I've heard that quote paraphrase tossed around faculty rooms many, many times, but really? I don't agree with it. If you regularly think that while subbing, then you're not doing it right.

For the new substitute teacher, I admit, it can be very hard. It's a school you're not familiar with, the teachers don't know you, and the kids see one thing: fresh meat. In the days before school security got very tight-most subs have to wear neon badges proclaiming their status to all and sundry nowadays-your credentials got challenged all the time, by staff and student alike. Especially if you look younger than your age.

Which happened to me.

My first day subbing with my district. I am lost. I'm standing in the hall looking at a map-during class change, mind-when one of the senior boys stops, offers to help me find my room…and starts hitting on me. I think he was convinced I was a new student and he wanted to get a foot in the door first (why, I don't know, since I really don't consider myself an attractive person). It turned out that I was going to the same room he was.

Imagine his shock when we got there, he went to his seat…and I went to the teacher's desk, took the sub folder out of my bag, and introduced myself as the substitute. The look on his face was priceless. If I was a bit meaner of a person, I'd have wished for a camera.

Later that same day, I was in the halls between classes-it was my lunch-searching out the bathroom. I got challenged by one of the hall duty teachers, wanting to know where my pass was. Out comes the sub folder again.

It was a year before I went anywhere without the sub folder in my hand at all times.

Substituting can be rough, there's no doubt, especially in the higher grades. The elementary kids…they're still eager to please, for the most part. They are also insecure about their ability to please. Make one comment about having to leave a bad note for their teacher, and those kids are yours for life. The older ones-and for the purposes of this, I am defining “older” as grades eight and up-are more aloof. Harder to impress. You see, they've been around the block a few times by now, and have figured out two things that the little ones haven't. One: subs-and especially the new ones-do not know your name. Two: teachers rarely leave “real” work for a sub. It's usually worksheets and the odd video. Busy work.

So now you have the combination where the kids know that the work probably won't count for anything, and you really have no way of fingering the wrongdoers. This is an equation for chaos. Not total chaos, because then it would be too easy for the beleaguered substitute to write up the entire class. No, there are always six or seven holdouts; just enough so that when the regular teacher comes back and demands answers, they can truthfully insist that, no, the whole class wasn't involved in everything.

Of course, no one will give up the names of the troublemakers. Not unless they're craving a beating after school, that is.

This, you see, leaves the classroom teacher in a quandary. If they are the “fair” type, they'll realize that they can't punish everyone for the actions of some. Mainly because, if they do, the entire class will cry foul and proceed to do nothing for the teacher for the rest of the year. So nothing happens, and the cycle continues.

In districts that have a high substitute turnover, this is the constant of substitute teaching, and why the whole subbing racket has such a bad rap. It changes, though, if the sub lasts a year-or six months in some cases-and becomes a “regular.” I'm sure many of you can relate this to your own experiences. Think back to your school days-or to last week, if you're still in school. Think of your subs. Who did you behave better for, the sub you saw maybe once or twice before they disappeared, or the sub that you saw almost daily in one form or another?

For the generally well-behaved people, it was probably the second. If you were/are the type to give your regular teachers grief, then it really doesn't matter.

I have been with my district for four years, in one form or another. I've been a daily sub, and a “leave replacement”-a term designed purely to remind you of you second class classroom status. You have all the duties and responsibilities of a “real” teacher-lesson planning, grading, chaperone duties, etc.-but not the respect of the actual title of teacher. By now, the kids know me. And I know them, at least by sight. That means that I can attach a name from a roster to a face pretty damn quickly if I didn't know it already.

This one simple fact means that the rules of the subbing game have changed.

The students do not see me as a “sub.” They see Miss Dunn, Miss D., whatever it is they call me on any given Tuesday. (By the way, I will never really understand the “Miss D. thing-is four letters really too long to enunciate?) They know my style of subbing, and how to work with it.

I should interrupt myself now to say that, in the end, there are only really two styles of subbing. The first is what I like to call permissive. These are the subs that sit in their own worlds, ignoring the kids and letting them do whatever they want. Theses are the classrooms that, when you pass, you think you're seeing a riot in progress. These are either the subs that are too scared of the kids to take control, too new at subbing to know the tricks, or so worn out with it, that they don't care. Sadly, this compromises about 85% of the subbing population.

The other style is something I have come to term “drill sergeant reject.” These are the subs who bark orders, scream from beginning to end of class, hand out central detentions for the crime of coughing, and other fun stuff like that. Were it the Marines and not a school, this might be an acceptable method of handling people. However, unless you are subbing for a ROTC class or have a lot of kids who moved to the district from, say, Iraq before Saadam was deposed, you are usually not dealing with people familiar with such authoritarian regimes. They are American kids, and will revolt. Usually messily.

My style is a mix of the two. As long as you're doing what you're supposed to, I don't mind if you talk a little. But get out of line, and I crack the whip hard and fast. The kids in my district know that about me. They respect that, or at least, they pretend to. And, hey, if they're acting like angels, then I don't care if that respect is real or faked. Either way, it saves me two Excedrin.

And, because they know me and can interact with me like they would a “real” teacher-and I with them-I have something other than just “war stories.”

I have the entertaining ones. The touching ones. The ones that make you laugh, and make you cry.

The things that touch them, touch me. Last year, when a senior was killed in a car crash, I was on that “leave replacement.” I was his homeroom teacher, and I had him for an elective class. It was a loss and shock to the school, the kids, and to me. I was able to grieve with them then.

When we had two students commit suicide this year, I was back to being a “regular” sub. But I still knew the kids, and it still hit me hard. More importantly, I had students coming to me for comfort, because they were comfortable enough with me to be weak in front of me.

There are the happy times, too.

