One thing I noticed while helping my daughter's third grade teacher was the time spent on any given activity. The teacher had just transferred from being a very effective and creative kindergarten teacher to struggling with third grade students. A quarter of her class were troublesome, energetic boys. She also stuck to her 20-minute segment timing for students whose attention span had increased since kindergarten. Thus, each activity was allowed 20 minutes before rushing in to the next activity. It was maddening for me, much less the students. Also, granting students time for free reading after finishing their tasks was often saved as a reward for troublesome kids. My daughter eventually told me she hated reading and was really suffering at school. We started home schooling with a goal to help her enjoy reading books. It took a while, but with plenty of time to follow her interests and learn in her own time frame and style, she started to thrive again. By high school, she was ready to jump back into the classroom.
Wow, what a class the kids were getting.... It's great that homeschooling has helped your daughter rediscover her love of reading. How was the transition back to high school?
Val learned how to study during homeschool: scanning the chapters and questions before reading the chapter; writing, studying things she liked. She was entered the equestrian world where we lived and learned how to care for and deal with a half-ton persnickity animal. Most of her reading was inspired through that. She entered high school with few problems (that I know of). She said people thought she was a nerd. Her dad was Dadipedia on a lot of academic subjects. From the start, she earned Merit Scholarship awards each semester and got straight A's. Her social interactions came through barn friends and working at the barn with tourists at 14. So ... there was a little awkwardness navigating between her barn friends and the ski-snowboard crowd at the high school. Homeschool programs usually have a social component to some degree, but she befriended a lot of high school girls at the barns. It's a great place for girls to get through adolescence. I just wish more boys would hang out with horses.
I'm glad to hear that Val was able to thrive in homeschooling. Here in Spain, there is no such thing, but I'm glad to hear that it worked well.
The rural world is beautiful, I love animals and I was envious to know that Val was riding horses from a very young age and started in the equestrian world. How beautiful.
Just as a side note, here in Nevada, we have buckaroos who keep the Spanish riding style in tack and horse training in their daily work with cattle. They train horses into a spade bit which takes about five years. It's quite the tradition that traveled from Spain to Mexican, then to the American Southwest and California, then into Nevada and Oregon. It's a different way of horsemanship that the "cowboys" of Texas and the plains. My husband's father's family were "Californios" who raised cattle in this style. So, Val is sort of working herself back into that tradition.
I didn't know about that. I didn't know the term “buckaroos” and I didn't know about the equestrian legacy left by the former kingdom of Spain in America through Mexico.
The equine world is so vast and I know practically nothing. Whenever we talk you teach me something new, thank you for that!
Such is the value of relationships between old and young and between different lifestyles and cultures. There is so much in the American West, though, that resonates with Spanish influence. And I really appreciate the Mexicans who come to work in the West because they bring a mixture of Spanish and Indian cultures with them.
Thank you! I hope it has inspired you. It's a topic that has me intrigued and I want to know about new developments in research. It's really intriguing that the trend of IQ stagnation or even decline....
According to a published study, it seems education plays a most important role in this. Particularly the tendency of teachers towards political-ideological bias. (ideology and paradigms are in my opinion buffers to save RAM space in the brain and so impairs thinking - but this is a matter for another conversation).
It is a fact, many schools around the world are plagued with teachers that do not facilitate the exercise of thinking and focus on "the right interpretation of facts" instead.
This article you mention is very peculiar, I didn't know it and it makes an analysis of a variable that could influence, although as I mention in the article, there are many things. It is also true that it is a study done in the USA and the effect has been seen in more developed countries.
Changes in education may be one of the main variables, but I couldn't say if that kind of political bias occurs everywhere, to be honest.
In any case, amazing article and thanks for sharing it with me.
I can tell you political bias does occur also in Brazil, my country. The bias specifically in the educational system made me took my daughters from their school in São Paulo and move to the countryside many years ago. The government (president Dilma Roussef) ,at the time) made some dramatic changes in the ministry of education (following the directives of Antonio Gramsci - I suggest you give it a look as a bad example of wrongdoing in education).
Of course, education is one of the variables as you pointed out, and please note the article about mental illness point to extremism (includes the far-right political spectrum as well).
Anyway, Gramsci is a despicable "philosopher" if someone could consider his work as "thinking" - and you perhaps will notice how his writings are used in the left-oriented governments in several countries, applying to education.
