Kindergarten- Playtime, arts, learning to count, starting to spell small words and read books about an adventurous animals, tasty snacks, cooties.
1st & 2nd grade- Solidifying how to stand in a line, learning addition with counting pieces of things like beads or buttons, reading accomplishment? Every single Curious George book....ever. Going on field trips and only remembering how funny that ticket lady looked. Even more dangerous cooties. School plays based on vaguely popular children's books or fairy tales, first real interaction with the dreaded substitute teacher. Learning to play the paper plate+dried bean tambourine. You're still crying over not getting that Fruit-Roll up in your lunch box.
3rd-5th grades- Maybe these aren't totally correctly grouped together...But by this time you seem to comprehend 'cool'. There's the cool boys that sit on top the jungle gym at recess and YOU WISH YOU WERE THEM. There's the cool girls with 55 different silly bandz and hair ties on at the same time and YOU WISH YOU WERE THEM TOO. Your first tests are given to you that actually have a number grade instead of either an ugly sticker or a cool sticker. Science fairs, chapter books, teachers trying to explain to you why multiplying complex fractions is important to your life, that boy/girl looks good to you and you have no friggin' idea why you can't stop looking at them. Fights with friends, you actually can write a paragraph about something and it is legible. Field trips to farther away places and all you can still remember is dang good cornbread and how your friend got his foot stuck in the toilet. People talk about cooties, but you're not quite sure anymore.
6th-8th grades- Something is up with those girls, something definitely happened over the summer. Cliques, unforgiving teachers, hall passes, DRAMA-RAMA!, something called studying that now takes up so much of that ole' ain't doing nothin' time, epic poetry and literature. Looking at your maths book and seeing more letters than numbers...but those numbers are hidden in there somewhere. Blowing up the science lab and needing to stay after to do it AGAIN WITH THAT DORK LAB PARTNER. Caring about your grades, remembering the next week what that plaque said in the museum even though you pretended not to care. Making out for the first time, awkward slow dances, still nothing has changed about those boys. Will you go out with me? Check Yes or No...
High School- 4yearsofcompletetorture/fun/bestimeofyourlife/ohnoshedidn't...istayeduplateforthisexamandstillgotadamn75%?wtfcryinginthebathroom
nevermindimokslammingdoors.IDON'TWANTTOTALKABOUTITOK!?!butireallydo...
makingfriendslosingfriendsfightingoverboysgirlsthatgradethatscorefornoreasonatall.
lockerscarsgamesican'tbelieveigotsodrunklastnight...areyouok?what'sgoingtohappen
nextyearwhenwegotocollege?goodbyestopeopleyouwillneverseeagain,thankfully.
bodyimageindecisionstillnottalkingaboutit.breakingshitdrivingfast,thatwasabadbad
decisionwasn'tit?sometimeswishingyouwerethatlittlekidagainandthengettingoverit...
Somewhere, somehow we learn things. Which is amazing. The Dept. of Education in the Federal and State legislations all believe they have pin pointed it DOWN. School boards for private schools also think they are ON IT. Really? I've really been thinking about this for such a long time now, the curriculum for excellence. What a funny title--for excellence. Many schools/districts have a statement just like it, 'learning for the future', 'preparing tomorrows leaders today'. Really? So in going to such schools with such promising one liners, my child is guaranteed to be tomorrows leader? My child will have EXCELLENT knowledge skills and marks to prove it? What you're teaching my child is really preparing them for the future? Really?
How does a child learn to speak, how does a child learn to eat with utensils? How did you learn zip a coat, wash yourself, what social skills and mannerisms are important? How did you learn to read, even just sounding out words? How are you passionate about your interests/hobbies? How do you make and keep friends?
Maths, reading/writing, learning the arts, the sciences, history is all so important. What about being a good person? Are our schools teaching that? If a child is one of many children in an overly busy house with barely there parents, how are they to know how to for say....manage finances/cook nutritious meals/learn how to use the washing machine or how to monitor the heating/ac in the house? If these parents aren't 'there' because they're pulling all they have to make sure their kids have a roof over their head and at least a full belly and clothes on their back, is it really ALL their fault that when their kids move out on their own that they're bankrupt by 25, inability to manage day to day tasks, can't cook for themselves never the less find a doctor or be able to make a professional phone call for enquiries?
Are these kids being churned out into college unprepared for things that lie outside the books and desks?
I think about this due to what I've seen everyday for the past 4 years, children LEARNING. Children learning how to make a bed, how to take a totally independent shower, how to choose foods that are good for them and that they like....in the right quantities, children learning spacial awareness by learning to MOP. Watching a child's self esteem grow by slowly talking to new people and being congratulated on such a big step.
I'm not saying that schools aren't doing a damn good job, they are! It's just watching the world from a totally new dimension, really seeing what youths are NOT learning and how much of a detriment it is that they are at when it's too late.
Teach the kids the freedom of choice, seeing motivation by ways of encouragement, and appreciating the world by having the world appreciate them.
