September 10, 2005
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So far Eagle Academy appears to be working out pretty well for Dmitry,
at least academically. The kids receive “packs” for each subject,
which are multipage sets of questions (multiple choice,
fill-in-the-blank, etc.) covering a limited amount of
information. Once they have one pack completed, they take a test
over it; if they pass the test they move on to the next pack.The kids study manageable chunks of information rather than whole
chapters at a time, hoping to remember whatever the teacher decides to
include on the test. Let’s face it, most of the students are at
Eagle Academy because they have a hard time digesting large amounts of
information at once, such as traditional middle and high schools
require.A graduate from Eagle Academy isn’t going to get accepted to Harvard no matter how well they score on the TAKS test, but by jingo, they’ll have the basic knowledge one hopes a high school graduate possesses.
[sighing] And
when it comes to Dmitry, that works for us. He’s not a born
scholar, and there’s no point trying to force him to act like one,
which ISTM most schools do. I was what could charitably be called
an indifferent student myself, and it still gripes me to think of all
the wasted years spent boning up on subjects I didn’t care diddly squat
about then, and don’t now. Can’t recall 98% of the stuff; I
mostly remembered it just long enough to answer the questions on an
exam, then happily never bothered my head about it ever again.If there’s a point to why we do this to each other, it’s escaping me.
I wonder if countries like Russia don’t have a better way, since
students take exams when they’re 14, and what type of schooling they
receive after that is determined by their scores. If they do
well, they continue to a school with the assumption they’ll go to
university later. If they don’t, they (I think I’m correct on
this, but could be wrong) can either stop right there or attend a
school with a limited curriculum.Our education philosophy forces all children into the same mold, never
mind what their interests are, or what they’re actually likely to wind
up doing.
Comments (9)
I’ve been thinking about this very subject! I have watched many people be smart, capable, popular in grade, middle and high school. The nerds wound up doing pretty well, the popular ones not too good and the middle ability ones had a tremendously varied life. Don’t know what I meant here exactly. But I did see some who you thought would fail, succeed, and those who you would succeed, fail, but then you have to factor in, what is failure and success? I have seen some become rich and miserable and some who had nothing become successful in their life. A fellow who did yard work comes to mind. He worked 2 jobs, he and his wife raised 4-5 kids and all but one graduated from college or grad school. Faith, family and friends are the 3 legs to the stool. Anyone fails and the stool tips. And you fall. Nuff said.
The only probelm with that Russian (which is also the British) system is that it means that late-blooming scholars don’t get a second chance, really. I’d say that most of the people in my family have been late bloomers academically, including myself (and excluding Rich, who is a Certifiable Genius). People like us accumulate alot of stuff in our heads, and then as we get older, we begin to organise it all to the point where we can dredge up the most amazingly unconnected things and make the most ingeniuos connections between them. Only rich eccentrics get that chance in Britain– and in Russia, their heads and hearts get squashed with drudgery.
You wait. I’d be pretty surprised if you don’t see some genius in Dmitry yet, but it won’t be Harvard-type genius– it’ll be inventive genius, or people-genius. And he’ll be the next model for all those people who didn’t make it in the conventional way.
Well, that brings up a whole different point, doesn’t it?
What about late bloomers? I handled differential calculus quite deedily in my thirties (was studying for a second degree….one in accounting), but wouldn’t have stood a chance of managing it in my teens.
Really, I think lots of people can’t learn stuff in their teens that they can learn quite nicely as an adult. Where did we come up with the weird notion only kids learn? Learn it then or kiss it goodbye? Nothing could be further from the truth.
Yet we taxpayers pony up massive quantities of dollars force-feeding reluctant teenagers a bunch of information they’re not ready for. You know what’d be sort of neat?
Have people be able to draw on education dollars as best suits them. In Texas a year of public education per student is about 6 or 7 thousand dollars. Okay, that’s no fortune, but shoot, I’d far prefer to let Dmitry get through 9th or 10th grade, then spend a few years working at Blockbuster (right now ranking as his highest ambition), so if he wants to continue his education later, he can “spend” the money he didn’t use earlier.
Okay, there are a couple of wrinkles to be smoothed out, but I think this has possibilities, I really do.
I like it!! Makes sense to me! I “read” Shakesspeare in Highschool and found it dull. Read it in my 50′s and loved it! Hated history in school, love learning it now, tho only on my own. Where I can read and learn what interests me and send back to library what I’m not interested in. What kid wants to hear about Rome? Or the fantastic civilizations in Africa hundreds of years ago? Ever take kids to see the Grand Canyon or Hoover dam? What’s for lunch??? I want chicken. Leave them to learn how to relate to their peers and grownups first!! Then let them go to school and learn what’s what. Now they have to learn reading, writing and arithmatic first of course! Then goof off.
Isn’t that the truth? I recall thinking Milton’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” was bor-ring, but when I read it a few years ago I was stunned at how GOOD it was. =8^o
Kids often simply don’t have the life experience to make fine poetry comprehensible. The whole point of poetry is it’s an emotional shortcut, so to speak, but if one hasn’t experienced those emotions, the shortcut’s of no particular use.
Keats. It was Keats who wrote “Ode on a Grecian Urn.”
I knew that. Really.
“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on…”
All I need to know about the Grecian Urn Ode, I learned from Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn.
Not to mention invaluable information about how depraved the Rubiyat of Omar Khayay (Iam outraged) is!
Well, I guess the reason education is centered on kids is, you might as well get it done whent they’re not ready or able to support and provide for themselves anyway.
Though I agree there should be more and easier paths for older folks who want a second start. However, I think it’s definitely the case that this has changed for the better in the last few decades; the term “non-traditional student” hardly means anything anymore, and most colleges are geared much more for accepting part-time adults, and working with making up things that they may not have shone at when they were 17.
I took that allusion, Phillip, The Music Man being one of my all-time favorite shows.
However, I cannot thank you for the fact that henceforth whenever I read the poem, that immortal scene (“THREE Grecian urns!”….whap! whap! whap!) will come to mind.