Seventy kids in the classroom?

This will sound ridiculous if you've read this, but last week I was watching some John Rosemond videos I had purchased years ago.

Why, you ask? Well, I wanted something to cross-stitch to ... plus, it's making another good blog post, isn't it?

I think this story he told is very very interesting, and I'm curious what other people have to say about this, especially former teachers. (Or people who were students in the fifties.)

An audience member who I'll call Mary came up to John Rosemond and told him this story about herself:

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In 1952, Mary had been teaching first grade for a few years in a parochial school.

The day before school was about to start, the other first grade teacher in Mary's school had to leave town suddenly and wouldn't be back. Mary was informed that they would have to combine the classes until they found a new first grade teacher.

So ... they combined Mary's 35 students with the absent teacher's 35 students, and Mary had a first grade classroom with exactly 70 first graders and no teacher's aide.

After six weeks, the school observed that Mary (and her students) were having "absolutely no trouble," so they decided to save money and let her keep the 70 students for the entire year.

"And," Mary told John Rosemond years later, "not only did I have no problems, but all 70 students were reading and writing well enough by the end of the year to be successfully promoted to the second grade."

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Rosemond then pointed out that, even though this was an unusual story, it was not that unusual. He claims that in his own first grade class picture, there were 54 students, and one teacher with no aide. That was the norm in the fifties, he claimed.

He used this story to springboard into the idea that today's children are not disciplined enough at home, or respectful enough of teachers, for that to be possible.

Now.

Here are my thoughts and questions:

1) Does that sound even remotely possible? Let's assume all 70 children are complete angels. Could you imagine 70 kids having a bathroom break? What if even half the kids had a single question about their math assignment on a single day? How could a single teacher possibly know -- really know -- how well 70 different kids are reading.

2) Was it, in fact, true that classrooms were huge back then, that there were no aides, that there were almost no discipline or academic problems

3) If so (or if not), what do you think is going on here?
Do you think the woman is lying?
Do you think she thought the kids were all doing well, but was mistaken because she couldn't keep track of them?
Were kids smarter then? Better behaved? Was there a different attitude toward school?
Are we deluding outselves today (as Rosemond seems to insinuate) by claiming some kids aren't developmentally ready to read at age six? Or that some kids have ADD or Learning Disabilities?

Looking forward to any comments on this one ...

Out of the Mouth of Babes

My friend Kim (who falls into that Special Category of "People who Knew How Annoying I Was When I Was Nine") put this on Facebook. I didn't realize until just now that I had cut off the last few questions and therefore never got answers.

I thought number 12 was the funniest.

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Cut and paste these questions and ask your kids their answers....it is a RIOT!

Answers are from Becca, age 5, and Rachael, age 7:

1. What is something mom always says to you?
B: Do your morning routine
R: I like being right!

2. What makes mom happy?
B: When I hug her.
R: When I do my morning routine quickly.
[Goodness, I'm starting to sound like a drill sergeant here, aren't I?]

3. What makes mom sad?
B: I don't know.
R: When Daddy yells at her.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
B: When you say funny things
R: If copies Benjamin in a funny way

5. What was your mom like as a child?
B: Fun
R: I don't know, but she does!

6. How old is your mom?
B: I don't know ... fifty ...?
R: 39

7. How tall is your mom?
B: Lots of inches
R: Shorter than Wilson, but taller than me

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
B: Be with me
R: Cross-stitch

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
B: Goes out
R: Watch The Big Bang Theory and cross-stitch

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
B: Playing the piano
R: Being a good mother

11. What is your mom really good at?
B: Playing the piano
R: Being a good mother

12. What is your mom NOT very good at?
B: Oh, there's lots of things she's not good at! Doing things that are other people's, like setting up another TV, or WII, or Nintendo
R: Getting me started at schoolwork

13. What does your mom do for a job?
B: Taking care of us
R: Playing the piano for concerts

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
B: I don't know
R: I don't know, but I do know her favorite drink is water

15.What makes you proud of your mom?
B: Taking care of us
R: I don't know
[Well, that one was disappointing]

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
B: Caillou's mom
R: A Charlie Brown character person!

Big boy in a big boy bed

This is kind of old news, but in January we took down Benjamin's crib (after he had been regularly escaping it for a few weeks) and set up a "big boy bed" for him.

Rebecca picked out the comforter set for him. Isn't that sweet?

It was weird to pack away the crib when it has been in that room for almost eight years (with the exception of about a half-year period when Rebecca was two).

We like to lay next to Benjamin and read with him at bedtime. Right now his Daddy tends to read Rosemary Wells' Mother Goose books with him, while I read Goodnight Moon.

Money in the bank

I'm learning it's a good idea to note the good moments, positive traits, helpful deeds, kind words, etc, and "store them in the mental bank."

