Teaching is an Art, Teachers Are Not Made

“To act on the belief that we possess the knowledge and the power which enable us to shape the processes of society entirely to our liking, knowledge which in fact we do not possess, is likely to make us do much harm.”                   – Friedrich Hayek, The Pretence of Knowledge

The week of June 11, 2016 issue of The Economist published a one page editorial on “How to make a good teacher.” It makes a very weak case that teachers can be trained. There is obviously no stated government mold for such a teacher. There is teacher licensing set by the Department of Education which requires teachers to be graduates of the College of Education and mandates that teaching methodology courses and student teaching are part of the College of Education curriculum for future teachers.

Unfortunately, the requirements for subject matter study are very weak and, generally, because teacher pay is low compared to the private sector, the College of Education tends to accept the weaker students who have a hard time passing core requirements classes such as mathematics and science.

Here is why teachers cannot be trained. Good teachers are born, not made. You cannot use a cookie cutter and presto, you have good teachers. What you do get are drones following a set curriculum such as the collectivist Common Core from which they cannot diverge.

You can learn to emulate a famous and successful teacher, but you cannot copy their temperament, disposition, knowledge, rich vocabulary, linguistic articulation, voice, unique delivery, creativity, talent, and love of what they do.

Teaching is an art. You cannot teach art. You are either talented or you are not. Secondly, in order to teach, you must have a strong knowledge of your subject matter. Thirdly, you must like children and love what you do for less remuneration.

You must be patient and able to handle criticism from administrators with an agenda who think they are the solution to everybody’s problem; you must be able to handle criticism from lazy students who complain in order to excuse their lack of effort; you must smile upon hearing criticism from parents who expect teachers to become de facto parents, in absentia parents, and do not care if Johnny learns; they want Johnny to have straight As, a diploma, and many awards he didn’t deserve or has not earned; and you must overlook criticism from the general public who sees the teaching profession not worthy of respect and as a walk in the park. How could you not handle the darling brats guilty parents raise in the 21^st century? Last but not least, teaching involves mandated standardized tests that do nothing to reflect what a student has actually learned or knows. Standardized tests just regurgitate memorized facts and dates that are soon forgotten.

Mass government education is just mass indoctrination into a program mandated by the federal government across all fifty states. More recently that was called Common Core, an attempt to raise busy little technical support workers who believe in global warming, communism, and worship Islam, not Christianity.

Government has dumbed down education through the Educational Leadership and Teacher Education curriculum in order to socially promote every student as painlessly as possible through twelfth grade and possibly through a worthless but expensive social studies education.

Insane school discipline procedures or lack thereof for children coming from broken homes, irresponsible parents who don’t read to their children, don’t care if they do their homework or study, dealing with less than mediocre teachers who cannot get employment elsewhere but cannot be easily fired, dealing with teachers who don’t try to teach well because the pay is low, neglected children in households where both parents work and have no time to devote to being involved in their children’s education, high income households who can afford and often do hire nannies and delegate parenting to them, are some of the problems.

Then there is the problem of inveterate socialist teachers who continue the tradition by indoctrinating their own students. It becomes easier as most teaching materials are written and published by die-hard progressives with an agenda to sell books and propagandize as many generations of students into their Marxist philosophical beliefs, turning students against their parents, against Christianity, against their own country, against patriotism, and shaping them into atheistic anti-Americans who are taught revisionist history using Howard Zinn’s progressive interpretation of American history, rewriting historical facts.

Teachers control students’ minds on the average of 6 hours per day. Some students go home to dysfunctional, broken homes, to parents who are unengaged, have their own issues to deal with, and who may or may not care about their children’s education or education in general. No schooling in world and no teacher training can fix that.

More money, computers, books, supplies, will ever improve a child’s education until their parents are involved in their child’s education, and until they stress to their progeny how important, useful, and fun learning for a lifetime can be.

No “eco-pedagogy” or “conscientization” or whatever the newest educational fads the progressive indoctrinators have adopted will actually help students learn. They are just means of brainwashing children into the Gaia environmental movement which promotes non-existent global warming in order to redistribute the middle class wealth around the world in the “social justice” vision of progressivism.

