I am a former public school teacher, who left the standardized teaching profession when I chose to stay home and raise my children. While I wanted to come home, I was seriously sick and tired of slaving third graders to pass a stupid, stupid test.
The test creators were (and still are) constantly trying to trick little children with questions that reflect little of what it means to read or compute math. The questions are completely devoid of any idea of the growth and development of little children.
Even worse, one of my administrators gave me a low evaluation once because I did not teach to the test. What she expected me to do (I found out later) was to stand up at the overhead projector and go step by step over testing questions that might be on the state test. Grrr.
But, my real education about the testing came when I left it and began homeschooling my kids. My oldest son is gifted, but his brother is special needs. What I learned was this:
1) Real learning does not come by brow-beating children to learn.
2) Testing may tell you something about how children are learning, but formalized, standardized testing ony tells you how well kids learn to take a test.
3) You know your kid learned something when he spontaneously goes out to the back yard to dig a Civil War trench after reading copious amounts of books he checked out from the library. I didn't even have to teach him anything about the Civil War.
4) Kids learn more when they receive a rich (not talking $ here) enviroment of access to reading books, crafts, field trips to museums (with discounts), playtime with mixed age groups, and good old-fashioned free play outdoors.
5) Homeschooled kids who are really homeschooled generally test higher later on and are much more adjusted and prepared for real-world living than their peers. Studies actually show this. If you can do it, homeschooling works because kids learn the way that works best for them.
More and more people across all different economic levels homeschool their kids. You can educate your kids for free; it just depends on whether or not you have the ability to do it.
I want to tell you that the educational system will change overnight. It won't. I think that as parents, we need to be willing to push on the system as much as we can, but honestly, we then may need to walk away and find our own options if things are not working.
There are many more options available than parents know because the school system tells us that homeschooling is a bad thing and that they know what is best. Honestly, that isn't true. The teachers and adminstrators are also taking a test, which they spend all of their time trying to pass...
Such an important topic. You’re a saint for volunteering in special needs schools.
Any advice on finding an aristocratic tutor? I’m looking for one for my daughter who has high functioning autism and thinks 9th grade is a disgusting waste of her valuable time...
Free education for all should definitely be implemented everywhere. In Malaysia, public schooling for primary and secondary education is mostly free, even the textbooks are borrowed and passed down year to year (as long as there isn’t an overhaul of the curriculum) but on the other hand, it’s compulsory for us to take part in extracurricular activities. My school made it compulsory to join 3, a “uniform unit” (Scouts, Red Cross, etc.), a sport and a club (which can range from orchestra to language clubs) which made it difficult to also complete homework because you’d essentially be spending the entire day at school. Being active in extracurriculars is unfortunately important if you want to get into public university here (which is also free) because a system is implemented where each intake can only have a certain percentage of minority ethnicity, basically reverse affirmative action, so besides having straight A’s, you also need to have extracurricular achievements to get into public university (if you’re from a minority race).
This is great! Touches on a lot of the important structural and bureaucratic issues that suck the life out of teachers. It also addresses why students may not succeed. And I love free food idea. It is not a personal failing if a parent can’t (or doesn’t have the capacity to) provide food every day for their children to go to school with. And it’s really a shame that it’s an avoidable barrier for learning. “Do me a solid and give my kid an apple.”
Also of note is education whenever. We are so tied to the notion of education for a purpose and that becoming more educated is useless because you can’t DO anything with it. There is no useless information.
12!!!!! As a middle/highschool education student who dropped out because I realized I was afraid of children (but still very interested in education), a lot of these points are things I've thought about before, but I never thought about removing extracurriculars. I could see how this idea would upset a lot of people but I agree that having sports be connected with school makes for a lot of inequity. I do think sports can be really good for children though, and I could see teams and other extracurricular groups making use of school spaces and equipment in order for them to be more accessible to students. But I definitely agree that athletes shouldn't be excused from classes, coaches shouldn't be allowed to be shitty teachers, and money that goes to schools shouldn't be available to sports facilities and equipment when schools can't even provide basic educational materials.
