Platform- Education and final thought

“I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” Albert Einstein

Education in the United States could be better. There are so many ideas and programs available to implement, yet we stick to mainly memorization and standardized testing as the primary drivers of our education system.

The ideas expressed here are just one example of what we can do to improve public education. I do want to state that everyone is to blame for what we have now. Top to bottom, left to right, democrat to republican to independent, basically the whole of our country should take some responsibility for our education system and I don’t want to say it is a failure, but we have the capability to do so much better than what we have now.

The current K-12 framework we can keep. And since there are so many preschool and Headstart programs we could start at this age anyway. Child development and how the brain develops should be incorporated into this framework.

As a child grows different parts of the brain become more active and developed. For example it is well known in education fields that language is very important in early childhood. We need to start here. Ages 3-5 should receive intensive language development. This includes foreign language since the earlier a child starts a language the better the child will retain it. This is more than learning to count to ten in a different language or saying a few common words. It needs to be true immersion into the language.

And most importantly; we need to teach English. And this means teaching how to speak well. Communication is so important to success in adult life, yet we spend too little time truly teaching our children how to communicate well. I always admire authors and writers that can bring home a point. I don’t think everyone will have the ability of Hemingway or the vocabulary of George Will, but it would be beneficial to the whole if we spent more time teaching the art of speaking English well at this age. And yes this includes proper use of grammar. No we aren’t going to have four year olds diagramming a sentence, but require our teachers to speak to our children in proper context and use of proper grammar. Children at this age will learn to speak and communicate as they are taught. This will take a concerted effort to make this change, but should be one of the first priorities.

The next major change is how we grade and standardized testing. Starting with preschool and for the first few years we should not concern ourselves with grades. And testing for this age should be to determine aptitude. Once we determine a child’s aptitude, follow up testing should reflect progress based on that aptitude. And we can still have basic standards to be met each year. And as mentioned brain development is important, but we must remember children develop at a different pace. This is one reason grades should not be the measure of young children’s development, but rather where they stand in a progression model from their first aptitude tests.

And even though we are keeping children in grades K-12 or preschool through 12, not all children will spend time in each subject in their respective grade. A child that does well in math should be allowed to attend math classes in a grade above him or her part of the time. We want to encourage and challenge our children. If this same child struggles in language development, then he or she would stay at their grade level for those classes. This will cause some administrative changes and some more work, but we are talking about educating our children. Most of the regular activities in school would be done at their grade or age level.

Pre-school through primary grades would stress development not grading as a way to move a child forward. Children would move up in grade based on their age, but class level would be determined from testing levels. There would continue to be minimum standards that children would need to meet, but we would not hold children back if they have aptitude or ability at a higher level. Course curriculum would also follow normal child and brain development. Some types of classes would have more emphasis later on in the education process.

And starting with preschool we need to start introducing certain subjects to help our children become educated or having a more well rounded education. This means art, theatre, music, physical education and especially with preschool motor skills development. We should not view a well rounded education as a luxury, but as a necessity. As a country we talk heavily of exporting democracy, but for us to continue to thrive as a democracy (or republic) our populace needs to be able to understand issues and make decisions based on the individual’s ability to think well and for them self.
And as the child grows up we incorporate more and more to achieve this goal.

As a child goes through elementary education we also look at aptitude testing now to help children and their parents determine what opportunities work best for the child. We will not change our core system at this point, but help parents and teachers understand what subjects down the road may best benefit the child, always understanding that a well rounded education will be part of the program. It is a fact of life, some people will be better at building or working on computers and others will be better at writing programs for computers. This is a simplistic example to show why it is okay to start determining what we should look for in aptitude testing. We are not hurting children to have this knowledge. We should not say they need to follow this path. Any child should still be able to choose the direction they want to take in life, but having knowledge helps people to understand what they can do and what they would need to do to be successful in any endeavor they choose.

By the fifth grade or so, grading can be used to help determine the success of a child. It is true that at some point others will be seen as more accomplished and they can be recognized. Grading at this level should reflect that children are not smarter because they make all A’s, but are making more effort and rewarded for showing this effort. Some people complain that we hurt our children by rewarding all children no matter if they win or lose. I would not want to stress the winning or losing aspect to young children, but the reward for hard work. It is a part of our adult life that at some point there are rewards for doing more especially financial rewards. Our education system does not need to teach that money is the most important aspect of life (again the importance of a well rounded education), but rather achieving goals and what they accomplish in their chosen field or career should be the barometer of their success. You will not see this in the curriculum of a fifth grader, but the idea of being successful through effort should be recognized.

