With the presidential race already in high gear, everyone whether they have school age children or not, should pay attention to what each candidate says about education.
Generally, Democrats favor Common Core, the US Department of Education and control of education primarily from the federal government. With a few exceptions the Republicans do not favor Common Core. Some have gone so far as to say they would disband the Department of Education; thus eliminating federal monetary control.
There are many different iterations of the generalities that I have noted, but I will leave that to you to discover.
What I would like for all my readers to learn for themselves is who among the numerous candidates favors your position on education?
Education seems to be in turmoil in the United States. If we, as parents and grandparents just leave it up to the politicians, then we will get whatever the winner wants.
I know I have commented on this previously, but the Constitution does not mention education at all! The Founders believed that education was best administered locally, by those closest to the children.
We have, over the past 40 some years, veered completely off course. Once the US Department of Education was established during the Carter years, the control of education has been more and more controlled at the national level.
Although the percentage of funding from the federal government is minor, it is enough to cause schools to alter what they do for fear of losing that funding. The school lunch program is a perfect example. Seems hardly a week goes by when there is not a story about a school that is losing money, but not feeding nearly as many students. Why? Because kids are not going to eat what they don’t want! I have heard stories where teachers or administrators have actually taken food from home away from a child because it did not match the schools’ food policy!
Yes, I know that obesity is a real problem. I just don’t believe that it is the responsibility of the school to dictate what each child should eat. And yes, I know there are students who are not able to bring a lunch from home. There are always exceptions. But generally speaking, as we allow the public schools to take over more and more parental responsibilities, where does it stop?
Not only do children learn at different rates, but their metabolisms are not the same!
Perhaps if schools had not been required to disallow any game or remove any playground equipment where a child might get hurt, then they would spend more time running and playing on the playground! Exercise is a great way to burn off excess calories!
Common Core standards want every child in every school everywhere to learn the same thing at the same time at all times! The school lunch program dictates what schools can serve. Where do the parents come in?
As nearly as I can tell, parents have little to no input in how their children’s school is operated on any level!
Then there is the testing! Testing is no longer used to gauge what a child has learned; they are used to determine whether or not a teacher gets to keep her job! Teachers, by necessity, must spend an inordinate amount of time preparing and administering standardized tests of one kind or another. Imagine if they could just teach and then prepare a test to truly learn what each child has learned, or failed to learn.
For the generations that won WWII, went to the moon, developed the atomic bomb, discovered the magic of computers, etc. this teach and test method seemed to work pretty well.
Of course, I could go off on computers in the classroom right now, but I will save that for another day.
As long as it is okay with you to have your child’s education determined by politicians in Washington, who are beholden to lobbyists who have funded their elections, then pay no attention to the current election process. However, if you believe, as I do, that education should be overseen by the parents and local persons whom the parents can easily access, then please pay attention to what the candidates are saying.