TEACHING CHILDREN TO FAIL
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”– Thomas A. Edison
How do we measu
re ‘good parenting?’ What yardstick do we use to say, ‘that’s a really good parent!’ The number of trophies they bring home? The A’s on their report cards? 350 marks? How well-behaved they are? How articulate they are?
What, really, is the measure of a good parent?
I came across a phrase that really resonated with where I am as a parent, “If parenthood came with a GPS, it would mostly say: RECALCULATING.” That’s how it feels like everyday to me. Parenting is sneaky. At one point, you really think you got it covered. Other times, you find yourself questioning even your most basic move. Parenting, to me, is a journey of growth, in which you discover more about yourself than about your children. It is a journey wrought with pleasant and sometimes not-so-pleasant surprises along the way.
As a parent. Learning. Never. Ever. EVER. Stops.
So. I experienced one of those ‘ GPS re-calculating’ moments the other day, when I went to pick my son from school. He had stayed late for Tae kwon do practice. I was a few minutes early, so I sat next to this distinguished looking elderly lady, who had a disarming smile and an enviable air of calm about her. Within minutes, we were chatting up about our ‘amazing’ children, and the Tae kwon do tournament that had just ended the previous weekend. My son had done pretty well, and I was still riding on the high of that victory.
I was feeling like a pretty good parent.
Just as I was about to launch into a long discourse about how incredibly well he had done, she remarked, rather casually, ‘‘ my grandson was disqualified in the first round.” Startled (and a little ashamed of myself), I turned to look at her. She had this serene look on her face, her eyes full of love and admiration. “Well,” she went on with a smile, “the next tournament is coming up next month, and I know he will give it his best shot.”
Suffice it to say, my discourse on my son’s performance came to a grinding halt.
You see…
Follow the link to read the full blog post: https://carolynescorner.wordpress.com/2016/06/06/teaching-children-to-fail/ )
This week, the Snyder administration’s School Reform Office suggested that it could eventually close schools where students have low rankings on state tests.
Schools that rank in the bottom 5% — with some exceptions — would be closed under this plan, which would shutter more than 100 schools from across the state.
In an opinion piece this week in the Lansing State Journal, John P. Smith III criticized the state’s plans.
Smith is a professor of educational psychology at Michigan State University and he joined Stateside to talk about why he thinks the closing of the schools, and the methodology that led to that decision is flawed.
Listen to the full interview above to hear Smith’s concerns with the changes in standardized testing, and what will happen to the students who have their schools close.
Listen to the interview here: http://michiganradio.org/post/expert-sees-no-evidence-closing-lowest-performing-schools-would-benefit-students
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the charter school industry, and it doesn’t look like things are looking up any time soon. In the wake of a devastating segment by John Oliver on the charter school business, and calls from civil rights groups like the NAACP and Black Lives Matter, the public is finally starting to question the wisdom of funding two parallel school systems when public resources are in such short supply.
The most recent nail in the coffin of the charter school movement comes in the form of a recent report from the Pennsylvania School Board Association that compares spending priorities and patterns between the state’s charter schools and public schools. Unsurprisingly, the news isn’t good for charters. The study compared spending in 85% of Pennsylvania’s charters against all of the state’s public schools, and the results reveal massive differences in what each sector values.
Priorities & Values: According to the report …
Read more here: http://www.eclectablog.com/2016/09/charter-school-funding-fiascos-misplaced-priorities-and-warped-values.html
…until next time, keep reading, sharing, discussing, learning.