Spare The Rod?

My son has a school project that is due tomorrow. A diorama of the ocean. We have worked on it for weeks, me more than him, me 'pushing' him to ask questions and seek answers.

It's a pretty nice piece of work. Not only does it go over the biome (living zones and interconnectedness) of the oceans, but it also brings up the 'Eighth Continent', the large balls of plastic that are in the oceans because of all the plastic waste from consumers being put together by the currents, and not sinking to the ocean floor to decompose. (did you know one plastic shopping bag from the grocery store takes one hundred to four hundred years to decompose? And most of the trash in the oceans comes from the land, to the rivers, then to the sea. Here is a nice link for you teachers: http://www.maudfontenoyfondation.com/en/)


Dad was a teacher.

Today's topic comes from mom.

Here's what she has to say:

Dad thought it was criminal to give the kids so much work after a long day at school.

Whenever he would try to back down on the amount of homework he was handing out, after a while, the complaints would come in--from the parents!

They would say, 'Mr. (our last name), I see you are giving less homework to our child. Don't try to favor him or let him off easy--give him lots of work so he can learn.'

So he would give more.

My sister and brother-in-law, according to mom, spent hours and hours with my nephew to get him to understand and complete his homework.

That's why I have a hard time with my son, too, she thinks. I have to be 'on' him to get him to study. And he asks a LOT of questions about everything, so practically I do his homework for him.

My niece, apparently, was like me. She never had a problem. She always understood and did what was expected of her. And now she is the one who spends a lot of time helping her brother with his homework.

Mom says the times where you went to school to have fun and learn are over.

Studies show that the interactions that take place between the teachers and students are more like 'a business' than a classroom.

This makes sense because at my sister's school district, the parents have to pay the school forty-dollars for every missed school day; this is to make up for the state funding that is lost when there is an absence. Even when my niece and nephew are sick, she takes them to school for the first hour or two, so the school won't count it as an absence, everyone gets their 'funding', and the sick kids are able to go home.

Mom says there is talk about lengthening the school day to eight hours, just like a day at work.

The teachers are fighting against it.

When is there time for sports and after-school activities?

When is there time to just go out in the yard, play with the kids on the street, or ride your bike like I used to?

Mom says she gets to know some of the neighbor kids on her street. She talks to them when they come home from school. She used to work the playground as a guide to watch over recess, and she is comfortable with kids.

She says she talks to them, and they talk openly and honestly with her.

There's something new she's noticed in the past few years---

--they all say they HATE SCHOOL.

It's boring. It's too much work. They just don't like it.

Kids are so used to the computer that they just can't read a book from cover to cover.

Mom says we used to have busy kids before, who might look out the window, but they could concentrate on a task, and comprehend what the teacher was telling them and teaching them.

Nowadays, the kids just don't comprehend. Their minds are not QUIET and able to Focus, Mom confided.

What are they doing to our children? she asks.


I don't know, Mom. I don't know.

But I think you may be on to something...something very important for all of us to know.



Aloha and Mahalos,
Namaste,

Reiki Doc

Elementary School Blue

My father was an elementary school teacher. Some of my earliest memories are from going with dad to his work. There was a hopefulness about the place. All of the children looked so much bigger than me! I looked up to them, and looked forward to the opportunity where I too could go to school and learn.

I thoroughly enjoyed the educational process. I picked up loud and clear that the generation that built the school hoped for great things from us students. Everything was neat, clean, orderly, and pleasant.

Recently I took a bicycle ride with my boy to a neighboring school. (He does not attend it, he goes to a school I selected just for him. He is a bright boy, and I want him to be encouraged to develop to the fullest of his potential.)

As an intuitive and as someone who has advanced degrees in higher education, I was shocked to see the local public elementary school. Where were the windows? There were no windows whatsoever on any of the classrooms! The school was painted drab gray, not the bright pink or yellow ones I grew up with in another school district. Although the playgrounds were fairly standard, and also there was a big grassy field with lots of trees, I noticed there was a lack of color. Gone were the flowering shrubs that were familiar in my youth at all of my schools. In a word, it was depressing.

There were many bungalows present, and I was surprised at how many jackets and lunch boxes were carelessly left outside over the weekend. I felt that everyone was just going through the motions, students, teachers, and the government that was not being a good steward to taxpayer money.

There was no auditorium or cafeteria, only benches underneath a shade. Litter was everywhere.
It was in disrepair. I have seen Navy Hospitals and VA Medical Centers that were more pleasant!

I was sad. I felt like this was a place where the life force in all of our young people was systematically destroyed. The children were being taught to live in their mind, and not their heart center. The heart is actually capable of making intelligent decisions on its own. But the heart needs peace, joy, love and contentment to function in its highest good. Not piles of homework and a backpack that weighs thirty pounds!

I envision a happy place for children to explore life, and to also learn from each other. Not just the social things, but from who they are. For everyone to learn at their own rate, and not be separated out so much by age and by academic ability. Some of the kindest kids on earth are the ones in the special education department. Their humanity is a shining example for love to reach beyond the confinement of Down's Syndrome, developmental delay, and physical special needs.

In addition to a brightly colored place where children helped to run it and decorate it and maintain it, there would be a curriculum to spur one on in the life experience. There would be cooking, woodworking, and computer skills from a very early age. There would be classes in metaphysics, the true history of the Universe (not this pack of lies that everyone has spoon fed you), and practice in honing the intuitive skills. Reading, writing and arithmetic would be there, of course, just like the science that I adore. There would be music and dancing every day. Lots of art in many different types of medium--clay, paint, computer just to name a few.  And lots of time for playing in the sunshine! It would be a place to build hope, confidence, and mutual trust in the skills of one another.

There would be animals and plants, and ample opportunity to get to know and take care of them.

There is so much to learn from the direct interaction with Gaia.


Namaste,

Reiki Doc