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February 2004 - Innovations Newsletter
The Rest of the Story
We have a brewing controversy here in Georgia over replacing the term
“Evolution” with another term. It started me thinking about when I was
in school.
Thanks to my mother, I could already read and do my numbers when I started first
grade. (I was spared kindergarten.) In fact, I was so
good at flash cards that I wasn’t allowed to compete with the other children
because I always won.
I had to go to the library for my younger sister and check out “Gone With the
Wind” for her. The librarian wouldn’t let a grammar school
child have the book.
My grandmother had a wonderful library of books that I loved reading. Especially
Bruce Catton’s series about the Civil War. I also read
Dwight Eisenhower’s books about the 2nd World War and scary stories by Edgar
Allan Poe.
I changed schools between the 4th and 5th grade. My new school was using a set
of text books called “Singing Wheels, Engine Whistles” or
something like that. My teacher, knowing I hadn’t read the 4th grade reading
book loaned me one on a Friday. I bought it back the following
Monday. My teacher thought I was having trouble reading it. I said “Yes, It is
very boring. I had to force myself to read it.” She
couldn’t believe I’d read the whole thing. I couldn’t see how she could drag it
out for an entire school year!
Was I a genius? Hardly no. I had the benefit of a mother who took the time to
prepare me for school. Was I curious, very. Did I like school,
not much. It was boring, and after the 1st and 2nd grade it was hard to stay
interested. Subjects that I loved became dull and
uninteresting when we had to “study” them in school.
To me teachers taught school like we used to play school at home. Read this,
memorize it and then we’ll give you a multiple choice test. We
would memorize, regurgitate, and then do it again.
I feel for the teachers trying to teach now. At least then, as I remember,
teachers had a fair chance at disciplining a child. If we
were told to do something, for the most part we did. With a few exceptions, we
respected and sometimes even liked our teachers. We knew
if we misbehaved punishment would be forthcoming. It wasn’t perfect, but it
worked most of the time.
The world was different then.
At the end of the 11th grade I dropped out of school and joined the Air Force.
There were a lot of reasons. One was I was getting roughed up
every day in school by a few boys who didn’t have anything better to do.
Another reason was that the A students were getting their A’s by cheating. Big
Time cheating!
I tried to discuss it with my teachers but they wouldn’t listen. So, for that
and other reasons I left. Eventually, the cheating was found
out and became front page news, but by then I was overseas serving my country,
had earned college credits, and I didn’t really care anymore,
So, what the heck does all this have to do with “The Rest of the Story.” First,
go to the library and check out one of Paul Harvey’s
“Rest of the Story” Books. Read a chapter a night with your children. The
stories are true. Events and people they might hear about in
school, but, not the whole story.
I knew something was missing from what I was being taught in school. Too
many facts were glossed over or just missing. This became very
apparent when I got to read the actual newspaper accounts of what happened at
the Little Big Horn. That was not what was in our
textbooks!
Last year I flew to England to meet the owner of a new children’s product that
we offer on our website.
(http://www.rwrinnovations.com/story_cds.htm) Personalized adventure stories
that run on your computer. We had long discussions about the
product. His feelings were that parents wanted a product that they could enjoy
along with their child. It would be a family thing to do
together.
I told him that this might be the way things were in England, but not in the
states. Our families were torn in too many different directions
and many of our young children, when they were not in school or at day care,
were plopped in front of a television or an electronic game while
their parents were doing other things.
Our parents were feeling concerned about the amount of time their children were
staring at a TV screen and wanted something else to
replace the TV. If it was educational that was wonderful, then they wouldn’t
feel as guilty about leaving their little ones unattended, on
their own. His product is great, but requires an adult or someone who can read
to supervise the child, unless the child is old enough to
read. He didn’t agree and that was that.
I just had a conversation with him and he admitted that what I had said had some
merit. Parents were still telling him that they loved his
product, etc., but now they were admitting that it would be much nicer if their
children could use the product unsupervised. (The Rest of the
Story) This was coming from his customers in England. He’s decided to add some
enhancements to address these concerns.
We both agree that parents/adults should be with their children, but that isn’t
how the world is anymore, at least for many parents.
Note to teachers: I’ve worked with teenagers who love their schools, are
brilliant and have nothing but praise for their teachers. These
kids were attending public schools. So, there is hope and there are some
wonderful teachers working hard to educate our young. If you are
one of these don’t give up. Your students appreciate you and love you.
And now for this months sites:
Groundhog Day
Here’s a site that offers more than you’ll ever want to know about Groundhog
Day! Teachers will find all kinds of activities they can use
in their classrooms including:
http://www.groundhog.org
Photowizadry 4U
Remember going to an amusement park and having the chance to purchase a magazine
cover with your picture on it? This site has that and much
more including funny money with your picture on it. They’ll also edit your
pictures to remove unwanted people before creating your
masterpiece. Makes a unique, one-of-a-kind gift at a reasonable price.
http://www.photowizardry4u.com/home.html
That’s it for this month. We’re still recovering from the holiday season!
CU in March
Ron Nixon
RWR Innovations
We Make Reading Fun Again!
Issue: 2/1//2004 ISSN #: 1543-9275
Note: The websites in this newsletter are listed because I find them interesting
and have value to parents and children. They have not paid
money or given me anything to be mentioned.
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