Views-Continued from the music discussion thread

[TheWendybird]

Yes, things on this planet DEFINITELY have got to change. Here's all the things I, as an Indigo, want to try to change (as many as I can think of lol):

- parents not letting boys play with dolls
- parents not letting teenage or adult sons/daughters play with toys
- people picking on someone else because they like a kids show or kids toys
- people thinking a guy is gay or a pervert if they cross dress - it's possible that they just like women's clothes!
- if someone is gay, people shouldn't despise them for it
- nature feeding off itself and the circle of life, which causes things to violently die all the time (this one might be harder to change but I think it eventually will)
- any kind of bullying or being mean
- any kind of killing
- companies doing negative things, making negative products, taking advantage of people, (especially children), just to make money
- dirty politicians that put themselves and their "buddies" before their country and it's people

AMEN!!!

One major one of me and Starvoyager is a vendetta against societies discrimination of child like "adults". Meaning...me and him don't ever want to grow up...this is more than simply being childish...there is bad childish and harmless good childish. My family but especially my father...have said some not so great things about something as simple as for instance...my grandma was in hospital over christmas cause of a hernia that was blocking her bowel....she survived the surgery (it was very risky cause she's had problems before) and Starvoyager had given me this Tinkerbell doll for Christmas....well i took it with me in a bag to the hospital when we went...and my 12 year old cousin Nicole came and I was showing it to her and apparently later on my grandma mentioned to my mom that she was wondering if something is wrong with me (note: I currently have a my little pony in my disney faeries bookbag lol which btw my dad came down on me really hard about and told me to grow up.) There is this huge prejudice against sweet innocent stuff...my ex husband i am certain got together with me to be able to say he took my innocence...there are actually people out there who prey on that. He was a part of an average evangelical church...most of the people were sensible but he wasn't. He said he was the head of the household because the bible said so and was a complete control freak..i couldnt even contribute to how the apartment looked. So ridiculous. He use to yell at me for reading my peter pan novel lol I have umpteen stories....

I think there is a witch hunt of sorts when it comes to people like me and him...a lot of people are (rightfully) scared of pedophiles and are worried about their children. I fully understand this but at the same time you have people like me and him who only want to be able to run outside and play with the other kids...it's so depressing...and we feel repressed by society with it.

Aside from that..a lot of the stuff you mentioned for sure. And don't even get me started on bullying. I've spent my whole life being bullied and I get SOOOOOOO friggin' angry when I hear of one person bullying another. I found out this one girl was bullying my cousin and i thought I'd go mad and hurt her if i ever saw her and tell her "how do you like it?" lol Not that violence is the answer it's just how mad it makes me you know?

Politics- yes of COURSE....so aweful....I also have a vendetta against anyone who is on top and looking down their noses at others. I think movie stars are way overpaid and yet teachers for instance are UNDERPAID. Nurses are underpaid too. These professions are MUCH more important to the well being of our society than MOVIE STARS. Why can't the money go to the people who truly deserve it? Oh and let's not forget firefighters too!

Also the education system needs a COMPLETE over hall. Me and Starvoyager both feel like the best years of our lives were wasted in the education system. It taught me nothing I needed to know now. I think we need to be in school perhaps till the end of junior high then I think you should go for whatever profession you wish.

I don't think it's fair when i KNEW in high school i would not be doing anything that would need logirythms or however it's spelt...that i still had to take that math course and ruin my average. All I wanted to do was sing sing sing, act, write, draw and paint...the arts are where it's at for me. It's been that way since I was a toddler and it still is that way. I should have been taught more stuff like that. I don't use any of this other stuff.....there needs to be a new way of doing this..even the way teaching is going....1 teacher for like 40 students....all have questions and need help and they are simply not getting the attention they need to learn. Our society is breaking down around us and everyone just closes their eyes to it. Unbelievable.

[Chibi Rachy]

Politics- yes of COURSE....so aweful....I also have a vendetta against anyone who is on top and looking down their noses at others. I think movie stars are way overpaid and yet teachers for instance are UNDERPAID. Nurses are underpaid too. These professions are MUCH more important to the well being of our society than MOVIE STARS. Why can't the money go to the people who truly deserve it? Oh and let's not forget firefighters too!

Also the education system needs a COMPLETE over hall. Me and Starvoyager both feel like the best years of our lives were wasted in the education system. It taught me nothing I needed to know now. I think we need to be in school perhaps till the end of junior high then I think you should go for whatever profession you wish.

