Originally Posted by
Sadiemae
It is sad. I would volunteer time to teach kids to quilt, but it would never be allowed in the schools here!!! Most of the public schools will not allow anything that will not help them to pass the TESTS. I have a friend who still teaches, and she is not even allowed to do an art project unless it is written into the reading or math curriuculum. No Child Left Behind has really changed the schools here, not always for the better.
I just have to mention on this No Child Left BEhind. I am a retired Junior High teacher. Here we also had the No Child Left Behind syndrome and of course your state curriculum and standards to meet. Well I marched to a different drummer and di what i thought my students needed to learn. We did art projects and other fun stuff that all reinforced the skills they were to learn without too much pressure on my behalf. I felt that kids needed to learn but we can make it interesting along the way. I never taught to the tests. I figured that if I was doing my job and meeting the standards that all was all right. We made paper quilts.....I wasn't brave enough to bring in my expensive sewing machines and let 30 kids use them. It was enough having computers in the class room that i was always trouble shooting on. My kids tests scores were as high as everyone else and some even higher, so I figured that I was doing ok.
When I taught elementray school way back in time.....I did bring my machine in and we did make quilts..........almost every year that I was there.