Jack’s Cabinet of Curiosities – Back to School
Jack’s Cabinet of Curiosities – Back to School. Each year at this time our season changes. Not the “Weather Change, but the “Back to School” syndrome we find infused in the daily lives of people.
Families with children are most affected by the change of schedules, back-to-school shopping, extra-curricular school events, and families time together.
School calendars were set many years ago by our agrarian culture. Both ends of the school calendar (sept-May) found a need for help on the farm. Attendance by older students would be noticed because of need for help on the farm.
The schoolhouse was a center of community activity, as it continues today. Sporting events, concerts, school plays and evening community ed programs. We all have various feelings about our past educational experience, but as time passes and we have our own family, we are there to support them toward positive experiences.
The importance of subject matter taught may bring a discussion of which subjects should be emphasized the most. Even with all the influences of the electronic-digital world the words of the old song hold.
“School days, school days
Dear old Golden Rule days
‘Reading and ‘riting and ‘rithmetic
Taught to the tune of the hick’ry stick”
The reading, writing, and arithmetic are still basic, but there are better ways of learning than the use of a hickory stick.
Many students, years ago, left school with an eighth-grade education. Jobs were available for them to earn enough to support families. We have rapidly advanced to a new age demanding more education. At one time, we competed for jobs on a local market, now it is global. Adjusting to this concept is difficult. The information age has made the world a level playing field in the job market. The computer has brought this change.
We are in the information age, so a change in how we learn. Schools of various types have started to meet this changing culture.
A number of years ago the concept of charter schools was presented in our state. These schools were developed for a student with different interest and abilities.
The choice of attending other than the public school involves the family decision to change. The success of the charter school is still in question.
Other choices have always been available to parents and students, parochial schools have always filled an educational need. Home school is another avenue for some families.
In more recent years, starting children on the learning path before Kindergarten is a new offering. Early childhood is now available.
Lifelong learning has become necessary to meet the need to live in our fast changing-knowledge based society.