Smokin' science at Pine Lane Primary

Product Review

Dry ice: It’s so cold it burns. It goes straight from a solid to a gas. It creates eerie fog and wicked bubbles.

In other words, dry ice is perfect for science experiments that kids will talk about forever.

So Summer Counts jumped on the opportunity to review Steve Spangler’s New Ultimate Dry Ice Kit.

We partnered up with Mr. Stidger, a go-getting science teacher from Pine Lane Primary (Parker, Colorado), to see if what puts the Ultimate in this kit and what could be done in an ordinary classroom.

Mr. Stidger received the kit a couple of days before our science lesson, to sort through the contents and look over the accompanying lesson material.

Mr. Stidger is no stranger to the Spangler curriculum and immediately recognized a few traits that are typical with this vendor’s curriculum; like the funny introductions that kids love, and the standards alignments that teachers appreciate. He quickly pulled together a few of his favorite dry-ice experiments, which he calls the “Spangler’s All Stars Collection,” and got ready to try it out on the schools 5^th and 6^th graders.

The kid’s eyes lit up as they entered the classroom and saw the set up.

Mr. Stidger promptly briefed the students on safety instructions and rules of conduct with the materials.

The class finished a whole 7 projects in one hour using the kit!

The kids compared dry ice and regular ice at room temperature and submerged in water.

They observed dry ice in a film container, and screamed in delight as the pressure popped the top and scared the Bejeebis out of the crowd. Then the students followed up by using water as a catalyst with dry ice in the said film container…and this time took shelter.

After this, the class put dry ice in a balloon, and observed the difference as they placed dry ice and water in a second balloon. I’m not sure who squealed louder, the dry ice or the kids, when they applied pressure with a spoon for “screaming cold ice.”

Mr. Stidger also demonstrated a “dancing bottle” using dry ice and an upside down 2 liter bottle, and what dry ice in water looks like if you put in just a few drops of dish soap.

Lastly, Mr. Stidger showed the class how dry ice can cause different mixtures to change color.

The kit was certainly a hit with the kids.

“My favorite experiment was screaming ice,” said Caley, 5th grade. “It was really funny.”

Stidger blowing kids away with colorchanging dry-ice experiment

“This was a great unit that taught the basic principles of dry ice in a fun, exciting atmosphere,” said Stidger.

Here is the complete evaluation  about the Spangler Dry Ice Kit in Mr. Stidger’s own words:

1. Materials included for up to 6 groups
2. I appreciated the lead in with what dry ice is, and the safety rules
3. The sequence of the experiments from basic to elaborate made for an interesting progression
4. The language is written so that it is easy to comprehend. Those who are not well versed in science would be able to understand the basic concepts, and more experienced practitioners could expand further if they wish.
5. Most of the materials are in the kit. I thought that the ammonia water could have been packed as well. The term ammonia water threw me. Is regular ammonia and ammonia water the same?
6. Consistency in measurement would make the instructions even easier. Some of the experiments used the metric system, others with tablespoons. Others did not.
7. On that note, a milliliter measurement cup would have come in handy.Visit www.SteveSpanglerScience.com for more products and projects.Disclosure: This was not a paid review or endorsement. Summer Counts received the products for review, which we promptly donated to the classroom that participated.

About a week before the release of Spy Kids: All the Time in the World 4D, SummerCounts and some other lucky bloggers got to chat with Jessica Alba herself.

Alba, who has given birth to her second child by now, was fielding tons of curious questions about motherhood and her new movie Spy Kids: All the Time in the World 4D.

Alba plays Marissa Cortez Wilson; a wife, retired secret agent, step-mother to two (spy) kids–and fittingly awaiting–a baby.

The movie is in 4D, meaning 3D plus smell(!). Alba says she did not know the movie would be in 4D until after it was filmed. The effect is sure to dazzle kids who by now expect the top gadgets from Spykids whether real or imaginary. The flick uses 8 aroma cards throughout the movie.

Speaking of senses, did you know that Alba’s little girl Honor is a picky eater?

Alba says she likes snacks like fruit and all American dishes like macaroni and cheese. But like many mothers across the country, she has a little connoisseur on her hands.

Alba says that being a mom the second time has its benefits. She is definitely not as worried this time around, but is experiencing those amplified aches and pains common to multiple pregnancies.

In other words, even beautiful celebrities like Jessica Alba are as human as you and I!

