System Redesigned - This Time for Children

Simpson Wilt Norma

Description

If Americas children are to become literate, compassionate, empathetic, happy and productive members of a society which they themselves must preserve and perpetuate, we must return to a time when learning was successful when all children read. This will not happen in the present system where we allow some children to sit and be less than they are, while we try to force others to be more than they can be. In either case, we make them all less than they could become. We have forgotten how vital the need is for the promotion of a healthy self-image in young children, and how vitally necessary it is to the learning process. Forgotten is their radar-like ability to sense rejection, dislike and disapproval. Young children are like soft clay, everything leaves an imprint - the drawn eyebrows, a frown, harsh words or sarcastic remarks. All are computer by our children. And processed. And stored. AND affect learning. While many realize we have a problem regarding the education of our children, no one seems to know why or what to do about it. Walk with me through that system and you will. This book takes you inside the actual classroom where you will see how we have focused too long on what adults want rather than on what children need. It is time to look at how a child learns. We have been looking at how to maintain a system.

Sujets

• Education

Informations

• Publié par: Inspiring Voices
• Date de parution: 18 mai 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781462401215
• Langue: English

Extrait

I have been a teacher for 25 years and your book came as a splash of reality to me. Finally, someone has had the courage to speak up and out for our precious children. Your passion in relating what we are doing to them spoke very forcefully. You nailed our problems: pushing, mainstreaming, not letting children be children, killing the spirit.
 
Writing from personal experience has always been dynamite. Your experiences are probably those of many who will read this book. It is fabulous and will be a hit with educators. Thank you for doing this for all of us.
-Betty Conley
 
 
 
 

THE SYSTEM    REDESIGNED    THIS TIME FOR CHILDREN
and Taxpayers
 
 
 
 
NORMA SIMPSON WILT
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Copyright © 2012 Norma Simpson Wilt
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Inspiring Voices books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:
 
Inspiring Voices
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.inspiringvoices.com
1-[phone]
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
 
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
 
 
ISBN: 978-1-4624-0122-2 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4624-0121-5 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012936908
 
Inspiring Voices rev. date: 05/02/2012
 
 
Contents
Acknowledgments  
Preface  
From The Author  
Introduction  
Chapter 1:   THE SYSTEM: When Teachers Aren’t   Allowed to Teach in the Ways Children Learn  
The Prerequisites of Education  
“Mainstreaming” Versus Individual Need and Readiness  
And Now the Results Are In  
Goals  
The View From the Inside  
A Child Created by a Mainstreamed System  
The Bright Fare No Better  
The Middle Child  
“Our System’s Wonderful!”  
Why Continue Mainstreaming?  
Chapter 2:   Readiness  
Readiness  
That’s Not the Way I Heard It.  
What Was I Taught?  
“What in the World Are We Doing to Children?”   The Doctors Tell Us  
“I Hate School!”  
Is This What the Founder of Kindergarten Had in   Mind? Not Even Close.  
The Promotion of Readiness  
When Then?  
So! How Do We Reconcile the Two?  
The Defenders of Mainstreaming Versus Readiness  
Will This Redesigned System Work? Absolutely!  
Chapter 3:   Administrators: “How Did Our System Get This Bad?”  
Who Knows? Evidently Only the Shadow.  
What Those Outside the Classroom Say  
Show Us How to be Called On, Arnold Horshak  
Chain of Command  
That’s Not All  
Board Members  
Superintendents  
Have They Earned It?  
Power to the Unqualified  
Run That By Me Again  
Ego or Fear?  
There’s a Whole Lot of Guessin’ Going On  
Chapter 4:   Supervisors: Expensive in More Ways than One  
The Look, Try, Discard, and Move On System  
Now We Have the Answer—Supervisors!  
The Trickle-Down Theory  
“Our Pet Bugaboos”  
Another Repressive Bugaboo  
Some More of My Agendas for You Teachers.  
Goodbye Plan Book, I Sure Miss You  
This Is Another Fine Mess You’ve Gotten Us Into  
Caught!  
On Intricate Evaluation Systems and Centipedes  
There’s More  
Workshops  
How Cost Effective Are Supervisors?  
Chapter 5:   Teachers: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful  
The Incompetent Teacher  
How Do They Get Hired, and How Do They Stay?  
Don’t Touch Those Books  
Incompetence as Process  
On Being a Pal  
“I Need, I Want”  
Incompetency Reaches Out  
Punishment as Reward  
The Absolute Bottom Rung  
Teacher Influence Among Other Personnel  
Fear as Companion  
Let Me Entertain You  
What We’re Doing to Our Good Teachers  
Chapter 6:   The Money: Benefits and Perks—But Not for   the Children  
It’s the Waste That Angers  
The Waste Also Angers Teachers  
Shouldn’t We Trustees Look at the Salaries?  
For Friends Also  
Can Anyone Explain to Me the Decadent Buy-outs?  
But We’ve Spent All Our Money on Baubles;   Now We Need Money For Food  
A Different Vocabulary  
Yet Another Fallacy  
Where We Stand  
Chapter 7:   Attitude: The Heart of the Problem  
Everyone Is Affected  
Illiteracy Reaches Out  
The Children  
The Words—the Attitude—the Aftermath  
The Underlying Attitudes Carry Over  
Some Parents Understand Also  
Interview Number 1  
Interview Number 2  
Avoidance  
Chapter 8:   Another Obstacle to Learning—But You Won’t Like It  
A Tired Excuse That No Longer Plays  
The Killing Fields Are Here  
The Catch All First Amendment  
Children Are Impressionable  
And Who’s Responsible?  
It’s a Three-Part System  
Chapter 9:   The Children: The Real Teachers If We Would   But Listen  
The Key Element—Connection  
Listen to the Children Regarding Grouping  
Listen to Children Regarding Learning Methods  
Listen to Children Regarding Testing  
Odds and Ends  
Elements To Consider When Focusing on the Child  
To Sum Up  
One Last Thought  
 
