by Sam Weaver

Created on: February 27, 2009   Last Updated: March 26, 2009

Does your child come home from school excited about their day, and enthused about what the plan for the next school day will bring for them? Are they encouraged to travel to the end of their abilities and then stretch themselves a little more so that they can feel the excitement of challenge? When a challenge is too great for them are they supported through the failure and encouraged to make a plan to overcome their current issues or find another way to succeed?

Well, maybe that is too much to ask

Is real academic work the primary goal of your school? Is each day planned so that children can engage thoroughly in a topic, learn facts about the topic that are at their level and given work that will help them to critically think about their topic and either problem solve or express their ideas fluently so that others can understand them and continue the learning process?

Well, maybe that is too much to ask.

Is your child's day organized around the goal for the teacher to keep all the students in class somewhat attentive without any severe behavioral issues as efficiently as possible? Are they asked to produce work that proves that the teacher is doing their job, is easy to grade and something that the majority of the class can complete in about the same amount of time without too much help?

In a nutshell, this is the problem with public education. When you put children in a classroom and force them to do work where the priority is to benefit the teachers and the school system instead of benefiting the specific child, they will tune out.

Children by nature are creatures of learning. Without formal education, almost all of them learn to walk and talk, probably two of the most complex things any of us learn to do. Children learn in school, that is not the problem. The problem is that what they learn in school is that real learning is a subversive act.

Our system is not set up to foster our children's natural desire to learn, expose them to many different subjects, encouraging them to challenge themselves to improve their strengths and to acknowledge and find ways to cope with their weaknesses. Without this foundation, the children who don't get these skills elsewhere face an almost insurmountable deficit when they reach adulthood.

This is not something that we can fix by tweaking the current entrenched bureaucracy that we call public school, it will need a complete overhaul to start really serving our nation's children and preparing as many as possible for success in our current global environment.

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