There is a girl that I affectionately refer to as “Fangirl.” Why do I do this? She found out two years ago that I liked anime. Apparently, so does she. And that one little fact made me a goddess in her eyes. I am now her favorite sub ever, and when she sees me in school, Fangirl will follow me around like a puppy until I have to literally shoo her off to her next class.

That was not the only time liking anime has earned me respect in the classroom. (It's really funny, the directions that respect come from.) I was sitting at the teacher's desk filling out paperwork-yes, even subs have paperwork-and keeping most of my attention on the class. In the front row, one boy started calling the other a “baka,” and the one being called that was very, very confused.

Japanese 101. “Baka” roughly translates to “idiot.” The meaning changes some with usage, tone, oh, all sorts of things. Kind of like some words in this language. It's not the nicest of words, though.

I called the boy on it. “We don't call people things like that.”

Blank stare then trying for the upper hand. “You don't know what I said!”

Whip the Newtype magazine out of my bag and slap it on the desk. “Try me.”

Swallows, pales. “I'm sorry?”

That was about three years ago. To this day, he has never given me a single problem.

Then, there is this magic thing called a “crush.” It happens without rhyme or reason, comes and goes relatively quickly, and is generally harmless all around. Unless, of course, you hang onto it for two and a half years.

Cue the twins.

Yes, identical twins. Both of whom had-for some unknown reason, I really don't get it-massive crushes on me. To the point that the one kept asking me to all the dances, both would ask me on dates, and they both noticed when I had about a quarter inch trimmed off my hair.

Had they been teachers, I might be writing this from a different location, both mentally and physically. As it was…students. Ten years younger than me.

No good can come of this.

The one twin got over his crush when he found a real girlfriend. The second's persisted until fall of this year, when he officially “gave up” on me, but asked if he could look me up after he turned eighteen.

I told him to find me after college. That should give me sufficient time to either get married or leave with no forwarding address.

My days are filled with things like this. They are filled with headaches and laughter. There are many days where nothing happens at all, and I have to fight boredom while watching five or six different classes take tests. It's just life, not all that dissimilar from any other job, I'd imagine. It has ups and downs, days where you don't want to get out of bed, and days where you can't imagine doing anything else.

It is not the Hell people make it out to be. Find your place, and even substituting can be fun. Yes, I'd prefer full time work and pay with benefits, but as far as jobs go? This is pretty good. It could be much, much worse.

At least it's not Wal-Mart.

Yes, I had a very unusual upbringing… at least, back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, it was unusual.

I watched a lot of television, an amazing amount in retrospect, an amazing variety of shows – my parents didn’t seem to exert much control over my intake of cathode tube rays in the beginning. And my mother loved certain movies – Hitchcock, in particular. I remember seeing The Birds a number of times (starting around age 4) and being utterly fascinated and terrified.

I especially loved Westerns, war movies, and detective shows. More of my personal ethical inclinations owe more to John Wayne and Clint Eastwood’s work for Sergio Leone than to sermons and The Good Book.  Then there was The Fugative and its healthy dark fear of authority; and Ephrim Zembalist, Jr. on The FBI, who just seemed trustworthy, and the flatfoots on Dragnet, the patrolmen of Adam 12; Mannix, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Columbo, Banacheck, McMillan and Wife, McCloud; later, there’d be Quincy, ME.

But above all there was The Rockford Files, with the maverick law-bending, hard luck, happy-go-lucky, barely making ends meet Jim Rockford/James Garner. I think he was my supreme archetype for what a man was supposed to be like – the guy who tries to do the right thing, screws it up, gets punished for it, tries to do the right thing again, and so on until, at the end, he’s as broke as he started the day. But he did what he was supposed to do: stood for something worth standing for, regardless of the price, and outwitted the opposition, sometimes with the help of some dumb luck (and a sympathetic scriptwriter).

I learned about all the great and not-so-great movies of the ‘70s as they came out in the then black and white inky pages of MAD Magazine – I was introduced to the not-so-subtle arts of parody and satire and caricature, and to a bit of New York sarcasm and Yiddish cursing, all a providing a view of the world new to me. Later on I discovered the originator of MAD – Harvey Kurtzman – through reprints of the ‘50s issues, which were utterly amazing, especially the pieces with the artist Will Elder. It was like looking at William Hogarth prints made for 20^th century sensibilities. As an aside, it was because of Elder and Kurtzman that I became interested in Hogarth, and thus in the 18^th c. and its satirists, such as Voltaire, its philosophies and ideas.

As I became a little older in the late ‘70s and hung around other degenerate young boys, we regularly got our hands on issues of Playboy by various means, most nefarious, others hilarious. Stories for another day. The direction I’m heading here is a little strange – while the other boys immediately went for the centerfolds (“My name is Candy and my biggest turn-on is a warm smile and my biggest turn-off is nose hair.”), I discovered that Kurtzman was writing a comic for Playboy called Little Annie Fanny – sometimes Elder did the illustrations, at other times other teams worked on them, but overall they were as hilarious and socially pointed as anything Mel Brooks did in his earlier movies (though I did not know this at the time as it would be years before I got to see a Mel Brooks movie). Not that I didn’t get around to looking at the centerfold (“My name is Candy…”) like everyone else, but I had to check out what was happening in the topsy-turvy world of innocent and moral -- and curvaceous and barely or non-clothed, big blue-eyed – world of ol’ Annie. My sense of humor, warped as it is, was being shaped, right along with my view of planet Earth – warped as it is, too. I mean, the planet, not my point of view.

Star Wars came out around this point. My life was, to say the least, a little unsteady those years due to an ongoing family crisis, and, for some reason, I experienced Star Wars as some sort of redemptive event, as if my seeing it would somehow make everything turn out alright, open doors to new worlds, brighten my horrible and bleak Appalachian-bound existence, heal the unhealable. I fell head over heels for Carrie Fisher, whom I love even more today as a fiction writer, social commentator, and activist for mental health and addiction issues. And she’s still pretty, too.

