Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: question from a non-tubist


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Posted by Rick Denney on August 15, 2001 at 18:00:10:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: question from a non-tubist posted by Joe Baker on August 15, 2001 at 15:33:32:

Yes, and yes.

Let me just add that schools should foster the qualities of politeness and constructiveness as a secondary goal. The main motivation for prohibiting impoliteness and destructive behavior is because in inhibits the primary goal of teaching them the subjects they are there to learn.

I often think that professional educators (as opposed to teachers) see themselves as having conformist behavior as the primary goal, with learning the subject material as a secondary goal, as in "We find that math reinforces mental discipline and attentiveness" as opposed to "We punish disruption because it interferes with learning math." The latter is old-fashioned, perhaps, but I agree with it. In both cases, we properly demand good behavior, but in the former case, we might forgive bad technical instruction if the behavior is good. The rush to diagnose and medicate syndromes like ADD is another example of these priorities.

And another subtlety: Your kids don't learn how to interact with their peers by interracting with you, but they do learn how to interract with their peers by watching you interract with your peers. Of course, they can only do this if you are together. I value that lesson much more highly than what they learn trying not to get beat up by the bullies on the sports teams. The bullies often seem to have the parents who fight each other constantly or who are confrontational with other adults. Don't understimate the effect of that good example you are giving your kids--it will mean more to them than all the educational theory in the history of man.

Rick "preaching to the choir" Denney


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