“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”
-Aristotle
“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”
- C. S. Lewis
I spent a large part of my week speaking to folks about getting their children out of the Buna Public Schools.
Many of them were asking about homeschooling their children. More than you know, and the question keeps coming up, and I paraphrase here.
"Am I smart enough to teach my kids at home?"
For most of you, my answer is...." Grades k-8, yes." When they get to high school well, that was where it splits.....Do you want your kid to go to college and study in a STEM program? For some of you, yes, for some of you, well it depends.
The depends is, are you have the will to learn enough to teach say pre-cal? Or find someone to tutor the child in maths (as the British call it)? Same with many of the sciences? Economics? Heck, might even go into some of the other programs.....
But where there is a will, there is a way.
To be honest I don't trust a lot of the curriculum programs being used in Texas right now, case in point, the Bluebonnet Curriculum has 4,000 mistakes.
It's why I wrote my own Gov/Eco curriculum. Yes, it followed the TEKS, but the curriculum's that were offered, well, they sucked. Sucked bad/
A brain-damaged squirrel could have written a better curriculum for economics. And I am pretty sure it was done that way on purpose.
Then, there was a community person who is dead serious about setting up a private school of some sort in the South Jasper County area. Picked my brain so much this week, I am thinking about sending them a dun for a consultation fee. They hinted at me teaching a couple of the upper level classes and I said " No." I am through. I am too far away from the classroom to come back and I love not having to go anyplace in the morning.....I am telling you, retirement is the best job I have ever had.....
- Then, I am trying to figure out the " Whys?" on the Mock STAAR EXAM being added to the grades without or is my understanding without there being some sort of adjustment or curve like the test itself has......
I had a student of mine who is brighter than me....Yes, there are several of you smarter than me. Especially with the mathematical formulation within microeconomics. Hell, I took a 439 Microeconomics course from Dr. Smithson at LU and he had PhD in Agricultural Microeconomics from the Univ. of Minnesota and he got off in the math and had to come in the next class, and tell us he messed up and started over. ( It actually was a sort of fun class. Hard, but I enjoyed the agricultural part of the course.)
I don't know.
There is so much micromanagement going on now in the school business.
Most of you would have failed Gov/Eco. And I know there are people still mad at me for failing my class, but do you really understand how hard it was to flunk my class and even then, I literally lost more sleep than you know before I gave you an " F." And trust me, you earned it. I was pissed off at you for putting me in that spot.
As much as I loved the Buna ISD in the past, if you are unhappy, and can do so, get your kids out. I don't know how many of the faculty today puts their necks out for the kids like was done. I know what I did for some of y'all, and well, I liked doing it because it pissed off certain people, however, you know me, I am a bit " different." But there were upper level teachers retired or now gone to greener pastures, you need to thank for what they did for you. I do not think you know how some teachers risked their careers for some of you. You need to buy them breakfast sometime, or at least thank them when you see them in the store , they seriously would be thrilled.
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