HIGH STANDARDS AND EXPECTATIONS HAVE TO BE REALISTIC

HIGH STANDARDS AND EXPECTATIONS HAVE TO BE REALISTIC

By Domenick J. Maglio Ph.D.  Traditional Realist

The setting of high standards and expectations is a traditional means of encouraging an individual to increase his performance. When a person reaches a certain level the authority figure would nudge the level higher to incrementally increase the proficiency in a skill or task. This has been successful in motivating people to obtain their optimal level of performance and has kept the person focused on continuing to improve.

This approach works as long as the adult does not overwhelm the youngster with too much, too soon. When the approach is done gradually and realistically the person has the ability to reach the objective, building the competence one step at a time.

Students are all unique. There are socio economic and physiological differences that contribute to early or late bloomers and relationship incidents that affect test results. Some have time management issues working too fast or too slow. Others have problems with organization, socialization or behavior. Overlying these behavioral and skill issues are different innate abilities and interest in academic areas that influence student performance.

The reality is that children develop academically, socially and emotionally at different rates and times. This is being ignored on comprehensive testing even in kindergarten. These tests take away from children’s learning time.

It is ridiculous to mandate high standards and expectations for every student of a particular chronological age where it is not the only criteria that should be considered. The educational establishment’s Common Core Standards have arbitrarily set standards for each level that might impress the uninformed although it is setting up a substantial number of students to become frustrated and develop a defeatist attitude.

The establishment of unrealistic standards and expectations for an individual is detrimental to the self-concept of individuals. No matter how hard they try, they are unable to reach this impossible goal. They begin to view themselves as losers. This experience only reinforces the person’s urge to protect himself by shutting down and not trying.

The person’s resentment to their perceived failure can be turned inward towards himself or outward towards other authority figures. Since the parent or boss seems never to be satisfied, he learns to play games like looking busy rather than focusing on completing the task at hand.  Often others become perfectionists, which results in procrastinating out of fear of failure rather than tackle the deficiency and overcome it.

When extremely pressured by parents, teachers or an employer, a youngster can give up all together or have outbursts of hostility towards the authority figure. Eventually the person stops even pretending to want to reach the unrealistic expectations set for him not with or by him.

Any person’s present skill level has to be determined in the process of setting goals. The more readily attainable the goals the more likely the person will be motivated to reach them.  The more the person consistently reaches his mini objectives the more he develops a “can do” rather than a “can’t do” attitude.

Through this process the individual begins to internalize the steps necessary to attain his goals. His frustration tolerance increases. He realizes that when he follows a certain sequence of behaviors he will gain the results he wants. This becomes a habit in setting all sorts of minor goals in daily life. When these check lists are completed they bolster the person’s self-competence. This allows them to stretch and expand their standards and expectations for their own future success.

These individuals understand they have to mark a path with milestones that end where they want to be. These mini objectives guide and encourage them to finish the particular task. The person himself knows if he gets to a certain point, the next juncture will require a little more focus and energy but he knows it is do-able. There is no reason to give up. He has accepted the fact that he can be independently successful.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. You can visit Dr. Maglio at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS NEED FREEDOM TO FULFILL THEIR MISSION

PRIVATE SCHOOLS NEED FREEDOM TO FULFILL THEIR MISSION

By Domenick J. Maglio, Ph.D.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, private school students do not primarily come from high socio-economic backgrounds. The image from the past of elitist private schools has been altered by the progressively dismal results of public education.

Using vouchers in the school choice movement has enabled many families with children who have significant academic and emotional difficulties to attend private schools.

Private education has had positive results with educating all types of students.  When private schools have been given the freedom and flexibility to run their own programs to meet the individual needs of children they do a significantly better job.

Hollywood star, Matt Damon who is a strong proponent of public schools, reluctantly admitted to the decline of public education. "The private school that I send my kids to is the thing closest to the public school that I went to that I could find. And that’s why I send my kids to private school. "

Common Core is being introduced to our school districts throughout the United States to reverse the academic slide. This decision will continue the decline of public school students. A segment of highly motivated, high socially-economic students will prosper but the majority of students will not be given sufficient time to mature before being stamped as failures. They are going to be seen as unfortunate casualties of the numbers game.

All students arrive at school with specific strengths and weaknesses. In private schools the administration can tailor-make the instruction for each student by creatively tweaking staff assignments and facility resources to be more efficient and effective in meeting the student’s unique needs.

