Making history...
I just found this story that bloggers in the U.K. were urged to blog yesterday about how history affects them to create the biggest blog in history. What a great idea. I'm a day late, but I can share a bit of my life for history's sake.
My life at this point is touched by many things, but Education is the most salient.
My life at UNC and my husband's at WFU put us in the center of higher education every day. While there are calls from the Secretary of Education and others to make sure that college students are actually learning something in college, we don't necessarily see those problems at our schools. Our students are here to learn and for the most part, they work hard. Some of the remedial work that needs to be done at this level involves writing skills. This is something students are not getting enough of at the high school level. Aneil and I had a great teacher at Okemos High School, Doug Collar, who set us on the path to excellent writing.
We also see the K-12 educational system through our children's experiences and there are no easy answers to the problems of K-12 education. The public school our kids went to the first year in Chapel Hill was terrible, despite its outstanding reputation. Large class sizes, ill-equipped teachers, and misbehaving children made for a miserable experience for my children. They were so unhappy that they begged us to move them to private school. Private school, however, has its issues, too. Arrogant administrators and snobby students don't necessarily make it a nice place to spend your time. My kids have a ton of homework every day and this year is not their best year for nurturing teachers, either. We don't see an easy answer for what we are looking for. My husband keeps threatening home-schooling, but I think we all get enough of each other as it is. Where is there a school that cares for its students, creates a sense of community, and is concerned with excellence?
My life at this point is touched by many things, but Education is the most salient.
My life at UNC and my husband's at WFU put us in the center of higher education every day. While there are calls from the Secretary of Education and others to make sure that college students are actually learning something in college, we don't necessarily see those problems at our schools. Our students are here to learn and for the most part, they work hard. Some of the remedial work that needs to be done at this level involves writing skills. This is something students are not getting enough of at the high school level. Aneil and I had a great teacher at Okemos High School, Doug Collar, who set us on the path to excellent writing.
We also see the K-12 educational system through our children's experiences and there are no easy answers to the problems of K-12 education. The public school our kids went to the first year in Chapel Hill was terrible, despite its outstanding reputation. Large class sizes, ill-equipped teachers, and misbehaving children made for a miserable experience for my children. They were so unhappy that they begged us to move them to private school. Private school, however, has its issues, too. Arrogant administrators and snobby students don't necessarily make it a nice place to spend your time. My kids have a ton of homework every day and this year is not their best year for nurturing teachers, either. We don't see an easy answer for what we are looking for. My husband keeps threatening home-schooling, but I think we all get enough of each other as it is. Where is there a school that cares for its students, creates a sense of community, and is concerned with excellence?
posted by Karen Mishra at 8:48 AM
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