I have been voraciously reading Peter Gray's articles over at psychology today dot com since about 5 this morning. That man has some insight, which is kind of rare in someone who has had so much education.
He talks about this concept, Trustful Parenting, which has been around in one form or another since...always. The most vocal group of late are the attached parenting folks. I admit, when I first read about attached parenting, I was put off by the amount of TIME it involved. I did not want to be with my kids that much simply because I could not fathom being with my own parents that much. Of course, I also seriously questioned my homeschooled cousin-who had built his first car, a 69 Mustang, from a wreck and a book by himself and drove it back and forth from Alabama to the university in Florida he attended on full scholarship. Not about homeschooling so much as HOW did he learn to drive without taking driver's ed? I mean, without that form signed by a teacher, did you really KNOW anything about it? I needed grade point average proof. I needed that for many years.
I knew, growing up with a teacher for a mother, that it was a big game. Yes, there are involved teachers, but they have SO many hoops that after a few years, it's hard to find one that stands out or that has all that energy for the extras. Or...a place FOR the extras in the 'teaching the test' school system. Talking to teachers locally, it seems they work up the test until April, then spend May watching movies. One mom told me she took her kids out to homeschool because when they went to the video store for family movie night, they could not find a dvd her kids had not already watched at school.
Another pulled her son out in October of his kindergarten year because at the open house, the teacher stressed the fun stations around the room and the reality was, the 5-year-olds sat at their desks all day working on penmanship and reading. And often lost their 15 minutes of recess due to someone talking or fidgeting. She said after 3 months in school, her son had not even opened his box of crayons. Play and creation have no place in the No Child Left Behind system.
What IS getting left behind? With all the emphasis on grade levels, test scores, numbers and performance-where is the individual? The CHILD?
