School Choice is Good For America; round 4

[DanteEstonia]

5 minutes ago, DE said:

add the word perceived in front of inadequacy and misgivings.

I want to ask you what your thoughts are on this situation:

A child was ordered to move seats in math class, because the child was disturbing a classmate. The child's mother (who volunteers at the school and is therefore given more leeway than most parents) comes in the next morning, is let past security, and barges in to the math teacher's classroom before morning classes to berate the teacher for the action. 

Is that acceptable behavior from a parent?

[DE]

1 hour ago, DanteEstonia said:

I want to ask you what your thoughts are on this situation:

A child was ordered to move seats in math class, because the child was disturbing a classmate. The child's mother (who volunteers at the school and is therefore given more leeway than most parents) comes in the next morning, is let past security, and barges in to the math teacher's classroom before morning classes to berate the teacher for the action. 

Is that acceptable behavior from a parent?

no chance.  fireable offense.

[Muda69]

5 hours ago, DanteEstonia said:

A feeling of inadequacy regarding their children, and their children's misgivings.

lol, really?  Please expound on this.

 

[DanteEstonia]

58 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

lol, really?  Please expound on this.

 

"There's no way my kid acted up in class." 

That's what those parents say/do. 

[DE]

8 hours ago, DanteEstonia said:

"There's no way my kid acted up in class." 

That's what those parents say/do. 

you were the witness of the child's behavior.  move on.  if they do not like it, they can take their tax dollars elsewhere.  this is why school choice is so important.

in 20 years of teaching, i have never had a parent say that to me.

[DanteEstonia]

On 3/17/2022 at 4:40 AM, DE said:

if they do not like it, they can take their tax dollars elsewhere.

... and the principal cow-tows to the parents, because enrollment translate to full-time positions. 

On 3/17/2022 at 4:40 AM, DE said:

in 20 years of teaching, i have never had a parent say that to me.

Have you ever taught in the inner city of Las Vegas?

[Impartial_Observer]

11 hours ago, DanteEstonia said:Have you ever taught in the inner city of Las Vegas?

Which is the main reason one size fits all solutions passed from on high are a horrible idea. Teachers face different issues teaching in inner city Las Vegas than they do in rural schools in Indiana.  No one in Washington is going to held responsible for those “solutions”, no one in Indianapolis, no one in Carson City is going to be held responsible for those “solutions”, but local school boards could be held accountable. 

[DE]

On 3/18/2022 at 10:57 PM, DanteEstonia said:

... and the principal cow-tows to the parents, because enrollment translate to full-time positions. 

Have you ever taught in the inner city of Las Vegas?

parents or super?

no, why would I?

[DanteEstonia]

3 hours ago, DE said:

parents or super?

At many charter schools the principal and the superintendent are the same person.

[DanteEstonia]

On 3/19/2022 at 8:20 AM, Impartial_Observer said:

No one in Washington is going to held responsible for those “solutions”, no one in Indianapolis, no one in Carson City is going to be held responsible for those “solutions”, but local school boards could be held accountable. 

You have to remember that school boards are political subdivisions of a State- they have the powers that are given to them by the State government. 

Even then, local government may try to circumvent State authority-

https://www.fox5vegas.com/2022/03/18/nevada-board-education-discusses-how-force-ccsd-into-compliance-with-state-law/

[DE]

20 hours ago, DanteEstonia said:

At many charter schools the principal and the superintendent are the same person.

ok, and?

[DanteEstonia]

18 minutes ago, DE said:

ok, and?

... so she's not cow-towing to the super. 

[DE]

2 hours ago, DanteEstonia said:

... so she's not cow-towing to the super. 

Let the parents take their tax dollars elsewhere.

[DanteEstonia]

6 minutes ago, DE said:

Let the parents take their tax dollars elsewhere.

 

[Muda69]

Maria Montessori's 'Libertarian View of Children'

https://reason.com/2022/03/22/maria-montessoris-libertarian-view-of-children-2/?comments=true#comments

Quote

The Child Is the Teacher: A Life of Maria Montessori, by Cristina De Stefano, Other Press, 248 pages, $28.99

Maria Montessori's ideas about education stem from the principles of choice, individual dignity, spontaneous order, experimental discovery, and freedom of movement. They stand in radical contrast to traditional schooling, too often based on authority, central planning, rigid instruction, and force. She once described children in such schools as "butterflies stuck with pins, fixed in their places."

It would not be accurate to call her a libertarian. She eschewed politics, which she said "do not interest me." When asked, she declared that the only party she was interested in was the "children's party." To advance her ideas, she wanted "anybody's help, without regard to his political or religious convictions"—leading to more than a few unwise collaborations, including one with Benito Mussolini. Yet perhaps more than anyone else, she advanced a "libertarian view of children," as the Italian fascist Emilio Bodrero complained in 1930. Her ideas endure today in 20,000 Montessori schools around the world.

