[DougB]

You are basing what you know is taught in schools based on your children's schools experience 25 years ago?? News Flash! If you could see what are kids are doing in school now, you would not think we were better educated.

[PammyJ]

I too had children in the system the same time you did. There was a movement at that time called Whole Language. It was misinterpreted to mean that we didn't teach phonics and we taught in context only. The reason ,I guess, was that teachers did not having enough professional development on what this meant in the classroom.
I assure you phonics is being taught! I have never heard of site reading.The site reading you are referring to I think is where you memorize sight words that are the most common words read and sometimes do not follow any phonics rules. Such as:
the and does.
Children are taught both ways because not every child learns one way.
The math is really going in the right direction. You are right in the past we have tried to teach too many concepts and not teach to mastery at one grade level. Those who write the Standards are seeing this as well. All I am saying, we have to go beyond and the students need to understand what they are learning. Mental Math is where they use their thinking skills to solve math in their head without paper pencil or calculators! It really is amazing to see second graders do this!
Our children's adult world is different than the adult world we grew up in, we are also preparing them to lead in the 21st Century.

I am not sure we were better educated. I learned quite a bit in college that 6th graders are learning now...jus sayin!

[CFrance]

Originally Posted by gomoho

Can only speak from my own experience with my children in elementary school in the late 80's early 90's. They did not spend 1st grade on arithmetic, 2nd on subtraction, 3rd memorizing their multiplication tables and 4th on division. That is a sound basis and pretty much everyone got it during that year. They were busy introducing new math and algebra. Daughter was taught phonics and is an avid reader. Son was taught site reading and struggles to this day.

I have a great nephew and great niece currently in Florida schools and they are definitely not being taught cursive. We are teaching them when we see them. 4th grade this year.

We new how to make change and read and write and learned keyboarding when the time was appropriate and we learned the basics and "hold on to your hats" were probably better educated.

I don't know what my kids did when, but I do remember that neither one of them stood up with their class and recited the multiplication tables over and over, and neither one has the grasp of them today that I have. I don't care why 5 x 8 = 40; I want to have the fact that it does right at my fingertips, and that for me came from rote learning. I'm not against teaching kids to reason or new math, but some of the schools in the '80s and '90s failed our kids by abandoning the old.

But I don't have a disdain for teachers, police, firefighters, etc. They all deserve a decent salary and benefits.

[DougB]

This is true what you saying AutoBike. Education has changed a lot in recent years. I see it as on the right path with many improvements still to come. Good things are being accomplished in our schools. Let's not have people basing their opinion of our schools on past experiences. If anyone wants to see the good things being done, I suggest they volunteer in our schools. Learn what is going on. Mentor and tutor our children. Then if they want To criticize our system, have at it.

[gomoho]

I am happy to hear those that I believe to be teachers that are posting think things are now headed in the right direction. I witnessed the miserable failures someone mentioned in the 80's and 90's and keep hearing over and over how "they have to teach to the test" so I assumed students were being taught what they needed to know to pass "the test". I guess only time will tell how things are going.

[twinklesweep]

Originally Posted by PammyJ

Just curious what your source is that proves we don't teach these things...?

It is not a reliable one. I do not know what we are doing each and everyday then.....hmmm!
My message is we are going beyond the basics, and teaching for understanding, not just memorization. All students can learn in their own way. Have you ever heard of Multiple Intelligences? Not all can learn from memorizing facts!
It is statements such as these that makes people believe that we don't teach reading, writing and arithmetic!

Not only do we have to teach handwriting, but now keyboarding skills for our students to make it in this world.

If we aren't teaching, are they learning to read by Osmosis?

Thank you, PammyJ, for your insights and for your willingness to share what is going on in your classroom TODAY, in spite of the fact that some posters seem to imply that you are being less than honest when you say that reading, writing, and arithmetic ARE being taught. It's almost like a "Don't confuse me with the facts when my mind is already made up!"

How I wish I could have studied arithmetic and mathematics in general the way you describe it. As you say, everyone learns differently, and to this point I add that any one individual learns different subject matters differently. I had no problem with reading and language arts; to this day I cannot get away from cringing when I see the misspellings, the usage errors, the poor grammar of my (age) contemporaries. However, my arithmetic learning consisted of memorization of, say (as pointed out earlier), 8 x 5 = 40 and 7/8 = 87.5%. However, I was totally confused when I got to higher levels of math, because I had never been taught math in an enlightened setting involving UNDERSTANDING and not just memorization. In college I had to revise completely my educational and professional goals because of my inability to grasp higher mathematics with the memorization tools I learned by—the ONLY tools used in my elementary classrooms for teaching these skills.

Originally Posted by gomoho

Can only speak from my own experience with my children in elementary school in the late 80's early 90's. They did not spend 1st grade on arithmetic, 2nd on subtraction, 3rd memorizing their multiplication tables and 4th on division. That is a sound basis and pretty much everyone got it during that year. They were busy introducing new math and algebra. Daughter was taught phonics and is an avid reader. Son was taught site reading and struggles to this day.

I have a great nephew and great niece currently in Florida schools and they are definitely not being taught cursive. We are teaching them when we see them. 4th grade this year.

We new how to make change and read and write and learned keyboarding when the time was appropriate and we learned the basics and "hold on to your hats" were probably better educated.

Originally Posted by gomoho

Gracie - I think you hit on an interesting point about the unions. They have tremendous power so why didn't they fight to keep reading, writing and arithmetic in the classrooms to give these kids a good basis to build upon. And whose crazy idea was it to not teach cursive anymore???

I've been told by teachers from many states that their unions, if existing at all nowadays, have little power. Remember, unions came about to fight against the "If you don't come in Sunday, don't come in Monday" attitude that demanded workers work seven days a week as needed; and to facilitate improvements in wages and benefits. They did NOT exist to create educational policies, as another poster pointed out in reference to a New York and subsequently national union president.

Rest assured that if reading, writing, and arithmetic were truly NOT being taught, or cursive writing, for that matter, it was NOT the decision of the teachers themselves or any union, but rather a superintendent of schools implementing the guidelines established by a school board, consisting of lay people, often with zero background in education, who sometimes run for the position for their own reasons that have nothing to do with education.

I am not saying that this is true for all school board members, but I have seen it to be true for enough, to the point that people who genuinely want to serve their communities on the school board often give up after a term or two, simply unable or unwilling to put up with the (gasp!) politics of those other members....

[travelguy]

Originally Posted by Suzi

Teachers have the summer off - to my knowledge deputies don't. Do the math.....

have a friend who teaches in lake county. they have 7 weeks off, total. not eligible for unemployment, and receive no compensation at all for the time off.