When asked what she has learned from the [spy]kids during filming, Alba said she is amazed how smart child actors are. They are very disciplined and tutored on the set.

In spite of this she does not want her own kids to go into acting until (and we quote) “after college.”

Smart, beautiful, and a protective mom, Alba also is the spokesperson for Hopscout. The company sells those nostalgic children’s products that tug at your heartstring and make you go “I remember that!”

As a matter of fact, the company website says they are very picky.

Hmmm…sounds like Jessica Alba might be the perfect mother for that job.

Don’t miss Spy Kids: All the Time in the World 4D in theaters.

Spangler in action

SC: When did you know you wanted to be a teacher?

Spangler: Becoming a teacher was a natural outgrowth of growing up in a family of professional magicians. As we said at Science in the Rockies… “That’s a whole other Oprah!” My father ran one of the largest training schools for magicians in this part of the U.S. back in the 1970s, and I was fortunate to get to hang around some very cool people as a kid (David Copperfield, Doug Henning, Penn & Teller). Since science is such a big part of being a magician (always using technology and some cool science principle to come up with a way to dazzle people), becoming a science teacher seemed like a wonderful way to combine my love of doing magic and my need to have a full-time job!

SC: What was your favorite teaching moment?

Spangler: I have to attribute most of my success as a teacher to my first class of 3^rd graders. Over the course of nine months, they taught me the importance of using humor to create experiences that transcended the four walls of the classroom and somehow made it to the dinner table as a topic of conversation.

Spangler: No real frustrations other than trying to find more time in the day to accomplish what I’m setting out to do. Any profession has its’ normal frustrations, but teaching is so rewarding that the benefits totally outweigh any rough spots.

SC: What was your worst science experiment gone bad (in the classroom or otherwise)?

Spangler: I’m lucky not to have any really bad war stories when it comes to doing science experiments. Of course, there’s always the occasional explosion followed by shattering windows and lights, then I’m on fire, kids are yelling, “That was awesome!” and I return to the lesson at hand. You know… the normal stuff.

SC: As lovely as it probably is for Mrs. Spangler to have a husband who shoots potatoes and sets things on fire; How do you know when it’s time to wrap up and take it to the warehouse (or at least outside)?

Spangler: What a fun question! Anyone who has any science training is most likely a good observer… and I must say that I can tell when I’m getting “the look” from my wife, Renée. We have three lovely boys ages 12 and twins who are 9 years old and they love to experiment with Dad. This is great to have a house full of “science buddies” because we can all share the blame when a potato accidentally flies through a wall or the oven door falls off after a tiny kaboom. It’s just my way of teaching the kids how to take responsibility for their own actions.

SC: What tips do you have for parents with aspiring scientists?

Spangler: Two things… #1 Support your child by giving him or her every opportunity to wonder, discover, explore, ask questions, test out ideas, fail miserably and find incredible joy in learning something new. (That’s a big #1).
#2 Support your child’s teacher in every way possible. Volunteer in the classroom, search for new opportunities (i.e. conferences, workshops, or other professional development opportunities) for the teacher to attend, and most importantly show them that you care about them as a person and the passion they bring to their teaching. Teachers need our support. Treat a teacher like a professional with dignity and respect and you’ll get amazing results.

SC: What advice do you have for parents with kids who yearn to become teachers?

Spangler: Find someone in your life who is great teacher (someone who everyone says is a great teacher) and have your son or daughter hang out with this person for a few days in the classroom. Consider this an informal job interview. Great teachers can tell very quickly if a person is suppose to be a teacher. It’s a gift or talent that great teachers have, and their accuracy is very good! Bottom line… if you child wants to become a teacher, chances are that they’ll turn out to be a great teacher. Make sure they give it a try before jumping into a profession that is as rewarding as it is challenging.

Learn more about Steve Spangler and his awesome science program at www.SteveSpanglerScience.com.

Courtesy Wiki

Education reforms are ineffective because:

1. There is not enough money
2. The teachers are not good enough
3. The kids are lazy
4. The parents are not doing enough

Puh-lease!

The fact that the United States is not performing at the same education level as their international peers is nothing new. Neither is the blame game. Who is at fault seems to vary depending on who is in political office and what we are funding du jour. Yet, fixing the problem is decades into progress and results are stagnant at best.

So let me have my turn at pointing fingers. I say the lack of results is because of flawed education reform. That’s right. I said it. We are doing a crummy job fixing education. It isn’t necessarily what we are doing. It is how we are going about it.

