The Time Has Come... Adapt and Grow!

It’s time I say this….

The way we treat our school teachers today, it is no wonder we are loosing them.

In my part of the world, school staffing is said to be down 25%. School bus drivers are like gold. Teachers have had enough. One report says that teachers are ‘fleeing’ from the profession in record numbers.

One big reason… teachers are blamed (by parents) for everything that is going wrong within the system, and throughout society… in spite of the fact that they are virtually blameless, doing every single thing within their power, to do the right things for our kids.

It’s heart-sickening, to see teachers and administrators being blamed for the atrocious behavior of the worst students, when indeed fault for that bad behavior is resting squarely on the shoulders of those doing the blaming.

No surprise that the ones doing the blaming are likely the ones that are to blame. I have seen parents tear into others, rather than face and accept responsibility for the behavior of their children. I saw a woman once try to blame the police officer, and the store owners from which her son had just stolen a bicycle.

The blame game being played against teachers and administrators today is nothing short of grossly egregious and mildly genocidal.

The notion that human nature overrides common decency, and allows us to blame others for our own negligence, when it comes to child-rearing, goes to show how little we care for one another. The lack of integrity is astounding.

The notion that we persecute these kind people, that work hard to educate our kids and prepare them for our future, amounts to genocide.

I wonder as you do, if staffing issues will eventually wane, but I can’t imagine why they would. Teachers are dedicated people, but it would appear that we will not learn how to respect and nurture that dedication.

So what is to come…?

For years I have tried to get our local school system, to look into alternatives to teaching, based on the latest scientific and technological innovations.

This started for me in about 2010. Twelve years later, what is possible has absolutely expanded.

I can’t find it and I don’t know where I saw it. But last week somewhere, they were discussing a new start-up, where children can be taught completely online. The software overcomes most of the issues that society now has with online learning, having made it through this pandemic.

I went to research this and found that there are just too many ways now to go about educating kids with the help of education software, for me to try to list and discuss them. There are various platforms that address all of our concerns and skepticism. The long hours, the screen time, the lack of individual attention, the lack of interaction, the lack of outdoor activity, and the lack of desire for kids to sit still alone in a room, trying to get their lessons done.

And let’s not forget the lack of satisfactory achievement on the part of children strapped to a computer all day.

I would be willing to bet everything that I have, ($70 in savings and a 12 year old car, to be specific) that we could put together sweeping changes in education today, if we stop projecting limitations, and start projecting acceptance of innovation.

Develop a ‘can-do’ attitude. What’s more, the software is so effective now, and so user-friendly. There are solutions available to most of the detracting issues involved in the process.

If your workplace could be designed to accommodate your children, and children were taught by classes online, school bus driver and teacher shortages, daycare costs, and other things could be handled or eliminated.

(And of course, our negligent parents would be solely responsible for their own kids!)

Children could learn based on the program they are using, with 10 other children in one room, receiving instruction from 10 separate classroom setups (or software programs), online, while you are working.

If your employers were convinced to accommodate children, think how much benefit would be derived.

Eliminate daycare and transportation issues. Monitor your child throughout the day. More input, interaction, and parental guidance for our young people.

What’s more, there is flexibility that can be built into online learning. There is nothing that says that the hours in the school day must remain fixed. Wake up in the morning and learn. Do your learning late in the morning or early in the evening. Whatever works well for your student and for your family. Travel where you will. Take time off whenever you care to. Add what you like to the curricula.

The new world is waiting for us.

We may have had some difficulty with remote learning.

But if we take what we have learned, we adjust the programs when needed, and we gear our time to being the parent of an online learner, I am confident that our children would adapt and thrive.

My suggestion is that we revamp what we do for our kids and for our society. So that this can become a reality.

Stop ignoring advancements in technology.

Find and develop the positive aspects.

Or at the very least, end the persecution of our educators.

Either, would be a positive step in the right direction.