Life-Long Learning.

Every morning two of my 8th grade students wait for me at the door. They are Chinese girls, smart, polite, accurate and habitually hardworking. They wait for me just to talk, even if they don't have me 1st period. These two are always hungry for lectures and they like how I teach - honey in my ears, because I teach differently, no inquiry/discovery/activities/projects, close to DI model - exactly how I was taught back in my days.

This week 8th graders are taking their Intermediate Level Science Test Part A: Hands-On. I don't care about this test with these kids - I teach them 9th grade curriculum in Living Environment, and in June they will take the Regents exam. However , I prepped the kids for this test in 2 hours.

One of the girls told me today, that her parents gave her 2 options for this summer: a)go back to China and attend a summer school there "because American education sucks" or b)stay here and get a job for the summer, because "you need to learn life". She decided to go back to China, and I agree with it. Go and learn. And compare.

When I was in upper grades in school and in the Vet. School, my father said to me ," This is the time for you to study, use it - to gain knowledge; gain as much as you can because you never know what will be useful later in life, and it's never too much of knowledge." I am grateful to him. By age 21 I graduated from the vet school and got a job. (15 years of schooling - done!)I was married for 3 years by that moment (my husband was also a student) but my parents fully supported us. Of course, I went to college in NYC as well, but it's much more difficult to enjoy and spend time on studying when you need to work, to raise a child, to run the household...

I've got into an argument with my son's teacher recently - she doesn't "require" children to do something specific rather letting them to choose. Of course, my son chooses the easiest books, and NEVER chooses writing as an activity - he doesn't like it and tries to skip it as often as possible. At home, I make him to sit and work on writing, phonics, and math using the Russian math books instead of EM (which is CONTRADICTING with the method of teaching used by Ms. B). She said that by pushing him I kill his joy from learning, and - he is going to be a life-long learner, he has the whole life to learn...
Silly me: I want him to be done with formal schooling by 22 - and earn his living!
Now, is it possible? 5+13+4+2(masters?) =24 That be the optimal case...
What did I have: 6+10+5 =21