NEW PERSPECTIVE ON EDUCATION CLASSES

NEW PERSPECTIVE ON EDUCATION CLASSES

March 2007

by Laurel Piippo

(Photo shown features grandmother and grandson aboard a cruise ship in 2006)

Nick (grandson) returned tonight from his week in Palm Springs with Micah (grandson).

I attended the two Ed classes he missed and took notes for him as best I could to help him, if possible, and to satisfy my curiosity about Ed classes today compared to mine decades ago. My undergraduate Ed classes om the 1940s were so time wasting I never had any respect for them. As a teacher I was required to take additional credits while paying, tuition, board and room at my own expense of course, during summer school during the school year, just paying tuition and wasting time during the school year. The Tri-City Ed classes taught by imported professors were a waste of time, money, and energy because teachers, especially MALE COACHING teachers, had no time or desire to do any homework, reading, etc. They were just buying credits. It was a phony game we were all expected to play. Classes consisted mainly of people sitting around exchanging ignorances and anecdotes. This did not go over with Cheapo-Piippo, who wants to get her money's worth in intellectual stimulation, challenge, new knowledge. etc.

I had no classes that taught me anything about child development, behavior or psychology, or what to expect at a particular age and grade level. The class that galled me most was a class in psychology from 9 to noon on Saturday mornings. I was eager to learn about child development, adolescent psychology, etc. It is one thing to spend the first three-hour session "getting acquainted," but after spending six Saturday mornings listening to chitchat, I realized we had spend 18 hours of class time with no intellectual guts to anything. I bit my tongue to stop from asking, "WHEN are you going to teach us something about psychology?" What I do remember is hearing him talk about that great work by American Charles Darwin. THAT WAS TOO MUCH. NO MORE POLITE SILENCE. "Charles Darwin was an Englishman," I said. "Since when?" he asked. God help us. I felt cheated.

We were taught nothing about HOW to teach reading or HOW to teach math. Thank God I had the publisher's text book for teaching reading, vocabulary, spelling, etc, because I knew nothing about teaching third and fourth graders.

Later, teaching high school, I was terrified. The girls all looked like movie stars and knew how to style their hair and wear make-up. The boys were creatures from outer space. The only thing that saved me was having been a compulsive reader all my life, and this carried over into being a fairly decent writer who could spell and knew something about grammar...

Anyone who thinks high school homework and a college education will complete his/her education has not been a reader.

Mastery of subject matter is essential in high school teachers.Nick pays horrendous tuition, and so did Kristi (granddaughter). I saw how hard she worked while in the Education program at the WSU campus in Pullman.

Attending Nick's class at WSU Tri-Cities was a real eye-opener. His classes started at 9:10 AM and lasted till 11:50 with a 10 minute break. I wondered how the students or the professors could survive. What a positive experience they gave me!

Every minute was planned, organized, helpful and interesting for a person who wants to be a teacher. I don't know the professors did it, but the classes were helpful and stimulating and ended exactly on time. The professors controlled everything without making us feel controlled. It took an enormous amount of talent, skill and organization.

EVERYTHING depends on the professor in an Ed class whereas even the worst professor cannot kill a course in Shakespeare or Milton or 20th century literature or Greek drama.

The students were just as terrific -- enthusiastic, spontaneous, and prepared. One of them is my former student Crystal, who home-schooled her four children until high school, a feat that awed me. After the professor introduce me to the class, he called on Crystal for some remarks. She stood and gave a brief talk on how a teacher changed her life, and it was all about me. You know how my ego sops up this sort of thing! I wish I could remember everything she said, but the gist of it was that I didn't like the way she wrote and made her improve and even taught her how to use a semi-colon.

From remarks made by the other students, it is clear they care about children and want to be teachers.

The young man sitting next to me wants to be a first grade teacher.When homework was mentioned, one woman said teachers used to send homework home for parents to help hem with, but she had a full-time job plus her family and had no time or energy to help with school work. The Hispanic kid next to me said Mexican parents can't help their children but are touchingly grateful for what the schools try to do for their children.

I learned from the students as well as the professors.