The Ideal, for now

I can't believe that I wrote about how school needs to be longer, in this blog last year. That was truly, a stupid idea.

We love Aidan's 1st grade teacher. She is super organized, kind, focused, and, basically awesome. Of course, it helps that she also attended an all-women's college, so we are really like kindred spirits. I also think she assigns just enough homework- probably because I actually never have to ask Aidan to do his homework. According to his after school Chinese program director, while the other children are running around, Aidan is getting his homework done. (I have to brag a bit about it, because it is utterly not my gene. I went through a stretch of time when I refused to do homework...)

Back from my tangent, as much as we love his teacher, it is school, and there are 23 other children in Aidan's class. I volunteer for an hour weekly, during the 'reading center' time. This has enabled me to see where each of the kids are with their reading and writing skills, in addition to getting to know all the kids. There is simply a huge range of skills- there is a girl who writes in cursive, very beautifully. Although, this said girl does not like to stay on task so she does very little writing... There are children who are reading beautifully, chapter books, and with excellent comprehension. Then there are two kids who are considerably behind. Perhaps in any other school they wouldn't be 'behind', but with this bunch of kids, they are dramatically behind. One child has made tremendous improvement, but the other, not so much. I am asked to spend more time helping them, to get them up to speed, because, 2nd grade is going to require a lot more reading, and these two kids, if they don't catch up, are going to be hurting.

It is a bit astounding to think that 2nd grade kids can be behind. SECOND grade!

I haven't seen either of the movies, but I hear, Waiting for Superman and Going Nowhere are two documentaries about our educational system, from two very different perspectives.

I love how we, the American society, like to polarize EVERYTHING.

Get this, people. Different kids will require different kind of teaching! A child who has a hard time reading/writing must be encouraged/forced to read a lot, write a lot, ad nauseum. A child who has a hard time with math will need to write the multiplication table, again, and again, and again. A child who hates to sit down and learn stuff, then will need to have different ways of practicing math skills, like going to the store with Mom and figuring out the cost of each item, per ounce, as a way of practicing math. Kids who don't need homework, because they have mastered the concept, has already done the homework, perhaps not in the exact same form, but trust me, they have done the work. There are no short cuts about learning spelling, arithmetic, and the basics. By looking at words A LOT, one eventually learns how to spell. But if a child isn't exposed to looking at words, how on earth can a child learn it?

If I had more money/time to throw at the problem, this is how I want Aidan's day to be structured.

I would hire Aidan's teacher to be our 'governess'! And every hour, he would have a specific subject, they would fly through the material, and all the academic learning will be done by noon.

Then, after lunch, a Chinese tutor would come for an hour. He will then be whisked away to do ice hockey, with a team, you know, for socialization. He will then return after an hour, for some independent play, then, piano for another hour. Voila, by 4 pm, he would have mastered lots of new info, played, exercised, socialized, and then I can send him to weed, or send him door to door to collect money for some kind of philanthropy project.

Honestly, I think he will probably be bored with this schedule. He likes his friends, he likes to tell people about our fat cat, and it is good that he likes people. But I do think our children waste a lot of time at school, public or private.