Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Leigh Bortins announces new book
Check out: 1 Smart Mama for Leigh Bortins announcement of a new book in the works for 2011 on the second stage of Classical Education, the Dialectic stage.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Census Cost?
Well this is kind of funny, and sad.
An article on Fox News talks about census cost going from projected 13 Billion from 8 Billion (only the government could overspend by this much).
Article
Well if you check out their website they have a bunch of Census ads on their site. Now Why would they take Census ads on their site and why is the Census still spending out money on advertising after going this much over budget?
I don't blame the census group as much, I don't really expect them to behave. It the equivalent of not being surprised the school bully beat someone up.
I do blame FoxNews and any organization that is not taking Census money. It is our money they are spending to tell us about how they are spending it. In order for us to get back to financial stability in the US our businesses and citizens need to rejects government money and demand freedom.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Welfare Reform and Education
As I talk to school teachers that I am friends with I hear that if parents are involved then the children do much better in school. They also say they have trouble getting parents to come to 30 min open house and parent-teacher meetings.
So parents who went through government education system, feel that they don’t need to be involved in the system. That means when they were in the system the first time, this wasn’t a priority.
These are just general statements and don’t apply to every situation, but when looking at the big picture of government schools this is clearly an issue. If parents don’t care, then their child will likely not care.
If you look at social and economic issues typically those who do not have a high education, are less likely to care about schooling. Children from a troubled house simply are not likely to do well in school. Thankfully this is not always the case. So if a child is from a troubled background, their family is less likely to care about schooling and therefore the child is less likely to succeed in education.
Currently unemployment in the United States sits around 9.7%, that number for the college educated is closer to 5.1% and thus the unemployment percent for those without degrees is much higher. If you are unemployed you are likely on some sort of welfare (unemployment checks, government benefits, prop 8 housing).
I am not for government intervention, the less the better, but clearly in the US our current policies do not line up with this thinking. Since programs will not be done away with, how can we modify them for the result we are looking for and what is that?
Current goals of education are stabilize social and economical conditions to keep society is as safe as possible condition. Create students that are capable of being employed, keep their positions, and move as new technologies are developed. If you search for Welfare reform and changes, you will find articles about tying Welfare to school attendance. I say tie to school performance.
Currently if you have a child and are on welfare, you get additional handouts (benefits) for the government to make sure those children receive a living standard. Why not tie this amount into the child effectiveness in school. If you average a 2.5 you get that standard amount, say you average a 3.0 you get 5% more and if you average a 3.5 you get 10% and a 4.0 you get 15%. On the same token, if you get a 2.0 you get 5% less, 1.5 10% less, 1.0 15% less and 20% less if you drop out (since you will now have time to find a job).
Those with special needs or situations could be exempt. I’m not going to get into those details here.
This plan will promote education as a benefit to those from troubled backgrounds, and provides them with a means to better themselves financially, while doing so educationally. This way teens wouldn’t be encouraged to drop out of school to help pay bills. The adults will be more interested in ensuring that their child does well in school, because it will give them more money to provide food and shelter.
The more educated people we have the more we can get in taxes, the less we have to pay out for services and the more fruitful our society becomes. Education is seen as a way to get out of poverty, but current welfare system promotes people staying in poverty because of how it is administered and does not promote educational growth.
I would like to see some other sides of this plan, I obviously posted the positives, but I am sure there are negatives to this plan and I would like to hear those. I'm just trying to get the discussion going.
So parents who went through government education system, feel that they don’t need to be involved in the system. That means when they were in the system the first time, this wasn’t a priority.
These are just general statements and don’t apply to every situation, but when looking at the big picture of government schools this is clearly an issue. If parents don’t care, then their child will likely not care.
If you look at social and economic issues typically those who do not have a high education, are less likely to care about schooling. Children from a troubled house simply are not likely to do well in school. Thankfully this is not always the case. So if a child is from a troubled background, their family is less likely to care about schooling and therefore the child is less likely to succeed in education.
Currently unemployment in the United States sits around 9.7%, that number for the college educated is closer to 5.1% and thus the unemployment percent for those without degrees is much higher. If you are unemployed you are likely on some sort of welfare (unemployment checks, government benefits, prop 8 housing).
I am not for government intervention, the less the better, but clearly in the US our current policies do not line up with this thinking. Since programs will not be done away with, how can we modify them for the result we are looking for and what is that?
Current goals of education are stabilize social and economical conditions to keep society is as safe as possible condition. Create students that are capable of being employed, keep their positions, and move as new technologies are developed. If you search for Welfare reform and changes, you will find articles about tying Welfare to school attendance. I say tie to school performance.
