I Feel Sorry For Kids In School. Every. Single. One.

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By Linda Dobson who owns and maintains the website Parent at the Helm and is the author of many homeschool books.

I check education news every morning. I know good news is rare. I know some days are worse than others. And there are some days when the news breaks my heart. Today was one of those days.

I feel sorry for kids in school. Every. Single. One. For so many reasons I’ve lost count, so the following isn’t an all-inclusive list. Rather, it’s a list about the crux of the problem. I hope parents will use the list to check and see what may be/is going on in their children’s lives, as the children may be so numb as to not recognize what’s happening and therefore not share with parents the detrimental practices and attitudes that permeate their lives.

What is School For?

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Seth Godin is an American entrepreneur, author and public speaker. Here he ponders: what exactly is school for? Seth's blog is here.

Seems like a simple question, but given how much time and money we spend on it, it has a wide range of answers, many unexplored, some contradictory. I have a few thoughts about education, how we use it to market ourselves and compete, and I realized that without a common place to start, it's hard to figure out what to do.

So, a starter list. The purpose of school is to:

1. Become an informed citizen
2. Be able to read for pleasure
3. Be trained in the rudimentary skills necessary for employment
4. Do well on standardized tests
5. Homogenize society, at least a bit
6. Pasteurize out the dangerous ideas
7. Give kids something to do while parents work
8. Teach future citizens how to conform
9. Teach future consumers how to desire
10.  Build a social fabric
11. Create leaders who help us compete on a world stage
12. Generate future scientists who will advance medicine and technology
13. Learn for the sake of learning
14. Help people become interesting and productive
15. Defang the proletariat
16. Establish a floor below which a typical person is unlikely to fall
17. Find and celebrate prodigies, geniuses and the gifted
18. Make sure kids learn to exercise, eat right and avoid common health problems
19. Teach future citizens to obey authority
20. Teach future employees to do the same
21. Increase appreciation for art and culture
22. Teach creativity and problem solving
23. Minimize public spelling mistakes
24. Increase emotional intelligence
25. Decrease crime by teaching civics and ethics
26. Increase understanding of a life well lived
27. Make sure the sports teams have enough players

 If you have the email address of the school board or principals, perhaps you'll forward this list to them (and I hope you are in communication with them regardless, since it's a big chunk of your future and your taxes!). Should make an interesting starting point for a discussion.

5 Ways to Help Someone HATE Reading

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Written by lifelong unschooler Idzie Desmarais. Read the original at her blog called, I'm Unschooled. Yes, I can Write.

I've often heard complaints and worries, from a wide variety of people, about how many people, especially youth, don't like to read.  Blame is placed on a variety of things, from texting on cell phones to uninvolved parents to class sizes in school.  But rarely is the actual way reading is taught and approached and looked at brought into question the way I think it needs to be.

I positively love reading, and have since I learned to read at 8 or 9 (and before that I loved being read to), so perhaps I'm not the best person to be writing this.  Maybe someone who actually hates reading should be writing this, instead.  But then again, people who hate reading often hate writing as well, so would probably have no interest at all in writing about why they hate reading!  Besides, I know all the things that I think  were done right to foster my own love of reading, so I figure I can just think of all the opposite things that could have been done, instead. 

Why Do Kids Hate School?

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Dr. Robert Sparrow is a nationally-recognized expert in childhood development. He is the founder of Sparrow Papers, a commercial research and writing firm.

All of us have met someone in the course of our educational careers that made us feel bad about ourselves. For many people it was a teacher. For others it was a librarian, a hall monitor, a substitute teacher, or a lunch aid. The type of individual I am referring to is stern, condescending, and intolerant of younger people's opinions. They seem to dislike kids, making you wonder why they chose to go into the field of education in the first place.

These negative people change lives. Sure, plenty of kids get by-kids whose self-esteem has been bolstered at home. The ones who suffer most don't get enough recognition at home. But where parents fall short, teachers ought to step in. Teachers, especially at the elementary level, are supposed to be inspired individuals. They're supposed to be working not just for the benefits and vacations, but for the satisfaction of influencing and guiding young lives. It is their charge to be aware of the psychology behind children's bad behavior and emphasize their positive traits rather than their shortcomings. Punishment is an act of laziness; educational professionals have a duty to redirect their students' energy.