The missing ingredient is potent, scientifically proven effective, readily available—and FREE of charge.

It is also the one single source that has been gradually pushed out of the classroom and redirected to other venues in our schools. Like manning the bake sale. Or chaperoning a field trip.

You guessed it. It is the parents.

Just like education performance, minimizing the value of parental involvement is not a new concept. To quote a few:

“The child should be taught to consider his instructor, in many respects, superior to the parent in point of authority…The vulgar impression that parents have a legal right to dictate to the teachers is entirely erroneous.”—California’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction in his biennial report (1864)

“Another gain lies in the partial substitution of the teacher for the parent as the model upon which the child forms itself. Copy the child will, and the advantage of giving him his teacher instead of his father to imitate, is that the former is a picked person, while the latter is not.”—Edward Ross, Education Pundit, Social Control

“Each child belongs to the state, and the purpose of education is the training of citizens for the state so the state may be perpetuated.”—William H Seawell, Professor of Education, University of Virginia

“My own opinion is that homeschooling is a form of child abuse because you are isolating the child from human interaction. I think homeschoolers are doing a great discredit [sic] to their children.”—Annette Cootes, Texas State Teachers Association

Recent polls of opinion hold parents accountable for poor education outcomes.  While at the same time parents are told that when it comes to education, it is the teachers and school operators that know best, not us. So how can parents be to blame for the results when they are not invited to participate in a deeper level than homework, fundraisers, and perhaps arranging a bulletin board?

Please don’t take this as an educator bashing session. It is really not. What I am saying is that effective education reforms are actually possible—if all hands are on deck. And you cannot do that without us.

Sure, we have heard all about the praises of parental involvement and some even tried to legislate it. But are we really encouraging meaningful parental partnerships, or are parents still just being told what to do and how to do it? Some of the tooting of how great parental involvement is, comes straight from the same people who say that the system knows kids better than the parents. Go figure.

There is nothing wrong with parents volunteering for PTO’s, filing weekly newsletters, or any of the other tasks common in our schools today. All of us were not born to lead. However, we have spent generations practically neutering the parent’s effectiveness in teamwork and leadership that would create a true turn around for many kids. With the attitude that a parent’s value in their children’s learning fades when their kiddo hits the ripe age of 5, the education community is not encouraging parental partnership in education—it is suffocating it.

Just think of how parents have been un-trained to do something as simple as choosing their children’s school. So many of us automatically send our little ones to the feeder school, without even questioning if that is the best one for junior. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. But do you know what makes that school different from the one down the street? And how do you know that it was best for your lil’ one?

What is worse is that low income families are often painted with a wide brush of being less able to make good decisions than others. How unfair! Caring for your kids and your ability to parent has nothing to do with income.

Many parents get shamed by traditionalists for not sending their kids to the area school, even if it is a failing environment. We are told that it is “when good parents leave that the schools fail.” Give me a break.

We have either forgotten who is really responsible for the children and their welfare, or grown so arrogant as to say that we parent better by government. If it is the latter, then parents can hardly be held responsible for poor outcomes when it is time for the next survey.

I predict that we will continue to hear the same tired promises from politicians and sink more money into a bottomless pit of milk toast reforms until we see the following:

• True parent initiated school choice
• Increased parental leadership on school board or in upper level election. Wouldn’t it be a breath of fresh air to have a real non-career politician in elected office? There are times I wish I could vote for the spouse over the nominated candidate.
• Leadership development programs for parents
• Parent representation in contract negotiations and any other venue that education professionals would have such individuals present (Reminder: Parents are the children’s advocates)
• Parental feedback and surveys as intricate parts of staff evaluations (if you hate this idea, ask yourself why? Parents may love a teacher that gets little praise by the employer, or vice versa)
• Student revenue being invested and steered directly by the parent
• Customer service relations within our school districts

Don’t just “appreciate” us when you need our vote, tax increase, or class party. Empower us to be the “other professionals” in our kid’s education.

Stay in touch. Tweet it. Like it on Facebook. Subscribe. Because Summer Counts. 

Courtesy Microsoft Office Clipart

Ever cracked open one of your kids textbooks and had that Twilight Zone feeling that you should know this stuff? You know you’ve learned it, but it suddenly seems long ago. Very long ago.

To make it worse, it’s not only something that happens to us old people (in our kid’s definition).

