posted September 19, 2006 07:52 AM         

From kid to coppertop in 13 easy years.

posted September 19, 2006 02:51 PM         

Most parents have their crosses to bear. In the land I live in, thousands of children were abused by christian brothers and nuns. They had the fear of God put into them, and some went on to have huge problems as adults. It makes my blood boil.

Of course things are changing now.

Our little boy goes to an Irish school, the parents are very involved and participate at times in the childrens educations...including art and music.

We keep a very close eye on how they are treated and most of the children there seem to be happy and relaxed. The greats thing is they accept all nationalities and denominations and are very open to parents' suggestions.

I hated school whilst I was there, but I wouldnt say it had a long term ill effect on me.....

Dont beat yourself up too much....its such a hard job parenting isnt it?

posted September 25, 2006 01:11 PM         

John Taylor Gatto's "The Underground History of Education In America"

Take some time to read this. You won't be disappointed. It is one of the most eye-opening, educational pieces on the purpose of the American education system that I have read.

Love,

posted October 03, 2006 12:57 AM         

quote:

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...incomplete people make the best corporate and government employees.

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This begins rather earlier than gradeschool, though. Our entire culture seems geared to break the spirits of the young...

posted October 03, 2006 03:45 AM         

Oh Johnny, that is SO sad....

And keep speaking out for the sake of our young!

The school where our son goes isnt bad, but there is still room for improvement. Some of the parents have been trying to explain to the teachers that more PRAISE is needed for the children to grow. They have some strange notion that punishment works...yeah right. I have spoken to a few of the kids and they seem to thrive when they are praised and "shrink" when they are shouted at!!!

"Mol na hoige agus tiocfaidh siad"

(Praise the children and they will progress)

x

posted October 06, 2006 07:48 PM         

quote:

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(Praise the children and they will progress)

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You know, I was reading about a study that some group did on this - they randomly selected a group of grade-school kids and then told their teachers that they had identified these kids as "gifted."

Then, with the teachers expecting that these kids would stand out from the rest of the class and progress faster, guess what happened - they did just that. The teacher
s higher expectations led them to perform better.

posted July 25, 2007 02:14 AM         

Wasn't it inevitable, when we first began exchanging our freedoms for protection from manufactured terrors which we bought the notion of cowering from, that we would reach this point in history where society itself has deemed us incapable of passing on the "ways of the world" to our own children; instead setting up institutions of "higher learning" in order to instruct them in proper perspective and assure that they take in only...correct knowledge?

(With as downright stupid and out-of-hand as we've allowed the situation of forced schooling to become, it may well prove that the system has an airtight case against us.)

In the final analysis, if experts and overlords are needed to make decisions for us because we are incapable of thinking on our own, then how qualified are we to teach our children ANYTHING?

And if we can't stop our own society from locking its children away for 6 hours a day to be brainwashed and bullied by strangers at our expense, then exactly how competent ARE we to protect them at all?

posted August 02, 2007 12:32 AM         

with the nearest Waldorf school an hour away, I see no other alternative but to homeschool. *sigh* but I'm not ashamed to say I'm feeling more than a little intimidated by the idea.

poor kid probably won't be long before he's begging for public school