Education Needs a New Old Focus- Home EC!

Be patient and the title will make sense...Just a warning though- this is a rant...

I have to work for a living (outside of writing), as most of us do, but what you may not know is that  I cook at a convenience store. It's not glamorous, but I like to cook- usually. I have always liked to cook and even after working all day either on the farm (when we had a dairy) or off the farm at a regular job I still preferred to cook my meals at home. I enjoyed preparing healthful and tasty meals for my family. They used to teach this at school in a class call Home Economics, or Home Ec for short. I think this must have been cut with other classes that are necessary to life like Driver's Education. A lot of really useful life skills were learned there, and now some schools have a class just to teach students how to do a budget. That used to be part of Home Ec - how to shop for groceries, how to cook, how to make a household budget so you kept the lights and other utilities on. Now students look at you like you sprouted horns for mentioning that they might have their own bills someday and they need to learn how to take care of money.

Why do I bring this up? I work nine to ten hours a day with a mandate that I have a certain amount of food out before I leave. Now keep in mind I have to also clean the kitchen and do a few other things around the store before I can clock out. So when I say I am frustrated because people come in for
EVERY SINGLE MEAL or every night for dinner (wiping out all my hard work in a second and causing me to start over) you might say,' but that's job security', or 'that's literally your job to feed the masses." Someone actually asked, "What kind of restaurant is this?" when they couldn't special order burgers in five minutes one day and another clerk told them, "It's not! It's a gas station. If you want a restaurant; go a couple blocks." (Thank you co-worker. I loved your answer.) Other people have said, "It supports the economy and helps keep restaurants open creating jobs." Excuse me, but the occasional stop to grab something quick because we're on the way to such-and-such and we don't have time to make dinner is one thing, but every single night is just plain LAZY! I work all day too and I AM ON MY FEET 99% of the time. I still want to go home and make dinner for my family, but that's hard to do if someone is in there buying out the hot case because yet again they don't 'want' to cook. If you have something scheduled every single night of the week that keeps you away from home then you my friend are over scheduled and are missing out on some real family time. Every body has an activity but are you discussing anything that doesn't involve that activity with your family? If you ate at home over a nice dinner you'd have that opportunity.

This is where education has failed. This is where somewhere down the line parents have failed. They didn't teach the concepts necessary to plan a meal, shop for groceries, or cook the food. Learn to go to the grocery store, and please for goodness sake, don't use it for an opportunity to hold everyone else up in the aisle while you have old home week with someone you could just as easily go their house or call. Just so you know, I hate shopping too. I seriously despise it, mainly because people block the aisles and I can't get what I went to get so I can go home. It isn't fun at all for me, but I do it because it is necessary if I want to make food- which is the part I enjoy. Homemade food is better for you too. You can control how much salt and fat and sugar is in it. You can make favorites and desert and actually afford it. Restaurants require a tip and if you don't leave one they just might tack it onto your bill for you and you don't get a say in how much. That is not good for YOUR economy.

My boys did not leave home without learning how to cook so they could feed themselves. One is married and she is not a fan of cooking- not sure she knew how before (sorry for outing you D-I-L). As a result, they are a lot of takeout. My son finally said, "You know, we'd save a ton of money if we just cooked it ourselves and with kids coming, we have to save money somewhere." He took on the job of cooking a good bit of the time and they saved a ton. She cooks now too, maybe not anything elaborate but she is putting in the effort and over time has learned to cook more and more. The kids are involved and it makes it fun for them now too.

If your school isn't teaching basic home skills, tell them they need to start (or re-start!). Teach your kids to cook and that eating out isn't the norm but the exception. They will get used to it. 

By the way, I do have to stop at some point. I am not allowed to stay all night until the store closes. We have one cook a day since the store is not a twenty-four hour establishment and the area is really small. We get a lot of through traffic being on a US highway, but I am talking about people who live nearby and just refuse to cook for themselves.

Back-to-School Time: Are We Looking at It All Wrong?

We see it every day lately: It's back-to-school time! Sale on now! Buy the latest ______ (fill in the blank). The commercials inundate us at every turn and they use kids to push the point that they should be buying all the coolest clothes, the latest, most up-to-date gadgets, the neatest binders and notebooks (and not necessarily the paper kind). Some communities go pretty much year round, which is another issue altogether, but they still have all these sales in the fall in an effort to make big bucks off of you and to push the 'I'm cooler than you' attitude.

In the schools, kids are excited to go back, at first, but then the 'I don't want to go to school in the first place' kids start up and disrupt classes for those who do. Kids are texting back and forth, which in most schools is actually against school policy to even have a phone in class. (So why are you buying them the most expensive, does-everything phone?) A good many kids take it for granted that they will go to school, like it or not, and a lot of parents are involved enough to help them with their homework. Those who don't, again, is another issue altogether. The kids who take it for granted go along goofing off, sometimes learning in spite of their antics.

