Let's look at where education really starts: at home. IMHO, we can talk about altering the structure, format, purpose and technique of teaching children in school, but until they are given a structured environment at home, much of the effort in school is lost.
The best education a partent can give to their children is be a good parent. Well, what's the definition of that? Everyone has a different answer, but here's a few elements:
1. Children grwoing up in a home where they are wanted, with parents who conciously choose to put their childrens needs before their own desires. The parents desire what's best fot their children so much that they'll do for their kids things they don't really think is that much fun, like read books to them everyday until they read themselves, or take them camping a lot so they can explore nature and natural systems, or patiently explaining something to an inquisitive child over and over again, or conciously striving to understand their children better by self-educating themselves on parenting. This creates the situation where children develop a lasting, meaningful realtionship with their parents that pays enormous dividends to both child and parent. Children learn they can trust their parents, and, by proxy, develop self-confidence (the spirngboard with which they'll launch themselves into all new endeavors).
2. A healthy diet. Bad diets, meaning lots of junk food, eating out, soda, etc, ruins the devlopment of the body fast. The physical structure and overall health of the body dictates the capacities and function of the mind.
3. A firm moral environment. Many families acheive this with church. Many do not. Morals instruct the children as to what activities make them better, and what make them worse, spiritually, intellectually, physically, etc. This aslo includes discipline. There is right and wrong, and there are consequences for doing the wrong things. When children are young, the consequnces are "artificial'; e.g, you break the rules, you're grounded. When they age, consequences are more "natural"; e.g. you drink and drive, you kill your friends in an auto accident. Without a moral structure as to what to strive for (their own betterment, in all areas), they are left to wander the desert of "do what feels good, because feeling good is all that matters."
Once a child has a good physical, emotional and moral foundation, when they go to school, the teachers there can build upon that foundation, rather than frittering away all their efforts to repair a badly damaged, or non-existant foundation. Many teachers do excellent work repairing the foundations of children, only to have their work eroded by a corrosive environment at home.
The problem w/ all this is that Government can't step in and legislate the home environment. They only control the classroom setting. Therefore, the parents must sacrifice their own desires (an anathema to some) for their children's overall wellbeing. However, before the creation of public education in the US (I'm guessing prior to 1900), the majority of education utilized just such familial foundations as a bedrock to classroom education. And (I think), one could make the argument that the children of that time who completed their primary education were (as a group) better at critical thinking, reading comprehension, grammar, mathematics and science than the children of today.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's look at where education really starts: at home. IMHO, we can talk about altering the structure, format, purpose and technique of teaching children in school, but until they are given a structured environment at home, much of the effort in school is lost.
The best education a partent can give to their children is be a good parent. Well, what's the definition of that? Everyone has a different answer, but here's a few elements:
1. Children grwoing up in a home where they are wanted, with parents who conciously choose to put their childrens needs before their own desires. The parents desire what's best fot their children so much that they'll do for their kids things they don't really think is that much fun, like read books to them everyday until they read themselves, or take them camping a lot so they can explore nature and natural systems, or patiently explaining something to an inquisitive child over and over again, or conciously striving to understand their children better by self-educating themselves on parenting. This creates the situation where children develop a lasting, meaningful realtionship with their parents that pays enormous dividends to both child and parent. Children learn they can trust their parents, and, by proxy, develop self-confidence (the spirngboard with which they'll launch themselves into all new endeavors).
2. A healthy diet. Bad diets, meaning lots of junk food, eating out, soda, etc, ruins the devlopment of the body fast. The physical structure and overall health of the body dictates the capacities and function of the mind.
3. A firm moral environment. Many families acheive this with church. Many do not. Morals instruct the children as to what activities make them better, and what make them worse, spiritually, intellectually, physically, etc. This aslo includes discipline. There is right and wrong, and there are consequences for doing the wrong things. When children are young, the consequnces are "artificial'; e.g, you break the rules, you're grounded. When they age, consequences are more "natural"; e.g. you drink and drive, you kill your friends in an auto accident. Without a moral structure as to what to strive for (their own betterment, in all areas), they are left to wander the desert of "do what feels good, because feeling good is all that matters."
Once a child has a good physical, emotional and moral foundation, when they go to school, the teachers there can build upon that foundation, rather than frittering away all their efforts to repair a badly damaged, or non-existant foundation. Many teachers do excellent work repairing the foundations of children, only to have their work eroded by a corrosive environment at home.
The problem w/ all this is that Government can't step in and legislate the home environment.
They only control the classroom setting. Therefore, the parents must sacrifice their own desires (an anathema to some) for their children's overall wellbeing. However, before the creation of public education in the US (I'm guessing prior to 1900), the majority of education utilized just such familial foundations as a bedrock to classroom education. And (I think), one could make the argument that the children of that time who completed their primary education were (as a group) better at critical thinking, reading comprehension, grammar, mathematics and science than the children of today.