...

Montessori's medical internship at the Royal Psychiatric Clinic introduced her to the abysmal treatment of the children in the asylum, so-called "phrenasthenics"—a broad category of the "feeble-minded" that included children with autism, deafness, muteness, blindness, dementia, or mental illness. Searching for a treatment to reach them, Montessori discovered the work of Édouard Séguin, a nearly forgotten French physician who a half-century earlier had proposed using hands-on materials to stimulate these children's abilities.

...

Montessori continued to build on Séguin's methods. She and Montesano soon launched the National League for the Protection of Mentally Deficient Children, raising funds to open special schools. But the lovers' paths soon divided. Montesano, who wanted to recognize and raise his son, hoped Montessori would eventually marry him. When it became clear that this would not happen, he legally recognized his paternity and married another woman. Maria felt betrayed and broke off all relations, resigning from the League. (She was finally reunited with her son when he was 15.)

Having left an organization devoted to atypical children that she had helped to found, Montessori began thinking about how Séguin's ideas might -benefit more typical children as well. She got a chance to put that thinking into action when she was offered a job as program director for a new system of block kindergartens in San Lorenzo, one of Rome's most disreputable neighborhoods. She accepted on the condition that she would have complete freedom to test her ideas on the children who had not yet entered the traditional school system.

Here is where the seeds of Montessori's method bloomed. She turned the schools' lack of funds into an advantage. There wasn't much money for children's desks, for teachers' desks, or even for licensed teachers. So she left those out. She reproduced the Séguin materials from scratch, working with paper, clay, blocks, and colored pencils. Placed in an environment made for them, the San Lorenzo children responded to their freedom; many learned quickly to read and write. Newspapers covered the "miracle" of San Lorenzo, and letters poured in asking Montessori to reproduce her method and to open schools elsewhere.

So began Maria's life as a popularizer and advocate for "the Montessori method." She took on young disciples, from whom she demanded absolute devotion. She became an international celebrity, giving lectures around the world. Over the years, her travels would connect her to famous admirers ranging from Alexander Graham Bell to Helen Keller to King George V to Mohandas Gandhi.

...

It is remarkable how much of Montessori's radical critique still rings true today. At too many schools, children still sit at desks and are lectured at by adult authorities. This has been a particularly unwelcome realization for many parents during the pandemic, as they witnessed their children's mediocre instruction via Zoom.

Montessori's big idea was that children are largely capable of teaching themselves if given freedom, a carefully prepared environment, and an adult who is willing to step back and observe. This anti-authoritarian ideal has been hamstrung by Montessori's authoritarian personality: She demanded a dogmatic fidelity to her approach, a fact that has left an enduring tension between educators who wish to preserve her original methods in amber and those who want to keep building on them. Nonetheless, the schools she inspired offer kids freedoms that too often are denied them elsewhere.

A remarkable human being.  Good that her ideas and ideals are still being followed today.

 

[DanteEstonia]

17 hours ago, Muda69 said:

Montessori discovered the work of Édouard Séguin, a nearly forgotten French physician who a half-century earlier had proposed using hands-on materials to stimulate these children's abilities.

This costs money. 

[Muda69]

2 hours ago, DanteEstonia said:

This costs money. 

?  Yes, and your point?

 

[Robert]

On 3/18/2022 at 11:57 PM, DanteEstonia said:

... and the principal cow-tows to the parents, because enrollment translate to full-time positions. 

Have you ever taught in the inner city of Las Vegas?

I know that I've taught at Paul Harding High School, Navajo Nation, Colombia and Ecuador, South America.  Where I teach now, some of these teachers would cry at those other schools.  No offense to them.  Some would thrive. 

[DanteEstonia]

9 hours ago, Muda69 said:

?  Yes, and your point?

Where are you planning on getting that money from? TAXES???

[DE]

1 hour ago, DanteEstonia said:

Where are you planning on getting that money from? TAXES???

🤣😂😂🤣

[DE]

1 hour ago, DanteEstonia said:

Where are you planning on getting that money from? TAXES???

You do know there are other ways to raise income that CUTS taxes, don't you?

[DanteEstonia]

5 hours ago, DE said:

You do know there are other ways to raise income that CUTS taxes, don't you?

Not on this planet. 

[DE]

7 hours ago, DanteEstonia said:

Not on this planet. 

Really?  Ok.

I thought @Muda69and I explained it quite directly.

[DanteEstonia]

7 hours ago, DE said:

Really?  Ok.

I thought @Muda69and I explained it quite directly.

No, because your "explanations" defy all laws of physics. 

[DE]

9 minutes ago, DanteEstonia said:

No, because your "explanations" defy all laws of physics. 

I didn't know you were a physicist....interesting.

Automatically makes you more qualified than the activist, hack attorney, turned judge, up for the high court.

And you are teaching kids?  Wow.

Edited March 24, 2022 by DE