THE EDUCATION REVOLUTION: Preface

Learn more about the Debate Over Common Core This article is from the book “The Education Revolution” that begins a series of posts about the desperate need to replace the current educational process with a new educational process that’s responsive to the needs of the individual student, teachers, parents and administrators. Hint: The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are not the answer. A rewarding personal life, career options and the ability to function independently and compete in a literate democratic society requires that each citizen become functionally literate.

PREFACE

An “Education Revolution” is required for the public school “educational process” that begins with an Individual Education Learning Plan or (IELP). The IELP is an individual needs assessment with an educational plan that uses traditional pedagogy, that is, the practice of teaching, especially an academic subject or theoretical concept, and methodology which includes lectures, class participation, seminars, demonstrations, recitation, memorization, field trips, internships or combinations of these the methods. Further included are “The Arts”, educational videos, educational games, computer technology and software to educate the whole student academically, socially, behaviorally, culturally, nutritionally and address the student’s specific learning issues, if any, as diagnostic perceptive teaching and learning tools. Then we hire “Master Teachers” who choose the students they want to teach and trained to teach with merit or incentive pay while teaching students in “Learning Levels” rather than in grade levels. The goal is to teach students how to function independently in society that begins with a guarantee that each student will graduate with at least learning to how to learn with the basic skills sets to read, write and do arithmetic on or before the age of 16. Master Teachers include those experts who get involved when the student needs supplemental or remedial education for counseling, learning disorders, which I prefer to call “learning differently” issues, or behavior modification issues. The two primary teaching goals for school teachers in the elementary and secondary school educational process is to teach skill sets and impart knowledge: First, by teaching students how to learn how to learn with basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills by whatever means necessary; and, second, by teaching the students how to study, research for specific knowledge and information, then how to understand the learned knowledge and information, then teach students how to apply that knowledge and information by thinking or processing the learned subject matter with the skill sets necessary to make intelligent informed choices and function independently in a democratic society. Note: Students must not only learn how to retain the knowledge and information, but demonstrate they understand what they have learned and how to apply what they have learned. If you know how to read, write and do arithmetic you can learn to do anything to achieve your personal and career goals. Education only takes place when a student learns not only how to acquire knowledge, but the student understands the meaning of the knowledge learned and then the student learns how to apply that knowledge to accomplish a goal. For example, if a student wants to learn how to prepare a certain type of food, the student must first research for a recipe from their family, friends, cook books or the internet, wherever, that not only teaches the student the nutritional value of the food, cost per serving, per serving calorie count, food measurement using math and the possible substitutes for ingredients for health and nutritional value including the use of herbs and spices, but how to prepare the food and, if necessary, cook the food in a variety of ways such as baked, broiled, grilled, fried, sautéed, etc. Please become a Member of the American Family Life experience and share your thoughts in the comments section. Next Article II: What percentage of the American culture is "Functionally Illiterate" which means they cannot read a restaurant menu or a newspaper or fill out a job application? 18%, 28%, 38%, 48%