I have been thinking about Education.
I recently watched this video on the need to change the education system in America. I think it's spot on.
On a related note (follow along for a minute as I digress to make my point), I have a dear friend, Mary: (http://marydebastos.blogspot.com/).
We've known each other for years and years. We attended the same University. We worked on Cruise Ships together. We were housemates for a while. We seem to keep popping up into each other's lives. She married a Venezuelan/Portuguese fellow who works in Scotland and they currently live there. They recently had a baby (One of the CUTEST babies I have EVER seen - seriously, check out her blog). Baby S is already on a fabulous life path and doesn't even know it. He will be educated in languages by his parents (English by his Mama -- Dad speaks it too!) and Spanish & probably Portuguese too, by his Papa. Because of their unusual living situation, baby S will also have multi-citizenship: American from his Mother. Venezuelan & Portuguese from his Father. UK by birth. EU as a product of being Portuguese. Think of the repercussions! When baby S grows up, he can practically go and live anywhere in the world he wants. He'll be able to communicate with much of the world. And all due to the circumstance of his birth, and the hard work of his parents.
Now, contrast baby S' already favorable circumstances with those of the average middle-class American kid, who will probably only speak one language- English. This kid will go to high school. May drop out. May go to community college, probably will never leave his native country and may never leave the state he/she was raised in.
Of course I'm making huge generalisations. Huge. I know this. But it happens, and isn't it a crying shame? The world is Baby S' oyster. The average American kid may never see an oyster.
We need to do better. We need to stop generalizing education, and packaging it for the masses. Parents need to step in and individualize to their children's needs and supplement accordingly.
You may agree with me. You may think I ought to shut up because I don't have kids. Well, if the second option is you, try and remember your education. Think of all that you know now and contrast it with what you learned as a child. If you had simply learned some things better as a child would it have benefited you more in your adult life?
In school I never properly learned how to dissect and diagram sentences. I wish I had. I wish I'd been exposed to languages when I was a toddler and learned French, Spanish, Italian, Russian - when it would have been easy to learn them!
I'm not complaining about the circumstances in which I was brought up - not at all, I was so richly blessed as a child. I had just about everything I could ever dream of. I had food to eat every day and a warm house and siblings and parents, and because of my upbringing I have been able to do amazing things in my life, things that most people never will. But I wish they could!!
I wish they would want to!
And mostly, I wish for my children, if I ever have any, the same wish that every parent ever does: that they will have every single opportunity to become smart, educated, responsible, talented people who offer up great out-of-the-box solutions to the problems the world presents them. I want to make sure they are de-programmed from thinking that just because something is advertised they must have it; that just because a corporation makes something it is better than anything they as individuals can make or do.
If you could change one thing about your education, what would it be?
I recently watched this video on the need to change the education system in America. I think it's spot on.
On a related note (follow along for a minute as I digress to make my point), I have a dear friend, Mary: (http://marydebastos.blogspot.com/).
We've known each other for years and years. We attended the same University. We worked on Cruise Ships together. We were housemates for a while. We seem to keep popping up into each other's lives. She married a Venezuelan/Portuguese fellow who works in Scotland and they currently live there. They recently had a baby (One of the CUTEST babies I have EVER seen - seriously, check out her blog). Baby S is already on a fabulous life path and doesn't even know it. He will be educated in languages by his parents (English by his Mama -- Dad speaks it too!) and Spanish & probably Portuguese too, by his Papa. Because of their unusual living situation, baby S will also have multi-citizenship: American from his Mother. Venezuelan & Portuguese from his Father. UK by birth. EU as a product of being Portuguese. Think of the repercussions! When baby S grows up, he can practically go and live anywhere in the world he wants. He'll be able to communicate with much of the world. And all due to the circumstance of his birth, and the hard work of his parents.
Now, contrast baby S' already favorable circumstances with those of the average middle-class American kid, who will probably only speak one language- English. This kid will go to high school. May drop out. May go to community college, probably will never leave his native country and may never leave the state he/she was raised in.
Of course I'm making huge generalisations. Huge. I know this. But it happens, and isn't it a crying shame? The world is Baby S' oyster. The average American kid may never see an oyster.
We need to do better. We need to stop generalizing education, and packaging it for the masses. Parents need to step in and individualize to their children's needs and supplement accordingly.
You may agree with me. You may think I ought to shut up because I don't have kids. Well, if the second option is you, try and remember your education. Think of all that you know now and contrast it with what you learned as a child. If you had simply learned some things better as a child would it have benefited you more in your adult life?
In school I never properly learned how to dissect and diagram sentences. I wish I had. I wish I'd been exposed to languages when I was a toddler and learned French, Spanish, Italian, Russian - when it would have been easy to learn them!
I'm not complaining about the circumstances in which I was brought up - not at all, I was so richly blessed as a child. I had just about everything I could ever dream of. I had food to eat every day and a warm house and siblings and parents, and because of my upbringing I have been able to do amazing things in my life, things that most people never will. But I wish they could!!
I wish they would want to!
And mostly, I wish for my children, if I ever have any, the same wish that every parent ever does: that they will have every single opportunity to become smart, educated, responsible, talented people who offer up great out-of-the-box solutions to the problems the world presents them. I want to make sure they are de-programmed from thinking that just because something is advertised they must have it; that just because a corporation makes something it is better than anything they as individuals can make or do.
If you could change one thing about your education, what would it be?
LOVE IT!! LD and I have had this conversation many times. We really feel that just by marrying each other and moving here to Scotland where we have had Sebastian that we are giving him the best gift we could EVER give him.
ReplyDeleteLD speaks to Sebastian exclusively in Spanish (I'm taking Spanish classes as well) and once he gets Spanish down we'll work on Portuguese. He will know English just because he lives in an English speaking country. Then he can take what ever language he wants in high school.
He will have the opportunity to graduate high school at 16 yrs old and then go to college or trade school and get a degree before entering University. All of which will be paid for by the Scottish government because he was born here.
We often talk about how his summers will be filled with traveling the globe, and when he graduates from high school he can backpack with friends through Europe or any place he wants to go in the world.
We miss family and I miss some American things, but we have it TOO good here to leave. We are very blessed to live in a country that really takes care of their own.
Great post!