunday, August 18, 2013 1:43 PM
> Subject: [Geology2] Re: your opinions
>
>
>
>  
> Have you noticed how bad the spelling and grammar is on the internet? Not that I'm any great shakes in that area but some of the errors in the articles and blurbs just jump right out. I think a lot of it is because of texting and not reading real literature in school. Even the newspapers have a problem with it now. I've had problems with the schools for a long time - my kids were bored with it, when it seems like it should be something interesting and exciting. Maybe I'm just naïve, but if I were starting everything over I would go into education as a career and try to come up with a better system. But there are some big roadblocks in that.
>
> --- In geology2@yahoogroups.com, Allison Maricelli-Loukanis <allison.ann@> wrote:
> >
> > Well. Yeah. Most of the public is not even aware of the standards to which scholars ought to be held. I remember in chemistry we were graded on how we wrote our findings down after a  lab activity. Our teacher was very particular. It was many years ago and I doubt that I could properly write out an experiment now. But the education of a scientist starts in high school. And many schools are really lax. With this new Common Core idiocy, you can bet America will start to lag seriously behind. All of you with kids in school should be seriously alarmed by the Common Core curriculum being launched in many states. My last one is a senior in high school but I really fear for the youth of this country. Allison
> >
>



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