Originally Posted by
Sadiemae
No cursive writing here...I have a friend who still teaches and she can't even do an art project unless it is included in the Readng First curriculum. I know many parents who are now homeschooling, or sending their kids to private(Christian) schools because of this mess. It is not the Teachers, they do what they are told. It is state and federal laws and programs that have brought about the mess we are in...
One thing the protesters in Albany N. Y. park are showing is how much we allow the government to control us. We let people run the schools like a business but children are not a product. I taught 12 non readers to read in one year using simple behavior mod and no one asked how I did it but they implemented a reading program at great cost and it did not show improvement in reading. Once we let the government force helmets on motorcycle drivers we were on the slippery slope to government control. After election day we can't get the streets cleaned so why expect government to know how to improve teaching. I taught cursive for 42 years as well as the other subjects. It improves eye hand coordination, gives children spaciality sense, boosts self confidence and is a break from the core subjects which the school day needs. Parents and grand parents need to be vocal with the top administrators. No child left behind was a pain in the behind and president Obama would gain a following if he implemented study of how to motivate children to want to learn and stay in school and created models from teacher imput on how they improve reading and other subjects. Scores on tests are baloney. Try to teach all the kids on your block to golf. None would be of the same skill level and think how frustrated you would be trying to figure which ones would still be golfing at 21 years old. Children are not measurable like they are trying to do. Only one of my teachers knew I wanted to teach snd I was the least likely to because I was shy. Yet I was the best in my area if I do say so myself and my evaluations agree. My point is we need to stop this testing because it hurts kids to take tests they are not ready to pass, and the cost could be going into finding ways to teach the kids. Any good teacher gives pretests she/he makes and can go from there. One big reason for less progress is the decline of respect for teachers and students as evidenced in bullying and assaults in schools. Discipline is needed before a learning community can do its job. Oh I do get carried away on this subject. Thank you for allowing my imput.