Dec 5, 2022·edited Dec 6, 2022Liked by Austin Tindle
“Free for everyone, including the teachers”- Such a huge problem. At the start of the school year, several of my friends/acquaintances take to social media to advertise their class “wish lists”. These lists detail the most basic supplies necessary to provide an education according to the curriculum that teachers are expected to frame their lessons around. It truly shocked me to see one of my friends, an elementary school teacher, having to ask her social circles to purchase markers for her classroom. Had her friends not felt charitable enough to donate, most of these items would have been bought by the teacher who, as you mention, is already earning an unfair salary.
As for removing sports from schools, this one is a tough one for me. I think you are absolutely right, favoritism occurs around sports, but if we are to remove them from our schools external club teams have to be more affordable. The U.S. operates on a pay-to-play model for most sports. For some, participating in an organized sport can only be made possible through their school. Soccer, one of the cheapest sports you can play, costs about $1,500 a year for club team registration. This doesn't account for tournament costs, nor cost of equipment. Anyway, I completely digress... but yes, I agree there is absolutely special treatment of athletes, but organized sports would not be affordable for all if we removed them from our schools.
Dec 5, 2022·edited Dec 5, 2022Liked by Austin Tindle
Thank you Austin. You remind me of myself 45 years ago and even now I agree with so much of what you have thoughtfully articulated here. I'm looking forward to hearing more from you... maybe around the Substack Fireplace (Great idea! Cannot wait).
There is a new sheriff in town and I think we need to deal with him/her/they/it first. 'Equity.' It flows off the tongue and out of the writings of all the cool cats, or at least the ones who are looking to make radical change in their own image. They used the word equity for the very reason, that it is not definable (its situational) and that fluid-nature allows those in power to change the rules as they see fit, when they see fit.
If we are okay with systemic inequality of opportunity and if we are okay with eliminating the progress we have made (directed and organic) with respecting individuals then jump in and be a pawn of the powerful elite and trust them with your liberty. (That's how gaining equity works—encourage others to make up the rules and then live by them and try to keep up as they change.) Maybe it will work—this time.
When we look toward educational systems, they all should have utopian ideals, but let's make certain they don’t end up creating a generation of bullies swinging equity as a cudgel.
I appreciate the breadth of these ideas and the introductory thoughts for their implementation. I do think a necessary addition this fireside ramble is how, specifically, countries that already provide some of these services finance these noble ideas, and how, generally, you (we) imagine a capitalist world in which anyone would get behind diverting funds away from the institutions that have been disproportionally financed since time immemorial.
Those humans in positions of power tend to do everything to remain in those positions, and in addition to brainstorming these very valuable potentialities for a utopian ideal, imagining how we might remove those people from those pedestals without significant violence and/or monetary shifting seems like a sure fire way to head towards dystopia.
These are all amazing ideas, but the main question remains the question of money in a capitalist system. I am an adjunct at the Sorbonne. The pay is shite. Classes are massive. And most students are paying a few hundred a year, if that. Personally speaking, it’s hard for me to imagine a world where they pay nothing and I get paid more.
Well I may be feeling a bit curmudgeonly this morning, but I have no patience for this kind of Utopianism. It would also be nice if we could all spout wings and fly! We’re dealing with imperfect humans and imperfect systems. Let’s take reality into account at minimum.
I like your idea of free university education - especially for teachers. It could incentivize people to choose education like the GI Bill incentivizes people to choose the military.
As you know, I agree with most of your other points. I am curious about your idea of teachers owning the educational material. Like your idea of free education, this concept already exists on a limited basis. Implementing it on a larger scale would be interesting.
OMG! I love this!
