Choice Theory
December 31, 2009
Choice Theory
by: Kim Olver
You have listened to me for a year now talking about Choice Theory but I know I’ve never really explained what Choice Theory is. Choice Theory is actually an explanation of all human behavior developed by Dr. William Glasser.
There are basically five components of this theory—the basic human needs, the quality world, the perceived world, the comparing place and total behavior. I’ll give a brief overview of each one, starting with the five basic human needs.
The Basic Human Needs
We are born with five basic human needs—survival, love & belonging, power, freedom and fun. We are all born with these needs but we experience them to varying degrees. One person might have a high love & belonging need, while another person is high in freedom. We are born with these needs and are biologically driven to get them met in the best way available to us.
The Quality World
Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson Never Went To Public School
December 30, 2009
Most of our Founding Fathers, including Ben Franklin, Sam Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, like most average colonial Americans, spent few years, if any, in formal grammar schools of the day, yet they knew how to read and write well.
Most voluntary local grammar schools expected parents to teach their children to read and write before they started school. Most colonial parents apparently had no trouble teaching their children these skills.
At least ten of our presidents were home-schooled. James Madison’s mother taught him to read and write. John Quincy Adams was educated at home until he was twelve years old. At age fourteen, he entered Harvard. Abraham Lincoln, except for fifty weeks in a grammar school, learned at home from books he borrowed. He learned law by reading law books, and became an apprentice to a practicing lawyer in Illinois.
Other great Americans were similarly educated. John Rutledge, a chief justice of the Supreme Court, was taught at home by his father until he was eleven years old. Patrick Henry, one our great Founding Fathers and the governor of colonial Virginia, learned English grammar, the Bible, history, French, Latin, Greek, and the classics from his father.
Americas Public School System — Brutal and Spartan
December 30, 2009
The public school system in America has become a dismal failure. But education in many other times and cultures has been quite successful. The ancient Greeks, whose civilization was at its height around 500 B.C., founded Western civilization as we know it. The Athenian Greeks invented or perfected logic, drama, science, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, literature, and much more. Yet ancient Greece had no compulsory schools.
Other than requiring two years of military training for young men that began at age eighteen, Athens let parents educate their children as they saw fit. Parents either taught their children at home or sent them to voluntary schools where teachers and philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle gave lectures to all who wanted to learn. These great teacher-philosophers did not need a license to teach, nor did they have tenure.
The ancient Athenians had a free-market education system. The thought of compulsory, state-run schools and compulsory licensing would have been repulsive to them. The Athenians respected a parents’ natural right to direct the education of their children.
Public School Sex-Education Classes — Bad News For Parents and Children
December 29, 2009
One of parents’ most important duties is to protect their children from harmful sexual values and behaviors. Yet many public schools force potentially harmful, sometimes shockingly explicit sex education on their students.
Most of the time, parents have no control over the content of these classes. Occasionally, a group of parents finds out about a particularly obnoxious sex education class and protests to the principal or local school board. The class may be dropped, only to be replaced by another class that teaches equally objectionable material.
School authorities’ cavalier attitude towards parents on this issue shows their anti-parent bias, and their contempt for parents’ rights to control the values their children are taught.
Many school authorities insist that children need comprehensive sex education from kindergarten through high school. They believe parents can’t be trusted because they have shameful feelings about sex or have "outdated" moral or sexual values. School authorities, claiming that they know best regarding sex education, usurp the parents’ role, allegedly for the good of the children. In doing so, they show contempt for parents’ rights, values, and common sense.
The Top 5 Reasons Why Unwed-Parents Must Establish Paternity
December 28, 2009
"It takes a village to raise a child" is more than an African proverb, and when the village is small and one parent is missing the task becomes even more challenging. Fortunately, being proactive and understanding your rights as a parent will help alleviate any issues that might arise as you take on the role of single parent. Every child has the right to a parent-child relationship with both parents, and all three deserve an opportunity to develop, enjoy and grow in the relationship.
Establishing Paternity
1. Every child has the right to know both parents and have the father’s name appear on the birth certificate. Voluntarily establishing paternity is not expensive and does not have to involve an attorney or attorney fees. Both parents may contact the State Department/Division of Vital Records and Health Statistics, Central Paternity Registry, or the Department of Community Health and request an Affidavit of Paternity. There may be a small fee for filing this document but it will ensure legal paternity is established.
Paternity Testing
Tips for Decorating Your Babys Nursery
December 27, 2009
Decorating your child’s nursery is an exciting experience. Your little bundle of joy will finally be in your arms soon, and you want to make sure his or her new home is absolutely perfect. The biggest shock for a child is coming from the warmth and comfort of your stomach into the vastness of the world. Creating a home that is both safe and comfortable is your top priority when decorating your nursery.
