motherhood by terri: my writings from college

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SUMMARY OF ARTICLE*

Critics of all sorts have been bombarding the public schools because of the lack of commitment to excellence in education. Many say that the time has come to go back to the basics. However, much controversy rages as to the definition of "Basics." Educators are unable to understand the solution, much less implement the basics. On one side, basics have been defined as simply "the 3 R's"; and on the other extreme they have been vaguely defined as "skills for living". 

The article goes on to discuss some of the shortfalls of the basics as merely "readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic". because there is no discussion of including the arts, health, or physical education, this could leave a child ill-prepared to deal with modern society. A new era is dawning, and the basics should be geared to the future needs of students.

Our society is moving into the information age, thanks to the computer. This new technology allows for global communication of massive amounts of information being transmitted very rapidly. In order to sort and select appropriate data, special planning for users needs to be developed.

This is causing a decline in the industrial field; therefore, schools should begin preparing for the more intellectual jobs of the future. To survive and adapt to the changing conditions, students must acquire advanced reasoning skills, self-discipline, initiative, and independence.

A new set of basics has been created from this information age. An attempt to provide opportunities for students to develop the following four special skills needs to be made in order to prepare their minds for this important step.

· Technological Literacy Skills: The computer is here to stay. Not only is it in business, but also the home. Young people will have to be able to comprehend and analyze the information.

· Questioning Skills: Complex problems arise daily for students to handle. This questioning enhances both intellectual and social development.

· Generalization Skills: Because of the futility of trying to acquire knowledge as fast as it is discovered, an improved system for categorizing for more manageability and meaning needs to be made.

· Empathy Skills: This constant pressure of so many variables frequently leaves individuals without direction and without away to express emotions. Therefore, students need to learn how to express their emotions.

CRITIQUE

The Back-to-Basics Movement poses a thought-provoking question. One thing that is overlooked in all the controversy is the importance of close family ties. The computer is here to stay, but it is not a living creature. It is important to know how to communicate effectively with people first of all and then with this inanimate object because of its valuable position in our society However, our society is falling apart due to the decline of the family unit.

A computer cannot effectively help the teenager who is in an identity crisis. Finding his role in society should have begun at home. Preparing a youth for survival rests upon parents, not teachers. When parents do their part, the teacher can be more effective on their part.

  All this new information has crowded out an important lesson from history. The Great and Magnificent Roman Empire was filled with vast resources of knowledge and innovative technologies. However, the family suffered a decline. Thus, the Roman Empire was unable to stand in all its might and wisdom. Shall we also allow all this intellectual development chip away at the most basic of human existence? Without a healthy family, can the computer ensure our survival as a society?

APPLICATION

As educators, it is important to keep abreast of new ideas. This article has stressed the importance of thinking and preparing the mind for channeling knowledge. Because of all the conflicting ideas of what is BASIC, we must remember to keep a balanced view. Children need to learn the 3 R's, but not at the expense of social interaction. The complexity of our society causes many stressful situations; therefore, empathy needs to be shown to help them survive all the changes they have inherited.

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· *Balentine, Margaret B and Kenneth T Henson, Back to Basics: Skills Needed for the Information Age, Contemporary Education, Volume 56, No. 4, Summer 1985

by Teressa Diggs

Mothers of yesteryear were the equivalent of a modern-day corporation manager.  She knew how to delegate authority, establish teamwork and help elicit the best from each of her offspring. She had her own secretarial staff who she could delegate such jobs as writing the shopping list. Everything was a joint effort. Mothers instinctively know how to relate to their children and have extraordinary skills in motivating them to learn. Prior to World War II, young children came home from school to Mom--apple pie--cookies and milk. The country was mostly rural and the population was composed of families who shared a long list of similar cultural values.  Teachers were able to establish classroom control because children were instructed by loving parents to show respect to "the wisdom of grey-headedness (Leviticus 19:32; I Samuel 12:2).

The world is changing rapidly and so is the family structure. Today, millions of children between the ages of 5 and 12 come home from school to an empty house, and many have no home to come to. The pride that was once exhibited when disciplining children to avoid disgracing the family name is no longer in vogue.  Marriage become a plague, while divorce dominates future trends. Everybody is doing their own thing as long as it feels good, even laws reinforce this philosophy. Women's Liberation created better conditions for women in the work place, however, raising irresponsible children has become the unfortunate side effect  Teachers were once employed to impart knowledge, now communities view them as free professional babysitters.

Accountability of the public school system has been under attack for some time because the many of the students complete 13 years of public education, while somehow finishing without the ability to read or write well, if at all. Those students are thus forced to function below their intellectual potential throughout their adult lives. Are the teachers at fault for this declining educational quality? Or is society at fault? Concerned parents are forced to expose their children to violence, lack  of discipline, and illicit drug use all because of compulsory attendance laws. School age children are easily influenced by their peers, according to Erikson's Theory of Personal and Social Development . Thus, teachers abilities are not the cause of these problems.