Epilogue  
Appendix  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dedicated with love to
 
Courtney, Alex, Adam, Claire, Elaine, Grace
and Ben
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS  
My deepest appreciation goes to many people without whom this book could not have been written.
To Ron, I am grateful for so many things, your love, support, wisdom, encouragement, and for your certainty that I could do this when I was fairly certain I could not. Nothing I’ve done could have been done without you.
To Harold, a special thanks for your loving, generous and constant support in this effort, and your contributions to this book. Also for your understanding of my enduring concern for children.
I also thank Denzil who urged me to continue this effort and introduced me to this publisher. Your words of encouragement have been much appreciated.
To Martha H. Phillips, a superb editor and dear friend, I am grateful for your incomparable gift—the time and effort to edit this work—so generously given. I thank you also for your belief in the book out of your love and compassion for children.
To Alma Stewart, my friend, and fellow teacher, your shared experiences as an elementary teacher were invaluable. I thank you also for the countless hours graciously given and for your willingness to undertake any task whatsoever to see this book published for the children’s sake.
My appreciation goes to the physicians who spoke with me. I especially thank Dr. Robert Gregory, Pediatrician, Medical School Clinical Professor, and Dr. Beatrice C. Lampkin, Professor Emerita of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, for their expert medical advice and information.
I thank Dr. Jeanne Chall, Professor of education, Emeritus, Harvard University, for her time and effort on my behalf. I also thank everyone who granted me an interview or shared their personal experiences with me. You truly are the backbone of the book.
I also thank Deborah, Ken, David, Patti, Linda, Herb, Shannon, Roxanne, Amy, Tom, Betty, Bill, Sam (wherever you are), and my mother Ann Spaulding for their love, support, and contributions to this book and to my life.
PREFACE  
This book includes many of my own experiences as a teacher. These experiences involve different school districts, different grade levels, and different states. The book also includes the experiences of teachers, parents, administrators, and board members from across the country.
To my surprise, wherever I interviewed people the dilemmas were the same, regardless of area. My intent was never to pinpoint any one school system, any one state, or any one person. (If you find yourself in this book, therefore, you are one among many.) Rather, my intent has been to put you, my readers, in the actual situations our children face so that you feel what they feel under those circumstances.
I ask you to read this book from the heart and then join me in redesigning the system—this time for the children.
 
Norma Simpson Wilt
FROM THE AUTHOR  
I wrote this book because of the crisis surrounding our children, and therefore, our country—a country founded, developed and defended by a pioneering spirit, in all those who made incredible, incomparable sacrifices. Are we of the present generation perhaps resting on those sacrificial laurels believing there is nothing else of such magnitude left for us to make such sacrifices for? I mean the trails are blazed, the railroads laid, the mountains crossed and the wars addressed. If so, we are wrong.
The crisis our