Public Education needs to be just that: Public

As in, the responsibility of the public, the people, the parents, the educators, the students.  Not government, or state boards of education, or No Child Left Behind blather.  If people were to start looking at their public schools as partnerships and truly get involved in whether schools educate, not just process, schools could stop operating like babysitting services or job force development centers.

How do we get past the fear factor and welcome the community back into the neighborhood school?  How do we maximize the transmission of elder-wisdom to our children?  How do we guarantee that each child is treated with respect, listened to, nurtured, and encouraged to think for him/herself? 

Let's find a way to stop competition in education.
Let's find a way to make education the birthright of every human being regardless of citizenship, economic status, or geographic location.
Let's stop trying to homogenize the human race!  We need to keep our diverse languages, our histories, and our cultures alive, but not at the expense or discouragement of anyone else's language/history/culture.  Let's figure out how to open minds, not close them down!  We need to remember that learning is a lifelong process and that every person we meet can teach us something.

Re: Public Education needs to be just that: Public

Mamakat,

sometimes you read a word or two and it sparks a thought. This time it was your use of “fear factor”. How many parents cherish education? How many parents are interested in schooling? How many people would be happy to be out of touch with school whatsoever? How many parents actually care about what their kids do in school all day?
I don't have children myself, but every parent I know is quite happy not to deal too much with school and community things. Maybe the occasional BBQ or a science fair…the usual question about the kid being in trouble or not on a parent-teacher meeting every now and then….and that's it.

Fear factor….having to re-live their own bad memories of any kind concerning school? I can't think of a lot of people who actually enjoyed school. Reasons for that are different, but the bottom line is that so many people are happy to forget about school and education…I think this is being passed on, more than anything. Of course I can only speak for the environment I live in. What is your opinion here?
To make the changes, to make those things happen that you want and that we all want, how do we change public perception of “school”. For generations it has been perceived as a kind of oppressor. At least where I come from. It might take a generation or two to fix that. When you suggest responsibility of the public, what do you think about general current perception of the public?

Best wishes

Re: Public Education needs to be just that: Public

We all learn in different ways.Some children do very well in the public school system,others benefit from an alternate approach.I like the word homeschooling,not because I am for or against public school,but because we grow and learn so much more of what is important outside the faculties of education.Learning is a dynamicc process and unfortunately school can be the opposite,but not always.Some schools have tremendous momentum,and the passion the students have for learning is palpable,but not all children,or adults will have access to that kind of school,and not everyone will do well there.What I see is that information should be accesible to all,each child should be able to develop naturally(sometimes the whole idea of a curriculum just seems laughable),that we follow their learning curve,get to know your child,provide for them the foundation from which they can discover their world,encourage them as they develop by listening to what they have to say.There are libraries everywhere,make sure you have a card and take your children often.Reading to them introduce this wonderful world in all it’s glory and saddness.Encourage their interests,rent films,get books,visit museums,theatres,firehalls,the beach,a funeral parlor, the planitarium,whatever their questions are help them to find the answers,eventually they do this on their own,because you showed them they can.Learning is what keeps us alive.Feed your curiosity and only wonderful things will happen.Public schools are sometimes the only place some children have access to computers,or well stocked librairies,and in some cases a person who can guide them on their quest for knowledge because no one else is listening.Giving everyone the tools to learn is what’s important.

Re: Public Education needs to be just that: Public

Exactly, B.B.!  It's a variation on the old “Give a man a fish and he'll not go without his dinner.  Teach a man to fish and he'll never be hungry.”

That's exactly what I meant about respecting each child and making it possible for the whole village to help educate the children.

Re: Public Education needs to be just that: Public

I guess I was thinking of fear factor in a couple of different contexts:  first, which I think has something to do with your thought about parents' remembering their own public school experiences, is that sense that “schooling” is something better left to the experts; that you have to have had years of theory/training/certification to be qualified as an educator.  I know I've met parents who feel like they will probably mess up some magic process if they interfere with the way their children are being taught.  I've also met some teachers who feel like because they have that teaching license, they know better than parents how students are to be “managed” in the classroom.  Nonsense.  Education happens in partnership.  Parents can't just hand over their children at the schoolhouse door and then sit back and wait for primed little academic parrots to appear.  What I wanted back from the schools I sent my kids to was respect for each of them as unique learners, interested in a variety of things, who processed information and formulated questions that led to more thinking, more exploring.  I hated it when I heard, “I'm sorry, but that's just not in our curriculum this year,” or “Well, every other student in the class seems to be getting it.”  I even had a teacher tell my daughter once, “I just don't know how else to explain it to you.”  Excuse me?  School should be about opening all the doors and windows, giving kids resources, teaching them to think for themselves and explore infinite options.  If it's only about testing, measurement, competition, fitting into the profiles, fitting into the system, etc. It's definitely not about learning!

The second thing that was in my mind was the fact that a good many of our schools have turned into semi-prisons, where kids have to go through metal detectors to get in; where every movement is strictly monitored; where parents have to submit ID's just to visit a classroom.  Like a great many other institutions in our society, our schools' effectiveness has been constricted by fear of attack and/or litigation.  Schools now have lock-down drills as often as fire drills.  At the elementary school I worked in, we actually had drills where kids had to crawl under the lunchroom tables and learn secret escape routes just in case a shooter got into the school.  Every visitor was suspect.  Every person from the community not known by the staff was considered a potential child molester or abductor.   Even the school nurse had to limit the comfort she could provide!  No hugging!  Rubber gloves if any bodily fluid (including tears) was involved!  No, I can't call your mom to come and get you because you've already missed class three times this term.  It's mighty hard to concentrate on instruction or enjoy activities with this undercurrent of fear adding stress and complications to everything.

Sorry to rant.  This is obviously a subject close to my heart.  I guess I'm just sick of living in fear and furious about any system that is working to close minds, make us conform, limit our freedom, turn us further into brainless sheeple.  We can do so much better.