The Teachers' Views of Education

In my entry The Politics of Education, my teacher, Mr. Miller, left me a comment with a link to site that he thought that I should check out. It's called SupportBlogging.com which is full of blogs by teachers, principals, students, and parents about educational issues. I was looking through the blogs by teachers and found a blog written by a teacher named Mimi. In her blog, It's Not All Flowers and Sausages, she "vents" about her day and about all of the drama going on in school and with her co-workers. One of her entries is called, Parents Say the Darndest Things. She talks all about how parents don't want to hear that their kids aren't doing well and make up excuses. I rather enjoyed the conversation she had with the first parent about the Harry Potter book. My mom works at an elementary school as a special education aide and she hears this stuff all of the time so I have a feel for what she is saying and I know my mom would appreciate it. I know I'm going to keep on reading this blog. It gives me a sense of what teachers are thinking and that they have feeligns too!

The Parents' Views of Education

I was searching for another blog to look at involving education using Google Blog Search and came across a blog that is used for parents, teachers, and community members to talk about certain education issues. Betrayed - Why Public Education Is Failing is a very interesting perspective to view. Laurie Rogers writes all about topics, involving education, that adults of the community would care about. In her most recent entry, Education Flux is a Barrier to Truth, she talks about how the schools' curriculum is not up to par with what she thinks it should be. She even makes a good analogy using the episode of I Love Lucy when Lucy and Ethel work in the chocolate factory. At first it's easy to get the chocolates into the wrappers but then the belt starts moving too fast and in a panic, they stuff the chocolates into their mouths. Rogers relates this scene to the children in the public schools of America. She says that they haven't been properly wrapped (or not taught enough information) and have been sent down the conveyor belt of life too fast with the administration panic to pick up the pieces.

This analogy is actually really accurate. In this day and age, children are being forced to learn things too quickly just so they can pass standardized tests and are being pushed onto the conveyor belt of adulthood too soon and without the proper preparations, or "wrappers". Even thought Rogers writes for the adults of her community, this blog really interests me and I find that she has a lot of interesting and insightful things to say about the way education should be.

The Politics of Education

Since I've been looking up news articles about education, I decided to see what other people are saying about the educational issues of today. Education Week seems to be a very political blog about the issues dealing with education today.

One of the really interesting sections of the site is the Campaign K-12. This section talks about how kids and teachers are dealing with the election. One entry that really fascinates me is "Obama Has the Kid Vote Locked Up". It talks about how if kids were to vote, Obama would be the winner. In the entry, it is stated that according to the Scholastic Presidential Election Poll for Kids Obama got 57% of the vote and McCain received 39%. The poll was done through schools I believe; maybe online as well. I think this is a very interesting entry.

Another section of the blog that could be interesting to look at is the Special Education section. I would be interested in looking at it because it has entries involving trying to get better teachers and entries about different programs for autism and more. The only thing is, though, is that you have to pay for it. I think that if someone is writing a blog and wants his or her thoughts to be heard they shouldn't make people pay to read it. It seems to me that the people writing this blog aren't proud enough of it so they try to make it hard for people to read it by making people pay.

"Bozo" Bus Driver has no Common Sense

Yesterday a five-year-old first grader was dropped off in the middle of the Bronx and left to wander the streets. The New York Daily News said that the little boy, Jaeden, was supposed to go to the after school program next door to his school but was accidentally put on the bus instead. Not knowing what was going on, Jaeden rode the bus until that last stop when the bus driver forced him to get off. The bus driver didn't even care that Jaeden had no adult waiting to pick him up. What else is a five-year-old to do but listen to his elders? This poor little boy had to ask a stranger for help because he was lost.

This is a disgrace. First of all, this kid was supposed to go right next door to the school for an after school program and somehow he was put on the bus. The school should have a better system of organizing where the kids are going after school whether it's on the bus, getting picked up, or going to an after school program. It wouldn't have been such an ordeal if the bus driver just took this little boy back to school after he realized that this kid wasn't getting off the bus but that's not what happened. Jaeden rode the bus until the last stop where the bus driver forced him to get off. This kid is five years old, he doesn't know any better than to listen to this bus driver. I can't believe that the bus driver didn't even realize that he didn't have anyone waiting to pick him up. Also, shouldn't he/she know what kids ride the bus? If someone that doesn't usually ride the bus that this driver is driving the driver should have figured that out and brought the kid back to school. This poor little boy had to fend for himself and ask a stranger for help because he was lost. Now, he's in the Bronx, this person that he asked for help could have been some bad guy with a gun and kidnapped him or something. Luckily this story has a happy ending. The lady that the little boy asked for help called the school and got him to his mother.

Is the Superintendent Smarter than a Fifth Grader?

This past Friday, a superintendent from Georgia, Kathy Cox, won $1 million on the television show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader". The New York Times stated that instead of keeping the money for herself, she decided to give the money to three schools in the state two of which were for the deaf and the other one to that for the blind. It was also a risk for her to go on the show because if she got a question wrong "she would embarass herself and the state school system". Luckily, when she chose to go for the million dollar question, she answered correctly and won the game. She says that she went for the million dollar question because she didn't want to have to say that she was "dropping out of school" in front of the children that many people are trying to keep in school. She didn't have to say she dropped out, but she did get to be the first to say, "I am smarter than a fifth grader."

I was really excited when I read this article because I always watch this show and I scream at the television when people can't get a first grade math question correct. I was even more happy that someone who is involved in the school system won the game. It would have been so embarassing for this superintendent to lose and have to say that she wasn't smarter than a fifth grader. I would lose respect for the schools in Georgia because the superintendent couldn't answer some of these simple questions. I've watched one in the past where the contestant was a former student of an Ivy league school and he got stuck of some of the simplest questions. Let's just say that this lady took risks and she was smart enough not to embarass herself.