It was the first time a movie affected me – the first time I actually asked my father to break the 11^th Commandment: “Thou shat do no commerce with the infernal arts of Mr. Edison.” I suppose that was 1977 and I was 11. I begged, literally, I worked up elaborate and, actually, good counter-theological arguments to my father and his religion on this point. He did not relent. I questioned my faith, began to ask exactly how much any of it made any rational sense. Thus began my interest in philosophy of religion and comparative religion. 

It was also when I learned the lesson that it is probably better to ask forgiveness than permission. To this day I wish I’d just gone to see that movie and taken the punishment.

Plus, had I been allowed to see that movie, I’d probably be a respectable pillar of the community today instead of the trouble-making, anti-authoritarian bastard I am.

Parents, take a lesson.

So I began reading magazines of any sort that featured horror movies, fantasy, sci-fi, special effects. I began reading comics voraciously; the Start Wars comics adaptation of the movie by Howard Chaykin was how I learned the whole story, coupled with still photos from every scrap of print media that mentioned the movie. (Chaykin later became one of my heroes and is one of the finest storytellers and illustrators who’s ever slung ink – see his old American Flagg comics from the ‘80s for an example of parody, satire, and good writing mixed with fantastic comic art.)

The comics were my gateway to higher literature, politics, and a fair vocabulary. Most of the folks who wrote the better comics, of course, were frustrated novelists with university educations. They were probably bored, so there were references galore to the classics and various important issues in the '60s and '70s. My introduction to mythology came through Marvel's Thor, for example, and I initially learned of The Rev. Sung Yung Moon and religious cults and the utter strangeness of the American political scene from Steve Gerber's Howard the Duck (those of you who recall the fiasco of a movie based on that comic should wipe it clean from your mind and go get some old issues of the Gerber/Gene Colan--there's some nice satire there; and redheaded Beverwy, with her ridiculous lisp, is enchanting). 

Somewhere between Howard the Duck and the Nixon fiasco, my nascent political sensibilities were incubated.

My fascination with the morally ambiguous (aside from an obsession with the works of Edgar Alan Poe and a few others) came through the comics of the early '80s, especially Claremont and Byrne's New X-Men. Anyone who knows that comic via the movie versions should go track down the John Byrne run to get the full effect (or reprints, as they are extremely valuable now and you cannot have my copies).

The relationships between the characters is complex, their motivations are mixed... the most violent character, Wolverine, is genuinely the most sensitive and honorable, and wrestles with who he is and what he does. Phoenix is a mass murderer, but by accident (the Comics Code of Authority dictated she had to be punished, i.e. killed, eventually, even though her death itself was ethically questionable: a suicide).

There was more human drama in those books than the usual costumed morons doing silly nonsense. Chris Claremont performed an exploration, for about 25 issues, of what it means to be a human with human problems – and this is just what I needed at the ages of 13 and 14, living a life rife with similar questions.

The book also stressed what it was like to live as an outsider, feared and disliked by the larger community, and yet choose to live a principled life: For a boy-too-fast-becoming-an-adult without proper adult supervision, artistic, with uncommon tastes, in a small rural community where “different” equaled “evil” (by the age of 14 I was accused of witchcraft at high school by an assistant principle because of some of my other reading habits), these books provided role models of a sort. They were part of my education that intolerance should be met by decency and a proper sort of pride in one's differences and talents. They taught me to be slow in making judgments of others simply on the basis that they were not like me.

All for pennies a month.

Long story short: eventually I became a philosopher and have taught the subject. I read the classics. I received a fair university education and use it to continue educating myself, filling in the gaps in what I learned. Such is part of my life.

I also became an adult and had to choose how to live, which values to put into effect and instantiate in my actions – just as everyone else has to. I had to learn how to exercise my own judgment, to agonize over my choices, to care about others, to struggle to forgive when possible and attempt to show that fine mix of mercy and justice a person must to live in this world. I also had to learn how to admit when I'm wrong or have done badly, ask for forgiveness and try to make some sort of repair when I can.

I had to learn the value of being creative in all aspects of existence while savoring the same in the lives of others.

Yes, I had to grow up.

I had to learn to try to live with meaning – and how to get up in the morning and start over when I blow it. My life's no model of goodness by any stretch of the imagination; that's not the point of all this. The writer's no saint and has no illusion he could be. 

The point: The foundations were not laid in a school. They did not arrive with the diplomas. They were absorbed over time, as a child and young person, paying attention to the characters in stories on television and in comics, learning to interpret texts in many ways, paying attention to the attitudes of the writers and the artists, learning to see the world from a variety of cultural perspectives, and learning that my own individual perspective, though odd and out of step with my surroundings, was at least as valid and valuable as that of others.

Pop culture helped me learn to go my own way, helped me learn it was good to be my own person.

Perhaps that isn't the only value of pop culture – certainly it isn't. But for a boy in the backwards backwaters of America, it was a godsend. Maybe I found more in it than is, in fact, often there objectively. Maybe my imagination and mind used those things as a sort of Rorschach Test that invoked all sorts of thoughts and ideas that have little specifically to do with “what is there.” Maybe. But perhaps that in itself is of tremendous value and shows pop culture can have a level of significance and a use beyond simple entertainment, just as all works of art can feed the soul regardless of origin.

There is always more to human creations, no matter how common, than meets the eye.

The top five ways to become educated without a degree are: certification programs, seminars, internships, volunteering, and personal research.

Once you have done one or more of these, you will find yourself more competitive in the corporate ladder to success. Imagine yourself living at the top of a skyscraper and how important it makes you feel. The extra skills gained will provide that same feeling when competing against the traditional educated counterparts.