Colors are especially important in designing a nursery. Although babies are said to see in black and white at first, bright colors will soon attract their attention and become quite important to their overall development. Having cozy, relaxing colors like peach, green, and blue in the room may help your baby to rest easier, and sleep better.
Using primary colors around the room will help stimulate your baby’s interest, but be careful about using too much. This can over stimulate your baby and cause them to have problems sleeping - something that will affect both you and the baby badly!
Top Ten Things Parents Must Know About State Academic Standards (What Your Child s/b Learning)
December 26, 2009
Public education in the United States has never been equal for all students. It appears that those school districts located in wealthy communities have a bit more resources than those in poorer communities. Today more than ever, parents need to step up to the plate and learn how the educational system works. It is imperative that parents no longer leave the decisions made around the education of children solely in the hands of bureaucrats who likely have no children in the school district and/or may not even live in the community.
Below are ten things parents must do before enrolling their child in any school public or private.
1. Get a copy of your state’s academic standards. Academic standards are open and public statements detailing what all children should know and be able to do in each state. A typical writing standard, for example, states that all students should be able to pre-write, draft, edit and revise. Students progress through these stages to write, clear, coherent and focused paragraphs and essays. State standards should be available on your state’s website and may be divided by grade level or subject.
2. Schedule a time when your child’s teacher can review these standards with you.
Comparing Educational, Academic and Life Success
December 25, 2009
Comparing Educational, Academic and Life Success
by: Reg Adkins
When examining instructional models we are offered a multitude of models focusing on the curriculum and the best instructional approach for the teacher based upon his or her particular style. Less often we find materials which target the learning style of the student. A recent “google” search on instructional models yielded no less than 7.5 million hits.
When examining counseling techniques the number of models from a search result is slightly less plentiful 5.5 million, but hardly less varied.
Many of these models and techniques are considered key to achieving educational success. I have taken the long way round to bring you to this elemental question: If all these models are important to educational success and many of them seem unrelated, then what is “educational success”? Is educational success the equivalent of “academic success”?
Because academic success is more definable, for the purpose of this examination we will postulate that educational success and academic success are interchangeable.
How educationally/academically successful one is may be measured by how well one is able to perform in the following proficiencies.
1. The ability to gather, interpret and usefully apply information.
Parents Complaints — Arrogant Public Schools Turn a Deaf Ear
December 25, 2009
School authorities continually claim that they want more parent cooperation and participation in their children’s education. They complain when parents don’t show up for parent-teacher conferences or push their children to do their homework.
Yet this constant cry for parent cooperation is often a smoke screen pretense to make parents think they have some control over their children’s education. In most cases, parents have no such control. Teachers and principals may placate parents or ask for their cooperation, but they rarely make the important changes parents ask for.
For example, most parents want their children to learn to do basic arithmetic without using calculators as a crutch. A poll by Public Agenda found that 86 percent of parents want students to learn arithmetic by hand before they use calculators. However, the math-teaching policy for most public schools today is that all children beginning in kindergarten have access to calculators at all times to do math problems.
Most school districts make important teaching-method or curriculum decisions in secret, without parents’ knowledge or approval. A parent’s only recourse is to complain to principals or school authorities after these authorities have dictated their curriculum or teaching methods, and the parent sees the damage to their children. Unfortunately, such complaints are often futile.
Self-Injury on College Campuses
December 24, 2009
Self injury is intentionally causing self-inflicted physical pain in order to cope with overwhelming feelings, traumatic events, or severe emotional pain. The person is not "crazy," but rather just never learned appropriate ways to express intense feelings. Some of the most common ways to self-injure include cutting, burning, hitting, scratching, and pulling hair. A person who self-injures usually does so in private. She does not typically flaunt or brag about injuries. Although some men self-injure, the behavior is more prevalent amongst women. The reasons vary. Some who self-mutilate say it helps to release pain, while others say it offers distraction from traumatic memories. For some, self-injury gives a sense of control. Others are numb to emotion, and self-injury gives them a way to feel something.
The biggest misconception is that self-injury is an attempt to commit suicide. The person in question may feel so bad that he has had suicidal thoughts, but generally the two are unrelated. In most cases, the act of self-injury is an attempt to cope with those intense feelings, not die.
Here are the warning signs of self-injury:
Compulsive need to injure oneself by cutting, burning, hitting, scratching, or pulling hair
