Promoting culture of reading

Radio Commentary

        What can parents do to excite their children about school and learning? A former national Teacher of the Year provided the following suggestions.
First, he said, promote a culture of reading at home. Reading is the gateway to all knowledge and is fundamental to academic excellence.
Computers are wonderful tools, but they cannot replace books. Reading stimulates the imagination and encourages creative thinking.
So read with your children. Discuss the books and articles in the car, while walking to schools, and at the dinner table.
Turn reading into a pleasant event by taking children to libraries and bookstores once a week. 

        Give them an allowance and let them choose the books they want without questioning what they’ve chosen.  

        Don’t insist that they always read “educational” material. A lifelong love of reading can start with almost any book or magazine.  

Stimulate your children’s curiosity. Children need to be encouraged to ask “Why?” when they don’t understand something. Learning is a constant process and children sometimes think this process is over once they have an answer.
They need to be taught to prove and push for more answers. So when children ask “Why”? don’t respond with a pat answer. Ask “What do you think?  Or “Why do you think that’s so?”  Or, “I’m not sure; let’s look it up.”
The goal is to spark their curiosity so that it becomes fun to learn information.

Finland avoids testing, outscores everyone

By Bill Cirone, Santa Barbara County Superintendent of Schools

Newspaper Column

The United States is the most extraordinary country on earth. No argument there. Our daunting list of accomplishments spans virtually every field and enterprise, culminating year after year, as one small example, in our dominating number of Nobel Prizes. Our main strength is that we constantly strive to do better, and to look for excellent practices to help us reach even greater heights.

In terms of our educational delivery system, our top students are still the best in the world. Our test averages, when all students are included, tend more toward the middle on international rankings. Explanations abound on why this is the case, but it is still a goal to improve those standings. As we continue to strive to do better for all our students, it could be instructive to look at what is happening these days in Finland.

First, some facts: Finland started to transform its education system about 40 years ago as part of an economic recovery plan. By the year 2000, Finnish students scored best in the world in reading on PISA (Program for International Student Assessment), a test of 15-year-olds in more than 40 countries. By 2003, Finnish students also led the world in math. By 2006, they led in science among 57 countries. Three years later, the most recent data available shows they were second in science, third in reading, and sixth in math among about a half million students around the globe. 

Some more facts: Finland does not require standardized tests, and has no ranking system for students, schools, or regions. “If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect,” said one principal. 

Schools are publicly funded and the people in the government agencies running them, from top to bottom, are all educators. Teachers nationwide contributed to a curriculum that provided guidelines, not mandates. “The result is that a Finnish child has a good shot at getting the same quality education no matter whether he or she lives in a rural village or a university town,” wrote Lynnell Hancock, a teacher at Columbia Graduate School. “The differences between weakest and strongest students are the smallest in the world.”

One teacher explained, “We prepared children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test.”

Children learn Finnish and Swedish plus one other language, usually beginning at age 9. Every teacher is required to earn a five-year master’s degree in theory and practice, at state expense, effectively being granted status on par with doctors and lawyers in the country.

More facts: Finnish teachers spend fewer hours at school and less time in classrooms than American teachers, using the extra time refining curriculum and assessing students. Children spend much more time playing outside, even in the cold Finnish winters. There is little homework. Schooling starts at age 7. Wrote one teacher: “Children learn better when they are ready. Why stress them out?”

Perhaps the major differences are social rather than academic. Finnish children do not come to school hungry or homeless. “Schools provide food, medical care, counseling, and taxi service if needed,” wrote Columbia’s Hancock, “and student health care is free.” Finland provides preschool for all five-year-olds, with an emphasis on play and socializing.

In terms of special education, almost all students are mainstreamed, learning beside students who don’t require those services. Finnish as a Second Language students receive intensive instruction from skilled experts.

Interestingly, the neighboring country of Norway, which is similar in size, uses standardized tests and a system more similar to ours. Like American PISA scores, Norway’s are in the middle ranges.

Again, the Finnish educational success story started in the ‘60s when the Parliament chose public education as the country’s best shot at economic recovery. “It was simply the idea that … if we want to be competitive, we need to educate everybody. It all came out of a need to survive,” wrote Pasi Sahlberg, of the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Many of these measures would not be feasible or maybe even desirable in our country. And it’s important to emphasize that we continue to take steps to improve our own delivery systems. Our new Common Core curriculum is widely praised as moving both learning and assessment in the right direction. 

Finland’s model does raise an important question, however, regarding our lurch toward test scores as the sole tool of accountability. Especially in times of constricted resources, this laser-like focus on test scores has stripped many of our students of access to music, art, critical thinking skills, and the joy of learning. It has also diminished our respect for teachers as the able professionals who are best equipped to evaluate and instruct our young people. 

It is worth contemplating whether this tradeoff has been for the better, especially in light of the facts on Finland.

