Thinking On Education

Here is a link to an animated talk by Sir Ken Robinson. I have been aware of the economic, industrial template, of education for a while now.  This is the first time I've seen it connected with the Enlightenment model. As a product of parochial and public schools in the seventies and eighties, this was an ingrained mentality. Those who could do well in the school system and raise their social standard and those who couldn't.  I had always seen the two intertwined, most children of factory workers were educated to replace their factory worker parents, children from a higher economic standard were educated for college.
Reflecting on this, I think about how I define what it means to be educated and how that has changed over the years. There are reams of papers and vats of books that almost parallel my thought evolution from the Core Curriculum to Howard Gardner's Intelligences, to even Sir Ken Robinson's writings. There still remains a constant struggle over development, growth and talents of children against necessary skills and knowledge.
As a product of a blue collar education, there was a sense that there were pieces of information that students from better schools were getting and that if I could locate and master this information I could cross the divide. What was missing from this scavenger hunt was the platform for the learning process. It wasn't necessarily the content, although there were large missing chunks.  I never read any of the classics until college and read maybe four Shakespeare plays in all of high school. It was in fact, the vehicle of the content. The way the content is used to help children learn to analyze information, understand events and new information relevant to what they know.  Understanding how to find faults of logic, however small, and unpack them, even if it meant the whole structure fell. This template was the large treasure, that was missing in the educational system.
If I'm not alone in this sort of misunderstanding of what it means to be educated throughout a lifetime, and I don't think I am, I take a large leap here and think it is possible that many parents also feel this way.  Even if the education they received did give them more than the higher content.
I can't let this post go without addressing the ADHD. I do think many children are over medicated but I don't think denying a possible growing problem of ADHD is the answer. This is the first time I've seen this ADHD map of the United States. It is too deep a problem, and too serious for many children to disregard such a statistic so whimsically, funny as it was. IF this is true, then maybe we should start finding reasons, instead of the assumption that we medicate students to keep them quiet. Perhaps there is a fine line of what is the optimal dose, or perhaps there is an environmental factor that isn't being considered here, such as pesticides in foods.(Links for ADHD & Pesticides, a place to start.) There is too little information to dismiss this, and it is too large of an innuendo in the animation to be ignored.
So, as always, I am interested to hear what your reflections are on your education and your children's.  How do you evaluate a good system? What do you think your own educational experience did for you, and what are you looking for in your child's?

The Way We Eat

Eating is one of my favorite things to do.  I love to go to restaurants, try to cook, read through cookbooks, taste new recipes, etc.  Since I love eating so much, I am constatntly trying to eat healthier as well as cook healthier food for my family.  It is the constant struggle of a foodie who really wants to be, if not thin (okay, I really want to be thin!) then at least healthy. But of course this takes on a whole new dimension when we begin to look at eating from another view, the view that we really can't accomplish this goal in any form if we continue to eat from the supermarket.  This isn't healthy for our bodies, our minds or our souls.  I was always sort of aware of this, but refused to face it because of the convenience grocery stores offer.  However, after a recent family gathering, my sister tossed aside my blinders with a few short comments. Explaining why she went vegetarian first, and then eventually vegan. she gave just a few examples of the unnecsessary torture animals recieve at factory farms.  She was truly not evangalizing, just explaining her point of view as to how and why she came to this vegan lifestyle.
This was the catalyst my lazy soul needed to investigate.  After some time spent looking through the many sites that are posted on line I came across this article at thee Huffington Post, Avoiding Factory Farms.  What I like most about this article is the practical advide given by Ms. Niman.  It helps to know that this is a process and not something that should be taken as a huge step.
Taking her advice I have begun to research and ask for suggestions for finding CSA's, Community Supported Agriculure.
Wow! What a lot of great people are already moving in this direction or are already there.  I am so excited to begin investigating this for so many reasons:
1. My children will no longer get all of the junk that is put in meats and vegetables.  (Hooray, maybe my daughter won't get her period at nine! Long live childhood.)
2. I will be challenged to find recipes that are based on season vegetables, but the vegetables will be fresh, and once again free of all of the chemicals that I have been given my children.
3. I will be supporting local farmers and hopefully stopping yet another development from taking over the farmland. (This, by the way, is what got my husband on board.)
4. I will no longer be supporting a system that not only likes to load our food up with chemicals, but just in case we missed ingesting them, tosses it out to the air as well.
5. I will no longer be supporting the absolutely disgusting treatment of animals.
Now, I have to qualify the last one, because anyone who knows me knows that I am not exactly an animal lover.  The truth is I prefer them in pictures.  I know, it makes me somewhat less of a person but I just have enough trouble keeping my house clean without worrying that it smells like dog, or worse yet wet dog.  And I don't find it cute when they go out and roll in something disgusting and then bring that stench and whatever is creating that stench into my house. My children lay on that floor.  Just not that earthy.  However, after listening to my sister, and reading online the absolute horrors of what happens in this farm it made me want to go home and hug my dog.  It also made me realize the full responsibility we have in keeping this world a healthy place for those who have no power.  I include in this category children, plants, animals and anyone who doesn't have the means, financial or intellectual to truly control their environment. Sometimes this includes me. Sometimes it doesn't.  When it comes to having control over what food system I choose to support, it doesn't.
So here is the list of resources I am checking out to begin my new adventure ino healthier eating:
Myerov Family Market
I like the work option one on this one and am planning to go to Perkasie to visit the actual farm.  I also like the idea that I can pick up my groceries once a week.  However, my husband has no intentions of going vegetarian so I would need to supplement this with some other CSA that included meat as well as eggs and dairy.
Lancaster Farm Fresh
This was recommended by two different people so it is worth checking out.  I am having trouble figuring out the portions.  I do admit, even after what I stated as a challenge, I am worried about trying to cook all of this fresh food.  Do I really want to eat radishes and mushrooms in June?  I don't even like mushrooms.
Creekside Coop
This is a brand new coop so I could get in on the ground floor so to speak.  Additionally they are holding a Farmer's Market on Sunday that is open to everyone.  I am planning on attending this week to investigate what will actually be available, why I should join if they are going to continue to have the coop and what the prices will be like.
I'll post pics and my thoughts in a future post.
Happy Eating.