Need help with a free project for all of our use, no money or advertising involved.
I'm creating a Google Doc anyone can join (if they have the link) that allows you to do the following:
You can anonymously put in your weekly activities and other home-schoolers can join you (they don't need to re-post if it's already posted).
You can look and find activities you might not have considered, find other home-schoolers, get some socializing for your child, and otherwise have some company yourself.
All free.
Categories:
Last update
Username
Location
Activities
How we recognize each other
Cost
Date
Days
Time
Example:
Date of Last Post: 8/16/12
Neverbug (6)
Mama Fu's Restaurant, outside and at the windows, The Grove Playscape, South Park Meadows
Playscapes, restaurants, play fountain, evening performances
Wear blue if you can so that people recognize the blue group sitting together.
For food/drink varies - no cost required otherwise
Tuesdays
12 pm to 5 pm
Come put your own data in the Google Doc. It commits you to nothing, not even showing up for your own event. It's just an indicator of what you normally do.
If you'd like to have access, just ask me and I'll invite you. Send your email to me privately or go to the site and send me a message (whatever works).
Feel free once in to invite others. Spread the word if you find it useful and worth it (it's free and there is no advertising - it's a Google Doc).
I'll moderate it (though you are free to help) to say thank you for the wonderful resources here and in the other homeschooling groups.
This particular Google Doc is located for the Austin, Texas area.
But COPY IT! If you like the idea and want to create one for a different area, ask for access, copy the format, and use it for other cities!
It doesn't have to be home-schoolers, either.
I have loved the parents and children I have taught for four decades and it is the least I can do, and I look forward to far more in my life to help and find joy in.
Contact me at will with ideas/suggestions/concerns about the Google Doc or anything else.
Home School Connections Spreadsheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ap9yuJ_eAjpWdExYVGliT2UtQ0c5Z0RGWC1weWNrcHc#gid=0
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
All I Ever Needed To Learn About Sensory Development I Learned In…This Site!
All I Ever Needed To Learn About Sensory Development I Learned In…This Site!
1) The vast majority of the brain is not developed by reasoning or "thinking", but by what sensory stimuli the brain is exposed to.
2) Although there are different senses that each child may learn better using, overall learning is helped by developing all the senses rather than catering to the ones already favored.
3) The number of neurons increase rapidly, with an average of 80% developed by age three and 90% by age five, so early exposure to a variety of sensory stimuli is essential for later abilities to develop.
4) Your brain has several "levels", the lower levels dealing with sensory-motor functioning, your upper levels dealing with cognitive/thinking functions.
5) The lower portions of your brain are developed through sensory-motor activity.
6) All your senses, except your vision, come through those lower portions of the brain.
7) The better developed the lower portions of the brain are, the better functioning the upper portions of the brain will be.
8) Millions of species of animals develop their brains by everything except reasoning and thinking. By limiting your child's educational program to such things, you ignore a vast portion of their brain development and the support system for the cortex (the portion dealing with thinking).
9) Research on infants whose needs are met for food, drink, shelter, and all needs save sensory development show very high rates of mortality, and led to the modern day drive for sensory development for young children.
10) Research has shown that even teenagers, especially during puberty, can benefit greatly from such a sensory program.
11) Our present environment is designed to avoid touching things, with paths, roads, railings, cut-back plants despite millions of years of exposure to constant touch for our species with brush, crowded conditions, bare feet, etc. Without a compensatory response, our children simply do not get the stimulus their development requires.
12) Modern research shows a number of children develop sensory deprivation issues, causing developmental delays.
13) Emotional security has been closely tied to exposure to touch (holding, cuddling, hugs, etc.) regardless of the verbal comfort also offered.
14) Lack of tactile stimulation has been shown to lead to mental and emotional disorders, including depression, violence, self-mutilation, aversion to touch and self-mutilation.
15) Often forgotten is that there are multiple aspects of each sense (heat, pressure, pain, with touch alone) that register differently and are ignored in many sensory programs due to their simplicity.
16) Often forgotten is balance, a sense that is absolutely necessary to brain development (try living without it for a day and see how well you function…).
17) Although the number of neurons developed after age six is minimal (though growth does continue for the rest of your life, and neurons have been shown to reproduce in adults) the number of synaptic connections (connections between neurons), the size of neurons, and the size of glial cells (the support cells around neurons, an essential part of brain development) have been shown to be increased by a variety of sensory programs and aid in intellectual development.
18) Physical development is highly influenced by sensory development.
19) Children who develop in sensory deprived environments have a much greater chance of addiction to illegal substances in later life as well as a stronger drive for sexual stimulation to compensate for earlier deprivation in basic sensory stimulation.
20) There are specific, sensory-rich materials and resources that can help develop your child in a conscious, non-pressure way for various periods in their prenatal, infant, toddler, child, and teen states. Most of them are utterly free and easy to do with a little time and effort.
21) Children often live in a world where adults look at anything except the child, due to fear of strangers, an unwillingness to let other adults interact with them, and often with cause, but the cost of it is high, and some form of compensation, greater sensory and social interaction is essential. Eye contact is particularly lacking for many children in the adult world.
22) In a world filled with 2D video screens, the issue is worse for smell, taste, touch, and balance but with increased hearing and sight stimulation, though only for 2D situations, not 3D.
23) Most of the playgrounds have removed many of the structures that do properly stimulate sensory development, particularly movement and short of a carnival are hard experiences to replace.
24) If you wish to do more advanced sensory development, research the interoceptive, vestibular, and proprioceptive senses.
25) A fetus has functional nerves around eleven weeks after conception and reflexive behaviors around 26 weeks after conception.
26) Mouth and tongue are formed by 8 weeks after conception. Around week 20 the fetus develops taste buds and does react to bitter tastes by week 28. At age 3 to 6 days old a newborn can reacts differently to breast milk and formula.
27) A fetus consumes around a liter of amniotic fluid each day in utero - a good reason to consider a varied diet for the mother.
28) A fetus develops a nose by 8 weeks. Despite lack of access to air, the nose still detects chemical changes in it's environment.
29) The ear is functional by 24 weeks after conception. Amniotic fluid is an excellent sound conductor, but little research has been made about the level of sound that affects fetuses, though that also means that there is not evidence of damage - still, concerns have been raised for long-term and extreme noise exposure. Normal level talking and music seems to have no apparent negative effects.
