Concerns about children's education

[welsummerchicks]

I just spent a little time with some kids, helping them with their school work. Just regular kids, not particularly bad at school.

And I gotta say...Oh...My...Gosh.

What are kids learning in school?

Must not be spelling and grammar.

Anyone else have similar concerns?

 

[PineappleMama]

Precisely why we began homeschooling this year.

Teachers aren't allowed to give a fig about anything that isn't on the standardized tests, n'mind actually teaching anything that isn't. When my (then 6th grade) son realized that his TAKS score meant more than his report card ....since they pulled him out of science and SS to do TAKS prep for Reading -in addition to doing nothing but that for two hours a day in his regular R&W classes- and thus his S&SS grades both dropped a full TEN points and they didn't bat an eye but I sure as heck did.. well if an 11 year old can figure out what's important to them, and resent it because those are his favorite subjects, then by golly it's time to do something. And since the system won't change, just flat out refuses... it is a rather lucrative way of doing things after all... well we had to take matters into our own hands.

Our kids didn't even know when Constitution Day is! They'd heard a vague mention OF this Constitution thing... but no clue about what was in it, that is was oh just the foundation of our entire country, and no clue when it was signed either. That snapped it for me, but it wasn't until the grade thing... that we made the full on decision to pull them. Seriously, they knew all about Earth Day, Halloween, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Cinco De Mayo (a battle fought in Mexico, not even an Independence Day or anything) but they aren't even trying to teach them the history of their own bloody country. GAH! Sorry, sore subject... if you'll pardon the bookish pun.

 

[sfw2]

**Sneaks off to google "Constitution Day"**

 

[AKsmama]

Sorry, but if this forum is any indication, then no, spelling, grammar, and punctuation are not being taught any more. Good grief, half the posts here are freaking run-on sentences. It drives me batty. I always want to reply to those posters, "Periods. . . not just for knowing you aren't pregnant anymore." I don't care if you are posting from a cell phone the size of a postage stamp- they all include punctuation marks on their keyboards!

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hijack. Yeah, it's not pretty most of the time. Teachers have so many things they have to fit in during the day that the basics do seem to be falling by the wayside.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I'd never heard of Constitution Day either...maybe because it is a brand spanking new holiday, created in 2004.

 

[PineappleMama]

Don't feel bad S, most people don't know it's September 17th.

Everyone knows about the Declaration of Independence... the War Cry so to speak... being July 4th, 1776. But few are ever taught that our Constitution, our COUNTRY, our actual Founding Day for everything we've now grown into was September 17th, 1887.

I think it's a rather important date for our country. The 4th is great, no doubt, it's when we demanded Independence... but September 17th is when we actually had it... signed it, created a framework... more important IMO really. Plenty of rebels have declared war on the powers that be... but not all of them have succeeded, and especially not to the level we have... the US is one of the greatest nations on earth ...for now anyways, way education's going you have to wonder how long that will last... education is key. And knowing your own country's history and laws, what your rights are, and what tyranny is so you have the knowledge and strength to stand against it when you see it is the only way our country will continue to thrive. If we lose that... if we choose to ignore those things... well best be buying up stock in handbaskets.

The fact that it wasn't an official day until 2004 really says a lot about how lax we've been in educating ourselves and our children to me. That's something that should have been taught from day one. But then, my paranoid self has to wonder if maybe the power mad rats don't WANT citizens to know what their rights are, and most especially don't want Joe Smith to realize just how badly they've abused and shredded the document that founded our country.

 

[Ferrret]

One issue is internet posting, IM's and text messaging. Short hand is one of many languages on the internet and a majority of grade school kids use the internet as much or more than they are in school.
u hav 2 b jk if u thnk ur gunnuh fynd werk iff ur resoohmay iz filld awt lyke ths.
Text shorthand, 'lolspeak', typos turned memes like 'teh' and 'pwn', and willful ignorance are all having a negative effect on how the language is written. Sure, internet forums and text messages are a poor gauge of how well someone knows English, but these things are being found in grade school papers and making their way into how people regularly communicate.

Another is that schools are focusing less on how kids spell and put together sentences and more on comprehension of what they are learning. In grade school I spent more time on reading and understanding what I read than grammar and spelling in classes. The last time I remember having grammar and spelling lessons was in the 5th grade. On one hand it's great that they want kids understanding what they learn instead of just filing it away. On the other hand teachers are lax on errors in what you've written if you demonstrate that you understand the material. If you can't spell or form proper sentences, you risk losing opportunities because someone cannot understand what you wrote.

I know spelling is a sore subject for some people so I'll say this: I am more supportive of people that can't spell who try to learn from their mistakes than people who use it as an excuse to not bother with learning.

 

[welsummerchicks]

I am not much perturbed if kids have a somewhat less informal internet speak, as long as they are ABLE to do something else in other situations!

In many cases, the way the kids are spelling, it's obviously just an expression they've heard on TV, and never learned to spell it or even, not even exactly what it means.

One funny one was a kid wrote her younger brother had 'not one single trace of disrespect for me'. She meant not a single trace of RESPECT. She hadn't even thought about what she was writing.

I also think kids are copying the horrific shlocky writing style of Steven King and J K Rowling....I promised when I hit old age I'd never refer to the 'good old days' but I find myself sorely tempted to.

The two kids I helped could search the internet for a video of a monkey smelling its butt, but had no idea how to create a letter document or a spread sheet. Spread sheets don't have to be boring - they can be sports results or anime characters. Just so they learn how to do them.

MOST jobs involve the ability to write and use a computer - and NOT use a computer to do internet searches for a video of a monkey smelling its butt...

To look up actually useful information, organize it, analyze it, figure something out, draw conclusions from it - NOT something they are getting fed, something they creatively come up with from the facts they research.

 

[KristyHall]

Quote:
I was reading Stephen King by third grade

 

[scbatz33]

Quote:
I was reading Stephen King by third grade

Me too. I love Stephen King's books. His movies, not so much. Doesn't seem to have affected my writing abilities. But then I went to school before standardized testing was all the rage. I graduated back when kids actually had to learn stuff.