Then, when you're tempted to think that someone is a jerk, or they never do anything nice or helpful, you can make a withdrawal from it and save everybody's sanity.

I've found it helpful to keep a mental bank account for a spouse as well as for children. But hey, now that I'm thinking about it, maybe it's a good idea to keep one going for everybody you know.

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This morning I had a bit of a slow start. By the time I got up, showered, got dressed, and showed up in the kitchen, it was almost 8:45 am.

Rachael was up and dressed, and had already eaten breakfast with her Dad. [This, of course, earns money in the accounts for both of them.]

Her bed was made, she had unloaded the utensils from the dishwasher, and unloaded and stacked the clean dishes and plates.

She had read a book to Rebecca, done two pages in her Explode the Code phonics book, and was doing some copywork. No one asked her specifically to do any of this.

I was very impressed.

My debate with someone who "thoroughly opposes homeschooling"

I had just been thinking a couple days ago how homeschooling is pretty much in the mainstream these days, and most everybody either admires it or thinks it's an acceptable option ....

And then yesterday I read this in the AJC Momania blog. And I had to respond. Maybe it was foolish of me, but I love a good challenge, and I was curious how people would respond to the points I was making.

Here's the excerpts of what I had to say.

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It started off with MJG, a teacher, saying:

This will not come as a surprise to anyone but I am thoroughly opposed to home schooling with the exception of a few circumstances.

WHY? One reason is because of the enormity of the task and the fact that I have met several folks who have tried it and then decided it was way too hard. Is this why we require formal education to teach? DUH!

This is kind of like: I can cook…I should open a restaurant. I will order a kit to show me how and then VOILA I am on my way! By the time you spend 40 hours per week preparing and teaching, anyone could work a job and pay the tuition of most schools.


Obviously, she is [understandably] seeing homeschooling as the equivalent of running a public school classroom, but inside your own home. But of course it is really nothing like that, which is the point I was trying to make when I said:

You give the analogy that homeschooling is like a good cook deciding to open a restaurant. But this is not an accurate way to describe what homeschooling is or what we are doing.

Homeschooling parents are not trying to open a restaurant (or open a school). It would be a more accurate analogy to say we are like a good cook who decides to cook for their family instead of taking them to a restaurant every day.

You also say, “By the time you spend 40 hours a week preparing and teaching, anyone could work a job to pay for school.”

First of all, it does not take nearly forty hours a week to “prepare and teach” when you homeschool.

But even the time it does take is very different that if I was out working a job.

For example, I have a two year old. If I worked 40 hours a week to pay for my older children to go to private school, I would also have to pay for the two year old to go to day care.

But since we homeschool, instead the two year can sit in my lap, or in the high chair with a snack, or playing at our feet, while I work with the older kids. Not only is he home with me instead of day care, but it’s free!

Another example: this morning my second grader was doing her math. After I got her started, I went in the next room and did laundry.

Often she works in the kitchen while I cook dinner and wash the breakfast dishes. I can easily answer her questions or check something for her when she needs me.

But if I was away at a job, I couldn’t be cooking dinner and doing dishes and laundry during those hours!

Also ... although obviously it takes effort, I would not describe homeschooling as “hard.” If it is “way too hard” for a family, my guess is that they are either taking on way more than necessary, and/or approaching it in a way that does not fit their family.

Her reply (edited to include the parts directed at me) was:

YES, extremely educated and devoted parents ( who are not throwing in a load of laundry or rocking the baby) CAN be affective teachers. Sorry but most of the parents I have known do not fall in this category.

Jenny, I would love to hear it from professional educators that it does not take 40 hours per week ( you have 2 different grades here) to prepare and instruct children. Your ideas seem ridiculous to me. I cannot imagine teaching 2 children and running around the house doing household things at the same time.

So ... I guess you are not allowed to have an infant or toddler if you are homeschooling -- or, if you do, you have to hire a nanny. See how she still thinks I have the 40-hour week job of a classroom teacher job?

So I tried again:

I think this is the core of why you are against homeschooling:

You are picturing a homeschooling parent to be duplicating the job of a full-time classroom teacher.

We are not classroom teachers. We are not professional educators. (Even the ones who have a teaching background.) I am not juggling the job of teaching second grade with the job of teaching kindergarten. I’m not trying to be. I don’t need to be.

You’re right, a classroom teacher would not bring their two-year to class every day. But I am not a classroom teacher.

You brought up the meal/restaurant analogy, so I’ll use one as well:

If someone ran and owned their own restaurant, they would surely need a babysitter for their two year old while they went to work at that restaurant.

But do most women (or men) hire a babysitter so they can cook dinner for their family? Not that I’ve ever heard of.