Even kids forget what they learn and over a shockingly short amount of time. It’s called: Summer Brain Drain.

Each summer millions of kids turn their scholastics on stand-by and scamper off to summer break. By the time they return to school the average student’s reading ability is 2 months behind where s/he left off and 2.6 months of math gone with the wind.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Not only is summer brain drain completely preventable, but research shows kids that learn year-round may experience a growth spurt during that time. Furthermore, experts recommend summer learning needs to be FUN to be most effective.

Here are 101 uber-fun and exciting ways to learn this summer.

Math

1. Fractions are delicious. Just check out this book on Hershey’s Fractions.
2. ALEKS helps my kids keep their math wit year round.
3. Life of Fred. My kids call this series the funniest math around. Learn math by reading about a 5 year old professor with a pet duck.
4. Use your noodle. Go for a record. Mathletics.
5. Have a garage sale. Involve your kiddo in the entire process from sorting, pricing to final sale.
6. How would your kiddo spend our tax dollars? You might be surprised. Play the online American Budget game and learn about all sorts of budget issues facing our country today. Parental guidance recommended.
7. Do a Lemonade stand. Real lemonade for extra points. Help them calculate how to price and plan to break even or make a profit.
8. Raise money for the poor. Work with your church, Red Cross, or other favorite organization. Older kids may want to try a phone-a-thon.
9. Teach them how to play cards. No hating. Whether that means poker or Kings In The Corner is to each their own.
10. Play on your iPhone. Fun education games from ihomeeducator.
11. Family game night
12. Bake up a storm. Double the recipe. Ask your kids to add, multiply and measure the indredients. Subtraction is of course when you are eating the cookies.
13. Math puzzles
14. Start a neighborhood tutoring club. Your kiddo helps a student 2-3 grade levels below him, while in turn learning from an upper “classman.” Teaches leadership and mentoring skills as well. Besides, keep it up year round for an uber-cool homework support network.
15. Let the kids manage their allowances.
16. Math is fun. As in dot com. .www.Mathisfun.com

Reading and Literacy

1.  Scholastic Reading Challenge
2. Create news buzz
3. Join a library reading program.
4. Tell stories under the stars. Grab a flashlight, a friend, and a really good tale. Then head outside for the evening. Tent optional.
5. Find crazy places to read. Have you ever read under a giant cardboard box? How about hanging upside down like a bat on the monkey bars? Some places are easier to be reading than others. Make a list of your feat.
6. Super cool world lit program for High School students. it’s FREE and doubles with social studies!  Keep in mind this is truly uncensored world literature. Parental guidance recommended.
7. Author your own book
8. Get an A in writing. How? Let Professor Pen show you how. It’s online and FREE!
9. That’s comic. There is nothing wrong with enjoying a good comic book. This website has plenty.
10. I tell. You draw. Ask your kiddo to illustrate your story. Read or tell your own.
11. Mealtime reading. Laminate fun news clippings into placemats. Buy cereal boxes with riddles. Or simply read the paper.
12. How-many-books-can-you-read-this-summer-challenge. Set up an award chart that suits your family.
13. Grow your own must read book list and share with your friends.
14. Sign out your phonics. Using simple “baby-sign language” while learning phonics make learning fun. Step it up and make it charades.
15. Tour de Libraries. How far can your library card take you? I learned recently that a nearby library district could use my local library card to check out items. Map out area libraries you have not yet visited and make it an outing. Look up their websites for cool free events, kids programs, and if they may have a coffee shop or café as part of their outfit. Don’t forget to return the items borrowed, which of course gives you another excuse to visit the library again.
16. Phonetic hop-scotch. Chalk out an alphabet grid on the pavement or driveway, large enough for hop-scotching. Use pre-made, or design your own, spelling cards and hop them out. Touch a line, or misspell the word and it is the next players turn.
17. Use the summer to catch up on reading skills using an exciting program. Although designed for dyslexia I bought this for one of my kiddos because he thought it looked like “fun.”

Camps

1. You animal! Join the zoo day camp.
2. Cruising for science.
3. Head for the hills with Eagle Lake.
4. Museum of Nature and Science
5. Hone your business skills, girls.
6. Local Recreation Centers have tons of fun camps.
7. Jungle Quest have daycamps for moneying around. Some go on field trips to the museum and the likes.
8. Act out. Look up the best acting camps for teens.
9. Kinetics is a fun destination on its own. During summer they also go off site from time to time. Check into your location and see what’s going on.
10. That’s why we like the “Y.” YMCA summer camps.