Some poor countries teach children in a dirt hut with no technology, just a blackboard and chalk, relying on an old encyclopedia and a good math book.  No brainwashing, just common sense, and correct history, and their students are exceptional. Many poor schools don’t have laboratories yet students outperform western students in both science and math, even though they don’t have calculators. And the school day is four hours.

Finland successfully tried the no-technology-allowed in the classroom approach as well while the U.S. is now relying heavily on technology. The more technology we develop and provide to students, the less and less they actually know.

No matter how well trained a teacher may be, a child coming from a broken home with drugs, alcohol, and other issues, has a severely affected ability to learn. It helps when teacher to student ratio is manageable. Class size is important in interacting with each and every student as often as possible. Students will share their problems if the teachers really care and take time to listen.

Many schools are run by administrators and superintendents who are marginal or poor administrators, pathetic leaders who lack the skills, philosophy, and temperament to develop a strong learning atmosphere in their schools.

Selection committees who are tasked with hiring principals and superintendents do not have the necessary knowledge to select the proper school leaders or are hampered by their own political correctness, misconceived ideas, and socialist agendas.

Often exceptional teachers get in trouble with dictatorial administrators who impose their curricular ideas that may or may not work in a specific classroom or a specific group of students. Such excellent teachers are sometimes at odds with their lazier and non-creative colleagues who are licensed and unionized, secure in their jobs, but expend the minimum effort necessary to keep their jobs; they cover their walls with “I love myself plaques” given to them by peers at conferences sponsored by various teacher associations.

Thomas Sowell, exceptional teacher and economist, said, “The great promise of socialism is something for nothing. It is one of the signs of today's dumbed-down education that so many college students seem to think that the cost of their education should -- and will -- be paid by raising taxes on ‘the rich.’"

 
Apparently, the ‘rich’ have rigged the system so much that nobody can succeed, they were told. But the rich create jobs and lose money and wealth every day. If they have rigged the system and continue to do so, they sure did a lousy job of rigging it.

“None of this is rocket science. But you do have to stop and think -- and that is what too many of our schools and colleges are failing to teach their students to do.” http://www.investors.com/politics/columnists/thomas-sowell-socialism-for-the-uninformed/

 

 

 

 

On Being a Parent

I was one of those parents who worked two jobs her entire career to indulge my children. I wanted to make sure they never had to suffer like I did in my childhood under the oppressive communism with its equally miserable and impoverished masses. I now know that I made mistakes from time to time. I should have said no more often in my effort to make my children’s lives easier and better.

I did not parent from afar by sending in a monthly, court-ordered child support check. Nor did I disappear without a trace only to resurface when the kids became adults. I took full responsibility for my babies from the time they took their first breath into this complicated world. And it was painful to see them go into the world to seek their place in life. They were my pride and joy, the very essence of a life worth living. I felt rich beyond imagination because they were and are to this day my greatest accomplishment.

I was not the modern mom who makes children “her friends.”  Children have their own friends, they need a parent. I did not allow them to spend nights in strange homes whose occupants I did not know nor vetted.

Some parents today are so inadequate and libertine, allowing drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and sex into their homes on the premise that kids are going to do it anyway, they might as well provide a clean and safe environment to engage in risky behaviors. A son who posted a message recently on Facebook, that “he had the worst life ever,” got a bizarre response from his mother, “what wrong, bro? Go listen to that song by grandmaster flash.” What can I say about such crass and irresponsible parenting skills?

I was not a helicopter parent, hovering every moment over my children’s daily activities. Neither did I physically over protect them by making them wear helmets while playing for fear of injuries. Helmets were intended for bike riding not for turning them into sissies afraid of their shadows. They skinned their knees, bruised their shins and their egos, got up, dusted themselves off after a good cry, a kiss from mom, bandages if necessary, and went outside to play again.

I never believed nor demanded that students receive awards that they did not deserve nor earned. I was not the liberal parent who wanted a plaque or a certificate of participation for their mediocre kids.

I did not force my children into activities that they were not interested in just because it was the rage and all the other parents were exhausting their untalented kids to do. My children had time to be kids and play outside, exploring nature.