30) Evidence has demonstrated that children do remember some sounds and music after birth when exposed to them prenatally.
31) The visual system develops last, starting by day 22 after conception, but do not open until 7 months. The eyes continue development for three to four months after birth.
32) Levels of sensory ability can by improved above normal, allowing greater sensory stimulus without hypersensitivity.
33) Infants differentiate a mother's voice from others shortly after delivery.
34) Children with sign language exposure often communicate several months before their peers do with voice at an average of 6 months vs. 10 months for spoken language.
35) Sensory discrimination, being able to tell the difference between different sensory experiences is essential to development, as illustrated by a simple example: Imagine eating ice cream for the first time, then more, then more, until that is all you taste for days on end. The experience would be very unpleasant over time. That is how it is for children with insufficient ability to differentiate various sensory experiences. The more differentiation, the greater the enjoyment and development intellectually. Lacking that differentiation the child either withdraws or becomes hypersensitive.
36) The experience of lack of stimuli for period of time is underestimated in Western culture. Pauses and periods with no stimuli can help the brain sift and process sensory experiences better.
The only question is how long you will wait until you consciously develop a program for your own child?
There are no studies showing malformations or physiological developmental problems due to lack of book learning.
Sensory development, however, has a long list of such problems when ignored.
For advice and further ideas for your individual needs, feel free to email me (free).
Spiral-Matrix can be hired to actively create such programs in cooperation with parents, but there is so much you can do completely on your own.
Michael Corrinet
spiralmatrixeducation@gmail.com
Spiral-Matrix Academic Resources & Tutoring
(Facebook, Twitter, Wikidot, Blogger.com)
Austin, Texas
1) The vast majority of the brain is not developed by reasoning or "thinking", but by what sensory stimuli the brain is exposed to.
2) Although there are different senses that each child may learn better using, overall learning is helped by developing all the senses rather than catering to the ones already favored.
3) The number of neurons increase rapidly, with an average of 80% developed by age three and 90% by age five, so early exposure to a variety of sensory stimuli is essential for later abilities to develop.
4) Your brain has several "levels", the lower levels dealing with sensory-motor functioning, your upper levels dealing with cognitive/thinking functions.
5) The lower portions of your brain are developed through sensory-motor activity.
6) All your senses, except your vision, come through those lower portions of the brain.
7) The better developed the lower portions of the brain are, the better functioning the upper portions of the brain will be.
8) Millions of species of animals develop their brains by everything except reasoning and thinking. By limiting your child's educational program to such things, you ignore a vast portion of their brain development and the support system for the cortex (the portion dealing with thinking).
9) Research on infants whose needs are met for food, drink, shelter, and all needs save sensory development show very high rates of mortality, and led to the modern day drive for sensory development for young children.
10) Research has shown that even teenagers, especially during puberty, can benefit greatly from such a sensory program.
11) Our present environment is designed to avoid touching things, with paths, roads, railings, cut-back plants despite millions of years of exposure to constant touch for our species with brush, crowded conditions, bare feet, etc. Without a compensatory response, our children simply do not get the stimulus their development requires.
12) Modern research shows a number of children develop sensory deprivation issues, causing developmental delays.
13) Emotional security has been closely tied to exposure to touch (holding, cuddling, hugs, etc.) regardless of the verbal comfort also offered.
14) Lack of tactile stimulation has been shown to lead to mental and emotional disorders, including depression, violence, self-mutilation, aversion to touch and self-mutilation.
15) Often forgotten is that there are multiple aspects of each sense (heat, pressure, pain, with touch alone) that register differently and are ignored in many sensory programs due to their simplicity.
16) Often forgotten is balance, a sense that is absolutely necessary to brain development (try living without it for a day and see how well you function…).
17) Although the number of neurons developed after age six is minimal (though growth does continue for the rest of your life, and neurons have been shown to reproduce in adults) the number of synaptic connections (connections between neurons), the size of neurons, and the size of glial cells (the support cells around neurons, an essential part of brain development) have been shown to be increased by a variety of sensory programs and aid in intellectual development.
18) Physical development is highly influenced by sensory development.
19) Children who develop in sensory deprived environments have a much greater chance of addiction to illegal substances in later life as well as a stronger drive for sexual stimulation to compensate for earlier deprivation in basic sensory stimulation.
20) There are specific, sensory-rich materials and resources that can help develop your child in a conscious, non-pressure way for various periods in their prenatal, infant, toddler, child, and teen states. Most of them are utterly free and easy to do with a little time and effort.
21) Children often live in a world where adults look at anything except the child, due to fear of strangers, an unwillingness to let other adults interact with them, and often with cause, but the cost of it is high, and some form of compensation, greater sensory and social interaction is essential. Eye contact is particularly lacking for many children in the adult world.
22) In a world filled with 2D video screens, the issue is worse for smell, taste, touch, and balance but with increased hearing and sight stimulation, though only for 2D situations, not 3D.
23) Most of the playgrounds have removed many of the structures that do properly stimulate sensory development, particularly movement and short of a carnival are hard experiences to replace.
24) If you wish to do more advanced sensory development, research the interoceptive, vestibular, and proprioceptive senses.
25) A fetus has functional nerves around eleven weeks after conception and reflexive behaviors around 26 weeks after conception.
26) Mouth and tongue are formed by 8 weeks after conception. Around week 20 the fetus develops taste buds and does react to bitter tastes by week 28. At age 3 to 6 days old a newborn can reacts differently to breast milk and formula.
27) A fetus consumes around a liter of amniotic fluid each day in utero - a good reason to consider a varied diet for the mother.
28) A fetus develops a nose by 8 weeks. Despite lack of access to air, the nose still detects chemical changes in it's environment.
29) The ear is functional by 24 weeks after conception. Amniotic fluid is an excellent sound conductor, but little research has been made about the level of sound that affects fetuses, though that also means that there is not evidence of damage - still, concerns have been raised for long-term and extreme noise exposure. Normal level talking and music seems to have no apparent negative effects.
30) Evidence has demonstrated that children do remember some sounds and music after birth when exposed to them prenatally.
31) The visual system develops last, starting by day 22 after conception, but do not open until 7 months. The eyes continue development for three to four months after birth.
32) Levels of sensory ability can by improved above normal, allowing greater sensory stimulus without hypersensitivity.
33) Infants differentiate a mother's voice from others shortly after delivery.
