When I was a kid we were made to learn cursive, do long math, use a physical dictionary and memorize spelling lists for years, and years, and years…the technology wasn’t available to rely on spell check or typing in general (far too much lack in portability at the time)… I mean really, desktop computers were actually the size of desktops and they were a mere blocky low-resolution reality at the time. So, does that make it the best method for today’s children? Why would we subject our children to learning in such an outdated way? (That probably should be a rhetorical question…. with a big fat NO! attached.) A better question in fact might be, why are we still subjecting them to countless hours, make those years of needless study?
I want my children, our children (the children of our world) to have learning rich environments. Not the kind that creates discontentment, anger, and an ever-increasing population of medicated children. The focus of the educational system currently in place hasn’t changed much since it was founded; yet our world has changed drastically. The daily lives and needs of our great grandparents are vastly different from our lives and the lives of our children. It seems only reasonable to place different values on the style, variety, and techniques of our educational system based on our current reality. This is not to suggest that learning basic arithmetic, spelling and grammar should be forfeited, but rather given their proper place. The biggest changes I currently see are art, gym, and music type classes being cut while common core classes are made out to be all the rage.
Sitting here thankful to have children who pushed the limits in school (and in life)…And said no we just can’t take it anymore! Because it wasn’t until they started dropping out that I realized I want to have no part of supporting such a dysfunctional educational system. Don’t take it the wrong way it’s not the teacher’s fault, there are AMAZING teachers out there, but they are also caught in the trap!
To be continued…Now that we have stated the problem, next time we will look at the solution set.
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Gemini Life Surfers 
I totally agree with you but sometimes those who are helping the youth need to push them to that limit where they won’t want to quit. They’ll get that courage to stand up for themselves and if they have a problem, they’ll stand up and speak up. They just need the help and don’t know how to ask for it.
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts 🙂 I agree that in school and in life we sometimes need a wall to come up against before we recognize what’s right for us… Difficulty has an interesting way of bringing about the need to either change or get stronger in our convictions. I often talked to our kids about the concept of learning how to work within the system…”Know the rules like a pro so you can break then like an artist” kinda thing. But once our family left traditional schooling, I started to really see how much time they wasted and how much time our family spent discussing issues with school, when they could have been learning what they wanted to and we could have been supporting their natural talents by giving them the tools to hone those skill sets (while giving the proper weight to core class learning). About the quality teachers out there, they need help… But the help I think they truly need is a different focus in the curriculum from the powers that be… so instead of a battle of wills and authority, they can spend their time mentoring our children to maturity. I believe the teachers feel this frustration as well. We are lucky to have teachers within the current system that go beyond the norm and care to push some of us far enough to make change…They are gifts! We are about to post the follow up to the blog, we present some solutions and a chance to picture an alternative…. I look forward to your thoughts on that too. 🙂
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