by Sarah Major M.Ed.
This morning I came across a little article out of Palm Beach about what common core and the accompanying excessive testing is doing to children’s belief in their abilities to perform in school.
According to the author, one little boy was convinced he was stupid because of how poorly he was doing on standardized tests. He went home and begged his mother to homeschool him. The author also wrote about kindergarteners bursting into tears over the demands of computerized testing that expected them to maneuver around the screen and keyboard in unfamiliar ways, not to mention the terms used in the directions that they didn’t understand.
Also mentioned was the kindergarten teacher who went home at the end of the day and cried over the stress of trying to test all those kindergarteners, trying to help them along, and still teach the rest of her class.
Fifth grader, kindergarteners, and teachers; are they enjoying school? Doesn’t sound like it! Tragically, our schools have ceased to be FOR children and FOR their love of learning.
The article ended with this sentence:
“The best that can be said for Common Core is that it encourages home-schooling.”
I understand that I am preaching to the choir here. All of you for your own personal reasons are homeschooling your children. You have the absolute blessing of being able to control the environment in which your children are schooled. You can say what they read, how they spend their time during school hours, how frequently they are tested, how fast they are pushed, and so much more. Your children are blessed!
The “reason” being given by those who are driving what is happening in our schools is that they want to see our children prepared for college and a job. That sounds admirable on the surface, but is what they are doing going to produce those results? School won’t prepare a child for college or a job anyway. All of us know people who are brilliant but who make really stupid decisions that end up ruining their lives.
In the midst of this firestorm of debate over what is happening in our schools, homeschooling parents have the luxury of closing their doors quietly on the debate and making home/school a sanctuary for their children. At no time has it been more important to focus clear-eyed on the things that really matter.
If we want our children to succeed in life, and we all do, we have to be crystal clear in our role in our children’s lives. One family life pastor said it unforgettably: “Sarah, your job is to prepare your children to be high-functioning adults who can take care of themselves – by the time they are 18.” He went on to say that I was not in my children’s lives to be their best friend, to pick up after them, to make them into mini-me’s who became the very thing I never achieved, nor to fulfill me as a mother… nor for any other reason than to prepare THEM to be absolutely capable by the time they were 18.
Boy did this put things into perspective and clear the cobwebs. Suddenly I thought of all the skills I needed to instill in the kids. They needed to learn to wash their clothes, cook, shop for food, buy clothes sensibly, keep up a home or apartment, manage a checkbook, etc. On top of that, they also needed to possess character! They needed to be fully functioning whether or not Mom was around. So now that my children are in their 30’s, looking back at those days in which I felt like I was groping in the dark trying to be both parents to my kids, some ideas rise to the surface. Not rocket science, but simply thoughts coming from my desire to cheer you on and encourage you.
1. Teach the daily skills by involving your children in everything you are doing. They can learn how you think though decisions, how you plan your time, how you manage your money, etc. Knowing how to think a situation through might be the single most important skill you can impart. Should I do this or that? If I do this, such and such might happen. On the other hand if I do this other thing, this and this might be the result. Which would I prefer?
2. Teach character qualities such as taking responsibility, being honest even when it hurts, keeping ones word, being someone people can count on, persistence, and determination.
3. Teach respect and consideration for others. We live in a self-centered society where too often people watch out for #1. Our children need to know how to live in service to others without losing their identity and their life goals in the process.
4. Teach them to take the long view and have goals. In our instant society, we’ve almost lost our ability to have a long term goal and stick with it. But so much that matters requires this long look. To not be caught up in whatever emotion overtakes us from one moment to the next. Sometimes we have to just do things we don’t feel like doing so that we will reach those long term goals. So if we can encourage our children to set long term goals, to dream about what they would love to accomplish, that is a real gift.
5. Teach them to love learning. I don’t mean to love doing homework, to love taking tests, to love being better than others in their grades. By love learning I mean to love knowing more, learning from others, finding out why, discovering what happens when I do this or that. Ask thinking questions. School time is a wonderful time to instill this love of learning. And it cannot become what our public education system is all about anymore. It has to be about the discovery of our history, of the wonders in nature, the patterns that exist in this amazing world we live in, what people in other cultures value, what lives in the deepest darkest part of the ocean as well as what exists in the furthest reaches of space. There is so much to know and explore.
So in the midst of the drama reigning in our public schools, homeschooling families need to be the Eye – focused, calm, and steady.
Sarah Major, CEO of Child1st Publications, grew up on the mission field with her four siblings, all of whom her mother homeschooled. As an adult, Sarah has homeschooled a small group of children in collaboration with their parents, and has taught from preschool age to adult. Sarah has been the Title 1 director and program developer for grades K-7, an ESOL teacher, and a classroom teacher. As an undergraduate student, Sarah attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. and then received her M.Ed. from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. In 2006 Sarah resigned from fulltime teaching in order to devote more time to Child1st, publisher of the best-selling SnapWords™ stylized sight word cards. In her spare time Sarah enjoys gardening, cooking, pottery, quilting, and spending time with her family.