Field Trips

1. Check out the art museum
2. Downtown aquarium
3. Go fish. Literally. Take them fishing.
4. Mine your own.
5. Mesa Verde.
6. Visit a ghost town.
7. Learn to swim. Lake. Pool. Tub. Whatever floats your boat.
8. Find your mountain top.
9. Hang out with the dinosaurs. I’m not talking a family reunion.
10. Map out your fieldtrips using this great online tool for homeschoolers. While you are at it, browse some of the deals. We are frequent customers of Homeschool Buyers Co-op.

Artsy-fartsy

1. Mark Kistler’s online art lessons.
2. Klutz Claymation. We have used this to illustrate Shakespear and develop our own action movies a la an 11-year old.
3. Monart School of the Arts have summer camps, regular classes and a do-it-yerself-book.
4. Design your own real computer game.
5. Meet the masters in this exciting online art program.
6. Chalk it up. Recreate the world on your driveway. We love Mapping the World by Heart.
7. Closely knit. Take knitting or crocheting classes with the kids.
8. Design jewelry
9. Hang up a blanket in the backyard to set the stage for your homemade theater. Re-enact a book, a real script, skit, or favorite vacation memory. Make posters, tickets, invite the neighbors. Let the creativity flow.
10. Sew fun! Sewing classes are all the rage. Check out Joann’s Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, or your local sewing machine store for details. Great way to incorporate math concepts too.

Music

1. Music marvel.
2. Go to the symphony. Read up on the composer and create a podcast with what you learn.
3. Fill empty bottles with different water levels and create your own tunes. Best done outside.
4. Go to an outdoor concert with your family.

Unit Studies

1. Intellego has gobs of intelligent and exciting themes for learning.
2. University of Denver’s Gifted and Talented Porgram sells their unit studies to the public. Little unknown fact.
3. Create a Summer Olympics lap-book. This can really cover almost every subject your kids learn when school is “on.” How wonderfully sneaky!
4. Create your own unit study with a summer vacation theme. Break out the camera for photos of where you go, your sister sleeping in the car with her mouth open, and any other worthy to share memories. Use a scrapbook, add journal pages, list your daily math opportunities.

Social studies

1. Mystery of History
2. Learn local history. Call your city or tourist information and set up tours.
3. Make a time capsule. Put in cool stuff that is relevant with today. Include today’s newspaper and a letter from you to the future.
4. Create your history today. Journal each day as if you are telling someone from the future about what you are doing, feeling and so on.
5. Learn to draw the world map by heart (see artsy-fartsy)
6. One of the coolest history publications is out of print. But you can still buy back copies AND subscribe to their FREE newsletter. This blurb will not possibly make it justice. Check it out for yourself.
7. History Comics for early readers through age 11.
8. Map envy. Get together with your favorite school, church, or co-op and loan enormous maps from National Geographic.

Science

1. If you give a child a bug net…I know. They have not written this version yet. But as a mother of two boys, I can tell you plenty of summers spent from dawn to dusk catching things that creep and fly, then looking them up in the encyclopedia.
2. Water tables are fun and educational. It doesn’t have to be expensive either. You can build rivers, dams, bridges and aqueducts in a sandbox or on the beach.
3. Make a Menthos Geyser. Or a dozen.
4. Get muddy. Ever looked really closely at the mudd around your house? Use a microscope or looking glass for a closer look.
5. What’s in your water? Get some Petri dishes and some of this science gunk and run a couple of simple water samples. Sprinkle some water from the local pool, your bath tub, your garden house, a store bought water bottle…and so on, in individual trays and watch what grows.
6. Explore science with science detective.
7. Start or join a BEST Robotics program.

