SchoolFinder Blog

Introduction

I would like to take this my first post to introduce myself to everyone and give some idea of what I hope to blog about in this space.

I am a teacher and a parent. Officially I have six years as a teacher in my own classroom and five summers experience in summer camp. I have a Master’s degree in Education from Northwestern University (ranked 6th in the United States last year) and around 20 graduate hours in graduate education focusing on methods of teaching and gifted education. I have taught or student taught in schools in major cities, suburbs, and rural towns. I have been in every classroom from kindergarten to high school. In short I have been around the block once or twice.

As a parent one of the first things I think about is getting a quality education for my children. When I moved to my current home I was told that the schools were ranked #4 in the state. I guess somewhere in the back of my head I thought there must be a list somewhere with all states ranked. In reality, like most measurements of education, the best school is a very subjective measure. Many times the relationship between your child and his or her teacher, or the quality of the principal at an individual school is more important than test scores or student teacher ratios. The best way to learn about that is and always will be word of mouth.

The meaning of quality education can change significantly depending on who you are and what you expect to gain from education. As a parent of a preschooler I want to know that my child is safe, happy, and learning the basics or reading, writing, and arithmetic. The parent of a middle schooler still worries about learning, but may also be worried about peer pressures and the changes that come with puberty. Parents of high school students may have the additional worry of college acceptance and the cost of education.

Students on the other hand have a completely different view of education. I’ve found that for the most part elementary students love going to school and learning. As our children grow into middle schoolers more students begin to struggle with school and more students are turned off by school. The whole raging hormones thing just adds a degree of complexity to social interactions that can develop character or scar a person for life. High school students are often viewed as a collection of different cliques. While this may seem true to us on the outside high school to a high schooler it can be more about learning who you are and what you are capable of doing.

The third major group that defines quality education are educators, not just teachers. There are many who believe that educators are overpaid, lazy, buffoons. Then there are those who believe that educators are the greatest thing since sliced bread. I like to believe we are somewhere in between. If you look hard enough it is easy to find educators who shouldn’t be working with children, but I think it is a lot easier to find educators who not only care about education, but put a lot of time and effort into creating the best possible education for the children in their care.

As I publish more articles on this blog I hope to explore the theme of quality education. I will do my best to look at the issues from all three views (though not always in the same article). I also look forward to hearing from you the reader. What questions or topics do you have? Have you read anything interesting lately? Are there topics or issues you have questions about? Almost anything is fair game, all you have to do is ask.