I don't think it's fair when i KNEW in high school i would not be doing anything that would need logirythms or however it's spelt...that i still had to take that math course and ruin my average. All I wanted to do was sing sing sing, act, write, draw and paint...the arts are where it's at for me. It's been that way since I was a toddler and it still is that way. I should have been taught more stuff like that. I don't use any of this other stuff.....there needs to be a new way of doing this..even the way teaching is going....1 teacher for like 40 students....all have questions and need help and they are simply not getting the attention they need to learn. Our society is breaking down around us and everyone just closes their eyes to it. Unbelievable.

Can't help but to comment on the education section. Yes, we are underpaid and we deserve better pay, but legislators won't give it to us. Not only am I putting in my regular day shift time, but then there's also my prep time and the time I spend lesson planning and grading papers. There are some days I do wish I had a job where I could simply leave and not have to worry about it after hours. Of course, then I remember my internship at the factory from the last summer and know that while that is nice, I missed working with children.

I'm going to have to disagree with the cutting off the high school years bit. Junior high really doesn't exist anymore. Middle school ends in 8th grade. There's no way I was ready to study for a career then. I didn't decide on my profession until midway through high school and even then it got tweaked after that. I'm not part of the average student though. Kids get to college and still it's common to switch majors three and four times. My youngest brother has switched for a third time and he's still a freshman.

Part of the reason high school was good for me though was that I was able to dabble in other elective courses. I took my child development courses for the teaching profession, but I also took accounting and business courses too, as well as a floriculture course and a web design one. Why? Because I wanted to try different things and get experience. Sure, I hated my math courses, but I shoved through them because in the end, I did learn something, even if today I can't quite do it. As an educator, I'm supposed to be a lifelong learner. I think it should extend for others as well. Nothing bad can come of expanding the mind and learning something new.

As for class size, yes it is expanding in some states. I am lucky to only have 20 students. Next year they will be in classes of 24 or so. However, there is time for small groups. RTI (Response to Intervention) has become big and with it comes time for reading and math. In my school, students get the regular 90 minutes and then in the afternoon we have a 30 minute block where students are split into groups to work on specific skills with various teachers. It's going to get even more intense as the years continue, with more specialized help for those who need it. Math is the next step in intervention, and that will soon be added on to the 60 minutes of instruction already given. Honestly, there's not enough time in the day for everything. It's hard to get everything in that needs to be done.

[TheWendybird]

Politics- yes of COURSE....so aweful....I also have a vendetta against anyone who is on top and looking down their noses at others. I think movie stars are way overpaid and yet teachers for instance are UNDERPAID. Nurses are underpaid too. These professions are MUCH more important to the well being of our society than MOVIE STARS. Why can't the money go to the people who truly deserve it? Oh and let's not forget firefighters too!

Also the education system needs a COMPLETE over hall. Me and Starvoyager both feel like the best years of our lives were wasted in the education system. It taught me nothing I needed to know now. I think we need to be in school perhaps till the end of junior high then I think you should go for whatever profession you wish.

I don't think it's fair when i KNEW in high school i would not be doing anything that would need logirythms or however it's spelt...that i still had to take that math course and ruin my average. All I wanted to do was sing sing sing, act, write, draw and paint...the arts are where it's at for me. It's been that way since I was a toddler and it still is that way. I should have been taught more stuff like that. I don't use any of this other stuff.....there needs to be a new way of doing this..even the way teaching is going....1 teacher for like 40 students....all have questions and need help and they are simply not getting the attention they need to learn. Our society is breaking down around us and everyone just closes their eyes to it. Unbelievable.

Can't help but to comment on the education section. Yes, we are underpaid and we deserve better pay, but legislators won't give it to us. Not only am I putting in my regular day shift time, but then there's also my prep time and the time I spend lesson planning and grading papers. There are some days I do wish I had a job where I could simply leave and not have to worry about it after hours. Of course, then I remember my internship at the factory from the last summer and know that while that is nice, I missed working with children.

I'm going to have to disagree with the cutting off the high school years bit. Junior high really doesn't exist anymore. Middle school ends in 8th grade. There's no way I was ready to study for a career then. I didn't decide on my profession until midway through high school and even then it got tweaked after that. I'm not part of the average student though. Kids get to college and still it's common to switch majors three and four times. My youngest brother has switched for a third time and he's still a freshman.