34) Children with sign language exposure often communicate several months before their peers do with voice at an average of 6 months vs. 10 months for spoken language.
35) Sensory discrimination, being able to tell the difference between different sensory experiences is essential to development, as illustrated by a simple example: Imagine eating ice cream for the first time, then more, then more, until that is all you taste for days on end. The experience would be very unpleasant over time. That is how it is for children with insufficient ability to differentiate various sensory experiences. The more differentiation, the greater the enjoyment and development intellectually. Lacking that differentiation the child either withdraws or becomes hypersensitive.
36) The experience of lack of stimuli for period of time is underestimated in Western culture. Pauses and periods with no stimuli can help the brain sift and process sensory experiences better.
The only question is how long you will wait until you consciously develop a program for your own child?
There are no studies showing malformations or physiological developmental problems due to lack of book learning.
Sensory development, however, has a long list of such problems when ignored.
For advice and further ideas for your individual needs, feel free to email me (free).
Spiral-Matrix can be hired to actively create such programs in cooperation with parents, but there is so much you can do completely on your own.
Michael Corrinet
spiralmatrixeducation@gmail.com
Spiral-Matrix Academic Resources & Tutoring
(Facebook, Twitter, Wikidot, Blogger.com)
Austin, Texas
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Spiral-Matrix Free Wiki of Educational Resources
Adding to wiki each day. Email us at spiralmatrixeducation@gmail.com with your own additions.
http://spiralmatrixeducation.wikidot.com/start
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
The Case Against Mainstreaming
mainstreaming: The practice of placing students with disabilities in regular classrooms; also known as inclusion. (Ed Source)
The Case Against Mainstreaming
I remember when my sister, a young lady with Mosaic Down's Syndrome, was being considered for the least restrictive environment. My parents had made the effort to find a program that was tailor made for kids like my sister. We'd visited, and we'd all been very pleased with the program and it's focus on helping children communicate and grow.
Then the public school said, "No".
It took immense effort and legal help to get that "No" turned into a "Yes...if you insist."
Mainstreaming is a wonderful idea, on paper. It's done incredible good getting our kids taken OUT of that little back room in the schools where all the unwanted kids are placed and into the same school we all demand for our kids.
It's helped.
And the teachers that didn't want them? Most of them have been educated to realize and appreciate that they are ALL our kids; not a distraction; not a disturbance; not a statistical lowering of the teacher's record.
Yet, there are still problems. What if there is a better program than the public school? Least Restrictive Environment is still the public school. What if the child is gifted in some way? Least Restrictive Environment is still the public school. It's not about what would best help the child; it's about keeping the child in school, where every dollar counts.
My own daughter reads at a fifth-grade level at age six. Even after testing they made one chance: they moved her up to first grade. Now what is my child going to do in first grade when her lowest subject is math at third? The teacher was restricted from teaching anything above first grade curriculum. We home teach our daughter now.
Mainstreaming is a wonderful idea, but when public schools use it for convenience, when they keep kids in public school when a private school could do more for a child, we have a case of a law gone wrong.
If you have seen evidence of this, and think it needs changing, contact your State government. They change the State educational code and can make the adaptions necessary to set a new standard, that puts the child first, not the public schools.
We must never lose inclussion, and often, parents win the battle to get their kids into a better placement.
They shouldn't have to fight for it in the first place, should they?
The Case Against Mainstreaming
I remember when my sister, a young lady with Mosaic Down's Syndrome, was being considered for the least restrictive environment. My parents had made the effort to find a program that was tailor made for kids like my sister. We'd visited, and we'd all been very pleased with the program and it's focus on helping children communicate and grow.
Then the public school said, "No".
It took immense effort and legal help to get that "No" turned into a "Yes...if you insist."
Mainstreaming is a wonderful idea, on paper. It's done incredible good getting our kids taken OUT of that little back room in the schools where all the unwanted kids are placed and into the same school we all demand for our kids.
It's helped.
And the teachers that didn't want them? Most of them have been educated to realize and appreciate that they are ALL our kids; not a distraction; not a disturbance; not a statistical lowering of the teacher's record.
Yet, there are still problems. What if there is a better program than the public school? Least Restrictive Environment is still the public school. What if the child is gifted in some way? Least Restrictive Environment is still the public school. It's not about what would best help the child; it's about keeping the child in school, where every dollar counts.
My own daughter reads at a fifth-grade level at age six. Even after testing they made one chance: they moved her up to first grade. Now what is my child going to do in first grade when her lowest subject is math at third? The teacher was restricted from teaching anything above first grade curriculum. We home teach our daughter now.
Mainstreaming is a wonderful idea, but when public schools use it for convenience, when they keep kids in public school when a private school could do more for a child, we have a case of a law gone wrong.
If you have seen evidence of this, and think it needs changing, contact your State government. They change the State educational code and can make the adaptions necessary to set a new standard, that puts the child first, not the public schools.
We must never lose inclussion, and often, parents win the battle to get their kids into a better placement.
They shouldn't have to fight for it in the first place, should they?
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Peer Pressure – The Hammer That Your Teacher Is Not Trained To Use
Peer
Pressure – The Hammer That Your Teacher Is Not Trained To Use
Peer
pressure is a daily reality. Our children are often taught truisms
to help them deal with negative peer pressure (defined as peer
pressure they don't like), like “sticks and stones will break my
bones, but names will never hurt me,” or “You're not the boss of
me!”
Never
fails to fail for one simple reason: the other children aren't
affected by it. If they were vulnerable to such reasoning and
platitudes, they would not be bothering your child to begin with.
Peer
pressure is something all of us deal with, and children are exposed
to daily doses without much in the way of teacher intervention and
guidance. Unless your child actually complains in a way that makes
the teacher concerned for their job, that teacher is likely to stay
under that shaded area and watch the kids while chatting with her
friends (go check – see if what I say isn't true after four decades
of watching it myself while getting sunburned myself).
How
do you prepare your child? Rule one of Spiral-Matrix: Never
depend on one source (teachers in this case) for anything.
Peer pressure is far more pervasive that you may realize. A simple
glance at a restaurant (“I can't believe they let their child do
that,”) to a folded arms as you share your argument (“What an
idiot that he thinks differently from me.”)
To
be able to deal with peer pressure, a child must:
- Be aware of peer pressure;
- Be able to use, deliberately, peer pressure;
- Must be taught independence of spirit and self-evaluation;
- Must be able to teach other children to be independent of spirit and self-evaluation.
