Trending on MSN today there is an article titled "Academic thinks there's no need for kids to lern how to spel anymore." Yesterday, I saw and read a longer, more in depth version of this article. Oh buddy! Did this story get me all worked up! To have a teacher, one who is actually very well known for his ability to advance education around the globe, come out and say something like this is mind blowing. Whats next...oh you don't really need to know basic math. That's what calculators are for. Are you kidding me?! Please tell me he's kidding!
Today's kids are probably well on their way to becoming our dumbest generation ever. Why? Because of stupid adults like this who think its okay to let technology think for us. The sad thing is, its not the kids fault either. We adults are allowing this to happen. Spelling, math, reading, all of those subjects are core to a basic education. Without them we are setting our children up for failure. As a mom, this is extremely painful to watch.
My son has actually brought work home from school that was given out in class that he did not finish. Didn't finish! Yet, he got a passing grade on it and earned top grades in all of his subjects, including the ones he routinely did not finish work for. This has lead to the new rule for this upcoming school year that if you don't finish it in class, you will finish it at home, in addition to any homework you bring home with you. Sorry but I don't want lazy kids. I want kids who know the value of hard work. I expect my children to get a good education whether that is at home or at school and I expect them to work at it. They are not going to want to take education seriously if the adults around them do not.
I think one of the biggest wake up moments for me came during college while I was interning at a local high school. I was in a science class where 9th and 10th graders were performing an experiment to find out the calories in a peanut and a marshmallow. I was grading papers and found myself actually having a hard time focusing on the task. I was distracted by poor grammar and poor spelling. On over half of the papers the words peanut and marshmallow were spelled wrong. Don't even get me started on the handwriting. The sad thing was when I mentioned it to the teacher they said that they are not an English teacher. It is not appropriate for them to mark up students work for spelling and grammar. They are there to teach and grade science work. What! Your a teacher...who cares what subject you teach. I realized in that moment that me becoming a teacher was probably a bad idea. If I was going to become a science teacher and have to grade papers like that without commenting, I was going to have some serious issues loving my job.
That's not saying I'm perfect. I'm not. But I know the value of a good education and I want my children to have that knowledge as well. This is why we are very active in our children's education. My husband and I are both on the PTA. We both attend every single parent teacher conference and we actually make our kids do their homework. If they fail to finish their homework, we walk with them into class and stand there to make sure they explain correctly to their teacher why their homework did not get finished. (Teaching accountability) If they are struggling in a subject we ask for extra work for them to do at home or we create our own work for them to do. Is it a little on the harsh side? I don't know. Compared to how involved my parents were (not at all) its certainly at the other side of the spectrum. Do we hover over the kids as they do their work or do it for them? Absolutely not. They have to do it themselves. I guess you could say I want my kids to know that I am there watching and making sure they are doing what they need to do to be the best student possible.
So in regards to the article the incited my anger, if I were to ever hear that the schools were going to stop focusing on spelling and grammar while my children are there...you can bet your bottom dollar I will be raising some serious fuss. Not to mention my kids homework load would just get bigger because I absolutely refuse to allow them to not know the basics.
Rachel B.
No comments:
Post a Comment