Quotes and Jumbled Thoughts

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My mind is a jumble and it's jumbled with thoughts about education. My post yesterday focused on my Second Chance Reading class and my boredom with it.  My roomie and I discussed it this morning--we're just not sure it is the most effective way to help struggling readers. BUT, we agree something needs to be done.

 I'm trying to remember a quote I had posted in my room at one time--to paraphrase, "I can't think of anything I do 180 days a year that I don't do well at..."  Think about that.  If adults aren't good at something, they quit. No one forces them to keep at it. If it's something they have to do, they are mentored--One on one.

Roomie wrote a post about this very thing.  Many students don't function well in large group situations. She does a lot of one on one tutoring since she began teaching Spanish.  Does it always work--nope. Depends on how much the student puts into it. But doesn't the idea of teaching one on one sound grand?

My FaceBook status today:
"Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail.  What you gain at one end you lose at the other.  It's like feeding a dog on his own tail.  It won't fatten the dog."  ~Mark Twain


Or it could have been this:
"Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education.  Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization.  We must make our choice; we cannot have both."  ~Abraham Flexner


Budget cuts--is there any school not facing this? It gripes me that anyone with a high school diploma and an axe to grind thinks they know how to "fix" our schools. Come and sit awhile. See the wonderful things that can be done. Want to raise test scores?  Quit cutting budgets--how can I teach kids to read without books? Or teach them to write without paper? Or play "Stars and Stripes Forever"? Or sing the Hallejulah Chorus without directors/teachers? Where will the next Picasso or Katherine Hepburn come from if students never get to experience these things in school?


OK, I'm rambling on much too long. There is no easy solution. I understand that there can't be an unlimited supply of money for education, but wouldn't it be nice?


Last quote:
It'll be a great day when education gets all the money it wants and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy bombers.  ~Author unknown, quoted in You Said a Mouthful, Ronald D. Fuchs, ed.