The
first gives them the means to discover it and deal with it.
The
second gives them a user's view of it so they can learn to do so
ethically instead of judgmentally.
The
third gives them immunity, so they can get the messages, without
taking the judgment personally.
The
fourth gives them the ability help others amongst their peers so
their environment (work, marriage, school) improve.
I
did this with my children for several decades. First, I taught them
what peer pressure was. I used it deliberately in my classroom, such
as when a child was doing something disruptive and with a gesture the
whole class goes silent and waits for the child, calmly,
non-judgmentally, until they grow conscious that we are waiting, not
just the teacher.
Then
I taught the kids how to be immune from it.
“Do
you have to feel bad?”
“Who
is in charge of how you feel?”
“Do
you want to give me, the teacher, that kind of power over you?”
“Who
decides what you are?”
Then
I taught them how to help other children become independent and
secure in themselves, putting learning about themselves first, not
their image of themselves. They stopped defending their images and
took a genuine interest in self-discovery, no matter where they were.
Your
children constantly juggle the emotional baggage of a room full of
kids with little impulse control and a teacher with little training
in how to control and balance it (half of C.R.A.B., our program of
Control, Range, Adaptability, and Balance).
Leave
your child without the tools to do this, and your child will grow up
like every other child.
That's
not what we do here at Spiral-Matrix. We aim higher.
If
you need help creating such a program, we're happy to help.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Double Scheduling - A Shell Game
Double Scheduling - A Shell Game
According to B. Shoemaker, an integrated curriculum is education that is organized in such a way that it reaches across subject-matter lines, webbing together various aspects of the curriculum into meaningful association to focus upon broad areas of study (Shoemaker, 1989).
Our minds work by association: Memory is the ability to connect present things with past learning.
Creativity is the ability to connect things not normally connected.
An integrated curriculum sounds like a wonderful idea, and is part of what your child needs to succeed in life, as past efforts to compartmentalize education into three subjects (reading, writing, arithmetic) simply results in isolated concepts with little skill at interconnecting those concepts into an integrated whole.
Find me a job where you only need arithmetic and no reading or writing and that's a rare job, indeed!
However, due to the increased legislation in our educational system, a system with at least six levels of administration, and many more agendas in addition from various agencies, our public schools have had their days divided into X amount of time for reading, X amount of time for writing, X amount of time for math, X amount of time for writing, X amount of time for science, X amount of time for social studies.
Into that schedule, they must put lunch, recess, P.E., possibly art and music, library time, transition time for travel, and on top of that any other agendas, like time for charities to teach our kids to make them money (at least three times a year or more - check your own school), fund-raising training, assemblies (including morning assemblies), teacher issues of importance (like who they think should be President), etc.
At present, it would be very odd indeed if your school was not unethically playing the double dip game of teaching social studies at the same time as they teach writing, so when they get asked: "Do you teach 30 minutes of writing?" they can answer, "Yes, we do." When they are asked, "Do you teach 30 minutes of social studies?" the answer is, "Yes, we do."
What they don't tell you is that they teach them at the same time.
We could just lump all the subjects together and do a paper about the mathematics of the Civil Rights leader's biological functioning read from our research.
They're skirting the multiple legislated mandates for how long you teach a given subject by overlapping things and pretending they are meeting them. It's a lie. It's a common lie. And they are in a position where if they complain, they are punished. Each level of administration becomes the enforcer for a practice that is both unethical and utterly pretend: We teach x amount each day of this subject.
This is not what webbing, or integrated curriculum, was meant to be.
Let's get practical: What can you do?
1) Go to your school and see where they do this.
2) Complain to your principal (the teacher does not control this, though they can always switch it to a different subject combination, and thus the principal can say, "That's up to the teacher." Complain about the practice, not the teacher. Tell them you will be going to the school board about it and discussing it at the PTA.
3) DO discuss it at the PTA and suggest a visit to the school board.
They will tell you it is common practice. They will discourage you. Folks, spanking kids with yardsticks and paddles was common practice. You decide what will be common practice in the future - if you take that power.
4) Go to the school board. Prepare ahead of time. Listen to their answers and vote for the school board members accordingly.
5) Do it yearly.
Or let it go.
Easy to do.
The question is, are you able to learn how to program a computer while learning how to build a house simultaneously?
Or do you see the shell-game, yet?
According to B. Shoemaker, an integrated curriculum is education that is organized in such a way that it reaches across subject-matter lines, webbing together various aspects of the curriculum into meaningful association to focus upon broad areas of study (Shoemaker, 1989).
Our minds work by association: Memory is the ability to connect present things with past learning.
Creativity is the ability to connect things not normally connected.
An integrated curriculum sounds like a wonderful idea, and is part of what your child needs to succeed in life, as past efforts to compartmentalize education into three subjects (reading, writing, arithmetic) simply results in isolated concepts with little skill at interconnecting those concepts into an integrated whole.
Find me a job where you only need arithmetic and no reading or writing and that's a rare job, indeed!
However, due to the increased legislation in our educational system, a system with at least six levels of administration, and many more agendas in addition from various agencies, our public schools have had their days divided into X amount of time for reading, X amount of time for writing, X amount of time for math, X amount of time for writing, X amount of time for science, X amount of time for social studies.
Into that schedule, they must put lunch, recess, P.E., possibly art and music, library time, transition time for travel, and on top of that any other agendas, like time for charities to teach our kids to make them money (at least three times a year or more - check your own school), fund-raising training, assemblies (including morning assemblies), teacher issues of importance (like who they think should be President), etc.
At present, it would be very odd indeed if your school was not unethically playing the double dip game of teaching social studies at the same time as they teach writing, so when they get asked: "Do you teach 30 minutes of writing?" they can answer, "Yes, we do." When they are asked, "Do you teach 30 minutes of social studies?" the answer is, "Yes, we do."
What they don't tell you is that they teach them at the same time.
We could just lump all the subjects together and do a paper about the mathematics of the Civil Rights leader's biological functioning read from our research.
They're skirting the multiple legislated mandates for how long you teach a given subject by overlapping things and pretending they are meeting them. It's a lie. It's a common lie. And they are in a position where if they complain, they are punished. Each level of administration becomes the enforcer for a practice that is both unethical and utterly pretend: We teach x amount each day of this subject.