Certification

Certification programs could be Notary public classes, Microsoft programming, project management, and more. Most community education programs cover a variety of offerings, and best of all, they are usually taught by people actively in the field. Therefore, the most up to date experience will be shared. Sometimes, traditional schools hire people with past experience and their information could be outdated, so look at this as a better education experience. Typically, these take months or less to complete. These are inexpensive and financial aid is usually available.

Seminars

Seminars are presented as free or paid. Research the free ones first and see what they can offer, and then try the ones that cost. Sometimes, the free ones offer more and networking opportunities that are important to your success. However, the paid ones usually offer more specific topics and materials. Seminars can offer more real life exposure and advice than any other method. Try to go to one that provides some type of certificate of achievement as well as proof of your knowledge.

Internships

Internships can be paid or not paid. These are the hands on experiences that traditional students get involved with, but many are open to everyone with a general interest. Search on yahoo jobs, and internship search engines to find some. Also, looking through MySpace and Facebook could provide some great choices too. Internships can get you jobs, connections, and increase your field experience substantially. This is definitely a resume booster and gives credibility in an area that it may be difficult to find work in now.

Volunteering

Volunteering is usually not paid, but more and more places are offering a stipend payment for your trouble. For instance, you can volunteer to work on the election board as an inspector and earn a small check. The best thing, it is still considered volunteer work, and you get to learn about the political process. Sometimes, volunteering to be part of a company's board of directors can pay something too. The experience and the fact you uphold social responsibility will shine brightly for you.

Personal Research

Personal research is something anyone can do. For example, going to the local library could ensure that you have access to all the best search possibilities. Always start with the general background of any industry and then go to the current situation. Look for weaknesses, and see if your skills fill the need. This is the best way to see what your niche is for the market.

In conclusion, test the waters in expanding your outlook. Becoming certified and doing other learning oriented activities could influence the income situation, social circle, and overall professional happiness. These strategies can be done in a short period of time and can be free or low cost. The benefits will certainly pay off big time!

Here's a number to feast on. It is reported that 70 percent of individuals who have a degree do not have a job in their degree field. Education degrees and Master's and Doctoral degrees are a few exceptions. So what is the point of spending thousands upon thousands of dollars only to do something that the student didn't study? Simple. The underlying idea is that if one gets a degree, they'll make money. Though a small number make a profitable exchange of money, many do not. It has been fed through high school counselors and parents that having a degree will better one's career, their future, and will live happily ever after. Counselors would be out of the job if they couldn't sell that to students. Once a student graduates they often find a job that first meets their needs at that particular time. After all they have student loans to pay off, right?

Imagine this: a college drop out makes billions of dollars a year. Impossible? No. Ask Bill Gates. If you go through his house look for a degree, or even a certification. He is only one example of many that have success without obtaining a degree. How about marketing representatives? Do you need to spend thousands of dollars for someone to teach you how to sell a product? How about write a book? Talk on the phone? Here's one that hurts: think critically?

I'll admit, some occupations are a little more complex, like your technical fields such as IT, or electrical field work. While these fields are important, they don't have to have a college degree to get into that field. Knowledge of what you're doing via self-teaching, or hands-on experience can land you a job in those fields and make you as much money as someone with a college degree. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying obtaining a college degree is bad; there are avenues where it is warranted and needed such as moving on to academia or if you're particularly interested in the field and will pursue a job in that field. More often than not, that's not the case.

A recent college graduate will take out on average $30,000 in student loans. Then when you consolidate after you graduate you're going to pay approximately $300 dollar a month in repayment. Take that and the average starting salary for college graduates being only $25,000, the student's not in good shape to start off in the “real world”. As I've stated graduate degrees are an exception, and if you're going to work in a field that relates to your degree go the graduate route. Sure, you're more than likely going to spend some money, but you get the most return for your reward.

Experts at Harvard recently said college teaches students to think critically. A homeless person on the street corner can think as critically as a person in a college classroom. That's subjective. It matters how hard you want to think, read, analyze, and interpret. A classroom doesn't have to be the avenue to help you in that regard. So, again, I ask you why is it so important to have a degree?

The answer is up to the reader, but I encourage this: if you're going to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars, make sure you're going to use that degree in that specific field. Otherwise, you're only wasting your time and your money. You make the decision. When you see your friends studying late at night and stressing out about exams while you make a steady income without pulling out copious amounts of money, there's no need to thank me. Just remember the little people.

This withdrawal from social participation may be a sign of very deep emotional problems or simply of extreme shyness. In either case, these children may very well be the butt of jokes by extroverted classmates. Most of these quiet students actually do their work and pass their tests, since they usually possess adequate skills. They will not cause a blip on the teacher's radar and thus will remain largely ignored.

Other withdrawn students however, who do not fare well in class, will be tested and perhaps placed in special education settings as slow learners. They too will be ridiculed by some of their more advanced classmates. This constant emotional attack throughout primary schooling will eventually produce children who have a very low self-esteem and who lose their motivation for success.

With time, these withdrawn students will stop participating in group work, fearing scathing comments by some of their peers. They will only go through the motions with very little commitment and engagement in school work and will abstain from participating in extracurricular activities. The slow learners will quickly be labeled as such with insulting terms such as dummy, stupid, dimwitted and moron by other children.

Even though teachers in primary schools feel overworked, it is essential that they quickly identify and offer help to the withdrawn children. These students need a lot of support, both emotional and academic. There are strategies that can help them, which include talking to the other students and explaining how important the participation of each group member is.

It may even be necessary for schools to recommend professional treatment by psychologists and counselors to both the withdrawn students and their parents. A weekly one-on-one session with the child may bring him/her out of the shell, thus allowing the discovery of the fears that afflict him/her.

