Tell me what you really think.
*clap
Brava. A thousand times over.
(This, folks, is why Mamacita was my favorite teacher ever, and why she is still, more years later than either of us care to admit, one of my greatest friends)
WF
Oh, please, please please would you just come here and teach my daughter's third grade class?? And then fourth...
I was a teacher until I had kids. Then I had to stop. The testing, admin BS sucked the very life out of me and took all the joy out of teaching for me.
You have so very eloquently expressed what has been heavy on my heart as I watch my smart, funny, creative little girl try to navigate her way through the school system. Thank you.
Hello, Michele sent me.
I have to agree with you. I wouldn't want to be a child in todays society. So much of the innocence of our youth has been lost.
What you say is so very, very true. Here in the UK as well. Alas.
Spoken like the sister of a public school music teacher. You go!
"You go!"... erm, where? I hate that phrase. Sorry, DG.
Well said, very eloquent. My daughter has just ended two years education within the Montessori framework, and as parents we absolutely loved the individuality if appeared to foster in her.
If all the Montessori literature is to be believed, then our education system is doing it all wrong by trying to crush everyone into a "one-size-fits-all" curriculum.
Interesting, the head of her nursery has just left to head an experiment in applying Montessori to a "failing" school in Leeds (UK). We're watching with interest.
Erm...it was "tongue-in-cheek", because mamacita knows I would never actually say "you go". Sorry, WeeDom.
ah, irony. Sorry, missed it first time round... I'm letting us Britons down!
DG - if this is who I think it is, and I think it is, thanks for the piano lessons. I'm still not a very good pianist, but I am teaching Class Piano at my new gig.
WF
You are right on the mark with all of this, especially the part about recess. Young kids need the time to run around and be silly. That's the one thing at my kids' school that I hate. At lunch if they're noisy then they don't get to go outside and play. And it's too short anyway.
Brava, Mamacita. Well said.
"Ananda" is the Sanskrit word for "bliss."
Brilliant post! "Ananda" is joy and you exude it with your scholars, I know. Thank you for the L'Engle quotations.
*cutting, copying, and pasting the wise words of Mamacita*
Do you know John Holt's books?
You're correct, WF. You knocked those 20th c. pieces right out of the park! I'm so proud of you. You have quite the resolve to have survived BOTH mamacita and me
Congrats on your successful career in music!
Oh, and WeeDom: all if forgiven...
I meant "all IS forgiven" Teachers don't always proofread on the weekends.
Ah, but DG dishes one mean bowl of frozen custard. 
-G
Hehe. You're welcome.
Wonderful post.
"The saddest, and the truest, is that this is a vicious circle, and no one seems to have the intestinal fortitude to straighten it out."
It isn't clear to me that the current message can be straighten out. I am afraid the answer is to go to vouchers, or to homeschool, and/or some other options.
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