General Educational Philosophy

1.  Several years ago, a student came out of another teacher's classroom with a six-pack of Mountain Dew.  Since he had a big smile on his face, I asked him what was the deal about the soda.  He said, "I made a bet with Mr. Severson and I won.  I bet him that I couldn't get straight A's this last quarter, and I did!".
     That led me to ask a second question.  "Well, what did you do differently?", I asked.
     His response was astounding!  I figured it would be a new federal program, computer software, special medicine, tutor, mentor, set of books, Yoga, Transendental Meditation, psychologist, psychiatrist, hypnotism, special music, special study room, etc.
     His answer:  "I studied more".

2.  I heard of a story of a young man who couldn't get his driver's license until his grades were A's or B's.  Somehow, the next quarter he got all A's or B's.  Guess what happened?

3.  I heard of a story of a young man who was dating this nice young lady.  After the relationship was getting serious, the girl told the young man that she couldn't keep going out with him if his grades didn't improve.  Guess what happened next quarter?

4.  I heard of a young man who wanted to join the Army, but they wouldn't accept him because his grades were too low.  Guess what happened?

5. From Thomas Friedman’s book, The World is Flat.

page 342 “Parent conferences are one of the more interesting aspects of my job; I never realized that they were such a cultural study, though. Two parent conferences two years ago were my flat earth moment. One conference was with Deven and Swati Vora. (Guess where the Vora family immigrated from?) As we chatted about their daughter Sonia, they told me not only did our school not give enough homework but also that it wasn’t challenging enough. Later that day in another conference, Irena Mikeladze, an immigrant from Eastern Europe, wanted to know why her son Timothy had no science book and such a flimsy science curriculum. How could we be a competitive school when we didn’t have a science book? Representing two different national characters, the three parents made me think. Sadly, many … white, American, middle class parents [told me] that the 5^th grade work was too hard on their kids. They couldn’t possibly complete it and have time to “be a kid”. Soccer, gymnastics, [music] lessons and dinner squeezed out their education time. Some parents would ask for my colleagues and I had to lighten the load. These worrisome parents merely set low expectations for children by running interference; the scary parents … think everything is great and never demand more. If their kids do OK and have fun, then they must get be getting a great education.”

6. “Kids will be satisfied with what you tolerate.”  Bobby Knight

So why do students fail a class?  The personality of the teacher? Too much homework?  The homework is too difficult? The teacher can't explain anything? Too tough of a subject?  Teachers go too fast?   I'm not talking about A's and B's or making the honor roll; I'm just talking about getting a passing grade ( 65% ).  I think you can guess my point.