In an attempt to set matters straight, "rebellious" parents throughout the United States have turned to painstakingly exert effort to restore the dinosaur that has become extinct:  M O T H E R HO O D.   These parents are viewed eccentric because the idea of families spending daily time together for learning seems too bothersome.  Many criticize them for their dedication.

During the Golden Age of Learning, children were taught to read at home before attending school. The importance of reading was emphasized at an early age so that if his schooling should end he would be able to continue to grow and strengthen. Expectations were set high and they were fulfilled. During the first part of the 1900's children possessed a complete key to English reading by the time they finished the third grade. Families who school their children at home strive to do this because it helps create confident and self-directed learners.

Parenting required dedication and self-sacrifice. Thanks to modern technology, many of the problems faced 100 years ago in order to school at home have become greatly reduced. Vast infor mation has been compiled to assist families to pursue this challenge.  The first step in becoming an expert is to discover what's available as far as curriculum and resources. Then compare them with the family philosophy. Finally, based on the knowledge acquired let the children help make the choice before implementing the curriculum.

As the trend increases, professional educators have expressed concern about the quality of home schooling.Thanks to modern technology Virtual Schools have become established to help parents who wish to school their children at home. Homeschoolers no longer face the stigma of giving inadequate education to their offspring.  The movement has made great strides since the 1990's. The assumption that socialization process of the public schools is normal and good has been challenged by homeschooling.  No longer does the idea that the same kids in the same room doing the same thing at the same rate in the same way to achieve the same results because they're the same age rings true. Such brilliant men as Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison and Abe Lincoln were all educated by loving mothers.  Thomas Edison was even viewed by his teacher as unteachable. Is it wise to listen to those who criticize the age old practice? How many other unteachable children might be missed?

The family unit is the life source of all successful societies. Many powerful world empires have been reduced to ashes because of the breakdown of the family. The current world empire may be headed for a collision with extinction due to the current perspective of Motherhood.  Only the future generations will be able to look back to note how successful the homeschooling movement was in its attempt to reunite the family.

by Teressa Diggs

"Space . . . . .the final frontier . . . . These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise . . . . it's five year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life forms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."  With these words, the original series of Star Trek begins each exploratory voyage to the stars. The present generation of children are currently on an exploratory voyage of their own through the educational system as they learn to manipulate the sophisticated machinery assigned to them. What strange new worlds must they explore on their 13 year mission? The "new life forms" and "new civilizations: awaiting them are unlike those that were encountered by their predecessors.

The educational frontier suffers from the effects of various obsolete instructional methods. Research indicates that some common classroom practices require adjustment and re-evaluation. During the infancy of compulsory public schooling, educators diligently tried to "fit square pegs into round holes," only to find out that the "shapes" remained basically the same--except for the damage around the edges. The robot's design allows them to be molded into such configurations. Children are human; they are not robots (Pride, 1989). The purpose of education is not to force children to conform to a ridged system of useless ideology, the purpose of education is to provide knowledge that stimulates both mental growth and personal growth in order for the child to become a productive,member of his/her society.

A unique distinction exhibited by humans is the ability to think and reason, not to merely perform simple commands or tasks. Each individual learns to think and reason in a manner that complements his or her own needs and personality. Diverse personal experiences result from social and cultural interactions. Every child demonstrates special talents and interests which need recognition. Education should not teach all people the same way in an attempt to produce robots. Many episodes of Star Trek demonstrate the dangers of robots taking over the lives of people. Robots can merely think logically; robots cannot think reasonably. If their creator programs them wrong or immorally they will act accordingly. How BORING and potentially dangerous life would be without the spice of these human characteristics.

Language is the vehicle of thought. This system of sounds and symbols not only allows humans to communicate with themselves, but also language is a universal trait that is used to communicate with other human beings. The ability to use language enables humans to think complex thoughts, to imagine abstract ideas, to represent unseen objects. and to convey accurate messages to others. Verbal language smooth social interaction, while written language solidifies the concepts of the mind into literature, history, and collective knowledge. This vehicle connects the past with the present and extends into the future.

The human power source is well designed and more adaptable than any machine. This sophisticated piece of machinery has the ability to gather and store infinite amounts of information, yet only a small fraction of its power is ever used. The human brain likes to be fed information. The more it is stimulated, the more proficient it becomes. This is possible because of the mapping system that is build into its design. As new information is added to existing materials and patterns, the maps expand to expose new inlets and exits that were not present before. Although this learning machine has specialized intricate parts, each part is dependent upon the skills and talents of all the other parts in order to reach peak performance. Command performance is most efficient when the brain is free of fear and anxiety and when it is allowed to follow its own built-in timetable.