I loved my children, protected them, cared for them, took them to school, and did homework every night with them patiently although I was exhausted from my two jobs. I cried myself to sleep many nights, overwhelmed by the huge responsibility of being a single parent. Stoic during the day, I never let anybody know the turmoil inside my heart and my mind.

I taught my children to be compassionate and giving with those who were less fortunate than they were. One of my daughters took that to heart so much, she always gave away all her food and personal possessions and started all over many times.

I was the parent who took children to school every morning until they were old enough to drive. Sometimes I ran late picking them up from school but the gifted teachers kept them busy. I took them to softball practice, soccer, band practice, and picked them up at 2 a.m. when returning from band trips. Nobody asked me if that was something alien to my culture. I spent days and nights in the emergency room with feverish and very sick kids, worrying and praying that they’d be healthy again.

I logged thousands of miles driving to college to attend their concerts, recitals, Christmas Madrigals, awards ceremonies, white coat ceremony, to take them to the hospital when they got pneumonia, life-threatening infections, when they wrecked cars and were suffering from whip-lash, seldom missing my day job duties.

I bought them cars when they were old enough to drive, 15 years old in Mississippi. They were good and responsible drivers. They went on vacations to the beach, on Europe trips, to the zoo, and to museums. I wanted them to have a home, food, medicine, decent and comfortable shoes on their feet, and clean and warm clothes.

I was so proud of providing a home for them even though they always complained that it was too dated. My parents lost their home when I was very young. It was confiscated by the communist regime.  I never had a home after that or a room to call my own so, when I bought our house that was built in 1960, sturdy and durable, I was elated!  And, as a bonus, it had a tornado shelter, something we needed every week in the tornado alley where we lived. The “dated” quality of our home gave me comfort and reassurance that older things were built to last. The happiness of home ownership was almost as respectable as paying the house off 18 years later through very hard work.

I should have never felt guilty when I could not afford the very expensive Cabbage Patch Dolls or the latest electronic gizmos, but I did. I should not have felt inadequate because my kids were left out of activities and parties in a community in which a foreign parent and grandparent who did not speak English was a source of exclusion. But my kids felt slighted and left out; they were embarrassed and I understood their resentment which I could not fix.

I should not have felt bad because my kids did not want to have birthday parties with their friends at our house because Grandma did not speak English and it made their friends uncomfortable.

I should have never tried to fix all their problems for them. At times, that was a disservice to their understanding that the world is not rolling over backwards to please them. I should have taught them more how important family is, knowing where your roots are, where you came from, and where you are going.

I should have bought them less stuff. I should have emphasized more the need for compassion and the need to share their precious time in life with those who are truly worthy of their love and care.

Children Should Come With Instructions

“Tolerance is the last virtue of a dying society.” - Aristotle

Children don’t arrive at birth with a conveniently written manual to address every parental crisis in the middle of the night. It is hard being a parent, especially a good parent, and many of us do need the Idiot’s Guide to Parenting.  Liberals are more than willing to step in via free government programs to give firm instructions and to control how you raise your children.  They have been pretty successful so far in taking away many parental rights while molding the next liberal generation.

When I had children in the 80s, there were no self-help books, and the only source of scholarly parental wisdom and what to do was Dr. Benjamin Spock, M.D. However, most of the time I deferred to my mom’s experience and to other elders who laughed when TV stars and psychologists with out-of-control children tried to give parental and child-rearing advice.

Protecting my children from self-inflicted injury was not easy – dangers lurked in every corner, plug, cabinet, dangling string, slippery surface, sharp object, pill bottle, knife, scissors, freezer, electric socket, chewable toy, and especially the bathroom. As a toddler, one of my daughters loved to drink water out of the commode with her Sippy cup. Being escape artists, it was hard to hold on to them in public places. I managed fine without having to put them on a leash/harness, a common practice at that time. They did complain bitterly much later that they were on a tight leash as teenagers.

