Educating Children Faithfully
I wanted to share the opening prayer that was given in the facilitator's pages of the lesson. I usually give this out on Sunday and we open the class with this. I thought this week's was very good. Here it is. "Christ who leads us in the way, the Scriptures tell us you were eager to learn at the Temple as a boy; and you call us to care for our children. Help us claim the children in our church and community and give them the best we have to offer. Bless this time, and teach us your ways. Amen."
There were also some interesting discussion questions. Do you remember someone who was important to your education in school or in church? What qualities made that person important? What did he or she teach you about education? and.... What does it mean to care for children enough to believe they might lead us into greater understandings of who God is and what God intends for the world?
There were also some interesting discussion questions. Do you remember someone who was important to your education in school or in church? What qualities made that person important? What did he or she teach you about education? and.... What does it mean to care for children enough to believe they might lead us into greater understandings of who God is and what God intends for the world?
posted by coffee_maker at 5:37 AM
1 Comments:
“No Child Left Behind” – has such a nice ring to it, but unfortunately it seems it’s nothing more than test the kids and punish the schools. NCLB attempts to remedy the public school’s problems by testing the students and “holding the teachers accountable” with a law that is designed to fail. Parents supposedly can request that public funds be used to pay for private, even parochial, schools should the school they are currently attending be deemed failing. I can’t help but think that was the main impetus behind the law – channeling public money to private schools.
I don’t think NCLB does anything to address the huge infrastructure needs of many urban and some suburban schools; in fact the law is grossly under funded to meet the demands placed on public schools. Jonathan Kozol, in his book, The Shame of the Nation, says this; “Playing games of musical chairs with children’s lives, when half the chairs are broken and the best chairs are reserved primarily for people of his [Pres. Bush] class and race, is cynical behavior in a president. The cost of building new and safe schools for the children in our urban districts or rebuilding those that can be salvaged, has been estimated by the General Accounting Office at well above $100 billion and, if the rewiring of schools for Internet access is included, at about $200 billion” How much is his war in Iraq costing? Kozol goes on to say “The president has provided no such new infusion to rebuild or modernize the schools or urban districts and has allocated only half the funds that Congress authorized to enable schools to meet the terms of the new law. Meanwhile, he has immersed the nation’s educators in a complicated clutter of accountability demands that have intensified the pressure upon principles in inner-city schools to institute or reinforce the rote-and-drill instructional techniques that are most closely keyed to state exams.”
I believe the “rote-and-drill” mentality demanded by NCLB runs counter to the American ideal of an educated society. Throughout history our nation and its true leaders have called for an enlightened “people”. Thomas Jefferson’s often quoted statement, “I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take if from them but to inform their discretion.” Our courts have affirmed it, in Brown v. Board of Education; “Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments…It is the very foundation of good citizenship. Today it is the principle instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment.” How can this be accomplished simply with “rote-and-drill” standardized tests? Nearly thirty years later the Nation at Risk report was released stating, “Part of what is at risk is the promise first made on this continent: All, regardless of race or class or economic status, are entitled to a fair chance and to the tools for developing their individual powers of mind and spirit to the utmost. This promise means that all children by virtue of their own efforts, competently guided, can hope to attain the mature and informed judgment needed to secure gainful employment and to manage their own lives, thereby serving not only their own interests but also the progress of society itself…” Doesn’t this hint to the idea that education is more than taking and doing well on standardized tests?
As I read through the Faithlink lesson, more than once, I felt the key to the lesson was in the first paragraph under the Left Behind? heading, “Every child is important, and every child deserves and education that allows him or her to flourish within society. When people neglect their children, the whole society suffers.” Children must be more than a test score, or a calculation in the adequate yearly progress. Trained, dedicated teachers need to be allowed to inspire our students and help them experience the fun of learning.
Okay, one more quote this one from my Dad’s favorite political figure, Hubert H. Humphrey – and after reading books on him I could see why. Humphrey said, “We seek full education for every child first of all because we affirm the worth of the child…we seek a society where human development comes first not only because our citizens are a ‘resource’ like coal and oil but because human development is what America is, or should be all about.” Isn’t “human development” more than testing?
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