Grantcoulson's Blog

 

    What I would consider were I a parent with school age children. First, a word about government intervention via Thomas Sowell.

    Not knowing history is like having a memory problem. You’re constantly amazed by things you think are new.

    Thomas Sowell, one of the smartest contemporary economists, states in his column that one of the rationales for government control of medical services is to reduce "waste, fraud and abuse". This is like appointing a wolf  to be  shepherd.

    More from his column.

    "If we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical drugs now, how can we afford to pay for doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical drugs, in addition to a new federal bureaucracy to administer a government-run medical system?"

    "As former Congressman Dick Armey put it, "Demagoguery beats data" in politics.

Waiting in long gasoline lines at filling stations was exasperating back in the 1970s, but waiting weeks to get an MRI to find out why you are sick, and then waiting months for an operation, as happens in countries with government-run medical systems, can be not only painful but dangerous."

    "You can be dead by the time they find out what is wrong with you and do something about it. But that will "bring down the cost of medical care" because you won’t be around to require any."

    Read the whole column through the link above.

from the book: Shadow Dancing on the Grave of Hope:

    Advice for Parents

    "It’s virtually self-evident that, like any taxocracy, public schools will be run for the benefit of those who have the power: politicians, bureaucrats and special interest groups. The problem is the power; the politicians, teachers’ unions and bureaucrats have it; the parents, taxpayers and students don’t. Eliminate the asymmetrical power relationship and you eliminate the public school. Ironically, "irresponsibility" is a vice not of my analysis, but of the public school system itself. In some sense, that’s what power means: lack of responsibility for your actions: irresponsible. James Ostrowski

    Every member of the educational establishment has power, and parents have none, and that’s the way of it. If teachers last out their probation period, which almost all of them do, they have jobs for life.

    If your child is learning satisfactorily, you have no problems.  You are lucky.  Many children; however, are said to be learning, but are learning little.

    Don’t be intimidated by school officials. Remember that they have regulations, but not expertise. I would recommend that you never take any advice, on any matter, from anyone who is paid by the government. These people never have to be right so they are almost always wrong. They are not always wrong because of the blind squirrel and stopped clock phenomena.

    When parents ask me about parent-teacher conferences, I tell them that they should never talk to anyone they can’t fire. "I’m going to set them straight.", an indignant parent will say. "Won’t happen.", I tell them. "You’re not talking to the teacher.", I say. "You’re talking to the head of the state or province, the cabinet member ‘responsible’ for education, the head of the union, the principal, etc. who all stand between you and the teacher. None of them will ‘listen’ to you, except in a political way, because you make no difference to them. Save your breath."

    If you can, home-school. Almost anyone can get good teaching materials and scripted methods and teach much faster than the public school . The main impediment is how you get along with your child. An earlier start should be easier, because you won’t have to overcome the frustration instilled by the public curricula.  If you get along with your child, and all other factors, such as time are favorable, you can easily do in two hours what the school does in six. Home-schooling is much easier than most imagine.

    1.  Do not hire a tutor.  A tutor is someone who will try to use the same teaching methods, exercises and curriculum as the school.  Since these have failed, more of the same will fail. "Our efforts are failing, so we’re redoubling them."  This is what happens in special education classes in school where the techniques which did not work in the regular class are used in smaller classes. Since class size is a weak variable,  the results are the same in the smaller class.

    2.  Hire a teacher. A teacher is someone who produces results. Do not hire a teacher with "teaching credentials". This is the type of person who represents techniques which have failed.  A teacher is someone who will analyze what basic and component skills the student needs to know and teach those skills.  Look for someone who talks about fluency in basic skills.  That increases the odds that he knows what he’s doing.

    3.  If the teacher uses one or more of the concepts from  "The Book of Wrong", don’t hire him.  These concepts are what got your child in trouble in the first place.

    4.  Ask for the data base the teacher is using.  If they have none, don’t hire him.  If they talk about "consensus" in teaching methods, don’t hire them.  What works is the opposite of democracy.  Facts don’t care about votes.

    5.  If you can afford it, hire someone to teach your student at age four or five.  Inoculating them against bad teaching is far more effective than trying to repair the effects of bad teaching, especially the bad teaching of reading and mathematics. 

    6.  Your child should be making much more progress per hour of instruction in the outside-the-school teaching than in school.  Ratios of 10:1 are not unreasonable to expect.  Slight progress is unacceptable.  Progress is especially easy to spot if the child has learned nothing in school, an outcome which is more common than usually believed. For example, a student in Grade Five may not know his multiply\divide facts. With the right instruction, most will learn quickly.

    7.  Unfortunately there is no guarantee that a charter or private school will be any more effective than the public schooling which has failed your child.  Like many areas of the social sciences, public relations are more important than results.  Until this is reversed, alternatives will contain no magic.  The wands called "charter schools", "private schools" or "phonics" are no guarantee of success.  After decades of progressive dominance, there are few educationists capable of producing results with all students. If the private school uses any of the buzzwords from public education such as "Whole Language", "integrated math", etc., flee.

    8. Traditional schooling may teach the child something, but it is, above all, a long series of IQ tests which merely confirm the student’s ranking.

    9.  There is a big problem in all of this.  If outside-the-school teaching succeeds, sending the child back to school is like repairing a leg broken in a skiing accident and then putting the skier back on the slope, heading for the same tree.

    10. If your child is labeled as a slow learner, as having attention deficit disorder, a learning disability or other excuses the education system uses for not being able to teach, don’t believe the label. Success in education does not equal success in life. Education is only one of the many factors make up a successful existence and a vastly overrated one at that. Success is the results of many factors which are also reflected in success in education such that education is a reflection and not a cause.

    11. Do not be seduced into believing that the "system" can be reformed. Ghengis Khan, Winston Churchill, Ghandi the Elder, Atilla the Hun and Plato could all be elected to the same school board. Aside from the lively debate at meetings, day-to-day operations would be unchanged. Once a public bureaucracy is in place, only the cosmetics change.

    12. Do not listen to anyone who says they can guarantee "a grade improvement or more" in a school subject. First. these guarantees are written in such slippery language that any result will qualify. Second, one cannot guarantee results from a totally different system. Teaching in North America is so bizarre in curriculum and measurement that any success will be accidental.

    13. Be especially careful if you have a special needs students such as someone with autism or other cognitive impairments. The school system has a bad enough record with standard students, but the education of special needs students is way beyond its ability. Again, look for results when choosing a teacher and a program and use the rule, from the Maltese Falcon, with a Canadian twist, "The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter, eh?" This is seen in the television adverts for learning centers  shot in soft focus where the students says, "I got an A." and the mom says, through her tears, "I knew you could do it." or, "I’m so proud of you, honey."

Cheerio and ttfn,

Grant Coulson