These adjustments are done not for political advancement but for practical reasons to provide quality education to each student within the boundaries of the budget.. The hiring of additional staff and firing those who do not fit in is based on realistic and specific needs to meet the educational goal of increasing student performance.

Private schools do not want or cannot afford to change the entire program every few years to market the latest educational fad. The financial implications of the cost of new materials, equipment and training are prohibitive. They realize that a consistent structured environment provides a more encouraging and conducive environment for learning.

Most importantly, the owners of these schools have a strong mission that required them to put everything on the line to enter the business of education while competing with “free” taxpayer education.  Their philosophy of educating children gradually altered to meet the needs of a changing population.  In a real academic situation they learn what works for improving the performance of the students.

Private education will be devastated if they are forced to accept Common Core testing protocol to measure success. This in essence will cause private schools to abandon their freedom to be creative that produces high student performance. Private schools will become high priced carbon copies of the Common Core cookie cutter approach to education.

Parents have been disenfranchised in public/government school systems. They are powerless pawns in their child’s education.  They witness their child’s academic work primarily being directed towards a normative test with no recourse to change it. This is reversed in private school.  The private school, like any business, realizes the consumer has to be treated with respect and provided with a quality product or it will be fired by the parents. The decentralization of power into the hands of parents and students empowers them to become committed members of the school community they have chosen.

The uniting of parents with administration and teachers is the key element to providing an educational environment of excellence. The child knows there is no room to “play one against another.” Everyone stays on the same page, which focuses the child’s education on striving to be the best he can be.

The school community can produce miracles when everyone is working toward the same goals. The school head should have the freedom to make subtle or even more definitive adjustments on the steering wheel to keep on course. Students need a steady wind behind them to guide them toward the desired destination.

The freedom and power being in the hands of the person at the helm of the school, not in Washington, D.C., is essential for a private school to fulfill its mission of providing an optimal learning situation for each student.

STUDENTS ARE THE GUINEA PIGS IN COMMON CORE

STUDENTS ARE THE GUINEA PIGS IN COMMON CORE

By Domenick J. Maglio, Ph. D.

Common Core is backdoor nationalizing of the US educational system. Arne Duncan, secretary of education, used Race to the Top grant money to encourage and seduce state bureaucrats to get on the Common Core bandwagon.  Educational bureaucrats and lobbyists nudged the state legislators to vote for acceptance of this initiative without any specifics of the program and concrete research to determine the way it would impact students and/or teachers. 

The same rush through formula used to pass Obamacare is being used to create a ground swell of support for Common Core before any specifics are written. Big government politicians of both parties are anointing it. They give their word “it will be good for education” but they only talk in generalities/political speak.

Jeb Bush, ex governor of Florida and presidential candidate for 2016, developed and advocated another top down fiasco: No Child Left Behind. He currently is supporting Common Core. This should raise a red flag.

High standards alone do not determine student performance. It does place immense pressure on teachers to reach the standards, which is transferred to students to meet them.  The students are once again guinea pigs in a process not tested in the classroom but abstractly devised. The creators do not have first hand knowledge of dealing directly with the variability of student’s ability, skills, habits and motivation.

Even more pressure will be applied to younger children to learn more abstract complex concepts at an earlier age. Much of it will be developmentally inappropriate. Most children cannot abstract before the age of 11 according to Jean Piaget, preeminent educational psychologist.  Predictably this will cause more, not fewer students to be dumped into the educational trashcan of failure at an earlier age.

There will be a greater divide between the top students and all the rest who cannot keep up. Presently there is a media-advertising blitz, LearnMoreGoFurther.org, where teachers are vouching for Common Core.  These “high-falutin” standards are a wish list for student performance and not a curriculum. These representatives act as if their promises of success have already been accomplished.

Most actual classroom teachers are more cynical. They understand the critical issue of how you get students to reach the standards. It is easy to write them, but the difficult part is obtaining them.  Teachers understand CC will require even more paperwork to document student progress. This leads to even more time taken away from direct interaction with students.  The factors that were part of NCLB will be magnified by this more “rigorous” Common Core.

Like all the other mandated, innovative programs the eventual curriculum will require teachers to move forward with the program even with the students who do not get it. It will be another prescriptive approach leaving little time for teacher creativity. Even the NEA has voiced concern with the impact on the teacher’s ability to teach.

