[Maillist] Ten Signs To Share

[The Morleys]

The article below comes from Jerry Mintz, director of AERO--a link on  
the IAAE web site under alternative education. The information may  
help your parents understand why their child needs an alternative way  
to achieve the education goals of your community.    Ray Morley:ED- 
OPTIONS

Ten Signs that You Need to Find a
Different Kind of Education for Your Child

by Jerry Mintz

Many parents do not realize that the education world has changed  
drastically since they were in school. Back in those days, schools  
were smaller, class sizes were smaller, dropout rates were lower,  
violence in school was almost unheard of, teachers were not terrified  
of showing affection to the children, or of teaching and discussing  
moral values. Even through rose-colored glasses, we know that school  
back then was no picnic, was far from perfect, but at least the  
teachers and usually the principal knew every student by name at a  
minimum, something which is not necessarily true today.

Because our public school system has now considerably deteriorated,  
many parents, teachers, and individuals have taken it upon themselves  
to create public and private alternatives to that traditional system  
which is definitely failing. It is important for parents to know that  
they now have choices, alternatives to the neighborhood school. How do  
you know that it is time to look for another educational approach for  
your child? Here are some of the signs:

1. Does your child say he or she hates school?
If so, something is probably wrong with the school because children  
are natural learners. When they're young you can hardly stop them from  
learning. If your children say they hate school, listen to them.

2. Does your child find it difficult to look an adult in the eye, or  
to interact with children younger or older than they are?
If so, your child may have become "socialized" to that very narrow  
group which many children ordinarily interact with in most schools,  
and may be losing the ability to communicate with a broader group of  
children and adults.

3. Does your child seem fixated on designer labels and trendy clothes  
for school?
This is a symptom of the shallowness of the traditional schools'  
approach, causing children to rely on external means of comparison and  
acceptance, rather than deeper values.

4. Does your child come from school tired and cranky?
This is a sure sign that their educational experiences are not  
energizing but are actually debilitating.

5. Do your children come home complaining about conflicts that they've  
had in school and unfair situations that they have been exposed to?
This is a sign that your school does not have a proper process for  
conflict resolution and communication.

6. Has your child lost interest in creative expression through art,  
music, and dance?
These things are generally not encouraged in the traditional system  
today and are not highly valued. They're considered secondary to the  
"academic" areas. In some cases, courses are not even offered in these  
areas any more. This tends to extinguish these natural talents and  
abilities in children.

7. Has your child stopped reading for fun, or reading or writing for  
pleasure? Are your children doing just the minimum for homework and  
going off for some escapist activity?
This is a sign that these spontaneous activities are not being valued  
in their school and another sign that they are losing their creativity.

8. Does your child procrastinate until the last minute to do homework?
This is a sign that the homework is not very interesting to, is not  
really meeting his or her needs, and is tending to extinguish their  
natural curiosity.

9. Does your child come home talking about anything exciting that  
happened in school that day?
If not, maybe nothing exciting is happening for your child in school.  
Would you want to keep working if your job was like that?

10. Did the school nurse of guidance counselor suggest that your child  
has some strange three lettered disease, like ADD, and that they  
should now be given Ritalin or some other drug?
I suggest that it is more probable that the school has the disease,  
EDD--Educational Deficit Disorder, and time to get your child out of  
that situation!

If your child has exhibited several of these characteristics, it is  
time for you to start looking for an alternative. In most parts of  
this country today, there are many options to choose from. For  
example, 30 states have now enacted legislation which allows groups of  
parents and teachers to create charter schools, schools which are not  
stuck with having to fulfill the myriad of state regulations but can  
create their own individualized approach. Four years ago there were  
only five of these charter schools in the country. By the end of this  
year there will be more than 1000 of them! Also, there are 4500 magnet  
schools throughout the country, public schools which specialize in a  
an area of expertise, and draw students from a wider area.

In most communities there are many private alternatives quietly  
offering a different educational approach. For example, there are over  
4500 Montessori schools based on the experiential approach designed by  
Dr. Maria Montessori, and hundreds of Waldorf schools which put equal  
emphasis on traditional academics areas and the arts. There are  
hundreds of independent alternative schools, many emphasizing  
participant control with parents and students taking responsibility  
for their own educations.

Many public school systems have a variety of alternative programs  
within their systems. These are divided into two general approaches:  
1. Public Choice; those programs which are open to any student in the  
community. Sometimes they are called Schools Within Schools. 2. Public  
At-Risk; those programs for children who have had a variety of  
problems coping with school. These programs run the spectrum from  
helpful to dumping ground. Examine them closely before making a  
decision to enroll.

Parents of over a million children in this country have checked off  
"none of the above" and decided to teach their children at home. It is  
now legal in every state and does not require teacher certification.  
Homeschooling has taken a variety of approaches. Some try to create  
"school at home" with a fairly standard curriculum, the main  
difference being that they can teach it one-to-one with their  
children. Some families have signed up with a curriculum which has  
been designed by an umbrella school. This school will help the parents  
with the curriculum and in some cases, grade homework, providing a  
basic curriculum for the parents to follow and helping with any report  
forms that are necessary. A third approach is one which is called  
"unschooling." In this case the parent bases their educational  
approach on the interest of the child and builds on that rather than a  
pre-set curriculum. It could be said that in some of these cases they  
design their curriculum "retroactively," keeping records of the  
activities throughout the year and at the of the process dividing the  
experiences into the appropriate subject area.

Overall, since most states require some form of testing of  
homeschoolers, it has been shown that remarkably, as a group, they  
average in the 85th percentile compared to the 50th percentile of the  
average public school student. There are now so many homeschoolers  
around the country that virtually all homeschoolers are part of some  
kind of homeschool group. Some of these groups have coalesced into  
homeschool resource centers and some of them will operate as often as  
four or five days a week. Generally, colleges have discovered that  
homeschoolers make such good students that they welcome homeschooling  
students to apply to their schools.

As more and more parents become aware of these choices and as they  
make these choices, we hope that the system will evolve into one which  
meets the needs of an increasing number of students. Meanwhile, don't  
wait for that system to change. Take responsibility for your child's  
education. Find out what your choices are and choose what is best for  
your child.

None of these signs by themselves should be taken as a reason to  
panic. But if you have noticed several of them, you should certainly  
explore educational alternatives.

This article can be reprinted with permission and contact information.
Read Jerry Mintz's new book, No Homework and Recess All Day.

Ed Options
raymondmorl at gmail.com



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.iaae.net/pipermail/maillist_iaae.net/attachments/20091221/a3b77148/attachment.html>