Innovations in Education

October 2012 Venoco Inc. Crystal Apple Award Winners
Alejandra Arandovich
Courtney Brewer
Dr. Kathleen Boomer
Laurie Graack
Coleen Hefley
Melanie Sutton Hodgon
Julie Padfield
Georgie Perkins
Victor Prato
Nancy Wood

School and skills

Radio Commentary

There is no thrill quite like the one that comes from mastering a challenge.

Remember the first time you realized the marks on a page were words, and you could understand them?

Or the first time you looked through a microscope, played an instrument, or understood what someone was saying in another language?

U.S. schools seek to give that same opportunity to every child every day by helping students set high standards and specific goals.

Education also gives students life skills like self-discipline, patience, and the importance of sharing. Students learn to pay attention when others are speaking.

Many schools also teach children how to solve disagreements through conflict resolution. Extracurricular activities, from student government offices to volunteer projects, also offer chances to learn life skills.

Wrote author Tomas Henry Huxley: “Perhaps the most valuable result of education is the ability to make yourself do the things you have to do, when they ought to be done, whether you like it or not.”

And former Xerox CEO David Kearns, added: “Education not only imparts the great lessons of history, citizenship, and science, it teaches people to think, to solve problems, to take risks, to be an entrepreneur, and an innovator.”

That is, in fact, the great strength of the American public school system and always has been. It’s worthy of our support.

A community for kids

Radio Commentary

Sometimes we want so much for our children, and our community’s children, that doing what’s best for them can seem overwhelming.

There are too many bases to cover; too many areas to support or protect to make sure our children get our best efforts.

It can help to focus our energies on a shared vision. 

A publication called Helping Kids Succeed has a great approach.

It asks us to imagine living in a community where all young people feel loved and supported by their families and neighbors, with many positive, caring places to go.

• Where all young people know what is expected of them — what actions are acceptable and not acceptable. And where they see adults set good examples in those areas;

• A community where all young people believe that education and life-long learning are important, and have strong values that guide their actions;

• A community where all young people have skills to make healthy choices and have good relationships; where all young people feel strong, worthwhile, and connected to some purpose in life.

Finally it asks us to imagine a community where all young people are really valued by everyone.

Imagine the richness of life for everyone in such a community.

Noah's Ark

Radio Commentary

            Some of the most insightful pieces we receive come anonymously.

The newsletter of the KIDS Network once printed an inspirational piece, author unknown, which was submitted by one of the group’s members. Though we don’t know the original author, we feel the sentiments bear repeating.

            The piece is called “Everything I need to know I learned on Noah’s Ark.”

Don’t miss the boat.

Remember that we are all in the same boat.

Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.

Stay fit. When you’re 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.

Don’t listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.

Build your future on high ground.

For safety’s sake, travel in pairs.

Speed isn’t always an advantage. The snails were on board with the rabbits.

When you’re stressed, float awhile.

And finally…

No matter how big the storm, there’s always a rainbow waiting.

Collaboration has always been key; it is now more important than ever.

Road to readiness

Radio Commentary

            It is a worthy national education goal that every child comes to school ready to learn. But we are not yet nearly to that point.

One researcher examined the steps that must be taken to make it happen, and determined that the quality of the parent-child relationship is key to language development.

Children need rich verbal experiences to draw from as they enter school. Parents should talk to their children all the time and read to them as often as possible.

 Parents should share stories, and ask open-ended questions to spur thinking skills.

This helps get children excited about learning new things.

            According to the research, there are several preconditions required for learning.

Good health comes first. Then come unhurried time with family, safe and supportive environments, and special help for families in desperate need.

These are commonsense items, but unfortunately not always in great supply.

            Wrote the researcher: “These principles are deceptively simple. Assuring that every child has the opportunity to learn requires collaboration among community and health care agencies, families, and schools.”

            It involves institutions and neighborhoods working together for basic needs.

It is a promise unfulfilled in this country at this time, but it is a worthy goal to pursue for all our children.

This is the road to readiness. 

Views of parent conferences

Radio Commentary

From a child’s standpoint, a parent-teacher conference brings two important parts of the child’s life closer together – school and home.

Children usually feel good that their teacher and parents know each other because they are all such important influences and role models.

            As a result, after the conference, parents usually are better able to help their child with school work. 

During the conference, teachers can show parents learning growth that has taken place. Plus, teachers can pass on enjoyable details or special concerns about learning.

            In turn, parents can learn of special services available for children who need them. 

They can find out how individual differences are taken into account in teaching and how that can apply to their child.

            For their part, parents can help teachers learn more about home activities and situations that affect learning. 

The teacher can be more effective when positive feelings exist between home and school. For this reason, parent/teacher conferences create a win-win situation that goes far beyond the specific exchange of information that takes place.

            They set a tone of cooperation and support that can be very influential on a child’s attitude toward learning. 

They also establish lines of communication that can prove critical in times of challenge. It’s a win/win for all involved.