Currently if you have a child and are on welfare, you get additional handouts (benefits) for the government to make sure those children receive a living standard. Why not tie this amount into the child effectiveness in school. If you average a 2.5 you get that standard amount, say you average a 3.0 you get 5% more and if you average a 3.5 you get 10% and a 4.0 you get 15%. On the same token, if you get a 2.0 you get 5% less, 1.5 10% less, 1.0 15% less and 20% less if you drop out (since you will now have time to find a job).
Those with special needs or situations could be exempt. I’m not going to get into those details here.
This plan will promote education as a benefit to those from troubled backgrounds, and provides them with a means to better themselves financially, while doing so educationally. This way teens wouldn’t be encouraged to drop out of school to help pay bills. The adults will be more interested in ensuring that their child does well in school, because it will give them more money to provide food and shelter.
The more educated people we have the more we can get in taxes, the less we have to pay out for services and the more fruitful our society becomes. Education is seen as a way to get out of poverty, but current welfare system promotes people staying in poverty because of how it is administered and does not promote educational growth.
I would like to see some other sides of this plan, I obviously posted the positives, but I am sure there are negatives to this plan and I would like to hear those. I'm just trying to get the discussion going.
Monday, December 13, 2010
PISA scores show Memorization is important
PISA scores came in last week while I was on vacation, read more about it here. No surprise to those in the USA who follow education, we have failed our students. Not only have we financially burden future generations with deficit spending – the next generation is not receiving the education needed to be able to right this ship and pay off this bill. The snowball is still small, but be warned it is getting bigger fast. We are on an educational course which will doom our future if not fixed quickly.
If you look at China, who leads in virtually every category, you will see that they have emphasis on memorization of facts. They place a high level of focus on the first and foundation of the Trivium. Clearly China has other issues to correct that will hold them back in the future, but education will not be one of them.
The great thing about a classical education is it doesn’t require as much funding as current programs. So it is a great way to have a better education, for less money.
If you look at China, who leads in virtually every category, you will see that they have emphasis on memorization of facts. They place a high level of focus on the first and foundation of the Trivium. Clearly China has other issues to correct that will hold them back in the future, but education will not be one of them.
The great thing about a classical education is it doesn’t require as much funding as current programs. So it is a great way to have a better education, for less money.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Having young children memorize facts detrimental to their educational growth?
Having young children memorize facts detrimental to their educational growth?
You would think the answer would be an obvious “yes”, but tragically that in not the case.
From: the-scholars.com
One of my professors got indignant. "That's just so sad!" she said, "I would never make my kids memorize facts. That is so useless -- especially since now you can look the facts up somewhere, in a book, online, or something. Memorization of knowledge is a worthless education tool."
This is a common misconception.
From: poets.org
In Plato's Phaedrus, Socrates tells a story about the invention of writing, in which the Egyptian god Thoth shows his written characters to another god, Ammon, who rebukes him: "This discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember themselves."
Before the invention of radio, television, video games and the internet philosophers and educators were worried about the mind losing its ability. Obviously the written word would eventually allow everyone to be educated and educators listened to the concern of Socrates and Plato and memorization was an important part of that education. That is until modern history and education methods found it boring and tedious and it is no longer an important part of being human. How much more do we need to focus on memorization today!
Have you ever been paying a bill and the cashier cannot figure out your change? They never memorized the grammar of adding and subtracting. Can an education system be considered successful if a 15-16 year old (minimum age of most state for working) cannot do math they should have learned in elementary school? Yet this memorization is consider not helpful for the student when they get to the real world.
If you ever have played a sport or read about an exceptional athlete you have heard the term muscle memory. Did the coach show you how to do a motion properly (swinging a tennis racket, golf club, bat) and you absorbed that into your muscle and did it correct the first time and every time after that? Of course that did not happen. You practiced, practiced, practiced until it was engrained in your body and you still occasionally fail. Yet we expect our student to learn how to do reading, writing and arithmetic without memorizing the rules and motions of the subject.
Clearly modern education methods of “how do you feel” and “what are you experiencing” questions and methods are not working. Our students are falling behind other countries, other countries who still require memorization. Sure our students feel good about themselves and have a high confidence, unfortunately that confidence and self esteem has not translated into actual learning.
Classical Education requires memorization of grammar as the foundation of learning. A house built without a foundation blows away in the lightest of wind and our students are being blown away by global competition. More and longer education as Arne Duncan is purposing may be helpful, but without anchoring knowledge into our student it will be useless and expensive.
“1st come Augie dog, then the Flintstone Kids, inspector Gadget and Popeye too owe doo daw day” I still know the morning cartoon lineup from when I was a little kid, because I heard it every Saturday morning. Too bad I did not put memorization of important things to the forefront of my education. Why did I memorize it, because I heard it over and over again and it was to a catchy song. Memorization does not have to be boring as many think, we just need to know how to make it fun.