Factual knowledge has been deemphasized in favor of abstract critical thinking at a young age. Many students with limited general knowledge and basic skills along with limited life experience will not have the ability to think critically but will be perfect specimens to believe in teacher-led state propaganda. Cursive writing will be eliminated along with minimizing traditional civics or history. The lack of these vital subjects will make it impossible for future generations to read original documents and understand the history leading up to the birth of our nation and the genius of the founding fathers. Again this will make many of our students more illiterate then they already are.

Many states are putting the brakes on Common Core. Indiana has officially withdrawn from Common Core. More importantly, citizens, parents and teachers are organizing to have their voices heard. Like Obamacare, Common Core promises “standards “ that sound great but the “devil is in the details.”  The more meat we see on the bones, the more rotten the smell.

Nationalizing education is a game changer for America. It will end any chance of local control of our education.

America needs to decentralize education to give parents more direct input into their child’s education.  They should not be shut out of supposedly local school boards who act as apologists to teacher unions and state education bureaucrats.  

We need to bring education back to students, their families and communities. Our students should be treated as unique, worthwhile individuals not as throwaway victims in an untested educational ploy to nationalize US education.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. You can visit Dr. Maglio at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.

PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS ARE BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

By Domenick J. Maglio Ph.D. Traditional Realist

The consolidation of schools in the 1950s changed the role of teachers.  Before the process of establishing humongous school districts, schools were under the local community’s control.  Schools were small, neighborhood facilities. In many rural communities there were even simple one-room schoolhouses.

Teachers were an integral part of the community. The pay was low although the job gratification and respect were high.  Teachers knew their dedication made a significant difference in the lives of the community.

Today the pay is higher but it does not compensate for the demeaning lack of administrative support, student and parent support, orderliness and freedom of teachers to do their best in the school. Many idealistic teachers who want to be a positive influence in the lives of their students are similar to the teachers of the past. The difference is the culture has changed, placing unreasonable and time consuming paperwork demands that interfere with the nurturing and creative ability to meet student’s individual needs. Modern teachers are finding it almost impossible to guide students to be better people.

Modern teachers are executors of a rigid curriculum that has been developed by committees in state capitols directly manipulated by Washington, D.C. bureaucrats. The miniscule local teacher input into the developing of the Common Core has eroded the idealism that brought them into the field of education in the first place. Teachers have lost the professional discretion necessary to be an effective teacher. They have been demoralized.

No professional lawyer or doctor can function at a high level when their hands are tied to do what they know they should do for the client. We are witnessing the phenomena in the medical profession under Obamacare. When a decision to treat a patient is dictated by a Washington, DC bureaucrat’s specific rules, diagnostic schema and regulations, the doctor losses his power to perform necessary procedures and tests that he knows is necessary to maintain the health of the patient.

Teachers have been in the same boat for a longer time having the responsibility of being a teacher without the power to make the proper decisions. They cannot spend time to teach the troubled student or challenge the advanced one. They must teach to the test script and complete the daily avalanche of forms or be terminated.  They have been reduced from teachers to disseminators of politically correct information approved at the highest federal level.

Teaching is an art. The teacher practices teaching like a doctor practices medicine. Both learn strategies and techniques that work with different types of individuals. For a teacher to be effective she has to be an applied psychologist, role model and character developer not a person who auditions as a reader of test protocol and is forced to document her every move.

All dedicated teachers want to reach all of their students. They do not want to sacrifice some or most to reach an arbitrary test score that has been set for political reasons.

Too many teachers have to sell their souls in order to continue as teachers. They have been relegated to being high priced clerical workers. Although the teacher knows her student’s assets and deficiencies, she has to ignore them. She has to follow her administrative directives, spread educational babble to the parents and turn her back on numerous students.

The majority of teachers realize most students have the potential to be excellent ones.  They are not allowed to address the academic and social issues under the stringent time guidelines that have to be met or else.

Teachers can be innovators helping children to become better students. These dedicated teachers are paying a high price. They understand admonishment by administrators will occur when not complying with the administrator’s dictates. On the other hand, the downside of appeasing the school’s administrative personnel is the pain of seeing the faces of students she did not help.

Teachers are between a rock and a hard place.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. You can visit Dr. Maglio at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.