Fantasies

Education is full of fantasies. They start at the bottom of the ladder with the students and work their way up to the top at the state level.

A large number of ninth grade students think ninth grade is for socializing with their friends and ignoring teacher directions and assignments. They beiieve that they will become tenth graders, regardless of how they perform as freshmen. Extra credit is a common request, especially by students who do not do assigned work. When they are criticized or told in a firm manner to stop , they reply with comments like, “I’ll tell my mother.” or “You can’t make me.” or “I didn’t do anything.”

The root of this fantasy is that ninth grade students belong in the senior high school setting. Freshmen students cannot be treated like the older high school students. They do not have the necessary maturity. Failure rates are high and behavior problems abound. Ninth graders belong with the seventh and eighth grade students in a junior high school where they can be transitioned to the high school.

Another fantasy is that sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students mix well in a middle school setting. It is interesting that sixth grade teachers want the old kids kept away from their students and prefer their own area of the middle school. Then too, the eighth grade students think that they “rule the roost” because they are the oldest. Ninth grade students would subdue this attitude.

Recently the state of Washington has been fantasizing about graduation requirements.Starting with the class of 2013, all students need three years of math to graduate. They need algebra and geometry to get a high school diploma. The fantasy is that all students can be successful in these math classes regardless of ability. The majority of the students can’t pass the tenth grade math exam that is supposed to test basic skills so why not up the graduation requirement?

Another fantasy is the idea that people who have never been public school classroom teachers can conduct studies to determine the future of education in this country. Or that college and university instructors know how public school students should be taught when they never had to deal with that type of student. These individuals repeat what they have read in books and rehash old ideas using new names.

The biggest fantasy of all pertains to the idea that most politicians want to do what is best for students, not their political careers. More than one graduating class has been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. Luckily, students who want to learn, will learn, in spite of the latest educational dogma and politically inspired educational requirements.

Before I fall off my soap box, I will step off of it and mention a few things about this past week.

We are preparing for parent conferences. These will be student led and focus on student testing results and on post graduation plans. Unfortunately there is not much time for parents to talk with their children’s teachers about how their youngsters are doing in their classes. This trend seems to be prevalent throughout the educational community and ignores what most parents really want to do. Then they wonder why inducements like extra credit are needed to bring out the parents.

My freshmen are taking more interest in the Natural Resources class. I started a plant unit and we will work toward lessons on grafting and rooting cuttings in the school’s greenhouse (which was being used for storage). Of course there are a number of them who still haven’t lost their childish behaviors andregularly get into trouble. I am concerned about handing out exacto knives to some of the more moronic classmembers.

My physics students did pretty well in a triangulation lab using surveying equipment to determine distances and elevations. The chemistry students are trying to master stoichiometry, with varying degrees of success. But I have high hopes for them all.