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The Gaffer's Philosophy:
Part 74: Summarizing Education 3:
October 27, 2003:
Seven, Ethics:
Let's talk ethics. Here I will belabor the obvious, because too
many people fail to see the obvious. How often do we see a parent
with feigned confusion say, "I don't understand, I taught
him better than that,"? Therein is the crux of the lie. We
don't teach kids, they learn. We cannot teach them except by example.
Kids are just like adults. They observe and learn. Ethical behavior
can only be taught by example. Lecturing does not get it. Saying
it doesn't make it so.
This exposes a big failure in our public education system. We pretend to teach ethics, but too many of the teachers, administrators, and school boards act unethically toward children in many ways. They treat them with contempt. They treat them like mindless animals, less than human. They punish them for being honest. They suppress and ignore creative behavior. If the child sees unethical behavior in adults, which they always do, it will not matter what we shout at them. They will learn that unethical behavior is acceptable. They will learn that might makes right. They will seek power for the wrong reasons.
Whether we teach it to them or not, our children will acquire our ethics. Regardless of what we say to kids about right behavior, their ethics will be our ethics. If you steal, expect your children to steal. If you lie, expect your kid to be a liar. One of the worst thing we do to children is tell them something is right, then punish them for doing it. Too often, we punish our kids for being honest. We do it in the home and too many teachers do it in the schools.
When our kids grow up with very confused notions about ethics, we should not be surprised. We set the example through our own inconsistencies. Ethics is not a sometimes thing. If we want our kids to behave ethically our own ethics must be consistent and impeccable, not just when it is convenient, but always. Even when and especially when it is expensive to do so, we must be consistent in our ethics.
Eight, Treatment of Guides:
I reject the title of teachers for educators. We must stop using
the word teacher and use guide instead. A problem right now is
that too many teachers are treated as though they were common
laborers. That must change. Guides are professionals and should
be so treated. They should not have to be policemen or monitors.
Administrators must stop using guides as goffers and servants.
Also, guides should have adequate facilities to meet and prepare
for their work. They should have their own desks and office space
outside the classroom.
Now, guide as opposed to teacher is not just a title change. A whole new attitude in how we approach education is implied in this designation. It is the difference between a boss and an advisor. Therefore many teachers may need to be and will probably want to be reoriented or retrained. They will want to acquire the guide mentality as opposed to the taskmaster mentality that has been forced upon them.
Guides are not just workers in the system. They are key people and very special. For sure in this sense being a guide is a separate calling. However, in another sense I believe everyone must be an education and that they must think of themselves as guides. In that sense, guide is a universal calling. It is demanded of all of us. So we do not need to go to college to become a guide, good or bad we are guides.
As to the future training of guide specialists, many students will see the joy of it and want to become guides. All of our kids will get experience as they go along in becoming guides. They will do this by sharing with other kids what they have learned. If they decide to follow up on it, they will begin to focus and the adult guides around them will become roll models. This is a wonderful opportunity for the guide and an additional responsibility. It should bring out the best in the guide.
Nine, Separate Tracks:
We must have separate tracks for some kids. Disruptive kids must
be taken out of the main track. We must have a separate track
for these disturbed youngsters. It must be designed to help them
recover their sense of self and bring them back into the main
track. We must do the same for kids who have language or communication
problems, regardless of the cause. The must be taught to communicate
in English and brought into the system. We must do this without
negating their heritage whatever it is.
Ten, Twelve Month Year:
I expect to get a lot of flak about this, but I will still insist
on a twelve month year for education. There is more than one reason
for this. One is the enormous waste involved in letting our plant
and equipment sit idle for several weeks every year. In addition
to the waste of resources, there is the waste of the children's
time. If we do education right, the kids will not want to take
time off. The school experience can and should be the most exciting
time of their lives.
Now, parents will complain that they won't be able to plan their vacations, etcetera. Not true! In an interest driven educational situation, there is no school schedule to intervene in plans. The only schedule is the student's. He or she will be on their own separate track. If they go with their parents for a two week jaunt, they will simply pick up where they left off when they return. It is that simple. Instead of losing most of three months of learning opportunity each year, they will lose only what they need for a normal vacation.
What about guides? The situation will be very similar to the private sector work place. The guide will have a certain amount of vacation accrued. They will be able to schedule that time in the same way that Tom, Dick, and Harry does in industry. There will be substitute guides who fill in for the vacationing guides. So guides will have to be content with vacation situations similar to other professionals.
Eleven Starting Age:
As to when we start educating the kids, I would start a year earlier
than we do now. Let's bring them in when they are four. Remember
that one of my stipulations was to have at least one parent on
duty for one day per week until the kid is ten years old. This
means, in the first year, there would be enough parents there
to keep the potty drill orderly and see the kids safely through
the transition from the home environment to the school environment.
For each kid, there should be at least one adult besides the guide
who the kid knows personally.
We can, but need not call this first year pre-school. It is simply a transition time where the kids learn how to be with others in a group. They will learn something about group communication and about getting along. They will also learn how to take turns, a very important concept. Once through this transition, the kids will be well equipped to begin communication in the second year.
Twelve, Costs:
Real education is expensive, but it is not prohibitively so. Our
current systems are overloaded with extra costs which have nothing
to do with education. Prime among these are competitive sports
programs, but there are others. For example, the cost of administration.
Just as in other government and some industrial situations, many
schools are top heavy with overpaid big shots. This problem has
grown over the years. A great deal of the work that was done by
secretaries and clerks is now done by overpaid executives of one
form or another. Vice Principal is a favorite title and hiding
place for these sandbags.
In addition, educational purchasing is an expensive hodgepodge. In this situation, the local schools have very little leverage. Gouging is not only likely, it is inevitable. Purchasing need not be centralized, but purchasing agreements must be. These agreements must be made by tough negotiators at the federal level. No one should be able to sell products to educational institutions except through one of these agreements.
As to supporting education. I favor a federal income tax similar to the social security tax. The local systems in place are not adequate. They disadvantage too many of our kids and give little advantage to anyone. I firmly believe that each and every kid's learning should be funded equally. No one should be left out because their parents are poor or because they live in an area of more than usually dishonest government.
Thirteen, Text books:
Most of the textbooks for kids stink. That is my opinion based
on the ones I have seen. They are dull and boring because they
were written by dull and boring people.
In text books we need to follow the Dr. Seuss model rather than
the McGuffey reader model, especially for the younger kids. Even
for kids becoming adults, there is no reason to bore them to tears,
just because we can. Text books can be as personable and interesting
as a good novel, if properly done. I still recommend as models,
the technical books from Wesoomi Publishing. Check them out.
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