The School System

It is nice to find a article hours after writing about school system above. This article is not just about school, but the positive changes that are occurring in the world. Since I don't believe there any coincidence.  Here is a link, that someone might be interested in. Maybe it might be  a positive thing you might need to hear today.

https://dailyoccupation.com/2016/12/05/something-extraordinary-happening-world-havent-noticed/

Ideally, "the school system" has a purpose: preparing youth for active citizenship--becoming critical thinkers so they can sort through the chaff of reality to make sense of it, inform their decisions about how they want to be governed, and then elect representatives to govern them in that way;  socializing youth to get along with others; and preparing youth to earn a living in the real world.  There are always competing issues: unequal access to educational opportunity; an educational system that supports linear, sequential thinking and subordinate behavior in a top-down authoritative corporate structure; and a disconnect between real people's need to meaningfully connect with others, the kinds of abilities that the real world really needs, and the need for inventive and critical thinkers to make informed decisions, be resilient, and so on ...  There are lots of divides in this country, and they reflect unequal access to educational opportunity--young adults coming from the urban core and rural areas of the US are not prepared to navigate the real world, earn a decent living, and get along with diverse others.  Some are even writing off the iGeneration.  Check out the figures in this article:   https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/.   I am inspired by the idea conveyed on this site that the future will require people to work together at the community level to survive.  This situation will require us to ask and answer the following questions about how we deliver schooling:  How do we prepare increasingly isolated youth who don't know how to talk with each other to connect in meaningful ways with one another?  How do we prepare them to work together and to innovate to make the world a better place in which to live and work?   

Hi Kim I feel the need to respond as someone who has gone through the Canadian education system, all the way from kindergarten through university. There are major downsides that I remember, often times I felt uninspired by the curriculum, bored, restless and studied more on my own than I did in school. This was particularly true in high school where I was frequently disappointed in the quality of certain types of classes, namely history, English, french, and other humanities. The levels taught were suffocating in their simplicity, I really wanted to learn more, which is why I miss university so much. I went to school in west Toronto, the same high school where the movie mean girls was filmed. My high school had an excellent reputation and offered advanced and enriched courses not available at many other schools. In elementary school I was exposed to kids from all sorts of different backgrounds, cultures, religions etc... We were mostly all the children of immigrants and we grew up together. The benefit of my experience going to school in such an incredibly diverse environment is that it taught me to be curious and interested in all people and not to judge others by appearances alone. The downside was bullying, which was horrible and I suspect happens everywhere. The reason I'm writing all this is to hopefully allow you to see the many positive benefits of public school, I would not be the person I am today with the moral code that I hold if my parents had home schooled me. Allowing me to learn from other adults (I had some excellent teachers) has helped me enormously, I am thankful to them everyday. On a final note I want to say that as an individual I do not hold a teaching degree and therefore do not feel qualified to educate children, how can I teach math if I suck at it, or any other subject for that matter. My major concern with homeschooling is that parents are not experts on all subjects and may not be able to adequately teach their children what they struggle to understand themselves. As an example I'll give advanced functions which I took in grade 12 and failed twice, before finally passing. My mother knew nothing about functions, how could she help me with it. 

Even after saying all of the above however, I feel its important for all children to decide which education system works best for them. And for some home schooling may really be the best choice I strongly believe that, but for me I am endlessly thankful for the education that I received. 

Best of luck to your daughter Kim, she sounds lovely.

Thank you Gracesinger and Natalie. Your input and option do really count. My two older children never really had any problems with school system, and never really question it. My youngest is the real challenge, in some ways a mini me. lol. I always question things even though I did not say it out loud. As a child I could not hear till about nine years old and could read people faces and can still read them and know people are lying to me. I took almost eight years before they could figure it out because I knew when they call out to me and I answer them. The doctors said she can hear because I responded. What they did not understand my other abilities was compensating, and reality I could hear.  If I was in school today I would of been diagnose with ADHD, defiant disorder and any other disorder they would come up with because I did not fit in the compounds or willing to conform to society. I would of been medicated because I had a lots of energy, different ideas and approach I would of took that society would of said it was I was wrong.

Just over a week ago, I had meeting with the teachers, and my daughter was there to have say too. I thought it was going to be positive experience where we would come up with some ideas, instead the the principle came in making threats and using intimidation. I really could see he had no patience for her. She does not cause any trouble, only being late because she wants to do it on her time. Even if she is on time she spend a half hour at her locker. She is in special needs because she is four to five years behind. Even the teachers are concern onces she goes to grade seven in another school that she will fall farther behind, because she is really not suppose to be getting these services, but they are doing it anyway. She do have great teachers and other students in her class is basically moving on. I have her in scouts, and viola classes. I know this is not a parenting group, but I do see some connection how children today who are misdiagnose with adhd and other so call disorders are going to change the world. Actually I think the elite, or whatever they call them created this, so they end up be medicated. These drugs are use on psychotic patients and are very highly addictive. I think they are aware of the events coming, and they are trying to keep people asleep. This not going to work if it is the case. Maybe I am wrong here on this.