Part of the reason high school was good for me though was that I was able to dabble in other elective courses. I took my child development courses for the teaching profession, but I also took accounting and business courses too, as well as a floriculture course and a web design one. Why? Because I wanted to try different things and get experience. Sure, I hated my math courses, but I shoved through them because in the end, I did learn something, even if today I can't quite do it. As an educator, I'm supposed to be a lifelong learner. I think it should extend for others as well. Nothing bad can come of expanding the mind and learning something new.

As for class size, yes it is expanding in some states. I am lucky to only have 20 students. Next year they will be in classes of 24 or so. However, there is time for small groups. RTI (Response to Intervention) has become big and with it comes time for reading and math. In my school, students get the regular 90 minutes and then in the afternoon we have a 30 minute block where students are split into groups to work on specific skills with various teachers. It's going to get even more intense as the years continue, with more specialized help for those who need it. Math is the next step in intervention, and that will soon be added on to the 60 minutes of instruction already given. Honestly, there's not enough time in the day for everything. It's hard to get everything in that needs to be done.

Indeed it's true that some people don't know for sure what they want to do. Problem lies in ..I feel like the way most things are taught today are not nearly as effective as they could be. I think there should be new ways to teach...but also..what happens with a kid who somehow just knows...I feel like I had time taken from me that I could have spent doing something more worthwhile for myself. Bottom line is...I just barely passed math anyhow in the end I just don't see what the point of it was lol For me that is...

When it comes to college I can understand switching majors and stuff..I've talked to a lot of my friends who went to college and most had already forgotten a lot of high school stuff to do with math even if they needed it in university/college and had to learn all over again anyhow.

For us junior high was grades 7-9. I can honestly say most stuff in high school I didn't need. In fact lit class we had to read Macbeth...in 12th grade. I read the play in the 7th..got a "10++/10" on it..(not sure how THAT works lol) and I knew it very well. I failed the grade 12 test simply because the answers don't suit what the teacher wants. This is what I feel the problem with most modern education is. Just because you can't answer exactly as the teacher wants does not mean you don't know the material or you didn't do your work. or maybe it was just my high school that was just that messed up. If people want to encourage kids to read I feel like my suggestion would be...have them bring in a book to be approved of by the teacher (so people don't read comic books or something) and have them read and do a book report on each chapter or every few chapters. We use to do something like this in elementary school and i found it much more enjoyable and it gave me more joy of reading..i found high school reading nearly drove me out of my mind and i didn't want to read a book again till 3 or 4 years ago...aside from a couple on and off.

I guess the problem lies in...every child is different...and instead of acknowledging how some children need a different way of learning..instead we're all made to sorta fit this mold and what not. I couldn't learn math the way it was being taught in class but for some reason in junior high..my tutor (just a girl two grades above me) was able to explain it in much better terms. Some children are more right brained some are more left...I'm not sure exactly HOW to reform school..i just think it really needs it.

Kudos to you for being a teacher tho. That's one hell of a profession. Must be exhausting.

[Starvoyager]

I failed the grade 12 test simply because the answers don't suit what the teacher wants. This is what I feel the problem with most modern education is. Just because you can't answer exactly as the teacher wants does not mean you don't know the material or you didn't do your work.

*cough* yeah, most of public education's methods for testing the knowledge of kids is all about memorization (which is NOT the same thing as learning). History bored me to death. Not because I don't find it interesting, but because what they focused on was meaningless. I had to know that "taxation without representation" was something that ticked off the early colonists, but nobody ever bothered to tell us the meaning of that phrase. I had to know what year in which the Treaty of Versailles was signed, but I didn't need to know what was significant about it.

The substance of History is something that kids could take with them and apply to their lives forever. But the school doesn't seem concerned at all about whether or not our minds absorb the substance. As long as we know when World War II happened, who cares WHY it happened, right? *rolleyes*

[TheWendybird]

I failed the grade 12 test simply because the answers don't suit what the teacher wants. This is what I feel the problem with most modern education is. Just because you can't answer exactly as the teacher wants does not mean you don't know the material or you didn't do your work.

*cough* yeah, most of public education's methods for testing the knowledge of kids is all about memorization (which is NOT the same thing as learning). History bored me to death. Not because I don't find it interesting, but because what they focused on was meaningless. I had to know that "taxation without representation" was something that ticked off the early colonists, but nobody ever bothered to tell us the meaning of that phrase. I had to know what year in which the Treaty of Versailles was signed, but I didn't need to know what was significant about it.