Unfortunately, public schools usually pay little attention to those cases due mainly to reduced budgets for mental health. The parents themselves may not be able to pay the very expensive private treatment or they assume that the child is going through a "phase". If nothing is done, we will produce thousands of troubled adults who won't know how to face life's daily challenges.

Why is education important to development?

Education is central to development , It empowers people and strengthens nations. It is a powerful "equalizer", opening doors to all to lift themselves out of poverty. It is critical to the world's attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Two of the eight MDG's pertain to education-namely, universal primary completion and gender parity in primary and secondary schooling. Moreover, education-especially girls' education-has a direct and proven impact on the goals related to child and reproductive health and environmental sustainability. Education also promotes economic growth, national productivity and innovation, and values of democracy and social cohesion.

The Importance of Education in Economic Development

Prior to the nineteenth century, systematic investment in human capital was not considered specially important in any country. Expenditures on schooling, on-the-job training, and other similar forms of investment were quite small. This began to change radically during this century with the application of science to the development of new goods and more efficient methods of production, first in Great Britain, and then gradually in other countries.

During the twentieth century, education, skills, and the acquisition of knowledge have become crucial determinants of a person's and a nation's productivity. One can even call the twentieth century the "Age of Human Capital" in the sense that the primary determinant of a country's standard of living is how well it succeeds in developing and utilizing the skills and knowledge, and furthering the health and educating the majority of its population.

No country has achieved constant economic development without considerable investment in human capital. Previous studies have shown handsome returns to various forms of human capital accumulation: basic education, research, training, learning-by-doing and aptitude building. The distribution of education matters. Unequal education tends to have a negative impact on per capita income in most countries. Moreover, controlling for human capital distribution and the use of appropriate functional form specifications consistent with the asset allocation model make a difference for the effects of average education on per capita income, while failure to do so leads to insignificant and even negative effects of average education. Investment in human capital can have little impact on growth unless people can use education in competitive and open markets. The larger and more competitive these markets are, the greater are the prospects for using education and skills.

Benefits of Education

Investment in education benefits the individual, society, and the world as a whole. Broad-based education of good quality is among the most powerful instruments known to reduce poverty and inequality. With proven benefits for personal health, it also strengthens nations' economic health by laying the foundation for sustained economic growth. For individuals and nations, it is key to creating, applying, and spreading knowledge-and thus to the development of dynamic, globally competitive economies. And it is fundamental for the construction of democratic societies.

Benefits to the Individual

• Improves Health and Nutrition
  Education greatly benefits personal health. Particularly powerful for girls, it profoundly affects reproductive health, and also improves child mortality and welfare through better nutrition and higher immunization rates. Education may be the single most effective preventive weapon against HIV/AIDS.
  
  
• Increases Productivity and Earnings
  Research has established that every year of schooling increases individual wages for both men and women by a worldwide average of about 10 percent. In poor countries, the gains are even greater.
  
  
• Reduces Inequality
  Education is a great "leveler", illiteracy being one of the strongest predictors of poverty. Primary education plays a catalytic role for those most likely to be poor, including girls, ethnic minorities, orphans, disabled people, and rural families. By enabling larger numbers to share in the growth process, education can be the powerful tide that lifts all boats.

Benefits to Society

• Drives Economic Competitiveness
  An educated and skilled workforce is one of the pillars of the knowledge-based economy. Increasingly, comparative advantages among nations come less from natural resources or cheap labor and more from technical innovations and the competitive use of knowledge. Studies also link education to economic growth: education contributes to improved productivity which in theory should lead to higher income and improved economic performance.
  
  
• Poverty-reducing Effects
  Education can vitally contribute to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. While two of the goals pertain directly to education, education also helps to reduce poverty, promote gender equality, lower child mortality rates, protect against HIV/AIDS, reduce fertility rates, and enhance environmental awareness.
  
  
• Contributes to Democratization
  Countries with higher primary schooling and a smaller gap between rates of boys' and girls' schooling tend to enjoy greater democracy. Democratic political institutions (such as power-sharing and clean elections) are more likely to exist in countries with higher literacy rates and education levels.
  
  
• Promotes Peace and Stability
  Peace education-spanning issues of human security, equity, justice, and intercultural understanding- is of paramount importance. Education also reduces crime: poor school environments lead to deficient academic performance, absenteeism, and drop out-precursors of delinquent and violent behavior.
  
  
• Promotes Concern for the Environment
  Education can enhance natural resource management and national capacity for disaster prevention and adoption of new, environmentally friendly technologies.

Benefits of Girls' Education: A Wise Investment

Investment in girls' education yields some of the highest returns of all development investments, yielding both private and social benefits that accrue to individuals, families, and society at large.

• Reduces Women's Fertility Rates
  Women with formal education are much more likely to use reliable family planning methods, delay marriage and childbearing, and have fewer and healthier babies than women with no formal education. It is estimated that one year of female schooling reduces fertility by 10 percent. The effect is particularly pronounced for secondary schooling.
  
  
• Lowers Infant and Child Mortality Rates
  Women with some formal education are more likely to seek medical care, ensure their children are immunized, be better informed about their children's nutritional requirements, and adopt improved sanitation practices. As a result, their infants and children have higher survival rates and tend to be healthier and better nourished.
  
  
• Lowers Maternal Mortality Rates
  Women with formal education tend to have better knowledge about health care practices, are less likely to become pregnant at a very young age, tend to have fewer, better-spaced pregnancies, and seek pre- and post-natal care. It is estimated that an additional year of schooling for 1,000 women helps prevent two maternal deaths.
  
  
• Protects Against HIV/AIDS Infection
  Girls' education ranks among the most powerful tools for reducing girls' vulnerability. It slows and reduces the spread of HIV/AIDS by contributing to female economic independence, delayed marriage, family planning, and work outside the home as well as greater information about the disease and how to prevent it.
  
