tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1644983566312897158.post8114077526684328924..comments2022-09-11T01:44:52.712-07:00Comments on Politics and the Universe: printed in the Iconoclast, "Public Education: How To Improve It And Cut The Cost"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1644983566312897158.post-65741081193261169842010-04-14T04:32:23.438-07:002010-04-14T04:32:23.438-07:00It wmight be funny if it wasn't so sad that so...It wmight be funny if it wasn't so sad that some on the "right" try to bust public schools because they hate the "teacher's unions"- yet the majority of teachers, at least in Texas, vote Republican! (Talk about voting against your best interests!)<br />I agree that smaller classes is the key- that and parental involvement. Without the parents being involved in and supporting their children's education, things are going to just get more worse.<br />When we get over the mania of testing as punishment for the teachers and return to testing as an evaluation method so that teachers, students and parents know where to concentrate, we'll be headed back the right direction, too.<br />i will take issue on teaching just core subjects with one elective. Music and art are really important to a child's development, especially for younger children. Early music helps cross brain working and that helps later on in math and science. I believe it is better to incorporate the Arts into core classes, to help them learn those core subjects. We need to be incorporating music and art into their daily work. My daughter learned all of her multipication tables to music and by the 2nd grade, she could recite them quickly and accurately.They illustrate the stories they're reading, which helps to cement the stories in their minds. They often also act out the stories as plays, which they love to do. It makes learning fun, and it sticks with them. As you might have guessed, sadly, this is not happening in a public school, but in a small semi-homeschooling environment- it is a small home-based school taught by a Waldorf-certified teacher. If public school teachers were allowed to actually teach, instead of train our children to be test-takers, more of this could be going on in public schools on a regular basis, too, and our children would be the better for it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com