Is Spoiling Your Child Effecting Their Education?

At home parents are spoiling their young children and making it harder for teachers at school. It is always good to praise infants and young children but when do you know you’ve went to far? Teachers claim that the number of spoilt kids is increasing in schools and so is the misbehaving.“Little princes and princesses” are taking advantage of their parents’ kindness. They are spoilt and left for the teachers to deal with for the majority of the day. Teachers report that these students are the ones that believe that they don’t have to follow the basic classroom rules and don’t have to obey the teachers. Teachers have to deal with “low-level bad behavior” for example, shouting out in class, temper tantrums and refusal to follow basic classroom rules. Parents think that it’s cute until the child grows older. Most of the time they grow to be the classroom bully and/or aggressive and abusive in the home.

Some parents, especially adults with only one child, have difficulty saying no to their kid(s). To help Steve Sinnott, the boss of the National Union of Teachers, also known as NUT, called for a meeting to help the parents who have a hard time saying “no”. During this meeting, it was brought to the parents’ attention that some children want rules laid down or a form of discipline as a sign of security.

The spoilt children feel as if nothing is their fault and they shouldn’t be punished for anything. They also believe that they don’t have to do anything that bores them or is difficult to a certain extent. Some parents however don’t see anything wrong with this behavior and blame the teachers whenever the child is upset of angry.

Along this argument, the National Union of Teachers also suggest that qualified teachers should run nurseries. Their reason for this is because it would be easier and quicker for a teacher to recognize a student’s development problems and they would be able to take action sooner. General Secretary Steve Sinnott speaks against this saying that the most important thing for children at the nursery ages is to have fun and be open to a variety of ideas. He also says and warns that it would be the worst thing if a new early years curriculum became too “tick box”. A motion was presented saying that play is crucial to the child’s learning because it gives the child more confidence to learn.

By the year 2010, the government plans on making sure that Children’s Centres are lead by early years professionals. For example, Mr.Sinnott speaks that teachers at these levels would be highly skilled and able to use their professional judgement to spot development problems, which contradicts his earlier words. Most nurseries are staffed by low-paid workers who possess only basic qualifications, even though the nurseries are of high cost. The motion that I mentioned earlier stating that by the year 2010 all nurseries will be run by qualified teachers has been modified and has been applied to all government-funded Children’s Centres which offer nursery provision for 3-5 year olds. Hopefully, this will help eliminate the amount of spoilt children and “future bullies”

Here are some sources to check out:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7311865.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7310615.stm

Does what you wear actully make a difference?

Today, I am going to be looking at the whole ideas of School Uniforms and what effect they have on the students. Will uniforms cut down on violence? Will they raise grade levels? Will a uniforms actually make a difference in what happens in, and relating, to schools? I plan on looking at both sides of this, but in my opinion, I do not think that a school uniform will drastically change anything. Most arguments for enforcing a law that would force public schools to use uniforms is the idea that it will bring down school violence, they will help grades, and it will help with discrimination and other issues at school. The arguments against the uniforms are that they really wont solve any of the problems that were mentioned above and they take away the creativity of the students.

The main arguments for the installment of uniforms in public schools are mainly focused on the issue of violence and grade levels in schools. Parents and teachers think that by making kids wear uniforms, that it will help decrease the number of violent acts in and around school. The driving idea behind uniforms cutting down on school violence is that it will take away from the gangs. Uniforms will mean that no one has to worry about wearing a certain gangs colors and risk getting attacked for it. People are also saying that uniforms will cut down the number of places you can conceal a weapon if you were to take it into school. Some people believe that if the Columbine students had been forced to wear uniforms, that the attack would not have happened.

‘The disaster at Columbine High School in Colorado a year ago revealed a dress code where students were permitted to wear trench coats, excessive jewelry and make-up, and eccentric hair styles and clothing. The Columbine incident alone stimulates argument that the lack of a dress code may affect the level of safety in a school. If students were not permitted to wear coats, it would be more difficult to conceal weapons. ‘

Another point for the uniforms is that it will raise up grades and help students. I, personally, do not understand this point. Why does what we wear have any effect on our grades? Some people think that if we all wear the same thing, our outfits won’t distract us from our work. I think that the idea of uniforms raising grades is ridiculous. I am with the people that say that uniforms will take away our freedom to express ourselves. That is wrong because in the public schools, that is one of the only things we have left. Our rights in schools are all ready limited and being able to wear what we want is our last thing that prolongs our individuality in our schools. What uniforms does is take a group of people and make them the same. You must dress the same, you must act the same, you are all forced to become just like your neighbor. That is not right. We were all made different and we should all be allowed to express that difference. The only way that we can do that in schools is by what we wear because the schools have all ready taken away our right to say what we want, they have taken away our right to do what we want, write what we want, and so on. As for the issue of violence being solved with uniforms, I don’t think that it will help. If you are in a gang and have an issue with another gang, a uniform is not going to stop you from using violence. This is a great example of a counter to the argument above about the Columbine shooting:

However, a statement could also be made that the incident at Columbine High would have happened anyway, with or without a mandatory dress code for its students.

This just illustrates the point that you don’t really know what is going to happen. If someone really wanted to commit an act of violence in a school, uniform or not, they would find a way. Uniforms won’t stop the violence, they will only cause a slight change in how the acts of violence are committed. So once again, I stand strong with the idea that students on public schools should not be forced to wear uniforms because they won’t raise grades, they won’t stop the violence, and they take away a students right to free expression.

http://muse.widener.edu/~egrozyck/EDControversy/Eppinger.html

http://712educators.about.com/cs/schoolviolence/a/uniforms.htm

http://www.adherents.com/misc/uniforms.html

http://www.gate.net/~rwms/UniformRay.html

http://life.familyeducation.com/violence/education-administration/41077.html

Is Segregation Gonna Be A Problem for Education Today?