Now, flash to other countries where it is not a right to go to school; it is a privilege, and if one goofs off and doesn't participate and do well, they are out and destined to poverty and menial employment if any. Also consider the Middle Eastern countries, such as Pakistan, where the Taliban shot a young woman in the head because she spoke out against not letting women to go to school. That young woman was Malala Yousafzai. She survived the gunshots after surgery in the United Kingdom and months of rehabilitation. Still she fights on. The United Nations honored her bravery on July 14, 2013, and the speech to the United Nations Youth Assembly she gave was astounding. With great passion and eloquence she made a plea for all children, male and female, to be allowed to get an education. In her country schools are burned and the students are killed just for trying to learn. Those children aren't thinking about which clothing or robes, as the case may be, are the coolest, or who has the newest technology. They just want to go to school and learn.

If we look at going to school as a privilege and an education as one of the greatest assets we can give our children, and teach our children to respect the privilege, then we can make real strides in educating our children; not by teaching them to be ultimate consumers of whatever the 'coolest' trend is in blue jeans and tee shirts and electronics.

Watch Malala Yousafzai's speech on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SClmL43dTo

Community Theater Excellent Opportunty for Children

With the economy pretty much in the tank schools are making extreme cutbacks and of course the first things to be cut are the arts. It's been well known for years. I have noticed that people are passionate about keeping sports in schools, but not as loud when it comes to art, music, and drama. Why is that? If you think about it, you have to acknowledge that not everyone is cut out to be on the team for whatever sport the school has and I do know that schools are also cutting sports or are consolidating with other districts in order to continue participating. I understand the team work concept that sports teach, and that some kids get scholarships from playing sports, but not all kids who participate in sports get a scholarship. Just like not all kids who participate in the arts get a scholarship. One can argue however, that the arts can appeal to more students, and one doesn't often get injured participating in music, except for the occasional dance injury, or art (which can lead to many careers such as architecture, graphic design, web design, etc.). Does anyone think about how drama (theater) helps students? Try acting if you can't read and read well. Theater helps with confidence, overcoming shyness (as it did me), learning to multitask, which is important in most jobs, keeping grades up if their parents (and the schools) make it a part of participation, staying active (learning dance steps and when to do them). I had two left feet and I learned to dance because of community theater.

I was recently contacted by a new company out of Chicago called Compass Creative Dramatics because of an article I had written years ago regarding community theater. They are trying to raise awareness of the importance of community theater for children and plan to take small productions to several cities throughout the Midwest. They have testimonials on their website and videos on their YouTube page of people telling their memories of being involved in community theater. I, too, gave them some material. They are trying to raise money to get the project started and what a worthy project it is! Check out their website http://www.ccdramatics.com/index.html and their YouTube page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeMxvqipOto .  Hey, if you have something to add to their testimonials, go ahead; I'm sure they would appreciate it.

I have to wonder if more people in other areas endeavored to undertake such projects the void left by the schools would be filled and children would find something to do who might otherwise just sit around the house vegetating, or get into trouble 'just hanging out'. There isn't always a Boys and Girls Club (or such other club) available for them; I know there isn't where I live, but there is a small community theater. Get involved, won't you?

Maybe the Education Isn't as Bad as All That

I have commented on the No Child Left Behind Act before and I still think it is a bad idea. However, recently I have run into some exceptional youth that makes me wonder if the those undereducated I have been dealing with both in the office and in the general public (as well as online) are actually the exception and not the rule. Of course television and movies do help advance the cause portraying uneducated, smart-mouthed, and ill mannered youth as normal, so other youth think they should behave the same way.  I have seen some young individuals who are proving they can take the reigns of our future as a country and have left me with confidence that as long as it doesn't got to hell in a hand basket before they can get where they need to be, then we may be all right after all.

We recently had the Spring General Elections in Wisconsin and you would not believe what has come out of it. In Wisconsin Rapids twenty-four-year-old Zach Vruwink won the mayoral race, in Price County eighteen- year-old Travis Nez won a seat on the Price County Board of Supervisors. I interviewed Nez for an article and he is very impressive; smart, thoughtful, and is absolutely humble stating he thinks people his age in the military have more responsibility than he will ever have. Nice attitude! These two young men have backgrounds, as it were, in politics. Vruwink has an aunt Amy Sue Vruwink (D) 70th District, in the state legislature and Nez worked on the campaign of State Senator Pam Galloway (R) 8th district. Both have visions of bringing industry and thus jobs back to their respective areas. Vruwink is already an entrepreneur with his own technology business and Nez will be attending college for a business degree. Our governments should be run by people with experience in business as government has become a business with money being mismanaged left and right. There are many with law degrees who are in politics and business just isn't being attended to in a fiscally responsible manner. Maybe these two will help their areas.

