Here is what is on my heart....

Something I have been thinking about lately can be summed up in two words...."education funding."

Now, I know this is on my brain partially because of Jim looking for a job and all of the horror stories I have heard about a hundred applicants for each opening.

However, it is one thing that has bothered me for a long time in living where I do. My state has horrible education funding. I know that there are other states out there that are better...but still these are our children!
Would you rather a principal retain a permanent sub or hire a certified teacher?
What about paying for decent places for our children to learn...Maslow would say that if you are too hot or too cold or not having your basic needs meet then you can not learn.
It's great that we teach English and Math and the core subjects...but to paraphrase Mr. Holland's Opus: Without music and art what would we write about?
There are not many jobs for multiple choice test takers out there and last time I checked we needed people with creativity.

Some of the decisions in education do not make sense to me.
How can we discourage children accelerating through the curriculum when it would help the children and mean that we spend less money educating them when they get done sooner.
How can we know that a child is learning below grade level and yet insist on testing him or her on grade level?

I personally do not want someone who can only answer multiple choice questions taking care of me in my old age. I want someone who is a critical thinker and who is a problem solver.

A bumper sticker I saw says "educations cuts are the cuts that never heal."
I realize that education has many stakeholders and that many of those stakeholders do not understand the classroom situations and are not familiar with research to be able to make an informed decision. I have met people who are so distrustful of politicians that they do not want to give them any money because they are sure the politicians will misuse it. However, sometimes it does take money to get something done (such as hire teacher to make a smaller class for more individualized education, or to put in air conditioning so that students can stay awake) and sometimes a small step is better than no step at all.

I'll get off my soap box now...