[Woodcarver] art/cultural exchange weekend (plus)

[Ivan Whillock Studio]

Merrilee!

A wit once said that  a coward is a person who gives up teaching to go into
bullfighting.  I admire you and all of the teachers who are fighting the
good fight.  "Back in the fifties" the backgrounds of the kids in school
were much more homogenous than they are now.  Now we not only have
individual differences in maturity and intellect, but huge differences in
economic, social, and ethnic backgrounds.  Teaching in the fifties was no
snap--even with less diversity--and it's even more difficult now.  However,
even in the ideal 50's (that were never that ideal) about a third of the
kids I went to grade school with dropped out at sixteen.  Non-academic kids
left school early because they could find work on the family farm or in the
labor-intensive job market.  These days the national mandate, and I don't
disagree with it, says we keep those kids in school.

In the early sixties there were many educators who warned of the negative
effects that television would have on school success.  They predicted that
many preschoolers would watch TV instead of reading and doing activities
that would prepare them for school.  They also feared that television would
make "passive learners" out of them --rather than taking an active part,
they would want to sit back and be entertained.  The discussions about the
schools indicate that much of that has happened--that schools are facing the
problem of trying to undo the negative effects of television, parental
distraction, and the other social changes that have taken place.

 Ivan Whillock Studio
122 NE 1st Avenue
Faribault, MN 55021
Visit my website at
 http://www.whillock.com
Visit my Picturetrail album at
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?username=ivancarve