  
• Increases Women's Labor Force Participation Rates and Earnings
  Education has been proven to increase income for wage earners and increase productivity for employers, yielding benefits for the community and society.
  
  
• Creates Intergenerational Education Benefits
  Mothers' education is a significant variable affecting children's education attainment and opportunities. A mother with a few years of formal education is considerably more likely to send her children to school. In many countries each additional year of formal education completed by a mother translates into her children remaining in school for an additional one-third to one-half year.

Education and Trade

Some countries have successfully combined openness and investment in learning and education, forming a virtuous circle: openness creates demand for education, and learning and education make a country's export sector more competitive.

In conclusion, education is indispensable to economic development. No economic development is possible without good education. A balanced education system promotes not only economic development, but productivity, and generates individual income per capita. Its influence is noticable at the micro level of an individual family.

 

Creating a unit study or lesson plan on farm life and farm animals requires tasks to complete in all areas of study: math, reading, writing, science, and social studies. Below is a guide to incorporating vocabulary, reading and writing, life skills, and arts and crafts into the life on a farm homeschool unit study.

Vocabulary

It is easy to find spelling words that homeschool students can learn about life on the farm. Start with the basics like barn, house, well, field, and the names of the various animals found there. For older or more advanced children, you can include more difficult words like tractor, trough, stable, and combine.

Reading and Writing

There are many books at the library about life on the farm. Books for little children can be about farms, animals, and planting. Both fiction and non-fiction books can be used. You can also sing songs such as "Old MacDonald" and use classic nursery rhymes such as "Baa baa black sheep."

Life Skills

Discovering about life on the farm can instruct many crucial life skills to kids. This homeschool unit study wouldn't be full without raising some plants from seed, tilling the garden for planting, and preparing a big country meal. It's important to instruct kids where the food comes from and how it's farmed or raised.

Part of the homeschool unit study can cover monetary resource required for life on the farm. Begin with the price of a infant pig, add the food and doctor's bills, and determine if the adult pig can be sold for a profit.

Arts and Crafts

Creating arts and crafts that stand for life on the farm can be a amusing part of this homeschoo unit study. Build a barn with red construction paper and a cardboard box. Chickens could be created from white pompons and pipe cleaners. Country design crafts like easy nine-patch quilts, corn stalk clumps, and wreaths with gardening tools are neat ideas. Construct a model tractor with a mechanised building blocks set.

This homeschool unit study would be even fuller if there are any farms by where you live. A lot of areas have public tours of farms, barns, or orchards. Even a jaunt to a local zoo with a petting zoo would work. Your kids can see assorted livestocks closely.

As a result, many of the traditional theories and practices of educational pedagogy are insufficient to cope with the increasing demands for diversified instruction. Areas of diversity are not limited to racial and ethnic characterization, but also include religious preference, disability status and, in recent years, sexual orientation. In order to provide a fully inclusive environment, educators must first be aware of the issue and also make a true commitment to open and unbiased acceptance.

The issue of the right of non-heterosexual students to receive an education in an environment that is free from harmful emotional and physical threats has come increasingly to the forefront. Bettina Boxall and Duane Noriyuki, staff writers for the Los Angeles Times, expose the serious nature of this issue in an article in the May 28, 1999 issue of the paper titled Harassment: Victims, once silent or ignored, now strike out against a favorite form of campus torment. He cites a student's own remembrances of her time in high school: “…the halls of the local high school, the words "faggot" and "dyke" were routinely uttered, about as often, Alana Flores remembers, as hello and goodbye".

These insulting words, along with death threats which included the pornographic image of a woman, bound and gagged, with her throat slit, were common occurrences for Flores and her fellow gay and lesbian classmates at Live Oak High School in San Jose, California. With regards to the specific incident surrounding the photo, which had been placed in Flores' locker, when she took the matter to the assistant principal, she was openly asked to identify herself as a lesbian and told that she was not to bring "bring me this trash anymore". The assistant principal later denied this remark.

To fight back against the torment that they were forced to endure, she and other students from the school, all now graduated, are suing the Morgan Hill School District for the role that they played by ignoring the fact that administrators and teachers at the school did nothing to stop the abuse. The suit was filed in 1998 in U.S. District Court by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and San Jose attorney Diane Ritchie and mentions this as well as numerous other incidents of taunting in the classroom in which the teacher present did nothing to end the remarks. Ultimately, Torres, who was active in both dance and drama during her high school years, was so affected by the increasingly hostile nature of these threats that she turned down a scholarship to the California Institute for the Arts out of fear of leaving the safety of her supportive family.

Boxall and Noriyuki go on to state in the article that this case is only one of an ever increasing number of similar lawsuits being filed in the years between 1995 and 1999 against school districts around the country, noting that “…the lawsuit represents the latest frontier in school harassment issues--a legal front that gained ground this week when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school districts can be held liable in similar cases involving extensive sexual harassment of students by one another”. The article notes: “In the past decade a growing number of lawsuits have sought to hold schools accountable for student sexual harassment, arguing that it violates Title IX, the federal law barring sex discrimination in schools and colleges”.

Tamar Levin of the New York Times exposes another lawsuit in the making in the article Openly Gay Student's Lawsuit Over Privacy Will Proceed published on December 2, 2005. At issue in this case is Charlene Nguon, whose right to privacy was violated when the principal of Santiago High School in California disclosed Nguon's sexual orientation to Nguon's mother. An academically excellent honors student, Nguon was targeted by Principal Ben Wolf for the fact that she openly chose to hold hands with her girlfriend on the school grounds.

Although Nguon's parents proved to be supportive of her, Judge James V Selna of the Central District Court of California ruled that the defendant had a sufficient premise from which to assert that her rights to privacy had been violated. Christine Sun, ACLU attorney involved in the case, noted the significance of this ruling from the standpoint that the issue of Charlene's parents as supportive of their daughter id not the case. Coming out is a difficult choice for a person to make, and that choice should never be taken away from the individual involved.

