Events Calendar
In This Section
Egg recall gives birth to new fears over safety
D'Agnese's on White Pond to serve breakfast
Melon gets its slice of the pie
Quick & easy: Steak taco salad
Greek Vegetable Soup wows guests
Ask Lisa: What is the best way to package and ship the items to ensure freshness?
Chicken salad healthier with fresh white sauce
The right balance in chunky spread
'Food Feuds' to weigh in this week on Akron burgers, Barberton chicken
Most Read Stories
Akron man, 28, found dead after fall from vehicle
Police: Ohio man allowed wife to be eaten by maggots
Young's Hotel to be torn down; private developer to build hotel, retail complex on Akron site
'Food Feuds' to weigh in this week on Akron burgers, Barberton chicken
Tinted windows lead to police chase, crash in Akron
Two Akron men charged after attempted break-in at Green home
Blogs:
Ohio Politics/Elections:
Boccieri Shows Up at Renacci Town Hall, Engages in Impromptu Debate
Cleveland Browns:
Nothing new on Wednesday's Browns/Bucs injury report
Marla Ridenour on Sports:
Browns find plenty of good men
Varsity Letters:
Gridlocks: Week 3
The330:
Kanakaredes says she’ll have ‘CSI’ memories to treasure
Tribe Matters:
Monday’s Tribe lineup
First Bell - On Education:
Report is filed on bus incident
The Heldenfiles:
TNT Orders "Dallas" Pilot
Pets:
PAWS Pet of the Week: Meet Autumn!
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Scott believes Cavs can still win
Akron Zips:
No. 1 UA secures 2-0 win over No. 3 Wake Forest
Kent State Sports:
Around the MAC–Week 1
Akron Docs in Haiti:
Orphans in Fondwa
Buckeye Blogging:
‘The Shoe’ is Open for Business
All Da King's Men:
"They Talk About Me Like A Dog"
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Endangering U.S. Troops To Regain Power?
Akron Law Café:
Losing Common Ground
Car Chase:
Free Glenmoor Gathering Tickets
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Gossip Girl
Sound Check:
Robert Wilson, Gap Band bassist, dies
See Jane Style:
Making It Up
HRLite House:
From the White House – New Federal Approach to Hiring
By John Rosemond
McClatchy Newspapers
POSTED: 03:08 p.m. EDT, Jun 02, 2009
Public school reformers are like a fellow who scoops a bucket of water from one end of a swimming pool, carries it to the other end, dumps it back in, and then repeats the sequence endlessly, convinced he is making the latter end deeper.
In the meantime, his labor causes the cost of the water to skyrocket as it becomes progressively (no pun intended) more contaminated. Our reformer is obviously suffering from some learning disability because despite the fact he's been at this for years, he seems incapable of understanding that he is accomplishing nothing and causing problems in the process.
Nonetheless, he can be heard constantly complaining that he needs more money with which to increase the pool's water level and improve the quality of the water.
The bankruptcy of the reformer's argument, as well as his myopia, is easily exposed. One of his objectives is to reduce the student/teacher ratio. He maintains that smaller classes improve learning. Oh, really? In the 1950s, when classes were much larger than they are today and the student/teacher ratio was larger still, children at all socioeconomic levels achieved at much higher levels than their contemporary counterparts. And many of those kids — including yours truly — came to first grade not even knowing their ABCs!
Since the 1960s, reformers have succeeded at bringing about significant reductions in both class size and the student/teacher ratio. Their efforts have coincided with dramatic declines in student achievement. Yet, oblivious to facts, they continue to carry water from one end of the pool to the other.
The reason 1950s kids could be successfully taught in crowded classrooms (I've met women who in that decade taught as many as 95 first-graders, by themselves, and with relatively few problems) is they had been and were being properly disciplined in the home.
They were not the center of parental attention in their homes; rather, they were expected to pay attention to their parents. They were not the object of great doing on their parents' parts; rather, they were expected to do, to carry their share of the weight. (Does anyone remember when children had chores and were expected to find their own entertainment after school?) They were expected to do at school what they had been trained to do at home — pay attention and do what they were told. (Did I mention that these kids were also expected to do their own homework, without their mothers' help?) This training obviously paid off.