You would think the answer would be an obvious “yes”, but tragically that in not the case.
From: the-scholars.com
One of my professors got indignant. "That's just so sad!" she said, "I would never make my kids memorize facts. That is so useless -- especially since now you can look the facts up somewhere, in a book, online, or something. Memorization of knowledge is a worthless education tool."
This is a common misconception.
From: poets.org
In Plato's Phaedrus, Socrates tells a story about the invention of writing, in which the Egyptian god Thoth shows his written characters to another god, Ammon, who rebukes him: "This discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember themselves."
Before the invention of radio, television, video games and the internet philosophers and educators were worried about the mind losing its ability. Obviously the written word would eventually allow everyone to be educated and educators listened to the concern of Socrates and Plato and memorization was an important part of that education. That is until modern history and education methods found it boring and tedious and it is no longer an important part of being human. How much more do we need to focus on memorization today!
Have you ever been paying a bill and the cashier cannot figure out your change? They never memorized the grammar of adding and subtracting. Can an education system be considered successful if a 15-16 year old (minimum age of most state for working) cannot do math they should have learned in elementary school? Yet this memorization is consider not helpful for the student when they get to the real world.
If you ever have played a sport or read about an exceptional athlete you have heard the term muscle memory. Did the coach show you how to do a motion properly (swinging a tennis racket, golf club, bat) and you absorbed that into your muscle and did it correct the first time and every time after that? Of course that did not happen. You practiced, practiced, practiced until it was engrained in your body and you still occasionally fail. Yet we expect our student to learn how to do reading, writing and arithmetic without memorizing the rules and motions of the subject.
Clearly modern education methods of “how do you feel” and “what are you experiencing” questions and methods are not working. Our students are falling behind other countries, other countries who still require memorization. Sure our students feel good about themselves and have a high confidence, unfortunately that confidence and self esteem has not translated into actual learning.
Classical Education requires memorization of grammar as the foundation of learning. A house built without a foundation blows away in the lightest of wind and our students are being blown away by global competition. More and longer education as Arne Duncan is purposing may be helpful, but without anchoring knowledge into our student it will be useless and expensive.
“1st come Augie dog, then the Flintstone Kids, inspector Gadget and Popeye too owe doo daw day” I still know the morning cartoon lineup from when I was a little kid, because I heard it every Saturday morning. Too bad I did not put memorization of important things to the forefront of my education. Why did I memorize it, because I heard it over and over again and it was to a catchy song. Memorization does not have to be boring as many think, we just need to know how to make it fun.
New Websites
Omaha, NE CC blog that is very informative on the work of a Classical Conversations community.
and
Homeschool Testing Service a service that helps you with your end of year testing
and
Homeschool Testing Service a service that helps you with your end of year testing
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Repeal 1099
When the government passed socialized medicine we had to “pass it” according to Nancy Pelosi to find out what is in it and now that we have found out the American people decided it was not what we want. We can only hope the higher court finds the law illegal. Meanwhile Congress is scrambling to change parts of the legislation. We can only hope that they will at least repeal that part about 1099s. It is a small business killer.
The law basically says that you have to send a 1099 to anyone that did more than $600 worth of business. The basic idea is that American’s cheat on their taxes and the government was going to be able to get more taxes. If you own a business you probably buy a lot of goods, from a lot of place – which means you make copies at Staples, save your receipt, because at the end of the year you will need to send them a 1099. Of course Staples will have to process all this paperwork and the business will have to keep, track and report all those expenses.
A small business I talked to estimates it will take 5 people an entire week just to process the paperwork due. This isn’t some big corporation it is a small business. Obviously this isn’t something that is affordable. Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. Making it harder to do business will not help them turn our economy around. When we are in the great recession burdening the sector that will get us out of it with more baggage just doesn’t make sense.
CNN - Top Dems join GOP to repeal 1099
The law basically says that you have to send a 1099 to anyone that did more than $600 worth of business. The basic idea is that American’s cheat on their taxes and the government was going to be able to get more taxes. If you own a business you probably buy a lot of goods, from a lot of place – which means you make copies at Staples, save your receipt, because at the end of the year you will need to send them a 1099. Of course Staples will have to process all this paperwork and the business will have to keep, track and report all those expenses.
A small business I talked to estimates it will take 5 people an entire week just to process the paperwork due. This isn’t some big corporation it is a small business. Obviously this isn’t something that is affordable. Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. Making it harder to do business will not help them turn our economy around. When we are in the great recession burdening the sector that will get us out of it with more baggage just doesn’t make sense.
CNN - Top Dems join GOP to repeal 1099
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