I had a nice discussion yesterday about education with a boss. It started with discussing how much garbage a mutual acquaintance has... I said I should talk him into letting me put a compost bin at his house since they prepare a lot of food.... And my boss said I might as well starting digging in the dumpster at City school since they throw out all kinds of food.

I am not a dumpster diver. But this did get me thinking. They should set up composters and have the students plant some sort of garden edible or otherwise. My boss started to ridicule this idea... "yeah they'll learn a lot etc.." But my point was this, I did really well in science and I remember specifically learning about plant parts, and how plants function. It really stuck with me because at home my mom had flowers everywhere. Planting & watering the garden was something I've done since a very young age. Learning about something & then coming home to see it up close makes it real. When you make lessons tangible they're easier to understand.

A lot of children in this county have little parental guidance. I work across from low income housing and a lot of what I see is really sad. Kids are barefoot (on asphalt) all the time- cold or hot weather. One morning about 6:30 some of our guys saw a little girl out by the very busy road. Turns out she was about 4 and had locked herself out and couldn't get her parents to wake up & let her in. The guys called the police. I know those kids were not raised like I was. My parents talked & taught me since before I could speak. They encouraged me and put a lot of weight on good grades and reading. I know this had a lot to do with my development.

Schools are more fast paced now- they have a lot for you to learn in little time. But they're geared towards being able to learn from books & lectures... I don't think the majority of the public school system successfully learns this way. They're not nurtured in a way that helps their cognitive development. No child left behind doesn't address the teaching problem--- & it's not the teachers. I fully believe people become teachers because they want to encourage the thought process. But when is everyone going to wake up & see that education needs to be made more efficient & in order to do that they need to think outside the box.

Show students how they'll use math & science- build a robot, make solar panels, invent a game... ask what they want to be & see how these subjects come into play in that role. Knowledge makes your job easier & it's not hard to gain knowledge if you have a goal. You have 13 years to prepare for college, that's your goal.... & from there you have 4-8 years to prepare for your career... how you use this time is up to you.

I enjoyed this ted talk by John Hunter. I think his game is truly inspiring.

http://www.ted.com/talks/john_hunter_on_the_world_peace_game.html