Food for Thought

When you can enjoy a good breakfast on a Saturday with you family, life is truly good. when you don't have to get up and go to work, but instead you can wake up at what ever time you wish, life is grand. To be able to sit and watch the news on CNN or listen to them on NPR, then life is even better. What better way to enjoy your breakfast than with a nice hot cup of coffee and a hot biscuit with butter and jelly to top it off.
Life is good.

Educational Waste

A mind is definitely a terrible thing to waste. Yet, so many kids are doing just that everyday in classrooms today. To many of them are coming to class and letting time go by without trying to learn anything. Many just say they are there because they have to, but would not come to school if they did not have to. Some are there because well, they come to socialize with friends, not to waste their time with something they think, or know they will never use in real life. To a point, I agree. Some of us can come up with clever arguments as to why they need to learn how to solve a right triangle, or an algebraic equation, or how fast a car accelerates in a given time, etc. But to many teachers do not do that, or have equally given up on trying to teach kids. Many just go through the motions, follow a given pacing plan that was handed down from above, and wait for the bell to ring.

To make things worse, a new report came out about reading just yesterday on NPR. according to the report, more kids are reading less, every year. Adults on average read no more then four books per year, and this among the avid readers. The average male reads less than one book per year, or non at all. This is a scary thought, because reading is the key to a better paying job in the future. The more reading is done during the earlier years, the better they will get to do in school, including college. I strongly believe that if we are to improve our kids math scores, we must first improve their reading levels.