The good news is that this same training will pay the same dividends today. The problem, of course, is that few parents realize the solution to America's education woes lies in their hands. They have been persuaded that the reformer, given enough money, will solve the problems. When his efforts fail, they demand that he carry water faster, to which he responds with demands for even more money. And the beat goes on.
The problems in American education will be solved through home reform, not school reform. When parents wake up to the misleading they have endured for the past 40 years and re-embrace a traditional (read: everlasting) point of view and restore traditional practice (the emphasis of which is not on spanking, but on leadership); when they once again back teachers when it comes to discipline; when they once again send children to school who have been properly prepared at home, not through academic exercises beginning at age 3 but through such things as chores beginning at age 3, then and only then will American schools be restored to their former glory.
Call it trickle-down edu-nomics.
Family psychologist John Rosemond answers parents' questions on his Web site at http://www.rosemond.com.
Public school reformers are like a fellow who scoops a bucket of water from one end of a swimming pool, carries it to the other end, dumps it back in, and then repeats the sequence endlessly, convinced he is making the latter end deeper.
In the meantime, his labor causes the cost of the water to skyrocket as it becomes progressively (no pun intended) more contaminated. Our reformer is obviously suffering from some learning disability because despite the fact he's been at this for years, he seems incapable of understanding that he is accomplishing nothing and causing problems in the process.
Nonetheless, he can be heard constantly complaining that he needs more money with which to increase the pool's water level and improve the quality of the water.
The bankruptcy of the reformer's argument, as well as his myopia, is easily exposed. One of his objectives is to reduce the student/teacher ratio. He maintains that smaller classes improve learning. Oh, really? In the 1950s, when classes were much larger than they are today and the student/teacher ratio was larger still, children at all socioeconomic levels achieved at much higher levels than their contemporary counterparts. And many of those kids — including yours truly — came to first grade not even knowing their ABCs!
Since the 1960s, reformers have succeeded at bringing about significant reductions in both class size and the student/teacher ratio. Their efforts have coincided with dramatic declines in student achievement. Yet, oblivious to facts, they continue to carry water from one end of the pool to the other.
The reason 1950s kids could be successfully taught in crowded classrooms (I've met women who in that decade taught as many as 95 first-graders, by themselves, and with relatively few problems) is they had been and were being properly disciplined in the home.
They were not the center of parental attention in their homes; rather, they were expected to pay attention to their parents. They were not the object of great doing on their parents' parts; rather, they were expected to do, to carry their share of the weight. (Does anyone remember when children had chores and were expected to find their own entertainment after school?) They were expected to do at school what they had been trained to do at home — pay attention and do what they were told. (Did I mention that these kids were also expected to do their own homework, without their mothers' help?) This training obviously paid off.
The good news is that this same training will pay the same dividends today. The problem, of course, is that few parents realize the solution to America's education woes lies in their hands. They have been persuaded that the reformer, given enough money, will solve the problems. When his efforts fail, they demand that he carry water faster, to which he responds with demands for even more money. And the beat goes on.
The problems in American education will be solved through home reform, not school reform. When parents wake up to the misleading they have endured for the past 40 years and re-embrace a traditional (read: everlasting) point of view and restore traditional practice (the emphasis of which is not on spanking, but on leadership); when they once again back teachers when it comes to discipline; when they once again send children to school who have been properly prepared at home, not through academic exercises beginning at age 3 but through such things as chores beginning at age 3, then and only then will American schools be restored to their former glory.
Call it trickle-down edu-nomics.
Family psychologist John Rosemond answers parents' questions on his Web site at http://www.rosemond.com.
Most Commented Stories
- 136
Young's Hotel to be torn down; private developer to build hotel, retail complex on Akron site
52
- 46
- 35
Don't extend tax breaks for wealthiest, Obama says in Cleveland
35
- 30
'Food Feuds' to weigh in this week on Akron burgers, Barberton chicken
23
Two Akron men charged after attempted break-in at Green home
22
- 21
Akron police react unhappily to tentative pact that saves jobs but forces concessions
19