I also noted that another eighteen-year-old was elected as mayor in Iowa in a write-in campaign. Wow. Granted the town only has seventy-three people, but it's a start. The incumbent mayor only got eight votes. Jeremy Minnier will go to college close to home so that he can carry out his duties for the four-year term.

With these young people at least, and I'm sure there are more, they are showing they are educated and can carry on. Congratulations to you all and best of luck in your endeavors. 

The No Child Left Behind Act

In frustration one day I said to my son, “I can’t believe how many kids around here are graduating and cannot read or write.” What I have noticed in dealing with the public in the last five years is that people who have graduated in the last decade (or about to graduate) have a very difficult time with reading and understanding simple questionnaires. In talking to them I get the impression many of them don’t really understand them when read off to them either. I have seen a few that actually can read and understand the questions, but cannot spell well enough to put down answers. Mostly they are written in texting language. Not everyone speaks text language –me included, which I’m sure irritates those who do. Texting is for telephone messages that are sent like email but shortened for space sake; right? So don’t use it on paperwork.

My son’s reaction to my statement was that it was because of the No Child Left Behind Act. Now, I have of course heard of the Act and I knew it was supposedly in place to raise standards of schools and education, but I also knew schools had complained about it for years. What I didn’t know, and suspect neither do a lot of other people, was the exact specifics of the law. He went on to give me the shortened version of it, in his opinion. The No Child Left Behind Act caused schools to make their curriculum steer to the lowest common denominator. (He likes to use mathematical references.) They test the students, see what the lowest level of ability is and teach on that level. That can’t be right. The law was meant to make schools be steadily better by 2014 and would cause them to lose federal funding if they didn’t.  That was my understanding.  He considered that because of teaching on the lower levels they were dumbing down the population.

I looked up the No Child Left Behind Act on Wikipedia and realized what he said actually was correct in a nutshell. It kind of irritated me that he had dumbed it down to tell me what it involved. School districts have until 2014 to improve their standard measured by test results. They have to improve steadily every year to bring students up to a well educated level. States will lose federal funding for education if they do not show improvement every year. States are allowed to create their own tests.

What the schools did was create tests that were below grade level and slowly inched up the level, but they are still below level. As a result, the tests show improvement. They did essentially what my son said; they dumbed it down to lowest level. Schools are putting efforts into what is on the test and diverting from other subjects that would give a good all around education. They are what is referred to as ‘teaching to the test.’ My son came home and complained about what a joke that test was every year when they made him take it.

There are ten states who have actually asked for relief from the requirement to be improved by 2014 and the president granted them waivers. One more is being considered. According to MSNBC (online) the ten states are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New Mexico is under consideration. Twenty-Eight other states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico are in line to make requests as well.

One thing I noticed with my kids is that they were bored half to death. Year after year they got the same lessons. In history, for instance, they didn’t get much further than the American Civil War and they barely brushed that. There was a mention for about a week each on the Industrial Revolution and World Wars I and II. Forget about the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, or the Space Race. Think how much has happened since then! I believe the children would have stayed more tuned in if the lessons had progressed from year to year. We did that when I was in school. What at one time had been called Americanism versus Communism was changed to Comparative Political Systems and the class lasted for a semester. Granted that could have gone further too, like changing geographical lines of countries and their names and their political systems.  World History didn’t get far up the historical chain either and they only got one year of that. Until they got into Algebra, my kids were bored with math and eventually that got old until more challenging subjects were brought in.

Challenge our children with interesting classes and they will respond. Don’t just simply decide they are not bright enough to learn therefore dumb down the tests. There are children with legitimate learning difficulties, but those can be worked around if one changes the way they teach those students. That means not labeling them, but still putting them in a classroom where the same material is covered as the other students, just taught differently. Right now those kids, if at all placed in another setting, are put in ‘Special Education,’ and that carries a stigma that makes the kids feel dumb and they get teased unmercifully for it.  

Some of the grounds for the waiver requests are that the students don’t speak English well enough to learn the lessons so they are taught in their language and then they can’t understand the test. Seriously? Hold them accountable to learn the language that may not have been legislatively recognized as the official language of the United States, but it sure is the language we speak. If we were in Mexico, we would have to learn Spanish in order to go to their schools. The same goes for other countries. Don’t use that as an excuse. Another reason is that the kids are poor and cannot relate to the requirements of the tests. They are poor; not stupid. That doesn’t have to go hand in hand. If their parents are uneducated then teach the children so that they can indeed achieve the American Dream of doing better than one’s parents. Parents have to take an interest in their children’s education and make sure they do their homework even if they don’t understand it themselves. After a certain point in Algebra I am totally lost, but I made sure they did the work. Find someone who does understand it if they need help that the parent is at a loss to explain. A kindly neighbor works well if a tutor is not in the cards, and for most of us, it isn’t. This is how parents help their children reach that American dream. Our children are the future, they will run the country and industry. How about we make sure they are up to the challenge? Is it really a 'no child left behind' guarantee, or an 'all children left behind' guarantee?