Disclosure of sexual orientation that is outside of the so-called norm can, in the case of many people whose families are not supportive, lead to ramifications including but not limited to physical violence and loss of a home in which the teen can live safely. At issue in the case are allegations by the school administration as well as school board officials that Nguon's openly gay status on school grounds should negate her right to freedom from disclosure. The school board, with its limited understanding of the intricacies of gay and lesbian issues in a largely non accepting society, fails to understand the reasons why an individual would choose to be open about his or her sexuality in one setting but not in another.

The courts, however, in this particular case, seem to be leaning towards at least allowing the argument to be examined more closely before rendering a final decision. While students must be held accountable for behavior that is considered unacceptable with the educational setting, such as certain forms of public displays of affection, the punishment for breaking these rules needs to be applied equally between heterosexual and homosexual students. If the school requires parental notification when these rules are broken, then this notification should occur for all students regardless of sexual orientation.

However, when such notification also creates a potentially dangerous situation for the student that could, due to moral or religious beliefs, be far more severe than what would be expected under the circumstances, the rules become insufficient to deal with the larger situation. The lawsuit seeks to not only reach an agreement with regards to this one issue but to also establish guidelines and district wide policies that pertain to the treatment of gay and lesbian students as a whole.

The actual outcome to the various cases has been inconsistent to this point, but the first victory came in 1996 when a high school in Wisconsin was found liable for their failure to protect student Jamie Nabozny, who suffered severe emotional and physical injury. Represented by members of the Lambda Legal Defense fund, Nabozny sued his school district as well as specific staff and administrators for failing to protect him from verbal and physical assaults perpetuated upon him as a result of his sexual orientation, and the National Association of School Psychologists on their advocacy web portal provides details of his case. Nabozny sued for monetary damages, but also to be awarded his diploma and the opportunity to attend graduation ceremonies. He had previously left the school and completed his GED in an attempt to escape the daily torment that included:

…name calling, striking and spitting on him. On one occasion two boys held Jamie down and performed a mock rape on him while twenty other students looked on and laughed. In an assault in a bathroom, Jamie was knocked down and urinated on by several boys. In the most serious physical assault, Jamie was kicked in the stomach for five to ten minutes by a boy while a group of students looked on in laughter. Jamie later collapsed from internal bleeding.

In his suit, Jamie, now age 20, sought the award of his high school diploma, attendance at the high school graduation ceremony and $50,000 dollars in damages. A district court judge in Wisconsin dismissed the suit. Jamie, represented by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, appealed his case to the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals... the Court of Appeals panel concluded that the Ashland Public School System, the principals of the middle and high schools, and the high school's assistant principal "violated Nabozny's Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection by discriminating against him based on his gender or sexual orientation".

Perhaps the greatest advancement being made by these lawsuits is to force the dialogue out into the open, taking it to the places where it most needs to be heard. Initially, these issues were discussed and negotiated within the gay and lesbian community. Many educators, who are most directly responsible for the changes that need to occur, became aware of the serious nature of these issues only when they began to be openly discussed in educational journals and publications. Until that time, they often turned a blind eye on harassment within the classroom, and many of them maintained similar prejudicial attitudes towards sexual minorities as their students.

In his article Gay Issues and Students' Freedom of Expression--Is there a Lawsuit in Your Future Nathan Essex cites the importance of administrators and their role in acceptance as key to the advancement of diversity issues and also as a means of avoiding an ever-growing list of lawsuits being filed against schools who do not facilitate gender acceptance. He states that: “…school leaders must recognize and respect the freedom of expression rights of students within reasonable limits, but they may restrict student expression that creates material and substantial disruption to the educational process.” One of those freedoms is the right to freedom of expression of sexual orientation.

It is during the teen years that gendered identity begins to assert itself, and to deny that expression is to stifle the individuals right to personal freedom under the law. Essex notes that this presents an issue for school leaders as they struggle to allow for this diversity without creating an atmosphere in which student reactions become detrimental to the learning environment. Essex specifically examines the First Amendment rights granted to students in the public school system as they pertain to gender orientation issues. He mentions recent lawsuits and cautions that administrators who do not adhere to the rights of gay and lesbian students are leaving themselves open to additional lawsuits.

Essex's article opens a crucial dialogue. While personal beliefs and prejudices may make it difficult for some conservative administrators to set aside their own ideals of morality in order to abide by the current letter of the law, they must do so in order to protect the interest not only of their school as an institution but also the emotional and physical safety of those students whom the laws most effect.

In June of 2006, Mark Vicars published the article Who Are You Calling Queer? Sticks and Stones Can Break My Bones but Names Will Always Hurt Me in the British Educational Research Journal. Citing the increase in harassment being reported by gay, lesbian and bisexual identifying students, Vicars utilizes an autobiographical or memoir style approach to the topic wherein he examines the impact of being identified as “queer” in the public school setting. The use of personal accounts brings to the forefront the damage that is actually done to these students, and the ways in which their lives are permanently altered by heteronormative educational practices. He examines the damages that words can cause on self esteem and the ways in which fear can isolate these students from not only their peers but also, and perhaps more importantly, from access to the education that the school is charged to provide to all individuals.

Philip A Rutter, Assistant Professor, School of Education, University of Colorado at Denver employs a similar technique in his article Sexual Minority Youth Perspectives on the School Environment and Suicide Risk Interventions: A Qualitative Study . Rutter explores the experiences of five gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents in an effort to place the dialogue into the context of their own personal perspective, as the often-maligned minority, as to their schools' acceptance of their sexual orientation. In particular, Rutter examines the schools' approach to suicide risk intervention, a danger among teenagers who experience feelings of isolation from the accepted norm.