Scientists report that the human brain has two hemispheres which have different strengths and weaknesses. The left hemisphere houses the major brain areas that are important for manipulating languages. The messages from these areas reach the motor areas in the frontal lobes which control the mouth and the tongue. These areas are also connected to visual and auditory parts located in the right hemisphere. In order for a person to read, messages from the visual area must reach the language areas of the brain; in order for a person to understand spoken language, connections must exist between the language areas and the parts of the temporal lobe that process auditory information (Wallace, 1987).

The left hemisphere of the brain works somewhat like a robot. It processes information sequentially in a logical manner; therefore, learning progresses through systematic, well-structured planning with little room for creativity. On the other hand, the right hemisphere of the brain operates more like a human. It processes information through the senses in a special manner; therefore, learning progresses through open-ended exploration that is highly creative.

Language acquisition requires the use of both hemispheres. Before children understand language, they are "thinking' with their senses:  when they hear, they look; when they see, they touch; when they feel, they taste; and when they taste, they can smell. Children constantly search for meaning in their world. Only after the concrete world around them can be manipulated and understood are they able to assign words to those objects around them. The marvelous tool of listening assists in expanding the child's universe. By the time a toddler begins to speak, the right hemisphere has worked quite efficiently with the left hemisphere to create orderly patterns upon which their future map will become dependent. All human beings appear to have a genetically endowed predisposition that enables them to acquire a language and discover the grammar that underlies the speech to which they are exposed. Children have a natural motivation to learn language because of the social nature of all humans.

Since the first cave drawings, man has revealed his true natural desire to preserve thoughts by "scratching, painting and otherwise representing the world around them". Cuneiform is the earliest form of writing; however, numerous other systems appeared independently throughout the world. Writing systems started out as pictograms, then gradually expanded in meaning to become idea-grams by representing ideas through the association with material objects. Eventually, symbols were used phonetically, which simplified both writing and reading. At the same time, the communication of more abstract ideas became possible The invention of the first alphabet, Old Canaanite, made communications readily available to the masses. The alphabet transformed writing into a tool that gave individuals the opportunity for self-expression. (Schrof, 1990)

Young children are intrigued with the art of writing. It adds new dimensions to the world. Writing is as natural to the child as learning to speak. It helps to complete the connection, allowing a hard-copy for expression. Writing is a more powerful art than reading because it is ego centered and provides an outlet for a child's innate desire to speak on paper. Children who learn to write also learn to read. However, it is not necessarily true that a child who learns to read will also learn to write when extensive decoding skills are preached.

In order for a child to be able to read or write, he must be able to grasp the idea that the alphabet stands for sounds and that the words he hears and speaks are the very same sounds which are assembled in form shapes. Once this is understood, then writing becomes a logical process of making sounds visual, thus integrating the senses. During the process of learning to speak, the child practiced connecting the left brain with the right brain for assistance when encountering new grammatical order or when trying to understand inflectional endings. These patterns are firmly etched into the mapping pattern of the child's brain. Spending unnecessary time teaching workbook pages of decoding skills only interferes with the child's natural patterning. What eventually happens is that the left brain steps in to overrule the more creative right brain.

The educational system in America has been creating robots for at least fifty years. It is time for teachers to start allowing children to become human. All children deserve the opportunity to utilize the full potential of their sophisticated machinery in order to achieve command performance and to develop their own creativity and talents during the learning process. Alternatives in education are necessary due to this heterogeneous society. When people are offered freedom of choice in a reasonable setting, then frustration levels decrease and they respond more effectively. Balance is an important key.

The atmosphere of Star Trek the New Generation melds man and machine into a more progressive pattern. The road ahead is long and rough, yet, the time has come to return from space and re-explore known frontiers, seek to balance current life for future generations, and boldly resort to a wise combination of the best educational techniques available.

by Teressa Diggs

Once upon a time in our country, mostly before World War II, young children came home from school to Mom--apple pie--cookies and milk. Today, millions of children between the ages of 5 and 12 come home to an empty house. and many have no home to come to. Our world is changing so rapidly, first it was the wall in Germany being torn down, not it's the Persian Gulf Crisis and threat of a new war. Minute by minute, we know not what to expect next! The public school system has been under such bitter attack for its inability to produce competent school graduates for daily life in our current economy. I wonder if public education is even going to survive. The national debt is so out of hand, it is frightening to think of the mounting expenses resulting from the military forces needed to maintain stability in the world.

