Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
Educating children to be free individuals: one small school’s success at a supremely challenging task
A friend of mine asked me to use this blog as an opportunity the tell a positive story, the story about the school choice they made. Here is her story:
Apparently, New Jersey has one of the best public school systems in the country. That was somewhat comforting since my husband and I had moved to the state from New York City a few years before and now had a child rapidly approaching school age. Also, I must admit there was the anticipated satisfaction of getting something in return for the outrageous property taxes we had been paying – a full half of which went to our local elementary school. We then did next what most New Jersey parents do who are obsessed with getting the best education for their children. We went to an “open house” at the public school.
The first impression we experienced, somewhat bizarrely, was the “institutional” smell of the place, which brought back a flood of memories from adolescence. What is it about public schools, prisons and hospitals that they all have this smell, generating a feeling of capture and control? This thing that makes you invariably yearn to escape? Perhaps it is the fact that though they are designed for human beings, there is the distinct alienating air of inhumanity about them. I digress. Be that as it may, after about five minutes my husband and I both realized this was not going particularly well, but we were putting on a brave face. Then we all filed into the large gymnasium to hear presentations by the principal and faculty we were looking forward to reassurance.
The first thing the principal spoke about is how the school is fulfilling numerous policies of the NJ Department of Education. Their priorities were quite obvious and, to me, horrifying. We went home afloat in the sea of diffuse anxiety and vague helplessness—how can we send our child to a place that is there for children in name only, that does not care about their individuality, their humanity, and puts bureaucratic barriers between possibly well-meaning teachers and their students? We began to look at private schools and came across a web site of a small school near Princeton—finding it felt like finding firm ground in the midst of a morass. The name of the school was Princeton Latin Academy.
If I had to encapsulate in one word my feelings toward my 6-year old son’s school, Princeton Latin Academy (PLA), I would have to say: Gratitude. I am grateful that there is a place where the educational goal is for the children to become aware of their own uniqueness and humanity and thus to value individual freedom as a supreme virtue. Princeton Latin Academy truly values each child as an individual, but this does not mean that children are pandered to—such pandering would deprive them of growth and development, stunt them, or encourage the kind of growth that one may expect of fertilized weeds.
The means by which Francesco Perrulli, PLA founder and headmaster, reaches for and nurtures what is best in each child’s soul is Classical Education that immerses children in the rich world of mythology, music, art, science, and language. The children are empowered by being taught English and Math in a manner that produces long-lasting, confident mastery. Consistent with its mission, PLA certainly marches to the beat of its own drum, and I have to admit that I have wondered, as I walked into the late-afternoon organized chaos of the school: “Is my child learning as much as he ought to? This all seems a bit loose-goosy.” The answer is YES, both on the superficial level of, in the 1st grade, obtaining 2nd or 3rd grade test scores on a widely used standardized test, and on the deeper level of character formation. It is the latter that I will now address.
Princeton Latin Academy is not there to impose external structures and mold the child into an obedient little drone. PLA’s goal appears to me to be to create internal structure and discipline: the intellectual and spiritual backbone that will ensure that children will continue to demand and expect a lot of themselves. It will also ensure that they have empathy for others as they realize our relatedness in universal humanity. This solid internal structure (one may call it character) will allow the children, as they reach adulthood, to be aware of who they are and to be reflective and critical about fulfilling expectations placed on them by society, lest they tarnish what was so carefully built during their formative years. This, to me, is the definition of freedom.
Perhaps a perfect embodiment of the school’s goals and methods is the yearly opera production. It is based on a work of literature chosen by the headmaster; some examples include Tom Sawyer, Vanity Fair, Daniel Deronda, Ramayana, and Don Quixote. It is the children who create the opera, with the help and guidance of the teachers. The children write the libretto and, together with the music teacher, choose music for the opera. The whole school (including six and seven-year olds) participates in every aspect of putting together a three-hour long performance. The PLA operas are always beautiful externalizations of the children’s inner development and, at their best, are works of art.
Another look
When I wrote about the proposed Arabic-Language secondary school in Brooklyn I missed a quote of the planed to be principal of this school:
Arabs or Muslims, Almontaser says, are innocent of the 9/11 atrocities: "I don’t recognize the people who committed the attacks as either Arabs or Muslims." Instead, she blames 9/11 on Washington’s foreign policies, saying they "can have been triggered by the way the USA breaks its promises with countries across the world, especially in the Middle East, and the fact that it has not been a fair mediator."
It is rather alarming that a school principle, one that the city of NY intend putting in charge of educating young children in already controversial school, choose to deal with problematic fact by simply denying them. Not that I suggest that the terror attacks carried on 9/11 were fault of the entire Arab world, however the terrorist were in fact Arab and Muslim and came from some background.
If Almonster want to preach her believes, she should be free to do so. However the NY tax payers shouldn’t be forced to fund her.
Tags: Public Schools Khalil Gibran International Academy NYC Taxes
Writing under the influence
Would I not know who wrote this op-ed, suggesting to waste more money on failing education system, I would wonder if he was sober while wring it…
No Child Left Behind is not just a slogan. It’s a national commitment, inspired by our fundamental values and aspirations. It’s a promise to do all we can so that every American child receives the high-quality education he or she needs and deserves. We may never achieve that lofty goal, but if we hope to keep America strong and just, prosperous and free, we can never stop trying.
Joking aside, the idea of throwing more money into the failure program name "no child left behind" is simply horrifying. The sad thing is that it is obviously going to happened.
Tags: No Child Left Behind Vouchers The Free Market Big Government
Seperation of school and state
A friend send me an e-mail about this initiative. I already added my name to the proclamation, what about you?
Why Shouldn’t the Government be Involved in Education?
The Short Answer:
- Government schooling stands in direct opposition to the liberty this country was founded on.
- It fosters unquestioning obedience, acceptance of authority, herd mentality, and dependency.
- It manufactures "equality" by lowering standards.
- It discourages individuality, innovation, curiosity, creativity and overall excellence.
- It undermines families and other relationships.
- It undermines religious beliefs, values and morality.
- It fosters social, psychological, emotional and intellectual dysfunction and promotes immaturity and perpetual adolescence.
- It makes children the victims of political change, special interests, researchers, unions and social reformers.
- It undermines the ability of parents to provide their children with the quality and type of education they desire for them.
Fuzzy Principals
It is very disturbing to find out what type of characters the NY Teacher’s Union glorifies
The state’s teachers union has a curious profile up on their Web site, a piece lionizing a guy whose accomplishment seems to have been going on food stamps so he wouldn’t have to sully himself by shopping at Wal-Mart.
Can someone explain these educators that making a stand when someone else needs to pay the bill isn’t so “principled”?