Starting with middle school some major changes take place. We need to introduce more classes that reflect the development of the mind at this stage. Middle school children are more aware of the world around them and as any parent or teacher of a middle school age child knows, the question “why” develops. Unfortunately it becomes why this or why do I have to do that. Instead we should focus this energy into courses that encourage their curiosity. Philosophy, civics, ethics, current events, history, and science should now take center stage in their education. Yes we keep math and language, along with a well rounded dose of arts and physical education, but we start stressing in large doses how to view the world around them. We open up literature to a variety of topics. I had not mentioned it before, but reading development would be very important in the elementary years. The child’s ability to read would serve them well now in middle school and the introduction of these broader topics. And again grading is used as a measure of success of effort, not to say someone is better than another. And this could include letting a child earn an A based on their aptitude in a given subject. For someone with high math skills it should actually take more for them to earn an A or they should be allowed to take more advanced math classes, for someone who struggles with math aptitude earning an A should be based on their efforts to achieve minimum standards that are set. This goes for reading and language. For the other classes A’s are earned by effort since if we set a strong foundation in elementary school then everyone should have some preparation to take on the new courses.

At the high school level it should really open up for the children. And here is where the aptitude testing in elementary school has the opportunity to bear fruit. There should always be a core curriculum that even at this age should include reading, math, language, arts, and some physical activity, but children can use the results of their aptitude testing to choose classes that might benefit them as an adult. Overall a high school graduate should meet certain standardized results in their education and create a foundation for either university studies or advanced schools in certain areas. For example, does a person that will build computers need to take advanced philosophy, not necessarily unless they want for their personal growth, but rather as long as we did well through 12 grades they can concentrate more on the skill set in specialized schools. A person that chooses business school and university studies does need to take more advanced classes of ethics and philosophy for reasons such as a person who manages people needs to have a more well rounded education than someone who works a specialty. A professional degree such as doctor, engineer, or attorney etc needs this since they make decisions that affect people so having a stronger ethical foundation is a bit more important. I would say we don’t discount not having a requirement of university type classes in a specialty school, but not as much emphasis.

The changes are not monumental and work with the framework we have now. The importance is looking at how a child develops and incorporating curriculum that follows this development. We use age and grade level as the foundation, but not allow this to dictate what each child can accomplish by letting them move up in certain subjects for part of their day. We do not discount the concept of a well rounded education and starting with the first day of school becomes part of their routine. High school still leads to children choosing higher education, but they can choose from a wider selection of higher education choices including the development of specialty schools that may take the place of community colleges or work along side them to allow these students to continue to develop a true well rounded education.

The goal is to graduate students from high school that are prepared for the world and are ready to make educated decisions for their life, their community, and their country. Yes we can do better in math and science which is needed, but if a scientist has no concept of ethics how is this scientist ready to benefit humanity.


Some final thoughts:

I have a hard time with the concept of liberal and conservative in today’s world and especially when compared to the liberal and conservative of our constitutional writer’s time.

People say the democrats are the liberal party and there is much talk about there being a modern liberalism which I do not like. I prefer the constitutional time’s definition where liberalism is the expansion of rights. The ideas that gave us the phrase….the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness…and the idea we do not want heavy central rule.

Nowadays the democrats are developing an autocratic central government where they feel man cannot take care of himself and needs the government to make all the rules. To me this is far from being a liberal. The irony is the original conservatives wanted a more powerful central government.

And today’s conservatives are an interesting bunch. First to me conservative has a root word: to conserve. And that means we should be conserving the original values of our constitution. This does mean less federal government, but also reliance on man doing what is best for man. It also means there is a responsibility to govern by both liberals and conservatives when elected. For either group you need to represent the people who elected you. The modern conservatives rely on a mantra to say they are conservative, but this has no substance in true conservatism or basically they produce no governance to achieve conservative rule.

It is easy for someone to say I am a conservative because I want less taxes, less government, I support the right to bear arms, etc, but when you let the government expand and don’t do anything to solve problems, but just want to cut you are failing at representing the people that elected you. Even though we do not want too much government, society still has problems, a country has issues that need to be addressed. The goal of a conservative would be to find solutions to the problems without an over reliance on taxable programs. Hopefully some of the ideas I have expressed in previous posts at least meet this philosophy for that is my goal.

So basically democrats are not liberals because they are changing the definition and republicans/tea party are not conservatives because they fail to produce true conservative agenda in actual public policy. Failure to truly represent your electorate is a failure to your cause. And yes this means actually doing something other than whipping up your electorate into a frenzy with a few catch phrases. As a conservative I want less government and to pay fewer taxes, but moving forward takes an effort to achieve these goals that neither party is willing or seemingly able to produce.

It is time we moved on and for the many independents in the world I ask and encourage you to think about my thoughts and if not what you want, what would you do. Our country needs us to step forward and remove these two political parties that have become self serving in their rule and are failing the country in their representation of what is needed to keep us a great, growing, and wonderful republic.

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And some of my next posts will go back to some hot sports opinions and hopefully I will do one shortly on a bit of history and philosophy of the original Progressive Conservative Party, why I feel my ideas fit into a modern version and some differences from then to now. And with primary season about to go into full swing I am sure I will comment fruitlessly about all that.

Have a wonderful weekend