I am a former public school teacher, who left the standardized teaching profession when I chose to stay home and raise my children. While I wanted to come home, I was seriously sick and tired of slaving third graders to pass a stupid, stupid test.
The test creators were (and still are) constantly trying to trick little children with questions that reflect little of what it means to read or compute math. The questions are completely devoid of any idea of the growth and development of little children.
Even worse, one of my administrators gave me a low evaluation once because I did not teach to the test. What she expected me to do (I found out later) was to stand up at the overhead projector and go step by step over testing questions that might be on the state test. Grrr.
But, my real education about the testing came when I left it and began homeschooling my kids. My oldest son is gifted, but his brother is special needs. What I learned was this:
1) Real learning does not come by brow-beating children to learn.
2) Testing may tell you something about how children are learning, but formalized, standardized testing ony tells you how well kids learn to take a test.
3) You know your kid learned something when he spontaneously goes out to the back yard to dig a Civil War trench after reading copious amounts of books he checked out from the library. I didn't even have to teach him anything about the Civil War.
4) Kids learn more when they receive a rich (not talking $ here) enviroment of access to reading books, crafts, field trips to museums (with discounts), playtime with mixed age groups, and good old-fashioned free play outdoors.
5) Homeschooled kids who are really homeschooled generally test higher later on and are much more adjusted and prepared for real-world living than their peers. Studies actually show this. If you can do it, homeschooling works because kids learn the way that works best for them.
More and more people across all different economic levels homeschool their kids. You can educate your kids for free; it just depends on whether or not you have the ability to do it.
I want to tell you that the educational system will change overnight. It won't. I think that as parents, we need to be willing to push on the system as much as we can, but honestly, we then may need to walk away and find our own options if things are not working.
There are many more options available than parents know because the school system tells us that homeschooling is a bad thing and that they know what is best. Honestly, that isn't true. The teachers and adminstrators are also taking a test, which they spend all of their time trying to pass...
Such an important topic. You’re a saint for volunteering in special needs schools.
Any advice on finding an aristocratic tutor? I’m looking for one for my daughter who has high functioning autism and thinks 9th grade is a disgusting waste of her valuable time...
Free education for all should definitely be implemented everywhere. In Malaysia, public schooling for primary and secondary education is mostly free, even the textbooks are borrowed and passed down year to year (as long as there isn’t an overhaul of the curriculum) but on the other hand, it’s compulsory for us to take part in extracurricular activities. My school made it compulsory to join 3, a “uniform unit” (Scouts, Red Cross, etc.), a sport and a club (which can range from orchestra to language clubs) which made it difficult to also complete homework because you’d essentially be spending the entire day at school. Being active in extracurriculars is unfortunately important if you want to get into public university here (which is also free) because a system is implemented where each intake can only have a certain percentage of minority ethnicity, basically reverse affirmative action, so besides having straight A’s, you also need to have extracurricular achievements to get into public university (if you’re from a minority race).
This is great! Touches on a lot of the important structural and bureaucratic issues that suck the life out of teachers. It also addresses why students may not succeed. And I love free food idea. It is not a personal failing if a parent can’t (or doesn’t have the capacity to) provide food every day for their children to go to school with. And it’s really a shame that it’s an avoidable barrier for learning. “Do me a solid and give my kid an apple.”
Also of note is education whenever. We are so tied to the notion of education for a purpose and that becoming more educated is useless because you can’t DO anything with it. There is no useless information.
12!!!!! As a middle/highschool education student who dropped out because I realized I was afraid of children (but still very interested in education), a lot of these points are things I've thought about before, but I never thought about removing extracurriculars. I could see how this idea would upset a lot of people but I agree that having sports be connected with school makes for a lot of inequity. I do think sports can be really good for children though, and I could see teams and other extracurricular groups making use of school spaces and equipment in order for them to be more accessible to students. But I definitely agree that athletes shouldn't be excused from classes, coaches shouldn't be allowed to be shitty teachers, and money that goes to schools shouldn't be available to sports facilities and equipment when schools can't even provide basic educational materials.