This is not what webbing, or integrated curriculum, was meant to be.
Let's get practical: What can you do?
1) Go to your school and see where they do this.
2) Complain to your principal (the teacher does not control this, though they can always switch it to a different subject combination, and thus the principal can say, "That's up to the teacher." Complain about the practice, not the teacher. Tell them you will be going to the school board about it and discussing it at the PTA.
3) DO discuss it at the PTA and suggest a visit to the school board.
They will tell you it is common practice. They will discourage you. Folks, spanking kids with yardsticks and paddles was common practice. You decide what will be common practice in the future - if you take that power.
4) Go to the school board. Prepare ahead of time. Listen to their answers and vote for the school board members accordingly.
5) Do it yearly.
Or let it go.
Easy to do.
The question is, are you able to learn how to program a computer while learning how to build a house simultaneously?
Or do you see the shell-game, yet?
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Performance Rewards and Power
Performance Rewards and Power
Performance Rewards are a part of U.S. culture in a very pervasive way:
An employee presents a topic on how to improve the business; receives a $500 check.
A street cleaner is first done more than anyone else in his crew; receives a lunch paid by the boss.
A coworker catches another employee at theft; receives a $100 reward for the act.
These rewards give power.
Not to the employee, but to the person who gives them. They are the supplier, the person who controls that action.
To get the reward one must do what the boss asks. To achieve the recognition one must "perform", the root word of the idea.
The problem isn't the reward, or the power. It's when people do not recognize it for what it is.
Then abuses occur.
As educators, teachers give up their independence to work for a administration. They perform for them. It is not a hugely collaborative situation. There are rewards of all sorts for good performance.
Unions often fight such rewards, for a variety of reasons that one may or may not agree with. One of them is the recognition of the power it gives the reward giver over the reward receiver.
The problem is when such a reward is given by the wrong group.
You've lost power over it. Despite the fact that you, the public, have public education, you have very little control because you've given it up in a variety of ways:
A single student has the following agencies above them in the educational system:
Any aides in the classroom;
Teachers
Educational Specialists in the school (reading, math, special education, gifted & talented, etc.)
Librarian
Secretary (rarely, but in forty years, I've seen it before)
Special teachers (art, P.E., music, etc.)
Principal and vice principal (or assistant principal)
Businesses
Charities
Fund-raising organizations
District administration
City government
Educational Organizations
County educational administration
County government
State educational administration
State government
Federal educational administration
Federal government
International educational organizations
Stunned, yet?
Does your business have this many people involved in running your business and affecting your customer?
Some of these may not be clear. Let's clarify:
Any aides in the classroom; (Clear)
Teachers (Clear)
Educational Specialists in the school (reading, math, special education, gifted & talented, etc.) (Your child can be pulled by these specialists if they ever, in any of their years of schooling, don't perform at level)
Librarian (Rewards are constantly given at this level for reading, reports, science fair projects, etc.)
Secretary (rarely, but in forty years, I've seen it before) (This is the person who will likely deal with your child for delivering attendance, doing morning reports to the school over the intercom, etc.)
Special teachers (art, P.E., music, etc.) (Clear)
Principal and vice principal (or assistant principal) (Clear)
Businesses (Rewards with their logos, coupons for their businesses, advertising that your children do for them)
Charities (This one will be a topic all itself at some future date - your children are constantly being asked to raise money for charities and the social pressure your children are being subjected to to do so is extensive)
Fund-raising organizations (These raise money for your school and are designed to sell a cheap product for large amounts using children to encourage your purchases. Huge amounts are earned just because parents take on the product and can't sell it).
District administration (Clear)
City government (This level controls your district administration in education and every political issue of the city affects your schools and thus your kids)
Educational Organizations (These set standards and goals, send out ideas, strategies, methodologies, etc. that schools then choose or are forced to adapt to and use due to some level of pressure.
County educational administration (Yes, there is county supervision of this, whether a trust, a co-op, or individuals assigned to track education in the county. Their findings are used and applied to change your child's education.)
County government (Clear)
State educational administration (Clear)
State government (Clear)
Federal educational administration (Clear)
Federal government (Clear)
International educational organizations (Do not underestimate the effect these organizations have. More on this in a future post.)
Your child has a geometrically diminishing chance of getting an education that is:
Controlled (Power increases with the number of participants, but control goes down, as any member of a tug-o-war team will tell you, particularly when they all have different goals);
Range (Like an amoeba with a set volume, education, though it grows, is constantly being pulled in different directions and to accommodate it pulls back in other areas, constantly having to re-evaluate it's structure, contents, organization. Being told to add technology, but then having to remove things in other areas unless they can also add more time to the day. Adding more time to the day, but then having to pull money to pay for it from other areas. Getting more money, but then owing more to the agency supplying the money in terms of intellectual control - "Do as we ask or we pull the funding.");
Accuracy (They all have slightly different definitions, adding in their own filters of what they consider essential, combined with teachers editing the curriculum to match their own goals, until compromise has made a mockery by the level of appeasement and power struggles each aspect of education goes through before being applied to your child);
Balance (The only thing missing from the obstacle course a truly effective research-based educational innovation has to go through is a tilt-o-whirl deliberately designed to make your child completely dizzy. There is little balance.)
Now, do not misunderstand. ALL these agencies are trying to increase their control, extend their range, become more accurate, and improve the balance of their agenda. What I call, "C.R.A.B.". These are almost all very well-intentioned people.
This is about power. And every level gives out rewards trying to increase their ability to get their agenda in place.
And you have one or more children and one vote.
You gave up control little by little every time you thought, "Gee, it's nice for the (fill in the blank) group/organization/government to reward our kids that way."
You made yourself a little more dependent on them.
Now, if someone doesn't cooperate, the funding, the reward, the option disappears.
Try refusing the Federal government's agenda (they have no control over your educational programs. That's a Constitutional issue.
Yet, refuse to follow their directives and your district food program, a gift of the Federal government, is suddenly threatened with being cut off because you won't run a program teaching the children their most recent agenda.
You gave up this power. Your children answer for it, daily and teachers, the real educators of your children, constantly have to deal with the stress of meeting the expectations of all these levels of control.
And these teachers work directly, face-to-face, with your children.
Are you nervous, yet?
Performance Rewards are a part of U.S. culture in a very pervasive way:
An employee presents a topic on how to improve the business; receives a $500 check.
