Education: Inspiring Teachers Inspiring Kids

[HenryDavidT]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/12/24/372885008/teacher-wins-150-000-prize-and-donates-it-all-to-her-school

The "secret" to a successful student starts young. You can not wait until they're in middle or high school, to teach them or make them learn, or to interest them in the art of learning.

If kids don't learn from 1st to around the 5th grade, chances of them doing well, much less succeeding, in upper middle school and in high school, are very much reduced.

The foundational years, IN EDUCATION, are between the FIRST and FOURTH grades.

While there are always exceptions, and someone could be total stone-headed and then learn quickly in middle school years, and then go on to excel in high school and college..... for around 98% or so of students, if they have a good foundation in reading, writing, and introductory basic mathematics, the CHANCES of them continuing to do well and to build up on knowledge necessary in high school and college... those chances are very high...

Opposite corollary is equally valid:

If they have "a bad experience," or "can't learn" ---- for all kinds of reasons (bad teacher and/or bad teaching; poor parenting skills; no parents or support at home; etc) between FIRST and FOURTH GRADES --- then chances of them struggling through and hating middle and high school years, are extremely good and high...

This is why societies that value education, that value students AND TEACHERS at the very early grades.

If you look at most of the NORTHERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES that do very well in education ---- even though they don't spend 15 hours a day in school, like the Chinese and South Koreans and Japanese do, so they could memorizing all kinds of tricks, facts, events, dates, formulas, test taking tricks, etc., like Asians do and PAY LOTS OF MONEY to private and expensive tutors to help them out ---- you notice that they invest heavily in early grade school years; they pay teachers like they pay doctors and other educated people.

When you pay grade school teachers well, you WILL ATTRACT many thousands of applications for only a few dozen positions. That means you could choose ONLY THE VERY BEST and MOST innovative teachers to hire. And that means MOST of them will go on to do well and will choose to stay on teaching children.

Blaming teachers and blaming students, AND NOT PUTTING RESOURCES INTO EARLY EDUCATION (saying "money doesn't help educate" or "throwing money at schools and teachers is not the solution," ad nauseam), will not get you anywhere fast...

[cher...@gmail.com]

PARENT ENCOURAGEMENTis a BIG FACTOR to MOTIVATE the JID to LEARN atleast for me. IN MY 1-3 GRADE. I can say I DOMINATE all subject and contents given by the teacher in VINAI REFUGEE CAMP. I SAID SO because I DID grade 1--3 in my 1ST YEAR in VINAI in 1980.1981 in P5 I SKIP P4 1982 in P6. VINAI GAVE-OUT P6 certificatio for the 1ST TIME THAT YEAR. 1987 MIGRATE TO USA and STARTING 9TH GRADE in HIGH SCHOOL. all classes are EZ ENOUGH BUT ENGLISH GOT ME.as haed as I TRIED I can onky MANAGE to get 2 "B" in my 10th and 11th grades. IT IS ALL MOTIVATION to do the BEST that is what kept the KID to pay attention to LECTURE in class and hand in ALL THEM DEVIL HOME WORKS.IT was NOT EZ throughout my SCHOOL time at the U I RAN OUT of idea to solve a CALCULAS PROBLEM to the point that STACK my PENCIL on TOP of the FINAL TEST SHEET and I just keep INHALE and EXHALE FAST to get ENOUGH OXYGEN to my TIRED BRAIN. when other students start to LEAVE the TESTING CLAS I just hand my test paper to the TESTER with 4 pages of UNFISH PROBLEM to one of the PROOFING CALCULAS class. MATH HAD NOT EVER MADE ME FEEL SO BIGHEAD STUPID as that SINGLE PROBLEM. I MET the proffesor a few days later he said I GOT "B" for that FINAL TEST I did NOT COMPLETE ONE of the PROBLEM he said I WROTE 4 PAGES on that SINGLE PROBLEM BUT MOST STUDENTS LEAVE THAT ONE BLANK. the PROFFESOR SAID DON'T FEEL TOO BAD he solved that problem with 5 pages of PROOFS and theory QUOTING. I FEELED A LITTLE BETTER when THAT WAS MY LAST QUARTER of classes I GRADUATED to get my BS degree a few days right after that MAJOR IN COMPUTER SCIENCE and MINOR in MATH. I COULD DOUBLE MAJOR if I BANG MYHEAD 1 more year on MATH CLASSES. I QUIT and WEN FISHING FOR CARP and BUFFALO about 30 miles away from the U. my MOST FAVOR TYPE of class FINAL made me DUMB and DUMBER in 1994. some U credits while I WAS in HIGH SCHOOL as POST SECONDARY push my credit above the limit to get my BS degree that QUARTER. DO NOT RELAX yet. I STILL NEED to TACKLE POLITICAL SCIENCE NEXT. I HATE READING THE MOST because I ONLY READ AT 20-30 WORDS/MINUTES pushing higher WPM and I JUST FLIP PAGES I GOT NO CLUE WHAT the DUMB DEVIL BOOK IS ABOUT WHILE MY PEER read at 500++ words per minute WPM. they flew through books while I KEEP CHEWING A CHARACTER at a time. I TOOK SPEED READING CLASSES A FEW TIME BUT NO HELP. DEVIL BOOKS ESPECIALLY NOVEL and EXTRA READING MATERIALS BESIDE MATH and COMPUTER GOT MY DUMB & DUMBER SIDE OF ME LITTLE/SHORT FAT BIGfoot and BIGHEAD2.