Thank you for your passionate, sincere and illuminating writing. You really see and feel boys! Coming to the US fairly recently and having my boy in a top-rated NYC public school everyone was drooling over shocked me, especially when Covid learning demonstrated daily what and how they do there. Math was stunning, how primitive what was being taught was compared to Europe, and the bizarre ways of teaching it. Also the lack of the usual world history, such as ancient civilizations.
Your son’s comment about the only area with dragons left being unsupervised games and play is very true, but there seems to be fleetingly little of that left in schools.
“Reward amazing performances. Reward them when they take on challenges. Pat them on the back. Refer to them by last name only, English public schoolboy style. Put the top grades for tests and quizzes on the board. Chastise them gently when they perform below expectation — they won’t next time.”
This sounds a lot like the British system I was schooled in, which I loved and remember fondly, even though I'm a girl. I expected the American system would be somewhat similar, thinking people who told me to send my kid to private school and not bother with the public ones were just rich snobs. I’ve learned my lesson now. The frightening weakness of academics, the attention paid to completely irrelevant filler things like sports and organized socializing, ridiculous drama over tests being traumatizing and unnecessary have all been news to me. The constant use of tablets was very disturbing, for instruction, homework, "math games" etc. I think it kills not only learning, leaving them in an entirely Pavlov dog 2D world, but the ability to think, concentrate, research, write and read.
I'm glad you can at least see it. So many parents can't and, frankly, don't want to. I wish you the best of luck in helping your son. It's a damned good thing he's got you.
You and your kids would love my new course, Sports and Literature--I built it to help boys (and girls) learn to face dragons! I have a short sample on my Substack today and a free module available at https://www.english-champion.com/freeresources
if you want to check it out before you decide to join the full course. Hope to see you guys there!
Most interesting and useful thing about the dojo system of nearly all the martial arts disciplines is the belt system. A higher ranks belt of any age or size is required and taught how to teach what he or she knows to other students of lesser accomplishments. (Nothing is funnier than seeing a 4 ft tall boy green belt applying the sarcastic tones and terminology of the old drill sergeant - sensei to correct a clumsy 6+ ft man who hasn't done a "kata" correctly. ) Age segregation is a pernicious foundation upon which to build any education model. (The SECOND funniest thing is watching a brown belt girl sparring with that green belt boy and handing him his ass. [sparring is size matched. Dojo's aren't crazy...] Funny for the spectators and inspirational for the student.) The skills represented by the belt color mean something consequential. The prize is worth the price of practice.
It seems to me one problem with current schools is that as schools get larger, a smaller percentage of enrollees benefit from whatever character-building and discipline-inspiring aspects are traditionally ascribed to football and like sports. The benefits of football are hugely oversold, but even those are not as widely distributed in modern schools as in prior generations.
Learning based on clear communication of expectations, clear standards for behavior with clearly laid out consequences for failure to meet the consequences, and grouping based on ACQUIRED skill is the greatest gift a teacher can give. It's wonderful that there are so many senseis out there holding the line not only on effective teaching, but that the LEARNER is responsible for meeting certain requirements before he can be taught.
Like physical arts, virtue must be taught this way as well.
I'm so glad there are dads like you who are willing to dad even harder to create real men and women.
Thank you for your passionate, sincere and illuminating writing. You really see and feel boys! Coming to the US fairly recently and having my boy in a top-rated NYC public school everyone was drooling over shocked me, especially when Covid learning demonstrated daily what and how they do there. Math was stunning, how primitive what was being taught was compared to Europe, and the bizarre ways of teaching it. Also the lack of the usual world history, such as ancient civilizations.
Your son’s comment about the only area with dragons left being unsupervised games and play is very true, but there seems to be fleetingly little of that left in schools.
“Reward amazing performances. Reward them when they take on challenges. Pat them on the back. Refer to them by last name only, English public schoolboy style. Put the top grades for tests and quizzes on the board. Chastise them gently when they perform below expectation — they won’t next time.”
This sounds a lot like the British system I was schooled in, which I loved and remember fondly, even though I'm a girl. I expected the American system would be somewhat similar, thinking people who told me to send my kid to private school and not bother with the public ones were just rich snobs. I’ve learned my lesson now. The frightening weakness of academics, the attention paid to completely irrelevant filler things like sports and organized socializing, ridiculous drama over tests being traumatizing and unnecessary have all been news to me. The constant use of tablets was very disturbing, for instruction, homework, "math games" etc. I think it kills not only learning, leaving them in an entirely Pavlov dog 2D world, but the ability to think, concentrate, research, write and read.
I'm glad you can at least see it. So many parents can't and, frankly, don't want to. I wish you the best of luck in helping your son. It's a damned good thing he's got you.
Thank you!
Great insight, super article. Shared.
Your dragon slayers are fortunate to have been released into the wild ;-)
As a mom of three boys (and one fair lady) I agree with all of this!
Very well put.
You and your kids would love my new course, Sports and Literature--I built it to help boys (and girls) learn to face dragons! I have a short sample on my Substack today and a free module available at https://www.english-champion.com/freeresources
if you want to check it out before you decide to join the full course. Hope to see you guys there!
Karate!
Most interesting and useful thing about the dojo system of nearly all the martial arts disciplines is the belt system. A higher ranks belt of any age or size is required and taught how to teach what he or she knows to other students of lesser accomplishments. (Nothing is funnier than seeing a 4 ft tall boy green belt applying the sarcastic tones and terminology of the old drill sergeant - sensei to correct a clumsy 6+ ft man who hasn't done a "kata" correctly. ) Age segregation is a pernicious foundation upon which to build any education model. (The SECOND funniest thing is watching a brown belt girl sparring with that green belt boy and handing him his ass. [sparring is size matched. Dojo's aren't crazy...] Funny for the spectators and inspirational for the student.) The skills represented by the belt color mean something consequential. The prize is worth the price of practice.
It seems to me one problem with current schools is that as schools get larger, a smaller percentage of enrollees benefit from whatever character-building and discipline-inspiring aspects are traditionally ascribed to football and like sports. The benefits of football are hugely oversold, but even those are not as widely distributed in modern schools as in prior generations.
Learning based on clear communication of expectations, clear standards for behavior with clearly laid out consequences for failure to meet the consequences, and grouping based on ACQUIRED skill is the greatest gift a teacher can give. It's wonderful that there are so many senseis out there holding the line not only on effective teaching, but that the LEARNER is responsible for meeting certain requirements before he can be taught.
Like physical arts, virtue must be taught this way as well.
I'm so glad there are dads like you who are willing to dad even harder to create real men and women.