The public school system was designed in the 19th Century when our country was mostly rural. The population was mostly composed of Anglo-Saxons who shared a long list of similar cultural values. Teachers were able to establish classroom control by simply tapping on the table to get students attention. Even teaching in the 1950's showed little change from the way it was during those primitive beginnings.

Since the 1950's, schools have been plagued by the changes in family structure. Divorce is no longer looked at as sinful. Families no longer pride in disciplining their children to keep from disgracing the family name. Our entire society has become so selfish, thanks to the anti-establishment movement of the 1960's. 

Teachers have been "transformed by the society they are trying to educate." (Mudd) This fairy tale doesn't sound much like it is going to have a happy ending without some emergency action.

Several questions come to mind that might need some serious consideration if we are going to try to make this fale end well. Therefore, let's take a deeper look into those questions. Due to the current events, it is my belief that these are the most important issues facing the teaching profession today.

First, can the government continue to waste funds on education in the foolish ways it has been for many years? I think it needs to take a very close look at the current spending and try to trim the excess fat. They are currently spending big bucks daily to maintain a warlike appearance. Pretty soon they are going to open their eyes to see the American public cannot afford to continue dishing out stuff that supports their habit. As mentioned in an earlier paper, tax dollars should be spent much more prudently IMMEDIATELY, or there won't be any left to throw away on reports of educational reform. The hot lunch fills so many landfills with styrofoam plates that the government should go back to dishwashers. The cost of textbooks and other educational materials is unreal. In Aurora, Colorado, every summer, they have a textbook giveaway--do you realize how much is thrown away there? Teachers can reuse those books and look for more innovative ways of teaching. This leads to my next question.

What is really basic to education? Much controversy rages as to the definition of "basics". Our society has been moving toward the information age due to the computer. Changing conditions always create new directions never explored before. If Einstein is correct about World War IV being fought with sticks and stones, we may wish to return to promoting the industrial field of education. If the world is going to regress, computers may not exist in the future. Teachers should concentrate on teaching phonics, applied math and writing skills. Without computers, people will need to start using their heads to think with once again.

My third question is: Should the schools be responsible for taking over the responsibilities of the family? The schools have educated the people to question everything. It seems to me that they have been instrumental in causing a lot of the family problems we see today. Children question parental authority because schools have encouraged them thru humanism to make their own decisions, even if they are different from their parents. If the government would pose stiff penalties on parents to take positive action in correctly raising their children to be useful citizens, then schools could spend more time on their OWN task. Parents are the ones who should take the lead in being responsible for their children's actions.

Fourth, should schools apply corporal punishment? It is definitely clear that SOMEONE should administer corporal punishment. The government has let individual liberties get so far out of hand, it's no wonder the schools are not able to keep their students under control. Consistency from family all the way up through the government should be implemented Too many people get away with too much. As the Bible indicates, "spare the rod, spoil the child". Used with balance, this really makes sense. However, the Bible also says that it is the parents' responsibility to take care of the punishment. Thus, if the schools were to remove themselves from the position of caretaker of this sick society, then corporal punishment would not be on their minds.

The last question that I feel is of importance is: will the public system be able to survive, as it is, into the 21st Century? The educational system has not been realistic in it's treatment of cultural minorities nor the impoverished. Most people continue to believe that the United States is still Anglo-Saxon with shared cultural values. However, so much immigration and mixture of racial backgrounds has occurred during the past 40 years, that some authorities predict Anglo-Saxons will become the minority. Educators should really stick to teaching without stepping on the toes of peoples beliefs. Poverty is really getting to be a problem that even the government can't do anything about. In light of my first question, funds need to be re-assessed. It needs immediate action or the public school system won't survive AT ALL.

As I near the end of my paper--as well as my writing career in this marvelous class of Foundations of Education--I wish to reflect on a subject very dear to my heart. After studying in depth the educational process of the public school system--with all it's intrigue and inconsistencies--I am glad to have the privilege of teaching my children at home. I value the sense of closeness it has given in the past. From my Educational Psychology Class, I have seen much proof of the benefits of one to one tutoring as opposed to the ineffectiveness of many public school practices routinely used. I plan to teach in a way that will avoid the many tragedies I have viewed. We have no guarantees that life will continue as smoothly as it has for the last half of a century. Therefore, we need to insure that our OWN offspring are adequately prepared to face world changes.

I wish to encourage all parents to educate their children with love, time, discipline, and pride. Thus, government spending could become much trimmer and schools could become wiser.

Let's end this American fairy tale before it has its tragic ending. It is time to start a new story, ".....we must spend more time with our children in the home, lest our society like Greece and Rome be lost." (Moore) We cannot let history repeat itself.

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· Mudd, Roger, ON TEACHERS OF THE 1990's. Teaching K-8,  Aug/Sept 1991.

· Moore, Raymund S. Bulletin #62, 1/1/1984