One thing I noticed while helping my daughter's third grade teacher was the time spent on any given activity. The teacher had just transferred from being a very effective and creative kindergarten teacher to struggling with third grade students. A quarter of her class were troublesome, energetic boys. She also stuck to her 20-minute segment timing for students whose attention span had increased since kindergarten. Thus, each activity was allowed 20 minutes before rushing in to the next activity. It was maddening for me, much less the students. Also, granting students time for free reading after finishing their tasks was often saved as a reward for troublesome kids. My daughter eventually told me she hated reading and was really suffering at school. We started home schooling with a goal to help her enjoy reading books. It took a while, but with plenty of time to follow her interests and learn in her own time frame and style, she started to thrive again. By high school, she was ready to jump back into the classroom.
Wow, what a class the kids were getting.... It's great that homeschooling has helped your daughter rediscover her love of reading. How was the transition back to high school?
Val learned how to study during homeschool: scanning the chapters and questions before reading the chapter; writing, studying things she liked. She was entered the equestrian world where we lived and learned how to care for and deal with a half-ton persnickity animal. Most of her reading was inspired through that. She entered high school with few problems (that I know of). She said people thought she was a nerd. Her dad was Dadipedia on a lot of academic subjects. From the start, she earned Merit Scholarship awards each semester and got straight A's. Her social interactions came through barn friends and working at the barn with tourists at 14. So ... there was a little awkwardness navigating between her barn friends and the ski-snowboard crowd at the high school. Homeschool programs usually have a social component to some degree, but she befriended a lot of high school girls at the barns. It's a great place for girls to get through adolescence. I just wish more boys would hang out with horses.
What a beautiful story!
I'm glad to hear that Val was able to thrive in homeschooling. Here in Spain, there is no such thing, but I'm glad to hear that it worked well.
The rural world is beautiful, I love animals and I was envious to know that Val was riding horses from a very young age and started in the equestrian world. How beautiful.
A hug :)
Just as a side note, here in Nevada, we have buckaroos who keep the Spanish riding style in tack and horse training in their daily work with cattle. They train horses into a spade bit which takes about five years. It's quite the tradition that traveled from Spain to Mexican, then to the American Southwest and California, then into Nevada and Oregon. It's a different way of horsemanship that the "cowboys" of Texas and the plains. My husband's father's family were "Californios" who raised cattle in this style. So, Val is sort of working herself back into that tradition.
Wow Sue!
I didn't know about that. I didn't know the term “buckaroos” and I didn't know about the equestrian legacy left by the former kingdom of Spain in America through Mexico.
The equine world is so vast and I know practically nothing. Whenever we talk you teach me something new, thank you for that!
Such is the value of relationships between old and young and between different lifestyles and cultures. There is so much in the American West, though, that resonates with Spanish influence. And I really appreciate the Mexicans who come to work in the West because they bring a mixture of Spanish and Indian cultures with them.
excellent expose, as usual. thank you, alvaro.
Hello! :)
Thank you! I hope it has inspired you. It's a topic that has me intrigued and I want to know about new developments in research. It's really intriguing that the trend of IQ stagnation or even decline....
According to a published study, it seems education plays a most important role in this. Particularly the tendency of teachers towards political-ideological bias. (ideology and paradigms are in my opinion buffers to save RAM space in the brain and so impairs thinking - but this is a matter for another conversation).
It is a fact, many schools around the world are plagued with teachers that do not facilitate the exercise of thinking and focus on "the right interpretation of facts" instead.
This is the article I mentioned:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339541044_Mental_illness_and_the_left
Hello! :)
This article you mention is very peculiar, I didn't know it and it makes an analysis of a variable that could influence, although as I mention in the article, there are many things. It is also true that it is a study done in the USA and the effect has been seen in more developed countries.
Changes in education may be one of the main variables, but I couldn't say if that kind of political bias occurs everywhere, to be honest.
In any case, amazing article and thanks for sharing it with me.
Hi Alvaro.
I can tell you political bias does occur also in Brazil, my country. The bias specifically in the educational system made me took my daughters from their school in São Paulo and move to the countryside many years ago. The government (president Dilma Roussef) ,at the time) made some dramatic changes in the ministry of education (following the directives of Antonio Gramsci - I suggest you give it a look as a bad example of wrongdoing in education).
Of course, education is one of the variables as you pointed out, and please note the article about mental illness point to extremism (includes the far-right political spectrum as well).
Anyway, Gramsci is a despicable "philosopher" if someone could consider his work as "thinking" - and you perhaps will notice how his writings are used in the left-oriented governments in several countries, applying to education.
Oh, that's true. I know understand what you mean. It's depends on the country but you're right in that.