Odds and Ends and Confessions

Wow, what a month. It started out with my whole family (except Aemelia) coming down with the hacking, coughing, feverish flu. Then we had out-of-town guests and Little League season is in full swing. What's a homeschooling mother/blogger to do? Here are just a few thoughts I had during the last month and a couple of confessions I feel compelled to post.

WHAT I'M READING

I'm currently reading John Taylor Gatto's An Underground History of American Education. I'm really enjoying this book, more than I enjoyed his speech at the HENA conference, even. He lays out the argument that forced schooling has always been promoted by the businessmen and corporations that benefit most from keeping the populace fairly ignorant. I certainly don't agree with everything JTG says -- he's definitely a libertarian and, for some reason, he seems to think religion belongs in the class room -- but he seems to have some really good points. I say "seems" because the major problem I have with this book is that he doesn't footnote anything. He lays out a bibliography (not alphabetized, of course), so I guess I'll have a lot of reading to do before I can know if I agree with his conclusions. You can read An Underground History of American Education online for free on this website, but I'm old school when it comes to books and bought the ink and paper edition. I didn't see it listed in either the Scottsdale or Phoenix library systems (hmm, I wonder why).

WELL, THAT'S MUCH BETTER

My neighborhood school decided to paint their six foot iron fence blue. I guess nobody can feel imprisoned by a Caribbean Blue fence -- no, really, I called the school and they called it Caribbean Blue.

I'M CONFUSED

I once, as an adult, took a class where the instructor said that children should be taught in schools to raise their hands when they don't understand something, not when they do. I was astounded at the correctness of his statement. The teacher should be more concerned with the students who are having troubles than with the kids who understand the subject.

So, recently, I read somewhere that the high-stakes forced testing that our government currently requires in publicly funded schools impacts the funding of these schools. Apparently (and this is my very simplified understanding) the better the students do on these tests, the better the chance the school has of getting extra funding. Does this sound backward to anyone else but me? Shouldn't the schools that have poor test scores get more money? The government should be more concerned with the schools that are having troubles than with the schools where the test scores show what a good job they're doing.

CONFESSION #1

I am firmly against forced testing in schools. I have stated before and I'll state it again, right now, that all one of these tests shows is whether the child is prepared for the specific test given. Tests prove absolutely nothing else.

But, then, I guess I just forced Iulius to take a standardized test. My thinking is that I would like Iulius to go college one day, and he needs to get used to taking these types of tests in order to get into college. To give myself credit, I decided to have him take the National Latin Exam because Latin is something Iulius enjoys and does quite well in. The first time he took a practice test, it was clear that these types of tests were a foreign concept to him -- he missed 15 out of 40 questions and took less than half the allotted time to finish. He stuck with it, though, and continued to prepare for the test. He ended up only missing 3 questions on the real test and received a purple ribbon and a certificate for outstanding achievement, or something like that. I am, of course, proud of his accomplishment, but I feel very conflicted about having made him take the test. There, I've said it and I feel much better.

CONFESSION # 2

Sometimes, after a full morning of lessons, I'll call the kids to lunch and notice Aemelia is still in her nightgown.