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Why are people (such as parents and teachers) letting the education of kids (your kids) be taken from them? For years teachers have been harping about classroom sizes for your kids being too large, and they're still complaining. Why is it that parents haven't done something for their kids as a societal whole? Parents work their asses off all week so their children are provided for, contributing for a society, and society isn't fulfilling its duty as human beings in seeing children's educational needs are met, listening to teachers input and outcry's. Not to be provocative, but teachers are failing kids. Please hear me out: They see too many kids fall by the wayside, because of the system they are forced to teach in; they've put out public service announcements about education for societies children, and parents haven't heeded the teacher's cries; but teachers aren't doing enough to really reach kids and to reach parents; Why haven't teachers flagged kids that re doing poorly in their classes? Why haven't teachers told those kids to arrive at school a half hour to 45 min. early, or the same time frame after school to hold a one on one or small group class every day—with the incentive those kids can spend that period in the library as long as they attend before or after school—so teachers can try and figure out how a child learns, so they can better teach them? They say people who are slow learners have "learning disabilities," well I say teachers haven't taken the time to figure out how those kids learn, so they can teach them. But I'm in prison—what the hell do I know? But I do know this though: There are about 150,000 inmates in California prisons, and believe it or not lots of them have incredible untapped talent and potential. And judging by their below 9th grade education levels in her, I'd say teachers did a real bang up job. Though it may seem that I belittle inmates and vilify teachers, it is recognized by me that some of the talents I've seen in here are staggering; and teachers teach kids that can't articulate the problems they may have in understanding what they're being taught. My Mom can testify to some of the talents in here as I've sent her artwork from just average artists that I've been able to barter with for their work. Yet I've viewed some artwork by prisoners that truly could be displayed next to some of the greats in any museum. Imagine if teachers had been able to stimulate their minds and recognize those talents in them by telling them, "Look, in the least you could be a commercial artist and that will bring you money for the rest of your life. So, practice your talent everyday and try and learn from school what you can it will help you be a more well rounded person in the rest of what you'll have to face in life," which would give them the confidence that they could be successful in life. Not just artists are in here, but the occasional thinker too. I've met some people with very agile minds and I like to think of myself as a thinker and not an utterly diabolical genius as the fact of my incarceration metes out. But luckily a teacher in prison recognized my thinking and encouraged me to write. Though I may never be mentioned with the great authors of History, I will continue to aspire to. Does it mean that I was a "slow learner" because I didn't begin writing until I was 19? Or was the ability there the entire time, but no one was able to get it out of me until then? Had I been encouraged early, and shown that there are all different types of uses for writing so that a person can make a living, maybe I would have avoided the pitfalls that led me down the road where my actions landed me in prison. As I sit now watching the Olympic Women's Hockey game a milk commercial came into my mind. The players are bumping each other around pretty rough even by men's standards and the spokespersons voice comes in "Milk helps build strong bones." Then the whistle blows and the American players skate and line up along the blue line when the voice comes in as the players are doffing their face guarded helmets. "Can you tell which of these players didn't get enough milk growing up. . ." The camera pans the smiles and every so often a smile with missing teeth. . . ."Got Milk?" Unfortunately prison offers nor encourages any outlets for inmates to be productive and self-sufficient. They say America as a "melting pot" is devoid of culture: I say the system is robbing the people of society of their culture, by not allowing teachers to stimulate the Renoirs, Picasso's, Michelangelo's, etc. Or the Jack London's, James Fennimore Coopers, Chaucers, etc., and the Platos, Aristotle, the Euclid's. I'm not saying that they're all locked up in prison, because whatever your potential is only a lifetime will reveal whether each individual reaches it, but I dare say some of the great artists can be found today in prison. And had their talents been recognized and cultivated early on by an educational system that sought them out, stimulated their minds, and learned how to teach them, maybe American could have begun to pave the way for a real cultural society—hell, maybe even crime and incarceration rate wouldn't be what it's been. Maybe it can start with one teacher, in all six classes they may teach throughout a day, flagging the students that seem to be coasting or letting themselves fall by the wayside. Kids at a young age aren't going to