The substance of History is something that kids could take with them and apply to their lives forever. But the school doesn't seem concerned at all about whether or not our minds absorb the substance. As long as we know when World War II, who cares WHY it happened, right? *rolleyes*

That's right sweetie! Remember me telling you I liked the book "Night" about the Holocoust? It's a book that takes you into history...a survivor wrote it..and it still sticks with me to this day. I found it much more effective than if they had just pushed dates and events into our heads.

[Dialga-Brite]

AMEN!!!

One major one of me and Starvoyager is a vendetta against societies discrimination of child like "adults". Meaning...me and him don't ever want to grow up...this is more than simply being childish...there is bad childish and harmless good childish. My family but especially my father...have said some not so great things about something as simple as for instance...my grandma was in hospital over christmas cause of a hernia that was blocking her bowel....she survived the surgery (it was very risky cause she's had problems before) and Starvoyager had given me this Tinkerbell doll for Christmas....well i took it with me in a bag to the hospital when we went...and my 12 year old cousin Nicole came and I was showing it to her and apparently later on my grandma mentioned to my mom that she was wondering if something is wrong with me (note: I currently have a my little pony in my disney faeries bookbag lol which btw my dad came down on me really hard about and told me to grow up.) There is this huge prejudice against sweet innocent stuff...my ex husband i am certain got together with me to be able to say he took my innocence...there are actually people out there who prey on that. He was a part of an average evangelical church...most of the people were sensible but he wasn't. He said he was the head of the household because the bible said so and was a complete control freak..i couldnt even contribute to how the apartment looked. So ridiculous. He use to yell at me for reading my peter pan novel lol I have umpteen stories....

I think there is a witch hunt of sorts when it comes to people like me and him...a lot of people are (rightfully) scared of pedophiles and are worried about their children. I fully understand this but at the same time you have people like me and him who only want to be able to run outside and play with the other kids...it's so depressing...and we feel repressed by society with it.

That's really sad... especially about your ex. I would NEVER marry someone who yells at me because of what book I was reading or what I liked. And about him saying he was the head just because it's in the bible, well that is EXTREMELY arrogant of him. I'm glad you've got a better guy now!

Politics- yes of COURSE....so aweful....I also have a vendetta against anyone who is on top and looking down their noses at others. I think movie stars are way overpaid and yet teachers for instance are UNDERPAID. Nurses are underpaid too. These professions are MUCH more important to the well being of our society than MOVIE STARS. Why can't the money go to the people who truly deserve it? Oh and let's not forget firefighters too!

Even though I've never really thought about it, I definitely agree 100% totally!

Also the education system needs a COMPLETE over hall. Me and Starvoyager both feel like the best years of our lives were wasted in the education system. It taught me nothing I needed to know now. I think we need to be in school perhaps till the end of junior high then I think you should go for whatever profession you wish.

I don't think it's fair when i KNEW in high school i would not be doing anything that would need logirythms or however it's spelt...that i still had to take that math course and ruin my average. All I wanted to do was sing sing sing, act, write, draw and paint...the arts are where it's at for me. It's been that way since I was a toddler and it still is that way. I should have been taught more stuff like that. I don't use any of this other stuff.....there needs to be a new way of doing this..even the way teaching is going....1 teacher for like 40 students....all have questions and need help and they are simply not getting the attention they need to learn. Our society is breaking down around us and everyone just closes their eyes to it. Unbelievable.

I've had problems with the education system too. For me it was that I was good at math, but wasn't given enough. But it's not like I got much of the arts instead, either. We just learned the same math every year, for quite a few years in a row, which was cognitively dulling. I've also had problems with not having enough help and attention from the teacher, there were only 12 kids, but I just needed more help I guess. I also hated the problems with bullies. I've felt like I've been bullied by both students and teachers. At one school I got comments from kids in the hallways about my clothes and stuff, then I went to another school which I thought was more positive. I thought it was more positive because it was a school with 90% aspergers population (which I have) so I figured "they'll understand". Well they didn't, they just said I should not talk about my little pony to avoid being bullied. And here I thought aspergers kids weren't bullies. Oh well maybe they're right, not all aspergers kids are indigos I guess... but no matter what it doesn't justify not being able to talk about what I like, especially when other kids are allowed to talk about violent video games and all their "cool" interests. The school was judging me for what I liked and that's all there is to it.

[TheWendybird]

That's really sad... especially about your ex. I would NEVER marry someone who yells at me because of what book I was reading or what I liked. And about him saying he was the head just because it's in the bible, well that is EXTREMELY arrogant of him. I'm glad you've got a better guy now!