A street cleaner is first done more than anyone else in his crew; receives a lunch paid by the boss.
A coworker catches another employee at theft; receives a $100 reward for the act.
These rewards give power.
Not to the employee, but to the person who gives them. They are the supplier, the person who controls that action.
To get the reward one must do what the boss asks. To achieve the recognition one must "perform", the root word of the idea.
The problem isn't the reward, or the power. It's when people do not recognize it for what it is.
Then abuses occur.
As educators, teachers give up their independence to work for a administration. They perform for them. It is not a hugely collaborative situation. There are rewards of all sorts for good performance.
Unions often fight such rewards, for a variety of reasons that one may or may not agree with. One of them is the recognition of the power it gives the reward giver over the reward receiver.
The problem is when such a reward is given by the wrong group.
You've lost power over it. Despite the fact that you, the public, have public education, you have very little control because you've given it up in a variety of ways:
A single student has the following agencies above them in the educational system:
Any aides in the classroom;
Teachers
Educational Specialists in the school (reading, math, special education, gifted & talented, etc.)
Librarian
Secretary (rarely, but in forty years, I've seen it before)
Special teachers (art, P.E., music, etc.)
Principal and vice principal (or assistant principal)
Businesses
Charities
Fund-raising organizations
District administration
City government
Educational Organizations
County educational administration
County government
State educational administration
State government
Federal educational administration
Federal government
International educational organizations
Stunned, yet?
Does your business have this many people involved in running your business and affecting your customer?
Some of these may not be clear. Let's clarify:
Any aides in the classroom; (Clear)
Teachers (Clear)
Educational Specialists in the school (reading, math, special education, gifted & talented, etc.) (Your child can be pulled by these specialists if they ever, in any of their years of schooling, don't perform at level)
Librarian (Rewards are constantly given at this level for reading, reports, science fair projects, etc.)
Secretary (rarely, but in forty years, I've seen it before) (This is the person who will likely deal with your child for delivering attendance, doing morning reports to the school over the intercom, etc.)
Special teachers (art, P.E., music, etc.) (Clear)
Principal and vice principal (or assistant principal) (Clear)
Businesses (Rewards with their logos, coupons for their businesses, advertising that your children do for them)
Charities (This one will be a topic all itself at some future date - your children are constantly being asked to raise money for charities and the social pressure your children are being subjected to to do so is extensive)
Fund-raising organizations (These raise money for your school and are designed to sell a cheap product for large amounts using children to encourage your purchases. Huge amounts are earned just because parents take on the product and can't sell it).
District administration (Clear)
City government (This level controls your district administration in education and every political issue of the city affects your schools and thus your kids)
Educational Organizations (These set standards and goals, send out ideas, strategies, methodologies, etc. that schools then choose or are forced to adapt to and use due to some level of pressure.
County educational administration (Yes, there is county supervision of this, whether a trust, a co-op, or individuals assigned to track education in the county. Their findings are used and applied to change your child's education.)
County government (Clear)
State educational administration (Clear)
State government (Clear)
Federal educational administration (Clear)
Federal government (Clear)
International educational organizations (Do not underestimate the effect these organizations have. More on this in a future post.)
Your child has a geometrically diminishing chance of getting an education that is:
Controlled (Power increases with the number of participants, but control goes down, as any member of a tug-o-war team will tell you, particularly when they all have different goals);
Range (Like an amoeba with a set volume, education, though it grows, is constantly being pulled in different directions and to accommodate it pulls back in other areas, constantly having to re-evaluate it's structure, contents, organization. Being told to add technology, but then having to remove things in other areas unless they can also add more time to the day. Adding more time to the day, but then having to pull money to pay for it from other areas. Getting more money, but then owing more to the agency supplying the money in terms of intellectual control - "Do as we ask or we pull the funding.");
Accuracy (They all have slightly different definitions, adding in their own filters of what they consider essential, combined with teachers editing the curriculum to match their own goals, until compromise has made a mockery by the level of appeasement and power struggles each aspect of education goes through before being applied to your child);
Balance (The only thing missing from the obstacle course a truly effective research-based educational innovation has to go through is a tilt-o-whirl deliberately designed to make your child completely dizzy. There is little balance.)
Now, do not misunderstand. ALL these agencies are trying to increase their control, extend their range, become more accurate, and improve the balance of their agenda. What I call, "C.R.A.B.". These are almost all very well-intentioned people.
This is about power. And every level gives out rewards trying to increase their ability to get their agenda in place.
And you have one or more children and one vote.
You gave up control little by little every time you thought, "Gee, it's nice for the (fill in the blank) group/organization/government to reward our kids that way."
You made yourself a little more dependent on them.
Now, if someone doesn't cooperate, the funding, the reward, the option disappears.
Try refusing the Federal government's agenda (they have no control over your educational programs. That's a Constitutional issue.
Yet, refuse to follow their directives and your district food program, a gift of the Federal government, is suddenly threatened with being cut off because you won't run a program teaching the children their most recent agenda.
You gave up this power. Your children answer for it, daily and teachers, the real educators of your children, constantly have to deal with the stress of meeting the expectations of all these levels of control.
And these teachers work directly, face-to-face, with your children.
Are you nervous, yet?
Friday, June 8, 2012
How "Being Stressed" Can Help You Learn
Stress is defined in different ways. For this purpose we're referring to "test stress" or the kind of stress you feel when learning, and specifically about the alert state, when adrenalin, noradrenalin, and other biochemicals flood the system and get it ready to fight, flee, freeze, or appease.
For students, it's simpler: stress out during the test and fail.
Remember it for a long time.
There is a simple solution based on the very biochemistry we're talking about.
The alert state has a number of effects on the body, but for our purposes here we're going to talk about one:
1) When you are excited, your ability to remember what happens at that moment goes way up.
When you are excited, your ability to retrieve past events goes way down.
2) When you are calm, your ability to retrieve past events goes way up.
When you are calm, your ability to remember what happens at that moment goes way down.
We teach practical methods for achieving a state of calm during testing and removing that state of stress that students develop over years of fearing tests. We also teach methods for keeping the body in a state of alert during learning to improve the ability to retain what is being taught.
With a little effort, you can find many of these things online for your own use, and we encourage that.
A more organized program is available for sharing with your company or organization; a trainer or speaker is available on request.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Spiral-Matrix Education has finally taken it's direction:
A non-profit (pending) dedicated to collecting and sharing the tools for the reformation of education.