A little of this and that

1. Go to your farmer’s market
2. Bounce it out. Spelling, math, states and capitols. You name it; you can memorize it while jumping on the trampoline. One jump per letter for spelling or names. For math, try to answer before three jumps. Then beat your record.
3. Take a class at the community college. Often they will offer a college prep class that may be suitable for kids middle school and older. If your kiddo has completed Algebra II, talk to the college about the Acuplacer test and how to get weighted dual credits toward high school and college.
4. Create your own treasure map. Hide a prize and mark it with an x. If the kids are doing the burying of treasure, just make sure they’re not hiding something you really must find. Like your car keys. Or Johnny.
5. Build the tallest Lego tower on your block. How many pieces did it take? Post the challenge for your friends to try beat.
6. Get your Renaissance on and go to the Rennaisance Fair in your area.
7. Time for learning.
8. I know that. You know it too. Although your tween doesn’t know you know it. If you have a tween you are quite aware you share a home with an all-knowing oracle. But even a 12 year old Yoda may want to may sure they can keep all their facts intact over summer.
9. Sonlight
10. Winter Promise
11. K12
12. Calvert School
13. Moving Beyond the Page
14. Laurel Springs
15. Kaplan

Piano Marvel creator Aaron Garner show students how to use the program.

It  isn’t everyday one goes to a Charter School Conference and walks away with an uber-cool music program. But that is exactly what happened to us.

Tucked in the corner of the vendor room was an electric piano. An adorable girl with golden strawberry hair, I’m guessing around 8-10 years old, was playing an impressive riff with great familiarity.

At first I would have guessed this young lady had had years of expensive piano lessons.

My daughter and I stopped and talked to the husband and wife team hosting the Piano Marvel booth.

No, explained the couple, the program is mostly self taught through the internet. This makes it both efficient and affordable. Therefore, they continued, it is ideal for schools and homeschoolers who want to offer music, but short on both funds and staff.

We were thrilled to learn that Piano Marvel offers a FREE 30-day trial, and decided to take the challenge for our own family.

Piano Marvel works by connecting a compatible electric piano or keyboard to a computer with an USB/Midi cable. Believe me when I say it’s easy-peasy as I am no tech-wonder. I was also pleasantly surprised that my 20 year old CASIO keyboard was modern enough to suit the technology.

Signing up for the trial was as easy as registering for an online newsletter.

When logging on you find a home-screen with a complete step-by-step lesson plan.

After choosing your poison, music sheets come up and a voice cursor counts you in. The student simply plays along with the music following the notes on the screen. Instant feedback follows and a percentage of mastery given. When a golden piano is achieved lesson is completed and the student should move on to the next lesson.

So how did this work out for us?

First of all, a little sibling rivalry of the tunes broke out.

The first week my two youngest were sneaking in as many practices as possible to “beat” their siblings in “piano levels.” Apparently the correlated the golden pianos with video game status and were not about to be smoked by a younger sib or…gasp…a girl!

Barely out of week 1 both of them started skipping around in the lessons because their newfound skills made them so excited to see what they would learn to play next.

By the third week my 9 year old started playing the songs learned on our “real piano” upstairs. With BOTH hands!

Needless to say we are very happy customers.

So this summer when you are looking for something different for a rainy day or budget cuts have brutally sent your schools music program into the gutter—look into piano marvel.

At $15 per month (after the FREE trial) it certainly is an affordable comparison to private lessons and

happen at your convenience. Some familiarity with reading music is helpful, but not necessary. The program will explain what each note means by holding the cursor over the information. Also available for guitar and drums.

Contact Holly Plattner plattner@pianomarvel.com (719) 676-2777 with Music Marvel for more information about music programs for your school.

This is part 5 of 5 in the series “Origin of Public Education.”

How much has public education changed in the United States over the last 30 years?

…*Crickets*…

If you compare this time period in the US with most others in its young 250 year (or so) history, you will find that something seems stuck in the cogs of meaningful evolution of academic growth.

The first two hundred years of establishing this country was spent fighting for freedom of various flavors. By the mid 1900’s education was not only a right, but compulsory, for all children of age regardless of color, socio economics, gender and ability. With all kids getting educated, one would expect literacy rates to sky rocket and public schooling being one of the most valued national treasures of this country. No snickering, please.

But before we can even get to the dialogue of quality versus quantity, and whether or not we have to give up one for the other, we need to answer the first question of this blog: What happened in the 1980’s?

 Well, by now you know that there was a report titled a Nation at Risk, which settled the rumors that American Education was a flop in this paraphrase: We are doomed.

And in international comparisons?—We were putting me in mediocrity.

But instead of the swift response when the Sputnik had taunted the US as runner up, the efficiency in how reforms issued by president Regan and congress were executed was…well…mediocre.

In short, the reforms recommended were: Teaching. More teaching. Here is what to teach. Money. More money. And kids—We expect more of you as a result.

