I am in a mood today, and I am going to take it out on two education topics, that have gotten under my skin.
1- While reading my local, very small town paper, I read about CNA graduates. A CNA, or certified nursing assistant, is a job that is difficult, and rewarding at the same time. It can be physically difficult, as well as mental. I have been working as a nurse, for the past 22 years, and I can not even begin to tell you how important a CNA is to a nurse. So what is my beef, you ask? It has now been decided, by some brilliant wonder, that you no longer have to be a high school graduate, or have a GED to take the CNA course. That is insane!! These people are dealing with elderly, handicapped, and sometimes critically ill people. Not having any kind of a formal educational background just makes it incredibly dangerous for the patient, the CNA, the nurse who is responsible for the CNA, and the facility that hires them. CNA's do not just take vital signs, and give baths anymore, they are increasingly expected to deal with complicated machines, and situations. As a nurse, I can not tell you how uncomfortable this makes me. I am not saying they can not do a good job, but when you are working in a profession, not McDonalds, how do you not require some kind of education. I will be addressing this with my local congressman, as I feel very deeply about this issue. One more thing, in a long list of things, that have disappointed me extremely about both the health care industry, and the state of Florida.
2- My second rant, is something I heard on the news, last night. The new Secretary of Education, that Obama appointed, wants to change the school week to six days a week, and a full year. What!, is he crazy. Number one, they have a hard enough time getting teachers now, this would only make it more difficult. Two many schools are in budget crunches already, and can not cover the current costs they have. Three why do we not want kids to be kids. Why not just put them in jail, and throw away the key. This is absurd, and I hope it does not happen. They thought No Child Left Behind was difficult, see what happens if this gets passed.
OK I am done ranting now. I hope everyone has a blessed Good Friday.
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7 comments:
Wow, I think the new Sec of Education use to be the Denver School Superintendent here in Colorado. That is just crazy. What child wants to go to school year around, 6 days a week? And as a parent, I don't want my child in a school for all of that time. I guess that is why I homeschool.
Yep that is him. He says we have to keep up with China, and India. If their culture chooses that fine, but this is our culture. I hope it does not get far.
wow, i do not know if i would continue teaching if we have to work 6 days a week and teach full year. though i really enjoy teaching and get happy seeing learners respond to challenges, but one of the things i enjoy in teaching is the long vacation :)
by the way melissa, i got your message, but just got back from vacation, so i am trying to catch up with everything first, i will soon join the yahoo groups when am done catching up. thank you very much for the invitation.
It would stink, right. I thought that was one of the perks of teaching, you get the summer off. I hope to see you soon, at the group. I hope you had a wonderful vacation, and a Happy Easter.
Both of these are news to me, and very scary. As for #2 . . . can we all say BURNOUT! As a public school teacher, I can tell you that kids NEED weekends and breaks (teachers, too!) I've even read that schools with 4-day weeks actually have higher test scores. (I don't know enough about that to support it, but it makes you wonder.) And if we can just let teenagers sleep in a little longer we will see them performing better, too. Now, what I would like to see is year round schooling with a schedule like 3 months in session, 2 weeks off. Nice refreshing breaks, but none of the big gaps that force us to take 2 steps back every fall to review and reteach. More time for recess, lunch, enrichment, and collaborative teacher planning. Saturdays? No way!!!! When will I actually get to spend time with my kids? Strong families do more for our kids' success than the public school system. How about mandated family dinner time? That would certainly be more effective. Felt good to get that off my chest! Thanks for the informative post :-)
You bring up two very important points. What about family time. One day a week, Sunday, to do family things. That is crazy. Plus the long summer does leave kids forgetting what they learned, and a lot of time is spent reviewing at the start of the next year. As a parent I could live with a full school year, if there were long enough breaks to make up the difference, however a six day school week is completely unacceptable in my mind.
6 day a week school is really very stressful on kids. I have seen it action (5.1/2 day school week for kids in taiwan). It's true there are not enough teacher given the increasing workload, poor pay etc.
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