Readin’, ‘Ritin’ and ‘Rithmetic . . . and Respect . . . and Success (March 14, 2011)
. . .
P1 “He keeps rantin’ about readin’, ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmetic even if the kids hate learning or learn to hate learning. He really seems eager to make learning unpleasant.”
P2 “Anyone who says that the kids first need to respect themselves and each other is branded a pantywaist.”
P1 “Have you also noticed that the proponents of the pain school of schooling usually are not very luminous.”
P2 “It’s part of the worldview. Then there are those, particularly parents, who claim to hold up education as the highest ideal who really are more interested in collecting awards, tokens and trophies. The little darlings are just ego extensions of their hovering parents. They elevate schooling over education.”
P1 “There is a schism between those who endorse readin’, ‘ritin, and ‘rithmetic and those who recognize the need for respect, specifically self-respect and self esteem, before someone takes to learning.”
P2 “The grand irony is that it must be a package personality. There has been some disconnect along the way. We have free public education, yet forty-five percent of the population is immune to and almost inoculated against ideas. I don’t blame public education for the problem. The habits are kindled at home.”
P1 “I’ve told kids that there is some great writing in the sports page of a newspaper. I read the tautest commentary on a championship game that covered the game, the season and the history of the sport in a handful of words. Whatever it takes to get them reading and to enjoy reading.”
P2 “Inculcate curiosity.”
. . .
P1 “The hard truth is that those who obey also succeed.”
P2 “Those who ask questions are not given an award for having regurgitated the right answer.”
. . .
P1 “Getting through high school really is a survival course. On a good day, it is banal and insufferable.”
P2 “That squares with my observation that many persons would like to go back in life and be 18 again, but no one ever longs to be 14 again.”
P1 “And they always want to go back knowing what they know today. That may not be part of the deal.”
P2 “High school is the most unpleasant period is one’s life, yet the grand irony is that life itself is just a string of high school experiences with graver consequences. Everyone gets older, but few get mature or wiser.”
. . .
[See the “e-ssays” on “Schooling” and “Education.”]
[World Water Day – March 22]
[See the “Race To Nowhere” movie and website www.racetowhere.com]
Bumper stickers of the week:
What did you teach the teacher today, son?
Inculcate curiosity
Transcend
“Politics is high school with guns and more money.” Frank Zappa
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