I think that in my younger years I did not see the Goals for Schools being met. Not at all. I think that it was a get in, get out, and teach what we have to kind of a deal. There was no diversity in the school really, just whites and a few African Americas. Through middle school I remember it changing. The goals were not met enough, but we had more ‘opportunities’. I remember going places, having fun days where we would learn about different cultures. One day we brought in dishes that would be similar to what the pilgrims ate, then the next what the Indians would eat. In Spanish we always learned about that culture. It wasn’t where the learning should have been, but it was defiantly better.
I think that there are various schools for various children. Not everyone is the same, so there has to be accommodations made. All serve a purpose, to some extent. My brother has dyslexia, and went to a private school early on. He didn’t do well. He hated to go to school, and it got to the point where he had therapy. Then finally, my mother couldn’t take the 2-3 hours it took to literally drag him into the classroom, and decided to try homeschooling. That didn’t work either. He never graduated high school, never even attended high school. He is about to turn 18 at the end of this month. Obviously what was done for him didn’t work, and what he did for himself didn’t work.
When I am a teacher I will try to abide by the Goals for Schools, without making the children zombies. After watching that first video, it really was haunting to think how true that might be. Children need to be prepared to learn, expand, grow, think, etc on their own.
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When I was in elementary and middle school there were some (not many) students who were from different cultures. I don't remember too much about this because I was so young, but it seems like the goal was to make this cultural difference as unobvious as possible. There was a boy who I remember couldn't eat pork, I think, and that was accepted but I don't remember ever talking about his culture. No one was unaccepting of his culture, but it seems that it was more important not to exclude him from the general American culture.
ReplyDeleteI feel terribly for your brother. It is too bad that all of the strategies that your mother tried did not work for him. I think you were correct in saying, "what he tried for himself did not work." Even though he had a learning disability, if he wanted to graduate bad enough, than he would have. It is sad because dyslexia is a learning disability that can be overcome.
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