Funny thing is when I first married him he had told me how he use to work at walmart and he had this pic of himself on a toddlers blue plastic rocking horse thingly saying underneath it "official toy tester for walmart" so the more we talked the more compatible i had thought we were...turns out i was wrong. He also had problems with pornography. Very debilitating to the self esteem of a wife. Called me a flake all the time for no reason among other much worse words. Put a pillow over my face. All the time holding his bible on sunday morning. Funny thing is at the time i was more hardcore about it than he was. I always listened to this program on the computer called "The Way of the Master" and i couldnt get him to listen to it with me..cause I was into evangelizing and stuff...tho I was never mean. He was just one of those people who liked the title but didn't live the life like he coulda. He really changed after the "i do's". He thought of me as property from that point on.

Starvoyager has been a gift from above...no joke. Not to embarrass him or anything but he's my Peter Pan...my cute, sweet adorable play mate, creative partner and he treats me like I should be treated. So we're both gonna stay little forever..even when we're "old" and wrinkly :oP

I've had problems with the education system too. For me it was that I was good at math, but wasn't given enough. But it's not like I got much of the arts instead, either. We just learned the same math every year, for quite a few years in a row, which was cognitively dulling. I've also had problems with not having enough help and attention from the teacher, there were only 12 kids, but I just needed more help I guess. I also hated the problems with bullies. I've felt like I've been bullied by both students and teachers. At one school I got comments from kids in the hallways about my clothes and stuff, then I went to another school which I thought was more positive. I thought it was more positive because it was a school with 90% aspergers population (which I have) so I figured "they'll understand". Well they didn't, they just said I should not talk about my little pony to avoid being bullied. And here I thought aspergers kids weren't bullies. Oh well maybe they're right, not all aspergers kids are indigos I guess... but no matter what it doesn't justify not being able to talk about what I like, especially when other kids are allowed to talk about violent video games and all their "cool" interests. The school was judging me for what I liked and that's all there is to it.

Oh boy....yeah you'd think people who are suppose to share the same thing as you would be a little more understanding...that's quite odd as aspergers i believe I've read before is very closely related to peter pan syndrome...child like...but i guess what it comes down to is even with kids..some are mean and some are nice..so i guess its the same with aspergers. For instance I fully think my dad is childish but he's childish in the bad way...he is obnoxious. Doesn't take responsibility of the wrongs he's done in the past...tries to blame everyone but himself....told my sister lies about me behind my back (tried to say i was only going around my grandfather..his father...for his money and bull like this)...thats childish but obviously in a bad way. Me and Starvoyager are of a neverland philosophy and we all know in Neverland the children have the morals and the adults don't know squat haha

[Dialga-Brite]

Oh boy....yeah you'd think people who are suppose to share the same thing as you would be a little more understanding...that's quite odd as aspergers i believe I've read before is very closely related to peter pan syndrome...child like...but i guess what it comes down to is even with kids..some are mean and some are nice..so i guess its the same with aspergers.

I always thought they all were more like me too, but I've kinda found out the hard way that a good number of them prefer to be "cool" and some even want to cure themselves of having aspergers.

For instance I fully think my dad is childish but he's childish in the bad way...he is obnoxious. Doesn't take responsibility of the wrongs he's done in the past...tries to blame everyone but himself....told my sister lies about me behind my back (tried to say i was only going around my grandfather..his father...for his money and bull like this)...thats childish but obviously in a bad way.

that was just horrible of him to treat his own daughter like that!

Me and Starvoyager are of a neverland philosophy and we all know in Neverland the children have the morals and the adults don't know squat haha

Often times it does seem to me like children are much less judgemental than adults... my hope is that today's children are able to keep that non-judgementalness when they grow up. It's probably more likely now that more indigos, crystals, and rainbows are being born.

good luck to you and starvoyager!

[Chibi Rachy]

Indeed it's true that some people don't know for sure what they want to do. Problem lies in ..I feel like the way most things are taught today are not nearly as effective as they could be. I think there should be new ways to teach...but also..what happens with a kid who somehow just knows...I feel like I had time taken from me that I could have spent doing something more worthwhile for myself. Bottom line is...I just barely passed math anyhow in the end I just don't see what the point of it was lol For me that is...

When it comes to college I can understand switching majors and stuff..I've talked to a lot of my friends who went to college and most had already forgotten a lot of high school stuff to do with math even if they needed it in university/college and had to learn all over again anyhow.