This morning I came across a little article out of Palm Beach about what common core and the accompanying excessive testing is doing to children’s belief in their abilities to perform in school.
According to the author, one little boy was convinced he was stupid because of how poorly he was doing on standardized tests. He went home and begged his mother to homeschool him. The author also wrote about kindergarteners bursting into tears over the demands of computerized testing that expected them to maneuver around the screen and keyboard in unfamiliar ways, not to mention the terms used in the directions that they didn’t understand.
Also mentioned was the kindergarten teacher who went home at the end of the day and cried over the stress of trying to test all those kindergarteners, trying to help them along, and still teach the rest of her class.
Fifth grader, kindergarteners, and teachers; are they enjoying school? Doesn’t sound like it! Tragically, our schools have ceased to be FOR children and FOR their love of learning.
The article ended with this sentence:
“The best that can be said for Common Core is that it encourages home-schooling.”
I understand that I am preaching to the choir here. All of you for your own personal reasons are homeschooling your children. You have the absolute blessing of being able to control the environment in which your children are schooled. You can say what they read, how they spend their time during school hours, how frequently they are tested, how fast they are pushed, and so much more. Your children are blessed!
The “reason” being given by those who are driving what is happening in our schools is that they want to see our children prepared for college and a job. That sounds admirable on the surface, but is what they are doing going to produce those results? School won’t prepare a child for college or a job anyway. All of us know people who are brilliant but who make really stupid decisions that end up ruining their lives.
In the midst of this firestorm of debate over what is happening in our schools, homeschooling parents have the luxury of closing their doors quietly on the debate and making home/school a sanctuary for their children. At no time has it been more important to focus clear-eyed on the things that really matter.
If we want our children to succeed in life, and we all do, we have to be crystal clear in our role in our children’s lives. One family life pastor said it unforgettably: “Sarah, your job is to prepare your children to be high-functioning adults who can take care of themselves – by the time they are 18.” He went on to say that I was not in my children’s lives to be their best friend, to pick up after them, to make them into mini-me’s who became the very thing I never achieved, nor to fulfill me as a mother… nor for any other reason than to prepare THEM to be absolutely capable by the time they were 18.
Boy did this put things into perspective and clear the cobwebs. Suddenly I thought of all the skills I needed to instill in the kids. They needed to learn to wash their clothes, cook, shop for food, buy clothes sensibly, keep up a home or apartment, manage a checkbook, etc. On top of that, they also needed to possess character! They needed to be fully functioning whether or not Mom was around. So now that my children are in their 30’s, looking back at those days in which I felt like I was groping in the dark trying to be both parents to my kids, some ideas rise to the surface. Not rocket science, but simply thoughts coming from my desire to cheer you on and encourage you.
1. Teach the daily skills by involving your children in everything you are doing. They can learn how you think though decisions, how you plan your time, how you manage your money, etc. Knowing how to think a situation through might be the single most important skill you can impart. Should I do this or that? If I do this, such and such might happen. On the other hand if I do this other thing, this and this might be the result. Which would I prefer?
2. Teach character qualities such as taking responsibility, being honest even when it hurts, keeping ones word, being someone people can count on, persistence, and determination.
3. Teach respect and consideration for others. We live in a self-centered society where too often people watch out for #1. Our children need to know how to live in service to others without losing their identity and their life goals in the process.
4. Teach them to take the long view and have goals. In our instant society, we’ve almost lost our ability to have a long term goal and stick with it. But so much that matters requires this long look. To not be caught up in whatever emotion overtakes us from one moment to the next. Sometimes we have to just do things we don’t feel like doing so that we will reach those long term goals. So if we can encourage our children to set long term goals, to dream about what they would love to accomplish, that is a real gift.
5. Teach them to love learning. I don’t mean to love doing homework, to love taking tests, to love being better than others in their grades. By love learning I mean to love knowing more, learning from others, finding out why, discovering what happens when I do this or that. Ask thinking questions. School time is a wonderful time to instill this love of learning. And it cannot become what our public education system is all about anymore. It has to be about the discovery of our history, of the wonders in nature, the patterns that exist in this amazing world we live in, what people in other cultures value, what lives in the deepest darkest part of the ocean as well as what exists in the furthest reaches of space. There is so much to know and explore.
So in the midst of the drama reigning in our public schools, homeschooling families need to be the Eye – focused, calm, and steady.
Sarah Major, CEO of Child1st Publications, grew up on the mission field with her four siblings, all of whom her mother homeschooled. As an adult, Sarah has homeschooled a small group of children in collaboration with their parents, and has taught from preschool age to adult. Sarah has been the Title 1 director and program developer for grades K-7, an ESOL teacher, and a classroom teacher. As an undergraduate student, Sarah attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. and then received her M.Ed. from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. In 2006 Sarah resigned from fulltime teaching in order to devote more time to Child1st, publisher of the best-selling SnapWords™ stylized sight word cards. In her spare time Sarah enjoys gardening, cooking, pottery, quilting, and spending time with her family.
Child1st Publications, LLC
www.child1st.com
800-881-0912
PO Box 150226
Grand Rapids, MI 49515
