Our children's education--soapbox :) (was Re: WWW and 666 Its Barney)

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Bro. Eric wrote:

| seriously, i believe that leading these kids into a continual fantasy
| role-playing
| life is outright dangerous. that system of thought, some would say, is
| simply just natural and healthy...well, i happen to have been a kid, and
| know what childhood is about!!! and that is not quite right. if you
| disagree, you have a right to be wrong sometime!

This reminds me of Frank Peretti's novel, _Piercing the Darkness_(fiction),
where children were being taught meditation and visualization until a
"friend" appeared to guide them.  The whole thing eventually led to a child
being possessed by one of these demons pretending to be her "friend". 
These children were encouraged to contact these "friends" and role play,
etc.  It is frightening how close to this type of thing goes on in
classrooms today (visualization/actualization/meditation).

I don't have kids yet, but personally, I plan on homeschooling my kids (God
willing).  Of course this decision has little to do with reading a work of
fiction, but everything to do with the trends I'm seeing in modern public
education.  I would send them to an Apostolic school, but sadly, I haven't
been impressed with the curricula used by the schools in my area (ACE for
example).  

(Feeling a slight "soap-box" moment coming on...) :)

I used to be a music education major at XU, and you have to learn all of
the regular basic curricula, etc.  I was NOT thrilled.  Everything is
degenerating to this "cooperative learning" junk, where instead of the
teacher actually *teaching* the basics of math, etc., the kids get an
assignment, then (in theory) are supposed to work together to figure it
out.  In reality, it is usually one or two kids in the group who actually
know how to do it and the other kids just sit back and let them take over. 
Or, none of them knows what's going on, so they do it incorrectly, but the
teacher does not tell them they've done it wrong!!!  Telling a child the
answer is "wrong" is harmful to their well-being, they say.  Instead, they
should be told that their way is "fine", but an easier way is this... 
Their answer is "fine", but when you do it *this* way, the answer is
this...

I look at it this way...the guys who put a man on the moon learned math and
science the "good old-fashioned way".  The people responsible for most any
modern advance we take for granted learned the "good old-fashioned way". 
Children in other countries who are slaughtering our kids in academic
scores do so because they are learning the "good old-fashioned" way.

Also, I want my kids to *learn*.  What I mean is, not just to be promoted
to the next grade because they are a certain age group.  A child who
"passes" with a C-/D grade has no business being promoted to the next
grade.  That child needs more time or a different method to *learn* the
material, and s/he should not feel badly because s/he needs more time to
learn (being held back in our current system can be emotionally devastating
to a child).  

When school systems are year-round, promote kids when they are truly ready,
and have teachers who actually teach (I advocate more than one teacher per
classroom), then I *might* consider putting my kids in public school.

(Got a splinter in my toe from the soapbox wood, ouch!)
Anneliese