For us junior high was grades 7-9. I can honestly say most stuff in high school I didn't need. In fact lit class we had to read Macbeth...in 12th grade. I read the play in the 7th..got a "10++/10" on it..(not sure how THAT works lol) and I knew it very well. I failed the grade 12 test simply because the answers don't suit what the teacher wants. This is what I feel the problem with most modern education is. Just because you can't answer exactly as the teacher wants does not mean you don't know the material or you didn't do your work. or maybe it was just my high school that was just that messed up. If people want to encourage kids to read I feel like my suggestion would be...have them bring in a book to be approved of by the teacher (so people don't read comic books or something) and have them read and do a book report on each chapter or every few chapters. We use to do something like this in elementary school and i found it much more enjoyable and it gave me more joy of reading..i found high school reading nearly drove me out of my mind and i didn't want to read a book again till 3 or 4 years ago...aside from a couple on and off.

I guess the problem lies in...every child is different...and instead of acknowledging how some children need a different way of learning..instead we're all made to sorta fit this mold and what not. I couldn't learn math the way it was being taught in class but for some reason in junior high..my tutor (just a girl two grades above me) was able to explain it in much better terms. Some children are more right brained some are more left...I'm not sure exactly HOW to reform school..i just think it really needs it.

Kudos to you for being a teacher tho. That's one hell of a profession. Must be exhausting.

Ah but you see, teaching has changed since you were in school, and even since I was. It's an ever-changing thing. Memorization isn't done so much anymore. Teaching methods are changing as well. You mentioned not being challenged enough or not knowing more than one way, as well as the teacher taking only one type of response. So I'm going to work with all that.

I attended a workshop on Ruby Payne, which does the messages between social classes. The presenter was amazing and fun. She explained that without some memorization, our brain has less to attach new knowledge to. It has nothing to build on, or to add to. She compared it to looking in one's closet. An organized closet has some system. You can easily tell which clothes were worn the past week and what hasn't been worn. An unorganized closet has things thrown about, maybe stuff on the floor. It's hard to find what you want. It's the same with your brain. Without some order, it's hard to pull information. So, let's say you memorize the multiplication tables. Your brain knows where to find them and can easily pull them out when you need them for the more advanced math, and for relying on division. However, without knowing the multiplication tables, your brain searches and searches for the information, often finding only bits and pieces. She recommends some memorization so that other knowledge can be added.

Teaching methods... boy is this a big one. There is one college class simply on the basics of lesson planning for different learning levels and groups. Different ways of teaching material. The math program the elementary school I'm at is hands-on, which is great, but it's too hands-on and the children do not learn other ways. I adapted the current book we're on to be hands-on at first and then become internalized. The children are basically working with adding/subtracting positive and negative numbers, but they don't realize it as such. The unit in the book began with a skyscraper that was infinite in floors. We switched to net change, and now we're doing things like how many net change combinations can you make going from 17 to 21 using only 4 net changes? With my students, they have various levels. I'll explain.

First off, I switched from the elevator to the number line, as it's what they will encounter later on and on testing. My lowest level students have a number line I drew on accounting tape at their table. They have a circle chip that they can then move up and down the line as they make combinations. My middle group can do this quickly, and some are going to doing it all in their head. My advanced group can quickly make the combinations in their head and I have to give additional problems to challenge them. They will also be going to another 3rd grade room later this week to help teach it to the students. On the side, I introduced my students to the license plate game, which reinforced the idea of creating combinations of numbers to make a certain number.

That's just one way to do a mathematics subject. I absolutely hated math and doing it, even in college, but I love teaching it at the elementary level. It is in fact my most favorite subject to teach.

Finally, there was the one type of response. Yes, there are teachers who say their way or the highway. In my classroom there aren't too many varied response questions you can have. However, on reading short-answer tests, or other tests, such as in science or social studies, if a student gives me an answer and can reasonably explain why, I do accept it. It's the same with math too. If a student can figure out another way to solve the problem and show the work, then they can use the method they prefer.

Teaching is changing, and while some things are for the worse (such as NCLB and all this emphasis on testing and benchmarking), some things are indeed getting better. Some issues are still pushed aside, but just as there are bad educators, there are plenty more who work really hard. Those are the ones you remember as making a difference in your own life.

[TheWendybird]

You know something that got on my nerves about school? I dunno if it's different elsewhere but my school did not teach us how to do taxes lol I really feel like they should.