Originally published at Durosia.com. You can comment here or there.

Last night's Refresh-DC meeting featured local educator Jeffrey Brown talked a bit about the web design program he runs at Damascus High School and Montgomery County Community College.

One of the big points the talk drove home was that the educational institutions aren't quite sure what to do with all this web stuff. For those of us who've been neck deep in it since there was a Web to be seen, the idea of not knowing can be a bit foreign.

After all, we use it for everything, right?

But how do you teach that? Most of my compatriots have amazingly diverse backgrounds. I come from a liberal arts background with a heavy helping of science and technology. Others were philosophy or art or theater majors. We're all self taught, for the most part... flying by the seat of our pants half the time and getting lucky the other half. When we got our degrees, the Web was only a few years old (if even), not taught about anywhere and yet, we all function quite well in this still wild-west-like industry that's redefining the entire world.

Education is a slow to change industry--like any large beast, it takes time to nudge it into new directions. The Web, by its very nature, changes much more quickly. Bringing the two into sync is no small job. That's what people like Jeffery are doing. Specifically, he's part of Web Standards Project Education Taskforce. They've put together a bit of a curriculum for educators and institutions looking to teach websuff in a more proper way.

Since I'm still flying more by the seat of my pants than most I know--one of the ever-fun bits of being a very non-specific type of "idea" person and nothing easily definable like a programmer or a designer--I'm not fully sure how I can help out.

But I'm sure as hell going to put some thought (and, eventually, action) into it.

Those of you out there with an eye toward the future probably should, too.

Looks like some math educators have come up with a totally revolutionary idea that's kicking up some dust: Teach the basics better.
( Article snippet here )
This whole "No Child Left Behind" act seems like it's caused more problems than it was supposed to solve.

There also seems to be an ongoing neglect of the simple fact that you can't teach everyone everything at once. Knowledge developed over time--starting with a firm foundation in the basics--sticks better and is more useful later on. You can't throw algebra, geometry, fractions and imaginary numbers at students all at once. If you do that, what sticks will, without question, do so by pure luck and won't have much depth to it.

Same holds true for most other subjects.

Look, there are some basic things that need to be taught and taught well. Everything else follows from them. With a solid foundation, students not only actually know what they're doing, but are equipped to do more on their own and may even (*gasp!*) start to enjoy learning things. Mainly because they won't feel quite so overwhelmed by it all.

What are the basics? The same as they've always been" Literacy, Mathematics, Communication and Art. The cornerstones of a good, liberal arts base.

What of Science, you ask? It flows from those four. Without them, you can't perform scientific operations. By the time you're ready to work on learning about biology, chemistry or physics, you should be able to balance an equation (mathematics), understand what's written in the book (literacy) and be able to formulate questions based on what you've read (communication).

Philosophy works the same way.

Art is there to round things out. I think music is especially important. Why? Because it seems to be something those darn kids get into anyway. All art can employ the other three cornerstones, but can also exist without an understanding of any of them. Art is the one that transcends education and can speak directly to Knowledge in a universal sense. The more we let kids explore their artistic nature--be in through music, drawing, sculpting or whatever--the better they will be able to understand themselves and express that understanding in other forms.

I'm not educational genius. But I do know what made me love learning. I know the teachers who got it right and I know the ones who got it wrong. In my entire academic career I've watched things slip more and more from foundation building to pillow stuffing. Instead of our students having a deep and solid base to build on, we've been breeding kids barely standing on wobbly legs swinging bags full of fluff around.

Why is that such a difficult concept for people to grasp?

Preschoolers Grow Older as Parents Seek an Edge

Jack Haims, who turned 6 in late September, started kindergarten this year with an enviable skill set under his tiny belt: He could already read simple rhyming books, count to 100 and write his name.

“He has a lot more self-confidence if he tends to be the older one,” said his mother, Charlotte, 37. “I wanted him to have an easier time.”

Jack acquired his confidence and abilities thanks to an extra year of preschool, or perhaps simply an extra year of life. He is not alone: From Bronxville, where he lives, to Manhattan and beyond, parents are strategizing more than ever to keep their children out of kindergarten until they are nearly, or already, 6 years old.

Children who turn 5 even in June or earlier are sometimes considered not ready for kindergarten these days, as parents harbor an almost Darwinian desire to ensure that their own child is not the runt of the class. Although a spate of literature in the last few years about boys’ academic difficulties helped prompt some parents to hold their sons back a year, girls, too, are being held back. Yet research on whether the extra year helps is inconclusive.

Why are we so intent on making sure our children have "an easier time" with everything? Have we forgotten how the old axiom of hard work and suffering building character? Do we even care as a society any more about those little things like character and an ability to survive on one's own?

