River the Lion

Living on the flood plain of a river is like sleeping with a lion.

 You might think he’s your pet, but he’s still unpredictable nature.  Some education in geology, meteorology, … - basically natural sciences – should be mandatory.  A little knowledge in these things and maybe people would be smart enough to not build in places where they are sure to be wiped out by nature.  There was a lot of flooding in this area over the last few days, worse than the flooding that happened in 2006 to the same area.  I’ve heard people say that we are only supposed to get floods like this about every 100 years.  Really?   I didn’t know nature worked on a time table like that.  Guess what – it doesn’t! Anyone looking to build a home should be able to investigate their building place and figure out whether building there is wise.  Someone trying to sell you the land, the builder, even local “experts” won’t tell you a straight story.  You have to figure it out yourself.  You need to be educated enough you figure out what is right.

 So, there’s the problem again.  Education.  I’m out of touch with primary level education these days.  My kids are way beyond that age.  So, I don’t know exactly what is taught in elementary and high school.  If these students are being taught the basics of math, science, history, English, etc., then they are not learning it.   I teach at a community college; the twilight zone between primary education and university level.  The students I see don’t have the very basic of knowledge in any subject area as far as I can see.  To be fair, I do find a few, very few, who do seem to have learned some things in their previous education.  But the majority are clueless.

 So, what’s wrong?  Is it that these things are not being taught or is it that the way it is being taught?  I’m guessing it’s the latter.   We are lazy in our delivery of education, but worse, the students are lazy in learning.   They just don’t care, or think that learning is the job of the teacher, not the student.  You can’t force someone to learn, they have to decide to do it.  Teachers who can excite and motivate students should be sought out, paid well, supported and teach the rest of us who are mediocre teachers how to do it better.  Yes, I think I’m a mediocre teacher.  I've never had a great teacher to model after or any training.  But, I work at it to the point where that is all I have time to do.   We may need more teachers so that the class size is smaller, but I think a big focus should be on teaching teachers how to be the most effective.  That’s where the money needs to go.