I kind of remember when you were bused, BEG. If i remember correctly, District 66 was the best school district in the Omaha area.
I was living in W Des Moines during 5th and 6th. We were bused from Fair Meadows to Clive because Fair Meadows had too many kids. Both schools fed into the same junior high though so we were back to going to a closer school for 7th and 8th. Then Stillwell fed into Valley High School.
Bus riding for me was because of the size of the towns and the miles it took to get to the school we were bused.
All the years when educators tried to find a better and easier way to teach was in my childrens eras. Some really wierd ideas out there. In California my eldest for 2 years involved 2-3 grade in reading programs that boggled my mind. Her teacher told me that I never should have taught her to read at 4 as that would totally confuse and mess up the teachers ability to teach her the CORRECT way to read.
On the other hand the NEW MATH had come into being and as a parent I was supose to help her understand and excell at a subject I knew squart about. Why not just go to the deciminal system as the rest of the world does and just move that decimal point about.?
One thing that really disturbes me is that the thinking was that all brains work the same way. With 4 kids I knew full well that all my kids loved to read, I do not know if this was an inbuilt mind set or from the influences of both sides of a family who all read, if they did not read then they felt left out from family conversations, felt they were missing something that gave others pleasure.
My Males took on Math with no problem as they did hand eye skills and a sense of adventure. It was the boys that hung out in the tops of trees pretending to be on a man of war looking for Booty.
My girls tended to have interests that were female involved, Boys. The girls were more creative with their hands, more introverted and as they became aware of body changes less interested in a mans world. They learned but did not have the drive the Males did, they were trying to learn to survive in their world where as the boys wanted to change their world.
We cannot just turn our children loose into schools where we are not on top of what they are being taught. A male with dislexture will be treated differently then a female. SEX still makes a difference, no one said a word to me about my boys knowing how to read in first or 2nd. grade, not one complaint about them being able to add and subtract. My boys were considered very smart while the girls at that age were just a problem on how to teach them their way.
Today things have changed, but our mind set has not. Few schools push girls to learn how to start a business as a Chopper Machanic, Operate a 100 ton Crane, or work as a salvage diver.
The mind set still lives that men need to protect the female, ------Funny even today as I was brought up old school and was FORCED to memorise our math tables. At work the young kids with calculators in hands were amazed I could do the math equasion in my head faster then they.
Teach the kids to learn to read for pleasure, that is the start. If either sex has a bend toward math then bring it on. Each child has a talent and that is what should be be highlited, the bulk of their education. So a child is a wonder with Math and science, why worry about if they have have problems with a foreign language or geography. If that knowledge is needed down the line the student will acquire what is needed. If a child can take apart a clock at 5 and make it work, why expect them to read about some past war.? They will be led by their interest into how their interest led or had part of that war.
Our country was built by people that may or may not have been able to read, write or do math. They sure gained that knowledge if they wished to build a home, --math-- geology, how to dig a well, making soap, bread or beer--chemestry---what to plant --biology--- when the fish will swarm, and head upstream, a science in itself.
I cannot congegate a verb, leave my partibles hanging from the rafters, cannot spell or work those Algerbra problems with the jelly beans. So what. There are some things that just do not compute for me and is the same for millions of others.
Is this because we are stupid, low IQ or just have no need for that information.?
I loved the quote of Einstein where he said he never memorised information he can look up.
Way off topic, sorry.
