Age of Reason

Some children started school today.

My daughter did not.

Why?

Because, even though she can color in the lines and knows half the alphabet and how to play half of "Sing a Song of Six Pence" on the piano, the local school system says that she's too young to start preschool.

PRESCHOOL.

For crying out loud!

Preschool!  Talk about restraining the education and ability to excel by instigating artificial school levels. Let's review the basics:

No one learns everything at the same rate.  The only way to ensure that people get the education that they are ready for is to remove the artificial institution of "grade levels" and "grades".

What is a person good at?  What are they needing training in?

These are the questions we should  be asking ourselves about students.  Despite their age, we should address the individual needs of a student- put them in a class that is appropriate for their skill level.

But not a single skill level for all subjects.  We need to ASSESS skills.  This is how the human race will advance and evolve, not by handicapping those that need more time in a subject OR those that need a more advanced version of the subject. A person gifted in math studies linear algebra in high school may become the next Stephen Hawking; a person with great social skills could become the next Indra Gandhi or Mother Teresa; a person gifted in music may become the next Andrew Lloyd Webber.  What we need is a college-type educational system with a la carte classes - no "levels" attached.

Get rid of grades.  One thing I've learned the hard way:  grades mean NOTHING.  COLLABORATION is the MOST IMPORTANT SKILL YOU WILL EVER LEARN.  But how school systems instigate this now is by taking an A student, a B student, a C student, a D student, and an F student and throw them together in a "team".

What the F@$ to you think happens here?

The A student fights with the B student for control.
The C and D students just visit.
The F student never shows up.

This is NOT collaboration.  This is a farce.

People want to work with people of their same level.  They don't want to work with people that they feel are so far above them that they feel stupid.  They don't want to work with people below them because it's an insult.  The only way to make collaborative education work is make it work with people of the same skill levels.  Challenge students at the level that they can achieve.

Remove the ashamed feelings from students that can't keep up.

Remove the superiority complex that students that can without trying get.

Everyone keeps striving.

We need to separate the idea of sequential education from aging.   Learning is NEVER sequential.  It is always a spiral or understanding with returning often to the basics.

But the system won't change until we have schools that are interested in educating students instead of babysitting them.

The system won't change because it's control.

It's easy.

Currently, teachers are required to have a teaching credential for K through 12.

Kind of a big range, there, isn't it?

It doesn't tell you anything about the educational needs of a 10 year old.  Do they even get a chance to know?

Teachers need to be specialists in their field:  reading, writing, science, etc. But the system allows too many teachers have more desire to babysit youths than to educate them.  Let's face it.  We all understand the stereotype of an "elementary school teacher".  Lots of love, light on brains, big on hugs.  If we removed the grade levels, there wouldn't be an "elementary school teacher" anymore.  We'd have a "science teacher", a "social skills teacher", "a math teacher"...isn't it amazing how the stereotype in your mind changes just with the recategorizing the education?  We expect a nerdy, quiet math whiz to teach a math class....in other words, an expert.  Isn't that who you really want teaching your child?

When you think about your child's education, would you rather they be taught by the expert in that subject or by the lots of love, light on brains type?

Do you enjoy having your child dread their report card because it's got some arbitrary letter assigned to it?  Or would you rather that they get to excel at their own pace in all subjects?  

This is why home schooling works.  You advance at your own pace.  You get help where you need it.  you get challenged where you can.

At the beginning of this, I thought that the education-by-age was stupid.  After thinking it through, I think it's worse than stupid- it's a disgrace in an "advanced" society.