Education is the main focus for many families and individuals who long to be successful. . Many people got the idea that living a good, financially stable future without a certain amount of education is less likely to happen, when the Brown vs Board of Education trial was declared stating that education is the foundation of a good citizen. In present day, it seems as if no one cares where or with who they receive their education as long as they receive the elements that they need to be successful. But receiving an education and finances are not the only problem being presented in public schools throughout the United States. Re-segregation has been presented in a number of public schools which takes away from the diversity that helps kids learn the values of life. The re-segregation and the financial issues are the main reasons why elementary and secondary schools have slow progress throughout the years.

It was reported that the most segregated schools are located in the big cities in the Midwest and Northeast even though these are the areas in which many minorities are relocating to. Elementary and secondary schools in the suburbs educate almost 4 times the amount of white people as the do minorities (specifically Blacks and Latinos). The smaller towns in the South and West are more diversified which is better for the teachers when educating the students. Here are some statistics from www.woodtv.com;

About one-sixth of black students and one-ninth of Latino students attend what Mr. Orfield calls “apartheid schools,” at least 99 percent minority. In big cities, black and Latino students are nearly twice as likely to attend such schools. Some two-thirds of black and Latino students in big cities attend schools with less than 10 percent white students; in rural areas, about one-seventh of black and Latino students do. Although the South was the region that originally integrated the most successfully, it’s beginning to resegregate, as in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district.

The problem is not that predominately white schools are forbidding minority students to attend them but the segregation between the schools make it seem like students are assigned to schools by the color of their skin. “Once you separate kids spacially from more privileged kids, they tend to not get the same things,” says Amy Stuart Wells, an education professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College in New York. “And we need to start thinking about how a school that’s racially isolated can be preparing students for this global society we live in.”

The white population is very low due to the decreasing birth rate. This down fall is the cause of the decrease in the percentage of white people enrolling in schools. The percentage of white people enrolling has decreased 16 percent. Compared to the statistics in the 1960’s schools have become predominately minority educating Hispanic and Black students who’s families have low income or have been left behind in the economy, which is not a real cause for the minority school seeing that the amount of impoverished white children in the school system doubled the amount of impoverished minority as a whole.

Here are a the links to the pages in which I found my information. Please feel free to check them out for yourself.

http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/Fall05/resegregation.html

http://www.woodtv.com/global/story.asp?s=7809148

http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/aug1999/rese-a23.shtml

College prices are getting way to pricey

College, it’s a real possibility for many people in the near future. Seniors in highschool are waiting to hear from all those colleges that they applied to, hoping that they get into one of their top choices. But for many, the prices of those colleges are overwhelming and cause many people to apply to community colleges or cheaper public ones instead of the higher notch private colleges. It is a fact that over the past year the price for a 4 year college has significantly gone up. The price for a public college has gone up 6.6% bringing the average cost per year to around $6,185. That means that you are spending around $24,740 on a 4 year education. The smaller private colleges that cost an average of $23,712 a year has gone up about 6.3% from last year. That means that, for a 4 year college experience at a private school you are paying around $94,848. Public two-year $2,361 a year, up 4.2 percent from last year.

    Students will pay, on average, from $371 to $406 more than last year for this year’s room and board, depending on the type of college. The average surcharge for full-time out-of-state students at public four-year institutions is $10,455.
        -college board
It is amazing that in the US, people can pay anywhere from $25,000 to almost $100,000! And that is not even counting the IVY league schools which can get up to $200,000. Then you must consider that, right now, the prices are not going to start falling.
    Over the past 20 years, inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, increased by 84 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the cost of tuition, fees and room and board at both public and private colleges and universities grew at a rate much faster than inflation. According to The College Board, those costs tripled. In the 1985-1986 academic year, comprehensive costs at public schools totaled $3,791. For this academic year they are $12,796. At private colleges and universities 20 years ago, comprehensive costs totaled $8,902. This academic year, the number is a stunning $30,367.- abc world news.

It is getting way over the top with the prices of colleges. Sadly, soon, more and more people will start to think that the cost of going to college in the US is not worth it. I say the US because I found and interesting fact. While the United States is pushing the majority of college kids into debt, there are places that have a wonderful solution. Europe, for example, is providing tuition FREE colleges and universities for people to attend. That is saving the average student anywhere from $5,000-$12,000 a year. That may not seem like much to some, but it takes a good chunk out of the cost of colleges in the end. after four years you end up saving from $20,000 to $48,000!

‘Why?’ you may ask is the price for college so high. An article from CNNMoney.com had this to say about the rising costs for colleges.

The College Board doesn’t examine the reasons for tuition increases in its report. But Baum said she sees a correlation between the rise in tuition to the decline in state funding at public schools and to the reduction in endowment income and private giving at private schools.

She also attributes the price hikes at both private and public schools in part to the rising costs of health care – a component of compensation, which is a big part of school budgets – and to the cost of technology, which schools invest in to maintain state-of-the-art facilities.

This entry was not meant to scare anyone away from going to college. Once you find that college or university that is just right for you, you should go for it. Just be careful and watch out for the quickly rising cost of that education. Think really hard to see if the benefit outweighs the cost. And hay, if you really need to you can go over to Europe where the government pays the tuition for the colleges and universities.

(A special thanks to CNNMoney. com, ABC world news, and college board for the info!)

Here are the web pages if you want more information on colleges and their costs;

http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/18/pf/college/college_costs/index.htm http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/PersonalFinance/story?id=2865814&page=1 http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/college_cost.jsp