A Bill of Goods - The Problem

Last time I said that I was going to ruffle a few feathers. Well, I’m not sure if I have yet, but I’m going to try again to get things stirred up. After all, isn’t healthy debate what it’s all about? And I think that for far too long we have been without healthy debate on what really works in schools.

I entitled this posting “The Problem,” but actually there are many problems. There is no argument that we have a major problem with student failure (yes, I’m using the “f-word” here). People don’t want to use the word “failure” with children – something about it hurting their precious self-esteem. Well guess what, folks – a lot of these kids have no self-esteem to begin with. They’re smart enough to know that we’re just playing word games. They have already figured out that most adults don’t expect anything out of them. Oh, we say we do, but then what happens? We coddle them, we tell them that it’s not their fault they can’t read – that some other bad teacher or system, or whatever, did it to them. They are victims of their environment, of the system, of “the man” – whoever that is. And then what do we do – we pass them on to the next level where they are even farther behind. “You couldn’t handle seventh grade, so we’re going to promote you to eighth grade where you can really bomb.” I ask you, does that sound like a good program to you?

Let’s put things in perspective. If you had a job and you couldn’t cut it, would your boss promote you? Okay, let’s say you’re not in a government job – would the boss promote you? More than likely, the boss is going to tell you to get up to speed or you’re gone. This is the “real world” that we’re supposed to be preparing kids for. And then we wonder why so many young people seem to have an “entitlement” mentality. Hello! Does anyone see a problem developing here? It’s a similar situation to the problem that communist societies faced – if I can get the same thing doing nothing as I can doing something, why should I do something?

That should make some people happy – I’ve just compared our educational system with communism. But I’m just getting going. Wait until you see where I’m going next.

A Bill of Goods

First, I know I’m going to upset some people with this (if anyone actually reads this, that is), but I’m going to write it anyway. After all, isn’t that part of the reason for a blog – to get your opinions out even if some people don’t want to hear them? And anyway, this is based on my personal experience and reading/study, not anyone else’s – or is that true? Because what I’m about to do is take my own crack at the plethora of “experts” who are creating our educational “systems” – you know, the ones that are supposed to make all students achieve at grade level and beyond? Okay, so off we go.

We’ll start with my background. I was a teacher for 14+ years full time in both public and private schools, plus some time at the community college level. I spent a lot of time going to all the required workshops and in-services, trying my best to implement all the gobbledy-gook and mumbo-jumbo, and never seeing any real improvement. It never seemed to fail that the students who needed the help least were the ones who took full advantage of everything, and vice-versa. It slowly began to dawn on me that we have been taking the wrong approach to helping struggling students to succeed.

This is where the “bill of goods” comes in. There are people out there who are making a ton of money pushing the latest “wonder program” to make all kids successful. So of course, the last thing they want is someone saying their stuff is crap. Well, I’m going to say it – it’s crap! So much of it is just recycled from the past anyway. Ask any teacher with some years of experience, and they will tell you that this stuff just keeps coming back under different names. And so many of these “experts” are long on theory but extremely short on practical experience. I don’t know how many of them I’ve heard talk, but very few of them had ever really spent much time in a real classroom. And when they did their “sample lessons” in a classroom, it was always with a small group of students while another teacher kept control of the rest of the class.

I can see I’m going to be going on with this for a while, so I’m going to stop here and pick up again next time. And I promise, the next time will not be so long a wait. This is only the beginning.

Blogging Course Review

About a month ago I told you that I was going to be checking out a course on blogging from Simpleology. First, what is Simpleology? Well, it's a fantastic site that can really give you a boost toward achieving your goals. I would definitely recommend checking it out.

Now, about the blogging course. I will admit that I didn't really get going on it right away. The first day I had it I went through the first couple lessons, which are pretty much basic blog facts. Then I got busy and didn't follow through (anyone else ever do that?), and didn't get back to this blog either. I finally got a burst of enthusiasm, and came back to both, and I'm glad I did.

This course really gives you some great tips and suggestions, even if you have been blogging for a while. And if you're new to blogging, you REALLY need to get this course. It has early lessons on choosing a topic to blog about, knowing your audience, creating content, getting traffic, and most important of all - how to make money from your blog. Anyone else out there like money? I thought so.

I'm still working through this course, but I'm excited about bringing my blogs to another level. I will be back after I get through more of the course and give you an update on what I've learned. Meanwhile, why not click on the link and check out Simpleology.

Take Two

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.