Three foci:
1) Create resources online for students, parents, teachers, administrators.
2) Design modular innovative educational structures (curriculum, architecture, staffing formations, etc.) that can be taken by other educational organizations for use.
3) Serve as host for volunteers of all sorts to place their ideas and offerings in education for others to use.
All suggestions welcome.
A non-profit (pending) dedicated to collecting and sharing the tools for the reformation of education.
Three foci:
1) Create resources online for students, parents, teachers, administrators.
2) Design modular innovative educational structures (curriculum, architecture, staffing formations, etc.) that can be taken by other educational organizations for use.
3) Serve as host for volunteers of all sorts to place their ideas and offerings in education for others to use.
All suggestions welcome.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Join our reality
The schools lie to you by omission, and sometimes worse.
Your children are far more capable than they will ever tell you.
Our system for raising children is obsolete and supports industries that are both unnecessary and even harmful to our children.
Spiral-Matrix Education has one goal:
Help you achieve the best results for your children.
We do so free when we can.
Help us create a company designed to bring all the facts to our attention, who gathers together in one place the resources you need to be successful as parents and teachers.
Our sites are being created around the following premises:
1) We all want to help our kids.
2) Transparent finances and ethical behavior will draw people to help.
3) It is possible to transform education within the year, and continue that transformation every year thereafter in a way that will enhance our children's education rather than destabilize it.
Join us.
You've dreamed of doing something to transform education.
Donate your time here.
If you donate materials or money, make the time to check to see how we use it and hold us accountable (for the sake of others).
Join in for a day, a week, a month, and leave just as soon as you choose.
Spiral-Matrix Education is about us making our world a better place through our children.
What's your dream?
Make it part of the Spiral-Matrix.
We need help in a variety of ways, to be listed soon (your ideas welcome).
Your children are far more capable than they will ever tell you.
Our system for raising children is obsolete and supports industries that are both unnecessary and even harmful to our children.
Spiral-Matrix Education has one goal:
Help you achieve the best results for your children.
We do so free when we can.
Help us create a company designed to bring all the facts to our attention, who gathers together in one place the resources you need to be successful as parents and teachers.
Our sites are being created around the following premises:
1) We all want to help our kids.
2) Transparent finances and ethical behavior will draw people to help.
3) It is possible to transform education within the year, and continue that transformation every year thereafter in a way that will enhance our children's education rather than destabilize it.
Join us.
You've dreamed of doing something to transform education.
Donate your time here.
If you donate materials or money, make the time to check to see how we use it and hold us accountable (for the sake of others).
Join in for a day, a week, a month, and leave just as soon as you choose.
Spiral-Matrix Education is about us making our world a better place through our children.
What's your dream?
Make it part of the Spiral-Matrix.
We need help in a variety of ways, to be listed soon (your ideas welcome).
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Perfectly Healthy Meat and Slimy Behavior
It may have come to your attention that mechanically separated meat has become an issue. The process is simple: Run the bones that have meat difficult to remove from the from the bones through a mechanical process to gather the remaining meat. Treat like you treat other meat; add dye and flavorings and add to extend the meat product that normally doesn't need a specific shape (like a steak or a drumstick). It works with a variety of meats.
While some people are making up rumors about the process (they use the whole animal! - lie) (they soak it in ammonia! partial lie - they use a gas while running it through tubes) most of us are just a little put off by the idea and the fact that no one told us.
Legislation has been passed in the past about it, particularly during the mad-cow disease scare. It's not new, it's not a surprise - it's just that we didn't know. That bothers an individual.
Not me. I will happily go buy it at Walmart and save the money that is going to be spent by the rest of you because in the days following this discovery (watch me try my hand at the psychic business) the price of meat is going to go way up (you have to take baby steps in the psychic racket).
That doesn't bother me. It's a relief on my budget. There is one thing that bothers me.
The public school has been doing this all along in the food service they accept from the Federal government, that same service that is frequently threatened with being ended if the public schools don't do what the Federal government wants, and they and the Federal government were silent while McDonalds took an incredible backlash for using what has come, erroneously, to be called, "pink slime". Their silence speaks volumes to me. What does it say to me?
Not for me to say here. It has to do with ethics, with a willingness to let a private chain take a beating but remain silent about what they themselves feed our kids. It's in the open now, but then the Federal government took it to a new level.
They have offered that the school systems will have a choice of using the pink...errr...the processed meat or not.
If you were the administrator of a school, and had the choice, what would you pick? If the choice was between having to buy your own meat and accept the Federal governments slime, what would you pick? We'll see how it plays out.
This will likely go away in a short time. A number of stores and restaurants are dumping the use of the product. The price of meat will go up, and those that keep this perfectly healthy, if somewhat disturbing, product will grow. There is justice in the world, except when it comes to education.
"Buy your own meat or eat our slime." A paraphrase, one I hope is utterly wrong. You get to decide.
See the Snopes article on the process:
http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/msm.asp
It may have come to your attention that mechanically separated meat has become an issue. The process is simple: Run the bones that have meat difficult to remove from the from the bones through a mechanical process to gather the remaining meat. Treat like you treat other meat; add dye and flavorings and add to extend the meat product that normally doesn't need a specific shape (like a steak or a drumstick). It works with a variety of meats.
While some people are making up rumors about the process (they use the whole animal! - lie) (they soak it in ammonia! partial lie - they use a gas while running it through tubes) most of us are just a little put off by the idea and the fact that no one told us.
Legislation has been passed in the past about it, particularly during the mad-cow disease scare. It's not new, it's not a surprise - it's just that we didn't know. That bothers an individual.
Not me. I will happily go buy it at Walmart and save the money that is going to be spent by the rest of you because in the days following this discovery (watch me try my hand at the psychic business) the price of meat is going to go way up (you have to take baby steps in the psychic racket).
That doesn't bother me. It's a relief on my budget. There is one thing that bothers me.
The public school has been doing this all along in the food service they accept from the Federal government, that same service that is frequently threatened with being ended if the public schools don't do what the Federal government wants, and they and the Federal government were silent while McDonalds took an incredible backlash for using what has come, erroneously, to be called, "pink slime". Their silence speaks volumes to me. What does it say to me?
Not for me to say here. It has to do with ethics, with a willingness to let a private chain take a beating but remain silent about what they themselves feed our kids. It's in the open now, but then the Federal government took it to a new level.
