Every day after I read my newspapers, I always search the county arrest reports to see how many of my sweet children have been arrested. Most of them are drug-related, but I also have two that are up for murder. Many of these kids were not academically talented but were just as smart as the other kids who fortunately had the right wiring of the brain to be successful.
I.Q. has so little to do with success in school today. It is a case of the right wiring and learning styles. The child who is right-handed, right-eyed visual has the greatest chance of academic success because he is able to sit and fill in mindless worksheets because that is how he learns. However, the child who is kinesthetic/tactile mixed dominant suffers in these purely visual classrooms. He needs to move and touch to learn. He is likely to be labeled ADHD because of his boredom and frustration. he will be labeled as a trouble maker, rude, insolent and incorrigible because his needs are not being met. The one common factor that the majority of these kids who are arrested share is that they are UNEMPLOYED. No kidding. We do not know how to teach them but we use the same approach year after year, and when they can stand it no more, they drop out as soon as they can. They go out on the streets and find out that making 500 dollars a day selling drugs is far superior than flipping hamburgers for ten dollars an hour.
What we could have done is give them an aptitude test in 9th grade and allow them to pursue a trade/tech area when they can graduate CERTIFIED in a trade/tech area and begin earning money the first day after graduation.
We would rather let them sit in Algebra and Remedial Reading for hours a day with no hope of passing the courses. Then we allow them to be sent to prison and after spending ten to twelve years in prison, the government has the nerve to say we have a federal program to train you for a job. IT IS IMMORAL AND STUPID TO KEEP DOING THIS. God help us out of this quagmire and use common sense to improve the lives of so many.
Since retiring from my A district, 32 of my former pupils have gone to prison and 7 have been murdered or killed. My heart aches for futures that were never lived and dreams that were never fulfilled. GOD FORGIVE US.
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We have the lowest ACT scores ever! Everything I have said for 43 years has come true. I go to Sarasota County offices for advice on changing education, and they look at me as if I am crazy. I contact the early learning coalitions and offer to demonstrate my screening for children with deficits, and they will not even meet with me. They tell me they have specialists who know what to do with our early learners. Even though I was called the BRAIN LADY at Oxford University, they ignore me. This is what I would do to improve education. Too often, the rich get educated, and the poor get incarcerated.
- Eliminate the Department of Education in Washington and use their budget to build trade schools.
- Add another year at the beginning of school for kids who come to school not ready to learn. Have a PRE K, K, PRE FIRST AND A FIRST. Give them more time to get ready for learning. You would reduce the number of children who fail first grade. Failing first grade is not a great way to start school.
- Stop making Algebra a requirement for graduation. Replace it with basic math courses so maybe our cashiers can make change from a five dollar bill. It is so ridiculous to fail so many students because they cannot pass a worthless subject.
- Give an aptitude test to every failing month-grade student regardless of GPA. Allow them to graduate CERTIFIED in a trade so they can start work the day after they graduate. Stop having so many kids move right from the school system to the prison system. The question remains WILL WE BUILD BETTER SCHOOLS OR BIGGER PRISONS?
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America’s public schools are failing too many kids. Many kids enter kindergarten with a mental age of 3 or 4. They are thrown right into a curriculum made for a 6 year old. Kindergarten is the new first grade.
When we had balance beams, balls, puppet theaters, music, games and centers in kindergarten, we were #1 in the world. Now that we have computers, worksheets and books in kindergarten, we score at the bottom or near the bottom on international assessments.
Too many kids fail first grade because they are just not ready for reading. That sense of being a failure may stay with them for the rest of their lives. I propose that we add another year at the beginning of school for those who need TIME. You would have PRE K, K, PRE FIRST AND FIRST. It would be and extra year just for those who need it. Fewer kids would fail first grade and they could learn to love school. Public schools do not just need more dollars and cents, they need more common sense.
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I tested children last month at a Children’s Expo. They were ages 5-9. They had poor balance, could not cross midline, catch a ball or throw bean bags into a crate. I was shocked by their lack of basic motor skills. All these skills affect reading.
Our early start programs are so concerned with literacy and ignore these basics that must be addressed early.
Remember when we were number 1 in the world in education and every kindergarten had balance beams and balls? Now we are at or near the bottom on international assessments, and we continue to push literacy in our youngest children. 66% of 8th graders cannot read on grade level. Yet we continue to stay the course with devastating results.
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Can you imagine sitting in a nuclear physics class for 4 years and not knowing a thing about nuclear physics?? Failing every test and being bullied by teachers and peers for being an idiot?
That is how too many kids are in high school today. Growing angrier and more bitter every day, hating everyone in their world.
For God’s sake, stop this insanity and let them take tech/trade courses in 9th grade so they can succeed at something for the first time in their school career.
We must change or continue to breed lost souls without hope.
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I am so distressed because I had to withdraw my 2000 dollar scholarship for a student at our vocational school. I made it quite clear that it had to be a student from our local high school who was pursuing a career in auto mechanics. GUESS WHAT?? They did not have one student who met the qualifications. Of our 2200 students in our local high school who wanted to be an auto mechanic?? Yet as I travel around town, I see kids everywhere working on skateboards, bikes and cars. One of the problems is that they must have a 2.0 grade average to enroll in the tech center. What happens to the kids who do not reach that??
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P.E.A.R.L 