volunteer information unless you can get them alone and gently extract it form them. What are your interests? Can you draw? What do you think about life? Do you feel teachers make it easier to learn, or, do they make it harder for you to learn? Maybe have some real great thinkers, or read it to them and discuss it. Look, it's just you and me here, because I'm a teacher I don't know everything. I want to know how you think, what you feel about life so I can better teach you. A kid may be just shy. It would be nice if teachers could evaluate each student of their six classes a day and determine their learning needs and rearrange those six classes with similar learning styles, so teachers can teach to how people learn and stimulate every mind to its full potential. Or maybe even one teacher per subject following the students from K through 12th grade so the teacher knows the in's and outs of each student improving as students and teachers along the way. Then the teachers can call on the parents and say, "Look, this is how the system needs to be for the best interest of your kids (and society's as a whole). You work your asses off each week to provide for your kids and the people elected owe your kids the best education and the best teachers they can pay for with your tax dollars. Elected officials steadfastly refuse to care for your children by providing proper public education that allows a teacher to have class sizes of 15 students, and to organize those students in classes based on how those students learn so teacher can best stimulate their minds to their greatest learning potential. You need to contact Senators, Congress people, or whomever it takes to demand education for your kids. I'm going to call on your every month until your kid brings in a phone bill showing the number of a Senator, Congressperson or whomever. If push comes to shove, I'll come to your home and badger you some more. Teachers that care about kids that much could command $50,000 a year easy. One thing for certain, the California Department of Corrections (CDC) is housing 151,000 inmates currently, at $4.8 billion dollars a year, at the wrong end of the system. It's a given that kids sitting in school right now will keep that $151,000 a constant and drain $4.8 billion that could be utilized for education each year. As I said before, not everyone learns the same way. It would seem to me that to teach someone you'd have to observe how they learn and teach them everything you have to teach so that individuals will learn it. The system runs people through the K-12 grade mill, like trees through a wood chipper, without evaluating how kids best learn so the next garde teachers will know this and teach to the kids needs; I remember in class some kids first didn't get what the teacher was teaching and their grades were reflecting it. It seems logical that that should be a teacher's first clue that someone learns differently or wasn't taught throughly in the past. To illustrate in Junior High math the teacher put 5÷2 and asked me to work the problem; I said "Well, 5 goes into 2?" He said, "5 goes into 2? Where are you getting goes into? It's 5 divided by 2, but his voice was loud with frustration. I knew it was division. A teacher taught me how to divide, 2|5, or 5÷2 (5 divided by 2). The teacher finally taught it to me, at the top of his lungs, going to the chalkboard 5|2 5 goes into 2, but I want 5 divided by 2, 2|5. The only thing I can think of is when I first learned it was the teacher stressed the formula, 2|5 tapping the chalk under the 5, "5 divided by 2" going backward from the 5 to the 2, concerned that we would be able to reach the solution because that's what sticks out in my mind. But I thought, "Why is the teacher reading it backwards?" I guess I was so caught up in learning reading left to right, that when I started to learn math going right to left confused me. The teacher may have put 5÷2 (whatever the number was when I learned) on the top of the chalkboard, then the formula 2|5 in the middle of the chalkboard, and then worked the solution stressing that so that we all know how to arrive at the solution, but that moved downward which confused me more from what sticks out in my mind. I guess I needed someone to explain the transition between equation, formula, and solution and how the formula runs backward from the equation in order to be able to arrive at the solution. It wasn't explained that | is a formula division sign which places the 2 before the 5 so that may now work the problem. Am I a slow learner because I needed someone to explain the equation reads left to right like we're taught to read, but the formula isn't like reading, and has to be formulated backwards to the equation to find the solution? Math can move in all directions and after concentrating on learning to read the teacher was basically speaking Chinese to me. I'm not blaming teachers for people being in prison: I'm saying that it wasn't till Junior High a teacher caught I didn't fully understand division and angrily taught it to me—probably more made that it hadn't been taught to me, and he had to teach it, than angry at me for not understanding; I'm just hoping that teaching every student now to the best of their learning ability keeps them from being in prison for 27 to life. I wouldn't wish that on any kid, their parents, the victim, and the victim's family. Sincerely, Joel Brown
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