RE: education/society

Theresa: You would love it here...and we would welcome you with open arms!  

Melody, IA (Z 5/4)

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."    
--Albert Einstein

 --- On Tue 05/18, Tchessie < tchessie@comcast.net > wrote:
From: Tchessie [mailto: tchessie@comcast.net]
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 18:48:56 -0700
Subject: RE: [CHAT]   education/society

Ok- Melody- I'm moving to Iowa! We have huger and huger schools,
teaching<br>to test, providing as little help to kids in need as
possible. Elementary<br>schools have NO counselors at all in the
schools, school psychologist are<br>split between 3 school and test
only. There are BIG problems here with<br>racism in schools, and
increasing ethnic gangs and violence. I'm pretty<br>sick of my job and
the politics and elitism. I hope that in a year or 2 max,<br>that we can
sell the house for a tidy proit, pay off the bills and move<br>someplace
smaller, cheaper and more caring to live and raise a
family.<br><br>Phew- I feel better now- thanks for letting me
vent!<br><br>Theresa<br><br>-----Original Message-----<br>From:
owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net]On<br>Behalf
Of Melody<br>Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 1:44 AM<br>To:
gardenchat@hort.net<br>Subject: Re: [CHAT] New oleander now more
education<br><br><br>Ceres: I absolutely agree with you that big is not
always better when it<br>comes to school size. My kids go to one of the
smaller schools in town,<br>only about 300 students and we love it
there. It's more like a tight<br>knit community this way and the kids
and staff spend a great deal of<br>time working 1:1 with each other on a
variety of projects including team<br>building, mentoring, conflict
resolution, volunteerism. The 4-6th<br>graders all are part of a reading
buddies project with the K-3 graders.<br>Selected 4-6th graders are part
of a Peer Assistance Team, designed to<br>build conflict resolution
skills. The school's theme for the years is<br>the 3 B's: Be respectful,
Be helpful, Be a good listener. Of course, no<br>elementary school in
our district is over 400 or so students and every<br>Thursday classes
dismiss an hour early (1:45) so that all teachers and<br>staff in the
district can attend mandatory inservices that help to<br>achieve these
types of schools. For a community with less than 80,000<br>total
population, we have 17 elementary schools and we're building<br>anothe

r one, plus another Jr. High, a new alternative High School,
and<br>adding on to our two existing high schools, all in an effort to
keep<br>school sizes down. Obviously, smaller is perceived in the
education<br>world as better, at least here.<br><br><br><br>Melody, IA
(Z 5/4)<br><br>"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the
mysterious."<br>--Albert Einstein<br><br> --- On Mon 05/17, <
Cersgarden@aol.com > wrote:<br>From: [mailto: Cersgarden@aol.com]<br>To:
gardenchat@hort.net<br>Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 18:29:13 EDT<br>Subject:
Re: [CHAT] New oleander<br><br>In a message dated 5/17/04 5:09:24 PM,
jsinger@igc.org writes:<br><br><<<br>-encourages <br>a kind of
intellectual development that simply does not<br>occur in other
<br>settings. >><br><br>Jim, in some, I can't say how<br>many but at
least in the public school where my <br>granddaughters<br>attend, there
is a program where the older students go to the <br>lower<br>level
classes and help one on one, reading to the class, helping on
a<br><br>field trip and such. The older students must apply and are
selected<br>by the <br>activities they have been involved in, grades,
etc. It is<br>prestigious to be one <br>of the team. I'm sure it is not
as well<br>promoted as montessori but in a small <br>community where
montessori is<br>not an option it is an attempt to build <br>relations
and provide<br>mentoring. The other reqmt I am impressed with is the
hours of<br><br>volunteering that is rqd of each student annually from
middle school<br>thru hi <br>school. Graduation is not possible without
meeting the<br>requirement <br>regardless of grade point. This is a
small rural school<br>with less than 650 K-12. My o<br>ldest
granddaughter, now a college<br>student, has very strong feelings that
she <br>had the best<br>opportunities and campaigns for the small school
existence. The<br><br>state is looking at forcing small schools to
consolidate. Big is not<br>always
<br>better.<br><br>Ceres<br><br>---------------------------------------------------------------<br>--

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