Here’s another point: You think it is “ridiculous” that I prepare dinner while my daughter does her work two yards away from me. But I am available in two seconds any time she has a question or needs something. When do public schooled kids ever get the teacher to come answer questions for them the instant they have one?

Similarly, how often does a public schooled child get one-on-one (or two-on-one) time with the teacher? I don’t know, but I would be surprised if it was more than 30 minutes daily (if even that).

My kids easily get more than two hours of it every day, and obviously that still leaves a lot of time left over for doing laundry.

Homeschooling and being a classroom teacher are not the same animal.

I actually thought that was a pretty good response. I like my restaurant analogies, which I just came up with on the spot.

And isn't that silly, for her to think my children can't be learning, because I throw in a load of laundry? What does she think, that I should sit and stare at her for hours non-stop while she works?

So I felt like I was really getting on a roll here, and was looking forward to her response (especially about the idea of how much one-on-one time a public schooled child gets), but all I got was this:

Jenny…respectfully, you are one of the reasons I am against home schooling. Some folks cannot see the forest for the trees.
You are not a classroom teacher and so you cannot understand my points. I am not a homeschooler and so I cannot understand your points. Thanks for sharing, you have made it perfectly clear…to me.

and this, unfortunately, is where everything pretty much fizzled out. She threw in a snippy little insult toward me, then said she was done discussing it, because we would obviously never agree.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it actually felt like she couldn't counter-argue my points, so instead she said, "Well, we'll never agree anyway, so forget it" and left with a parting insult.

Well, hopefully someone out there enjoyed reading what I had to say. And like I said, if nothing else, at least it was a fun challenge for me.

Our FIAR study of Ferdinand

As I've mentioned before, we've recently started using a homeschool "curriculum" (not the word I would use to describe it, but okay) called Five in a Row.

The concept behind FIAR is that you read the same book every day for five ... um, days in a row, doing a different activity with it each day.

This week we are "rowing" (to use the lingo) The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, which is our sixth FIAR book.



This is what it has looked like so far:


Monday (Social Studies day) -- After we read the story, we found Spain on our big world map on the playroom wall. I had printouts from HomeSchoolShare.com of a map where they colored in Spain, and a little booklet to color in the flag of Spain.
Several months ago we got a "Learn Spanish" CD with a Chik-Fil-A kids' meal, so I dug that out and we listened to a few of the lessons.

We also watched the cartoon about Bugs Bunny fighting the bull (remember that one? "What a gull-a-bull! What a nin-cow-poop!"), although that was not speficially suggested in the FIAR manual. :)


Tuesday (Language Arts day) -- Read the book again and listening to some of the Spanish lessons on the CD again. Pointed out how and why the author used techniques like repetition and asking the reader questions (ie, "and who do you think that way?")

We discussed interjections, so of course we had to watch the Schoolhouse Rock video. (Hurray, I' for the other team!")

Rachael dictated part of a story to me about a little Spanish girl going to the bullfight that Ferdinand was in. I don't know if she'll finish it. If she doesn't, that's okay. I'll write it up on lined paper and it will be her Copywork for the next couple of days. Here it is:

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Once upon a time there was a little girl named Rosita. She was a very nice girl and lived
in Spain. Her mother was a belly-dancer and her father was a famous artist.

Her father was the kind of person that would never miss a day reading the newspaper. One day he was reading the newspaper when he came upon an ad for a bullfight. He looked up. "Does anybody want to go to a bullfight?" he asked.

"What's a bullfight?" asked Rosita.

"It's a place where you go and watch a fight. There's a matador and a bull. They both fight together until the end when the matador sticks a sword in the bull."

Who would want to go to a show like that? thought Rosita. But she didn't want to disappoint her father, so she said, "I'd like to go."

Then she remembered something. Her friend Raquel always wanted to go to a bullfight. "Can my friend go too?" she asked.

"Of course, if her mother says it's okay," said her father.

So mother got on the phone to call Raquel's house.

Her mother answered. "Hello," said Rosita's mother. "We were just asking if Raquel would like to go to the bullfight with Rosita."

"It's fine with me if it's fine with you," said Raquel's mother.

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Later this week I plan to watch a "Learn Spanish" video that I have on hold at the library; do an art activity involving size and distance; have the girls briefly act out some of the scenes; and discuss cork oak trees and clover.

I guess if I was really on the ball, we would be cooking some Mexican food, but I think I'll just let that go.

I'm sure there are some women out there that are having the kids build their own pinata and write to a pen-pal in Spain, but I'm not one of them.

So, as you can see, with one simple picture book from the library and a FIAR manual, you can cover a lot of ground, but it's fairly effortless and doesn't even take that much time.

A joke for musicians

If you're a non-musician, you may not be able to appreciate this one ...


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Q: How do you stop a keyboard player from playing?

A. Take away his chart.

Q: How do you stop a guitar player from playing?

A. Give him a chart.