In my little corner of the world, my class was the last class to have a half-day of Kindergarten. The year after I was out of there, it became a full day with a bit of a nap. Free time for kids to be kids, it seems, has been whittled away regularly ever since. Between all the extra stuff to give them an "academic edge" and all the extracurricular activities (like soccer and whatnot), it's a wonder anyone survives childhood these days without an ulcer or three.

But what really gets me is some of the quotes from deeper down in that article. Like this one:

“New York City is so out of sync,” fumed Marlene Barron, head of the West Side Montessori School on the Upper West Side and confidante of many a parent frustrated by the public school policy. “It’s ridiculous. They have the babies of the universe. When you have kids who are so young, of course they never can test as well as kids who are older.”

Even ignoring the fact that I have serious issues with the whole "teach for the test" mentality that is rampant in what passes for most "educational" systems these days, equating age with intelligence is just incorrect. Sure, age plays a part in it--the brain has to develop to a certain level before it can retain the neural connections and all--but it is far from the only limiting factor. I personally know of at least four or five young kids who are absolutely brilliant. Their age does nothing but make their intelligence impressive. That knowledge wasn't gained magically through the ether when they turned five or six. It was worked for. Worked damn hard for by the children and their parents.

Age is not a magic bullet. It will neither confirm nor condemn a child to anything.

Then there's this one:

Wendy Levey, director of the Epiphany Community Nursery School on the Upper East Side, said the benefits of being older were evident in settings like bar mitzvah parties and middle school dances, when “the really young kids are running around throwing ice cubes.”

Now we're equating age with maturity. And while, again, age is a part of the equation, it is far from the determining factor. Socialization, in my experience, is the most important part of a mature person--be they child or adult. There's two places socialization of children take place: At home and at school. The more important one? In my opinion it's the home.

This all comes down to the parents. It is the parents' job to ensure the maturity of their child. But more and more I've seen what was once parental responsibility foisted onto the already struggling teachers and horribly flawed school systems. If your kid is one of the ones running around the mar mitzvah throwing ice cubes, it's not because they're five--it's because you haven't instilled in them the idea of what is and is not correct to do in public.

Instead of complaining about how bad it is that you child is the youngest one in his class, how about taking that energy and telling the kid to act their age? Instead of whining to the teacher about how hard the test is, how about you spend that time taking your child for a walk in the park? Instead of trying to make life easier by having the requirements shifted, how about you take responsibility and cut out the extra curricular stuff so your kid can actually relax, be a kid and show up at school without a head full of worry?

Heck, who knows, you may even accidentally teach your kid to have some feelings of responsibility of their own as they grow.

But maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about.

After all, I only had a half-day of kindergarten. And I was one of the oldest kids in my class. And I didn't have every minute of my day packed with things to do and schedules to keep.

Maybe I'm just too old fashioned.

Getting back into the groove of regular life here.

Went to work today, managed to stay mostly awake. No major problems to fix from being gone. At least none that I've found yet. It was a moderately slow day that gave me the chance to clear some things off my desk that I didn't get to before I left for vacation. Looks like I'm getting a bit of a pile dumped on me tomorrow, though. That's going to get in the way of doing other things I was hoping to get to. At least it doesn't look like it's going to be as absolutely insane as the beginning of December was.

I need to get the shelves for my DVDs that I've been talking about for a year now. I'm sick of staring at the big cardboard boxes they are currently in and not being able to get into the closet they're in front of. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow if it's nice out (as in "no weather"). Maybe I should do that on Thursday, though and run out and get something to roll the shelf box to my apartment instead. You know, so I don't hurt myself and scratch the shelves like I did last time... hmmmm...

There was much cleaning that went on this afternoon and evening. The last few times I had people over, "cleaning" consisted of throwing random things into random drawers and other hidey places. That has been done away with this time. At least in the main room. My bedroom can wait. I'm the only one who's ever in there. Doesn't really matter what kind of condition it's in. Just have to focus on the public rooms. Shelves will help a lot with that. Need to use those picture frames I bought, too.

( Then there's the important stuff... )

Really, I'd rather be sleeping. Moreso than usual. My sleep schedule over the weekend was seriously out of whack when it comes to transitioning back to a regular work day. just... gah...

But, on the Metro this morning, as I was reading the Express, I came across an ad that renewed my interest in the concept of grad school.

Seems that Johns Hopkins University has an interesting master's program in Communication in Contemporary Society. Best of all, it's based out of the Dupont Circle location.

I need to think on this a little.

I also need to eventually get a Masters so I can get a PhD.

And, uh, money...