Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy what's the least public education should do?

Here�s a tutoring story for you all;

When I was in 5th grade, our school implemented a peer tutoring program. I went to the 6th grade class to tutor an older student. He developed a crush on me because I was nice to him. He delivered a gift to my door on Christmas Eve morning and asked my dad to give it to me. I was absolutely mortified as I was an extremely sensitive child. My parents made sure to share this �cute� story with everyone I was related to over that two day period.

Then, on Valentine�s Day, he left a heart-shaped box of chocolates at my desk. More teasing (of course)! In my angry humiliation, I asked my friends to bring it back to him. Instead of my two friends returning it, every girl in my grade (except me) went. Of course I cry to think of how this boy felt when it was returned by a mob who apparently declared that I didn�t �like� him and to leave me alone!

The next year, we were in the same class because he had flunked. One day (when the principle was gone) our teacher brought me to the principle�s office were she yelled at me the entire time the other kids had lunch and recess. She told me that I had probably ruined his life!

Of course this was a worse case scenario. My daughter tutors for one hour per week after school and my son is a tutee of an older boy who mentors him in above grade level math. I think this is great!! I do not believe it should occur during school hours when every child, including the advanced student should receive a challenging education.

Stbmom,

The planet question is a great example. I posted a while back that my son is often confused as to whether the �correct� answer means the �teacher� answer, the �book� answer or the �full� answer. This will be less of an issue in 6th grade, so I tell him to hang in there! He has learned that if he gives an answer that is �above� the current grade, it is usually marked �wrong�.

He was really funny a few weeks back. He was so incensed that his teacher told the class that when drawing an atom, the neutrons, protons and electrons should be the same number. My son told her that this is true in only a few examples. She told him that was all they needed to know at that point. He ranted at dinner that his class was being mislead and wouldn�t know how to answer a question about seaborgium correctly. He planned to answer correctly on the test no matter what and take it up with the principle if he got marked off. I told him that she would probably only use a basic example on the test (which she did).

Trinity,

You asked I go into more detail on how teachers see education versus parents.

It really boils down to "what" to think versus "how" to think. I am not sure many parents understand the difference between being educated and having knowledge.
In the public (and most private) education sectors the goal is the education. Let's take reading for instance. We often start with the basics when teaching children how to read, rather it be whole language or phonics based - in the school system we first teach "reading" well before "reading comprehension". Now think about it, does it make sense to teach children word recognition before word understanding? Not really. But we do anyway.

Think about this: when you read to your child when they are little, we often read nursery rhymes, stories, etc. However, when we are about to try and "teach" our children to read - the books actually get less complex. No longer beautiful fairy tales or adventures, we are down to one or two words per page and we get excited because our children can "read".
No, they can not read; they can word call. Is reading apart from understand, comprehension, following the story line really reading?

When people used to be taught at home or self taught, or even the one room school house we didn't teach phonics. But, when the emphasis became more mass education and we had to "prove" we really taught people - we began to simply concepts of reading and break them down. Some of that may be because we want to "teach" children to "read" a little too early, some because we have to teach children at so many different levels at the same time, and part because educators have to be "judged" by some standard.
But, imgaine asking a 4 year old to tell you a story. They are very elaborate, exciting, etc. Then look at the books we ask 4 year olds to read. They must actually digress in their imagination and intelligence in order to word call for us. It isn't until some years later (as late as 3rd grade in some places) before we get back to emphasizing reading comprehension, that words are written for a reason, that stories should flow and make sense.

So, when we send our kids off to school to be educated we have to understand that for the most part, in a vast majority of public and private schools - they are not expanding their knowledge. They are, especially in the early years, simply learning to be evaluated by a set of standards that doesn't have a lot to do with deep knowledge, but with somewhat shallow standards.

Teachers aren't to blame - this has been going on for a long time in the U.S.A. And the main reason is that public education was never created for knowledge transfer. If you really take the time to study it (I warn you, it will be depressing), the purpose of mass education was to create workers for the industrial revolution. So, while we definitely need to prepare our kids for the work world, it is really up to us parents to instill in them true knowledge and a quest for deep understanding.

delbow,

I agree with you on tutoring. I really think it should not take place during school hours. All children should be allowed to learn new and deeper information during the school day.
Also, teaching others is a big responsibility and I wouldn't want my 10 year old responsible for ensuring another 10 year old learned the information.
Most children are asked to tutor others so they won't "get too far ahead" of the others in class. Tutoring by choice after school or working on group projects is another thing, but forcing children to stop their quest for knowledge to help others master what they already have just isn't right.
It's like being in the workplace and everyone starts out in the same job. One person is going to be promoted and that person must know X. You already know X. However, your boss tells you that to ensure you don't get an unfair advantage, you must teach everyone else on the job X as well. You are not the manager, supervisor, or team lead, just a peer. But you are givin the responsibility of a manager (without the pay or other benefits). If my child is asked to tutor duing the school day, I would like him compensated like any adult would be compensated. Give him the hourly wage of a para or teaching assistant

stbmom:
That is really interesting, about teaching reading. My own son has complained of having to read "silly books" that he says are preschool level. He commented that they are "preschool books with easy words and silly stories." What he was asking for was a book with some plot, a storyline and character development! His teacher tried to explain to us that she was working on fluency and oral reading skills - but he was so bored with the content of the book that he was actually reading it in a monotone voice and totally aggravated that he had to read it! But give him a more interesting book and he reads beautifully - if only she could "get it."

Thanks for sharing that insight, as it helps me to know that although I'm not an educator, my ideas are not far off. And reminds me that I know my child and his needs best!

sbtmom,
I knew about the industrial roots of our education system, but had never really thought about how that relates to teaching reading. Very interesting.

Like dajohnson60 it makes me think of my DS in 1st grade. His teacher asked me to talk to him one day because he did such a terrible job of reading aloud. He was reading in a really high pitched fast voice and was next to impossible to understand. When I asked him about it, he said that the books were really stupid so he was reading them that way.

I can understand to some degree using reading aloud to assess childrens' reading ability, but it's one thing that kept Mite from being "discovered" in his abilities. He cannot read outloud very well at all. He stumbles and totters all over the page. I think it has to do with his visual issues and with the dyspraxia. They should have better measures of reading ability, imo.