LadyFishers "The Perfect Gift"

Hey Deanna,

Your article hit particularly close to
home this week. Particularly the education
of our children. I remember when my boys
were young and the schools were teaching the
"New Math". My wife and I were called in by
our boys math teachers and read the riot act
for teaching them the multiplication tables
on our own. The teachers explained to us
that it was counter productive to thier
teachings. Well, we stood our ground and
continued to teach our sons good basic math
skills. We purchased books other than
those provided by the schools and ensured
that both boys were solid in math. Today,
both boys are doing well financially and
each has a group of machinists running a
room full of CNC machines under them
machining parts for Mercedes Benz. Their
biggest complaint is how challenging it is
to get the workers to carry thier load with
the limited math skills the average workers
have. Our school system at work. We live
in South Carolina and our school system
rates at the very bottom of the charts. The
answer has been to hire more out of state
administrators and throw more and more money
at the problem. The result is, we still have nearly the worst records in the country
but we pay more for the "priviledge" than
almost every other state. The "Time" factor
you mentioned spent with the kids can make
a tremendous difference in your childrens
future. It did for ours.

Almost two years ago, we took in our
Goddaughter. She had been diagnosed as
being bipolar, had been removed from school,
and her doctors wanted to put her in a
state mental institution. She was a
cutter and very much on the dark side. We
introduced her to Christ through our church
youth groups and found a mentor who could
address her religious questions and challenge her dark beliefs. We went to see
her former teachers and were able to tutor
her to a level that allowed her to reenter
the school and continue her education. In
just over a year, she had accepted Christ,
been baptised, and is an honor roll student
in the school she had been removed from.
She recently moved back in with her family
and is doing very well. Throughout this
ordeal, many FAOL members placed us on thier
prayer list and offerred support. We are
firm believers in the "Four R's". Reading,
ritting, rithmetic, and religion. It's
what works for us. I realize that not
everyone is of the Christian faith. But
whatever your faith or beliefs, you will be
hard pressed to find a more worthy use of
your time than our children. We can all
make a difference. It's a difference that
you can take pride in and a legacy that will
live on when we are gone. Warm regards, Jim

LadyFisher:

Great article, we should neither under estimate the importance of this problem or the breadth of blame to share. If you think there is not a problem go to your local state university and look at the makeup of the math, physics, chemistry, and molecular biology departments. You will find that U.S. born graduate students fill less than 25% of the slots. Why? Because that is just about all of the students that are interested in these disciplines and capable of doing the work. We are the most technologically advanced country in history and can not find U.S. students that are able to fill our most technologically demanding jobs. There is plenty of blame to share for creating what I consider a huge national security issue.

Our political system for insisting that our schools have the responsibility for dealing with all the social ills of our children in addition to teaching them and politicians that play politics with our school system at the expense of education.

Our universities for allowing colleges of education to offer undergraduate and graduate degrees that are jokes on campus for their lack of rigor.

Our Colleges of Education for being more interested in the latest teaching trends instead of insisting on a rigorous education for their students.

Our society for valuing teachers so little that few top quality applicants are attracted to the field. A new engineer or computer scientist earns about $70,000 per year ? about twice that of a new science teacher. Do you wonder why none of our best students go into science education?

Us as parents for not being involved in our local schools.

So if you are no so mad at me that you have stopped reading, do you want to know what you can do to fix the situation? First, unplug the TV. Limit kids to one hour of TV and video games a night. This was very hard for us so we came up with a simple rule that worked. The kids don?t watch TV unless the parents are watching it too. That certainly cut TV time. Is this important? Many kids are now spending more time in front of a video screen than they are in actual learning. Entertainment is fine but not when it takes over your life. By the way this will also make a big dent in the childhood obesity problem. No ? sports and other after school activities are not cure alls either. The answer is to spend time on school work. Our kids are getting short changed in academic competition with kids globally. Unless you are rich enough that they are never going to have to work their faulty education is going to disadvantage them in their work lives. Second, get involved in their education. Meet with the teachers. Find out what homework needs to be done and if it is being done. Find out which teachers are demanding the most from their students and insist that you kids are in their classes.

I spend everyday working with kids that come out of our public and private schools. Many are wonderful people, but I worry about how they (and by extension us) are going to compete unless we can put the needed emphasis back into education.


End of rant,
David

Rant on David!
My wife and I pulled out then 7 yr old daughter out of our local school and home schooled for a year and the transferred her to a school in the next town over from us to ensure that she was actually taught rather than just being another face in a system of mistakes.Her new school I can walk into the principals office and be listened to.I totally respect the whole staff even if I don't always agree with them and the best part? the principal is a teacher also,in the classroom every day and tough pushes math and science hard.Do I regret driving an extra 30 miles a day to get the kids to school? Not even once,the difference between the operation of the schools is night and day.

DJO,

Great post! I live in Bend, OR which as many of you know is one of the more affluent small communities in the PNW. The grade school that both of my children attend does not have a sub $300,000 home in their district. However, they are more than 100 students over their limit and it's projected to be another 120 over next year. In addition they have no school counselor due to budget cuts. My first grader has nearly 30 kids in his class with one teacher and no full time aid. Because of this none of the kids are getting the attention that they deserve in these most formative and important "tone setting" years of their education. It is an unnaceptable situation and there is no excuse for it.

I cannot understand why we are willing to put our children's education, the very future of our country, on the back burner in favor of the wants of the moment. OR has no sales tax yet our schools are broke. It seems to me that even a small tax on big ticket items (such as a car) given to the schools could do a lot to ease the burden but no one is willing. I mean, if they'd had to pay tax on that new Hummer they might not have been able to afford the Mercedes.

JeremyH

Jim, I had the same trouble with the school system as far as the math goes with both of my kids. Their teachers started giving them a hard time and my son asked his (very politely I might add) "what type of math did you learn when you were my age" to which the teacher replied "That's not the point this is what you have to learn today". After a conference with the principal, and his teacher, it was decided that he could do whatever math he thought was easiest. When my daughter started with the same problem the principal saw the last name and told the teacher to let her do it the old way.

LF is right the best gift you can give to your children is time. Sometime I think I am too involved in my kids lives but it seems to be working good so far.

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"If it was easy anybody could do it"
Timothy S. Furey Sr.



[This message has been edited by ftroop7 (edited 12 December 2005).]

Hey FTroop,

I just read in a compilation of little
known facts that there are 293 different
ways to make change for a dollar. Whenever
the register goes down at Wallyworld and one
of the "new math" era clerks is running it,
they often can't come up with a single one
of them.*G* Hopefully, without getting too
political, America has been a world leader
for many decades. If America does not take
a stronger interest in the education of our
youth, I fear that we may lose that status,
and who knows what else in the long run.
Warm regards, Jim

Deanna,

Thank you for your Christian testimony and willingness to take a stand. My desire is certainly not to "lord" my religous views over anyone, but rather to love everyone and to share the good news.

Thanks also for your stand on for our children. Time is certainly the gift that keeps on giving. And once wasted/lost cannot be redeemed. I too took my daughter out of the public school system and am presently a "stay-at-home dad", teacher and principal. Having a seasonal career as a fishing guide has allowed me this privilege. This has indeed rescued my daughter from the grip of our post-modern, morally relative society. I believe there certainly is a right and a wrong. Obviously some things simply don't matter, but many issues most certainly do. My 8th grade daughter has excelled in the home school environment (much to her dismay initially, but now is seeing the light).
Merry Christmas,
Ed