“Free for everyone, including the teachers”- Such a huge problem. At the start of the school year, several of my friends/acquaintances take to social media to advertise their class “wish lists”. These lists detail the most basic supplies necessary to provide an education according to the curriculum that teachers are expected to frame their lessons around. It truly shocked me to see one of my friends, an elementary school teacher, having to ask her social circles to purchase markers for her classroom. Had her friends not felt charitable enough to donate, most of these items would have been bought by the teacher who, as you mention, is already earning an unfair salary.
As for removing sports from schools, this one is a tough one for me. I think you are absolutely right, favoritism occurs around sports, but if we are to remove them from our schools external club teams have to be more affordable. The U.S. operates on a pay-to-play model for most sports. For some, participating in an organized sport can only be made possible through their school. Soccer, one of the cheapest sports you can play, costs about $1,500 a year for club team registration. This doesn't account for tournament costs, nor cost of equipment. Anyway, I completely digress... but yes, I agree there is absolutely special treatment of athletes, but organized sports would not be affordable for all if we removed them from our schools.
https://time.com/4913284/kids-sports-cost/
We essentially treat schools and education like “brands.”
Thank you Austin. You remind me of myself 45 years ago and even now I agree with so much of what you have thoughtfully articulated here. I'm looking forward to hearing more from you... maybe around the Substack Fireplace (Great idea! Cannot wait).
There is a new sheriff in town and I think we need to deal with him/her/they/it first. 'Equity.' It flows off the tongue and out of the writings of all the cool cats, or at least the ones who are looking to make radical change in their own image. They used the word equity for the very reason, that it is not definable (its situational) and that fluid-nature allows those in power to change the rules as they see fit, when they see fit.
If we are okay with systemic inequality of opportunity and if we are okay with eliminating the progress we have made (directed and organic) with respecting individuals then jump in and be a pawn of the powerful elite and trust them with your liberty. (That's how gaining equity works—encourage others to make up the rules and then live by them and try to keep up as they change.) Maybe it will work—this time.
When we look toward educational systems, they all should have utopian ideals, but let's make certain they don’t end up creating a generation of bullies swinging equity as a cudgel.
we need to outlaw whole language and bring back phonics so our learning disabled children, especially boys, can learn to read again.
I appreciate the breadth of these ideas and the introductory thoughts for their implementation. I do think a necessary addition this fireside ramble is how, specifically, countries that already provide some of these services finance these noble ideas, and how, generally, you (we) imagine a capitalist world in which anyone would get behind diverting funds away from the institutions that have been disproportionally financed since time immemorial.
Those humans in positions of power tend to do everything to remain in those positions, and in addition to brainstorming these very valuable potentialities for a utopian ideal, imagining how we might remove those people from those pedestals without significant violence and/or monetary shifting seems like a sure fire way to head towards dystopia.
These are all amazing ideas, but the main question remains the question of money in a capitalist system. I am an adjunct at the Sorbonne. The pay is shite. Classes are massive. And most students are paying a few hundred a year, if that. Personally speaking, it’s hard for me to imagine a world where they pay nothing and I get paid more.
Thank you for writing this Austin! There are certainly better education systems we can borrow from!
A worthy endeavor, I surmise the Teachers Union would stop MANY of these things.
Well I may be feeling a bit curmudgeonly this morning, but I have no patience for this kind of Utopianism. It would also be nice if we could all spout wings and fly! We’re dealing with imperfect humans and imperfect systems. Let’s take reality into account at minimum.
I like your idea of free university education - especially for teachers. It could incentivize people to choose education like the GI Bill incentivizes people to choose the military.
As you know, I agree with most of your other points. I am curious about your idea of teachers owning the educational material. Like your idea of free education, this concept already exists on a limited basis. Implementing it on a larger scale would be interesting.