It’s curious, because recommendations for reform since then look eerily familiar, but don new pseudonyms. And of course a new budget.

Bill Clinton passed the Improving America’s Schools Act in 1994, George W Bush signed No Child Left Behind into law in 2001, and Barack Obama has made some amendments based on similar philosophies. But you know what they say about doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result.

The timeline we have covered is a snapshot via blog and does not even come close to covering every event, presidency or man-made impression on US public education. And as each day adds to our timeline of history like a living document, we too are part of making it.

Here are the concluding thoughts of this series:

Throughout this country’s young history the promise that all men are equal has sparked many civil right debates. None less is education. The fundamental questions have not changed much over time:

• Who is public education designed for? Who is “the public” in public education? Is it the children in our classrooms? The staff hired using our tax-moneys? Or is it the taxpayers themselves?
• What defines success? Does every child really have the right to equal access of such?

To this day, is access to education fair or equal? Although sex, color and creed are no longer a determining factor in compulsory education, income and socioeconomics still play a role in the equal access part. Millions of children today attend schools that are considered subpar from all sorts of aspects, academically lacking, and in some cases unsafe. Should the family be fortunate to be able to pay twice for education (taxes to keep the subpar area school still afloat, while paying out of pocket for other schooling), they have options that other families don’t.

This is where the next civil rights battle in education may lie.

Subscribe to this blog. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

This is Part IV in the series History of Public Education.

In just a century and a half, give or take, public education United States by the 1950’s had gone from infant beginnings to the largest schooling system in the world; scared by wars and calloused by politics. The American public education system was celebrated by many as the best in the world. Until, one Soviet Union satellite Sputniked into space, that is. What a blow to US National pride!

If the United States of America had the best education in the world, then why was it not first in space? The power of acquired knowledge and innovation in science, and its impact on national security, was fresh on people’s mind since World War II. It wasn’t long before US officials responded by beefing up science in its schools. The National Defense Education Act was passed in 1958 to finance both scientific research and education. So away went the trend about home economics and—hello, Cold-War-style science education!

About a decade later the United States of America was the first to land on the moon.

Many milestones in US history which relates to education can be listed off: The passing of the Civil Rights Act (about time!), the Immigration Act, Bilingual Education Act (later repealed and replaced with No Child Left Behind), and of course—another round of “Monkey Trials.” Darwinists had been long been fighting for their right to teach evolution in schools. In the 1920’s the appeals had lost in court. This time though, Epperson v. Arkansas, was ruled in favor of monkey business, and prohibiting teaching of evolution as a theory considered unconstitutional based on the first amendment.

But even in the wake of the Civil Rights movement, there were some children who still were left out. It wasn’t until 1971 and the case of Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens v. Pennsylvania that children who were classified as “mentally retarded” were legally allowed a free public education.

But don’t underestimate the power of the press. A 1975 Newsweek story called Why Johnny Can’t Write sparked strong interest in back-to-basic education. No, not science. Not wood-wittling either. The other stuff; reading, writing, and math. What a concept!

One wonders what how history would be different if former president Ronald Regan had actually carried out his vow to abolish the Department of Education. The DOE had attained cabinet status during the Carter era, which is a direct eye-poke for those who believe in market education. Alas, we cannot do more than speculate because the dis never materialized beyond campaign promise.

But Regan didn’t sit idle when it came to education. In 1983 the National Commission of Excellence in Education issued a report titled “A Nation at Risk.”  Americans were once more reminded that our schools were not as hot as we thought. Or as the report’s author, James J. Harvey, said in his own famous words: “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.”

Well knowing how strongly America feels about the connection of education and National Security (remember the Sputnik, fear of foreign influence during World War I and II–or heck–even the Revolutionary War), you are certain that them are fighting words. That is all it took for the US to launch a counterattack on milk-toast education and fix the exposed threat to our kid’s futures, right?

Well, not quite…Let’s talk more Regan era, then we  have the 90’s to cover, and the fear of millenium change until today.

Follow our conversation and conclusion of History of Public Education by checking www.summercounts.com frequently, or by subscribing or following us on Facebook.

http://summercounts.com/blog/2011/02/02/origin-of-public-education-part-i-the-purpose-of-common-schools/

http://summercounts.com/blog/2011/02/03/origin-of-public-education-part-ii-is-compulsory-just-for-some/

http://summercounts.com/blog/2011/04/12/604/

 http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2002/Gary-Schools.html

http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/educationhistorytimeline.html

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/roots_in_history/choice.html

http://www.aoh61.com/history/bible/nativism_chronology.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-only_movement

http://www.congresslink.org/print_basics_histmats_civilrights64text.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epperson_v._Arkansas

http://www.faculty.piercelaw.edu/redfield/library/case-parc.pennsylvania.htm

This is part III in History of Public Education.