They have offered that the school systems will have a choice of using the pink...errr...the processed meat or not.
If you were the administrator of a school, and had the choice, what would you pick? If the choice was between having to buy your own meat and accept the Federal governments slime, what would you pick? We'll see how it plays out.
This will likely go away in a short time. A number of stores and restaurants are dumping the use of the product. The price of meat will go up, and those that keep this perfectly healthy, if somewhat disturbing, product will grow. There is justice in the world, except when it comes to education.
"Buy your own meat or eat our slime." A paraphrase, one I hope is utterly wrong. You get to decide.
See the Snopes article on the process:
http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/msm.asp
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Are You Ambivalent?
http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/hsn/many-americans-ambivalent-over-laws-aimed-at-healthy-living
Can we afford to be "ambivalent"?
The number of us actually against helping our children is infinitesimal. We all want our children well.
However, we are raising adults, not children. Do we want a world where we are forced to eat healthy?
We were told that margarine would be healthier - turned out wrong, just different.
We were told that 8 eight-ounce glasses of water per day was healthy - research showed that no research had been done on it and it was just a rumor, not true, and many suffered from over-hydration.
We have filled ourselves with vitamins, the newest herbal remedies, exercise after exercise only to discover that they don't work, they are the wrong type, they have terribly side-effects, etc.
Why should we oppose legislation protecting ourselves from ourselves?
1) We lose control of our own choices. We may think we are protecting children; we are stealing their rights as well. That is the trade-off; is it worth it?
2) We give increasing power to the Federal government; is that bad? Is it good? How about if it is in the hands of the opposite party? Would you still want that? What are you handing your child as a future in that society?
3) Where do we draw the line? (An old but true argument.)
4) What happens if our forced health laws turn out to be wrong?
5) Are we prepared to pay millions in lawsuits as people prove that a law caused them harm? We pay for that, in taxes, in addition to the huge costs of administering such a law, enforcing the law, and monitoring abuses of the law.
It starts with your child. What are the rules in the school? Can they bring cupcakes for a birthday? Can they bring their own lunch to school? Can a teacher share a treat with your kids? What can your teacher eat or drink at school? At what point is it no longer freedom? At what point is it worth it to give up that freedom?
Protecting our kids is so important.
But what do we protect them from? Health mistakes? Or losing their freedoms?
You get to choose. But are you ambivalent?
I'm not. I can see that, even if you have a different goal than I do, that you do not, either.
That's a wonderful thing.
http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/hsn/many-americans-ambivalent-over-laws-aimed-at-healthy-living
Can we afford to be "ambivalent"?
The number of us actually against helping our children is infinitesimal. We all want our children well.
However, we are raising adults, not children. Do we want a world where we are forced to eat healthy?
We were told that margarine would be healthier - turned out wrong, just different.
We were told that 8 eight-ounce glasses of water per day was healthy - research showed that no research had been done on it and it was just a rumor, not true, and many suffered from over-hydration.
We have filled ourselves with vitamins, the newest herbal remedies, exercise after exercise only to discover that they don't work, they are the wrong type, they have terribly side-effects, etc.
Why should we oppose legislation protecting ourselves from ourselves?
1) We lose control of our own choices. We may think we are protecting children; we are stealing their rights as well. That is the trade-off; is it worth it?
2) We give increasing power to the Federal government; is that bad? Is it good? How about if it is in the hands of the opposite party? Would you still want that? What are you handing your child as a future in that society?
3) Where do we draw the line? (An old but true argument.)
4) What happens if our forced health laws turn out to be wrong?
5) Are we prepared to pay millions in lawsuits as people prove that a law caused them harm? We pay for that, in taxes, in addition to the huge costs of administering such a law, enforcing the law, and monitoring abuses of the law.
It starts with your child. What are the rules in the school? Can they bring cupcakes for a birthday? Can they bring their own lunch to school? Can a teacher share a treat with your kids? What can your teacher eat or drink at school? At what point is it no longer freedom? At what point is it worth it to give up that freedom?
Protecting our kids is so important.
But what do we protect them from? Health mistakes? Or losing their freedoms?
You get to choose. But are you ambivalent?
I'm not. I can see that, even if you have a different goal than I do, that you do not, either.
That's a wonderful thing.
Monday, March 19, 2012
This is S.M.A.R.T.'s first blog.
It is about and for the children.
Let's start with the first point:
1) Too much is "for the children" and they are used as a pawn to get you to do whatever the person using them wants you to do.
Done; did you get the idea? Are you guarded against the next things I am going to say? Good; you should be.
Our children do need to come first, but as long as we continue to think with political and ideological catch-phrases, we will never be able to help them effectively.
Like parents faced with a thousand-dollar credit card bill by our teenager for music and other toys they bought on a binge, we are trapped between, "He's our child!" and the far more important phrase of "How do we help him become an adult."
Because that is the point: We are not raising children; we are raising adults.
It may be one step at a time, but we forget the goal. At one time, children worked for the family; they went to factories, and before that, they went to the fields to work.
Do you want to return to that time? I don't. Nor do most of us.
But the change lost us something; the goal is raising adults.
In future posts I will point out some of these, and suggest reformation projects to change them. Our goal at S.M.A.R.T. is to reform education for the 21st Century (another catch phrase, be on your guard - that will serve you well).
Let's set a new standard, shall we?
It is about and for the children.
Let's start with the first point:
1) Too much is "for the children" and they are used as a pawn to get you to do whatever the person using them wants you to do.
Done; did you get the idea? Are you guarded against the next things I am going to say? Good; you should be.
Our children do need to come first, but as long as we continue to think with political and ideological catch-phrases, we will never be able to help them effectively.
Like parents faced with a thousand-dollar credit card bill by our teenager for music and other toys they bought on a binge, we are trapped between, "He's our child!" and the far more important phrase of "How do we help him become an adult."
Because that is the point: We are not raising children; we are raising adults.
It may be one step at a time, but we forget the goal. At one time, children worked for the family; they went to factories, and before that, they went to the fields to work.
Do you want to return to that time? I don't. Nor do most of us.
But the change lost us something; the goal is raising adults.
In future posts I will point out some of these, and suggest reformation projects to change them. Our goal at S.M.A.R.T. is to reform education for the 21st Century (another catch phrase, be on your guard - that will serve you well).
Let's set a new standard, shall we?
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