With every stage of development, new and interesting challenges arose but nothing was as hard as the teenage years. At this developmental stage, our children decided that we, the parents, were an utter embarrassment to them. We should have been banished to a faraway island, while they could freely choose a new set of parents, preferably someone hip and young, who had not fallen off the fashion train in the 70s; this someone would have to be glamorous, smart, and more accommodating and understanding of their “simple” needs and immediate demands.

Because I grew up in a different culture, my views of what constituted proper parenting and those of my American counterparts often clashed. After all, I was not really American, I was naturalized. My children hated me and felt as if they were the victims of my Old World antiquated ways of mothering. I was experimenting and destroying their future. What was I thinking? Why would I not let them do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and with whomever they wanted?

For starters, why was it necessary for kids to spend the night in a total stranger’s home whose parents I did not know, whose house I could not inspect, and whose bad habits I might not approve of to be displayed in front of my children, and whose lack of parenting I might find shocking. What was wrong with our home and their own beds? After all, they did have summer camps for sleepovers in the middle of nature, surrounded by lots of fun critters.

Why was it necessary for parents to spend inordinate amounts of money on slutty clothes for their children when a simple, no, you are not going to dress like that, would have sufficed? Who was the parent? Did they need the latest trinkets, toys, electronics, stereos, DVDs, Cabbage Patch dolls, and other useless devices that stifled creativity?

What was wrong with kids meeting in the back yard, close to nature and the sandbox, using their creativity and boundless energy to play? My daughters never came inside before sundown. Nowadays kids have to have play dates. What is that all about? Do you match the kids based on your friendship preferences, moral values, wealth, and social status?

I never understood the total disregard for morality, propriety, and for the welfare of other parents’ children, coming to their friends’ homes to “hang out” where alcohol, drugs, and tobacco consumption were encouraged and provided, with the expectation that children having sex was normal - “it is better to have sex in our home, supervised, instead in some seedy place.” What is wrong with saying no, you are not doing that in my house?

American clothing style has degenerated from elegant, proper, and detailed, to the skimpy, improper, and right down scandalous. As a very elegantly dressed professor who made her own clothes once said, there has to be a middle way between being “half naked in public and the burka.”

Boys cannot concentrate in school with girls dressed in mini-skirts, showing their derriere, and dressed in tight tops with their breasts hanging out. Worse yet, certain administrators and teachers approved of such a dress code and did not send the offenders home to change. On the contrary, some administrators sent students home who wore patriotic t-shirts or displays of religious affiliation such as a cross or Bible verses, for fear that it might make other students uncomfortable.

When I go out to a restaurant to eat with my family, I expect a relaxing atmosphere, conversation, and good food. I am not there to listen to past middle age men with trophy wife number two teaching their bratty kids their ABCs in public and how to properly color within the lines, disrupting the entire restaurant atmosphere. Also, I am not there to look at skimpily clad women’s body parts with rolls of baby fat overflowing their several sizes too small garments.

Nobody should have to witness the obscene and right down pornographic dress and behavior of our youth imitating Hollywood stars who have no moral compass. Hanna Montana was a role model for young girls for a long time and parents loved her. But Miley’s pathetic performance, simulating sex on stage, surrounded by teddy bears, degrades and dehumanizes women, debasing innocence and preparing young people to accept more twisted and perverse behavior to come. Nothing seems to shock us anymore.

“Miley’s performance may have been raunchy, but no one can deny that she seemed to be enjoying flaunting her sexual power and prowess. She would be no man’s sexual victim. She modeled for our girls that even a sweet Hannah Montana could grow into a sexually confident young woman who was having a very good time with her sexuality.” (Huffington Post, Why Miley Cyrus Is Actually a Good Role Model for Girls, August 29, 2013)

Modesty, honesty, innocence, and propriety have been lost long time ago, replaced by the race to the top of smut and titillation. This is what liberalism and feminism-gone-wild have done to young girls and young women, who confuse dancing around half-naked with power, sexuality, and achievement.

Parents must have been mortified. They control the purse strings, the education of their children, and the TV remote, not Hollywood or academia. Yet the degradation of our culture and of our youth continues in the name of tolerance. Liberalism has promoted the idea of being non-judgmental because they don’t want people to think for themselves, they want to groom and prepare the next generation of faithful and blind liberal followers.