In 1916 John Dewey became famed for authoring Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. Dewey was a key player in promoting “the progressive political movement,” or “Progressive Education,” which attempts to make schools conduits for a democratic society.

Superintendent William A. Wirt of Gary, Indiana, public schools was also a member of the “Progressive Education” fan-club. Inspired by Dewey and his own Protestant background Wirt believed schools should provide “salvation for its children and community.”

It was thought that home economics was the missing link in American education and much attention given to it. The philosophy went that the labor riots and strikes were due to that families could not balance their household budgets and wives not cook a hot meal, driving the husband’s to drinking in the saloons. Public School, which was now seen as the cure of all society’s ills, was going to step in and save the day.

Gary was a town literally founded and built by U.S Steel Corporation. It was a booming town during the industrial era, with a heterogeneous population.

Wirt ran the school district deliberately and systematically. It was a system designed to yield workers for the booming industrial era and the system conditioning the young trainees was a prime example in its design.

There were two educational plans in Gary, the Work-Study-Play, or the Platoon School Plan. Wirt used the classrooms 24/7 year round—children learning in the day—adults at night. The curriculum included manual training like woodshop for boys and cooking for girls, and other non-academic subjects that had not been typical in classrooms until this point.  Less focus was put on reading, writing and mathematics. After all, only a few could be business owners and organizational leaders. The vast majority would need skills that operated machinery or worked the conveyor belt…or cook meals for their husbands. The students were organized into two platoons who switched schedules for maximum facility efficiency.

Many schools prior to World War I taught foreign languages. Since immigrants were pouring in finding teachers in these native tongues was not an overly difficult task. Immigrant groups tended to stick together and valued perseverance of their language and traditions. One of the most popular foreign languages was German. Hundreds of thousands of kids learned both the German language as well as “about the glories of Germany.” Makes sense since it wasn’t just the German immigrants who thought that German traditions were just swell, but remember, the education leaders had modeled the entire system off the Prussian militant school model.

However, this PDA toward German anything was quickly changed with the Great War.

United States Present Theodor Roosevelt was a  believer in English-only  curriculum and wrote already in 1907, “We have room for but one language in this country and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house.”

The popularization of this idea was quickly fanned by the brewing international climate and a growing anti-German sentiment. The Great War necessitated renaming to World War I upon the start of World War II. Many immigrants changed their names and refused to teach their children their native language, especially if it was German, to avoid implied affiliation with the Nazis.

“Official English” advocate groups were quick to support with the belief that “the passage of English as the official language will help to expand opportunities for immigrants to learn and speak English, the single greatest empowering tool that immigrants must have to succeed.”

It is interesting that it was the English and Irish influence which was the flavor of national fear just a century before.

Yet equality and fair equal access to education was still much under dispute.

By the 1950’s the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was ready to take its case all the way. It was still commonly believed (and lawful) that education segregation was constitutional as long as separate facilities were equal.  This was certainly not the case. NCAAP organized a group of black parents to attempt to enroll their children in white schools nearby. Among them, Reverend Oliver Brown and his 8-year old daughter Linda.

The case, Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, went all the way to the Supreme Court.

On May 17, 1954, a unanimous decision of the court was announced: “It is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity…is a right which must be available to all on equal terms. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”– Chief Justice Earl Warren

This seems an opportune time in history to ask you, the reader a few Socratic questions: Do you think children are being denied the opportunity of an education “on equal terms” today? Does America have room for more “but one language?” Has public education saved our society from poverty and crime (as per Horace Mann’s prediction), or stopped husbands from going to the bars and become better fathers (as per Wirt)? Do we fear the international influences of other cultures today? Why? How do you predict that such fears (if any) will impact education for future generations?

Follow our conversation and conclusion of History of Public Education by checking www.summercounts.com frequently, or by subscribing below.

http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2002/Gary-Schools.html

http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/educationhistorytimeline.html

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/roots_in_history/choice.html

http://www.aoh61.com/history/bible/nativism_chronology.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-only_movement