Are we cheating them?

The national dialogue on education continues to struggle between two things: what adults are comfortable with and what students deserve.

At the end of the day it’s about the kids.

And the big question we need to ask ourselves is this: are we cheating them?

My grandmothers saved everything. I have poems my dad wrote in a Kindergarten, pictures my mom drew in second grade, textbooks they used in high school, and even a few report cards. I even have a original western world history text from my great grandmother.

When I look at all of that educational memorabilia for the most part I think that their educational experiences did the job. My grandmothers learned to read and write. They learned to cook and sew. My parents learned a bit more with typewriters coming into play, and things like biology being first offered in schools. They too could read and write and balance checkbooks. But they could also build furniture, change oil, play the piano, and dissect worms and flowers.

I look at my own education; I can’t complain at all. We had mock trials, field trips, global pen-pals, gardens, guest speakers, field days, greenhouses, physics, women’s literature, drama, foreign language, and much much more.