Themes that emerged from a variety of interviews with these students included and almost unanimous feeling on the parts of the participants that they were judged by school counselors and teachers, the very individuals who should be there to listen to students feelings with unbiased ears. These students also acknowledged feeling unsafe at school. They were concerned about the lack of response on the part of school staff with regards to the possibility of increased suicide risk among the gay and lesbian population, and they felt that little was being done with regards to interventions. Rutter closes his article with an examination of the implications of increased suicide and other forms of isolation of non-heterosexual students as it pertains not to the students themselves but to the school counselors, teachers and administrators.

Rutter's article, itself, contains a vast amount of information and gives the reader the opportunity to experience discrimination within the school system from the point of view of individual students, a unique perspective that allows educators who, for the most part, have little frame of reference with which to relate to the homosexual experience. More importantly, however, is the inclusion of this article in a journal devoted wholly to the expression if this dialogue.

The Journal of Gay and Lesbian Issues in Education, which initially published this article, began in 1993 in an attempt to provide a monitored scholarly journal dedicated solely to issues faced by educators with regards to GLBT issues faced by teachers in the classroom and also to provide ample support and information to teachers and advocates who choose to address these in front of the administration. Each article in the journal is reviewed by an international editorial board made up of well-known educators, researchers, and figures in the worldwide GLBT community. Additionally, a unique feature of this journal is its youth advisory board, composed of international LGBT youth, ranging in age from 16-24, who add the perspectives of current and recent high school students to the journal.

In an article in an earlier edition of this same journal, Anthony R. D'Augelli PhD, Professor of Human Development at Pennsylvania State University, and Arnold H. Grossman PhD, Professor of Applied Psychology at New York University, argue perhaps the most important core issue of acceptance of gendered diversity at the educational level. They note that developmental and educational researchers have not considered the development of sexual orientation among adolescents and youth. While there has been a vast amount of attention and research devoted to the understanding of sexual development and identity development during adolescence, both topics have largely been looked at as separate entities.

Sexual orientation as a key factor of personal identity has been pushed to the side. D'Augelli and Grossman argue, in this article, some of the inherent difficulties as well as the benefits of conducting specific and targeted research on lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth. At heart in this paper is a growing awareness of the role stigmatization plays on adolescent identity development. They propose ideas that could be used to create the studies needed to determine long-term effects of such stigmatization and illustrate the necessity for completing these studies in a timely fashion in order to get them included into the vast font of pedagogical theory already available.

This research has already been started in some locations. In her Heterosexual Adolescents' and Young Adults' Beliefs and Attitudes about Homosexuality and Gay and Lesbian Peers, published in a 2006 edition of the Journal of Cognitive Development, Stacey Horn examines the emotional climate for gay and lesbian students in the United States. She suggests that research shows that negative attitudes toward gays and lesbians are commonplace, especially during adolescence.

She notes, however, that very little research has been undertaken in response to the actual development of gendered identity and the effects that negative attitudes have on young people during the critical formative ages. She cites a recent study in which 10th and 12thgrade adolescents as well as college-aged young adults were invited to complete a questionnaire that asked about both their beliefs and attitudes about homosexuality and their comfort with gay and lesbian students, as well as their feelings about the treatment of gay or lesbian students in their own school environments.

The result of this survey showed that teens aged 14-16 are far more likely to express open hostility and prejudice towards their LGBT peers, specifically with regards to inclusion in social activities. There were not, however, differences found between the age groups with regards to actual beliefs and feelings towards homosexuality as a whole. As a result, Horn argues for the need to create studies that not only examine the issue but also account for the differences in the way teens act towards their feelings as they age and mature. What this shows is a trend not to grow more accepting of difference in the course of the educational experience, but instead to express a greater degree of control in the outward display of prejudice. This is an important distinction in that Horn's theory underscores the critical need for additional research into the attitudes of youth and how they display those attitudes in an all-inclusive setting.

An earlier study, Peer Victimization, Social Support, and Psychosocial Adjustment of Sexual Minority Adolescents, written byTrish Williams, Jennifer Connolly, Debra Pepler and Wendy Craig and published in the October 2005 issue of Journal of Youth and Adolescence, explores a recent study that examined a direct link between sexual orientation and adjustment in a community. In this study, a sample of 97 sexual minority high school students were asked to express their experiences of peer victimization and social support within peer and family contexts.

The survey was conducted using groups of students from five high schools, and the results of their responses to the questionnaire provided were compared to the results from a similar selection of heterosexual students. By and large, students who identified as members of a gendered minority group were far more likely to show outward signs of depression than heterosexual youth in the same age range. They also reported a greater incidence of sexual harassment, threats and bully-like behavior directed towards them from their peers. peers. They evidenced a lack of close relationships with family and friends, and more of a sense of isolation from a larger community.

These statistics remained consistent between gay male, lesbian, bisexual, and questioning adolescents. The authors tie this survey to evidence that lack of social support for sexual minorities during adolescence and the risks incurred by such a lack of support which include high-risk behaviors and an increased risk of long-term psychological damage. This research is critical in that it provides a “real world” context for such behavior. Teens who face high degrees of discrimination and victimization during their formative years are far more likely to exhibit anti-social or self-defacing behavior patterns later in life. These experiences can alter the victim's entire framework for future existence within society.

A further examination of the ultimate ramifications of “gay-bashing” on adolescents can be found in Paul Poteat and Dorothy Espelage's Predicting Psychosocial Consequences of Homophobic Victimization in Middle School Students, published in the 2007 edition of the Journal of Early Adolescence. Poteat and Espalage look at the same issues from the perspective of a slightly younger age group. Their research focuses on the extent to which homophobic victimization was directly tied to incidents of psychological and social distress for middle school students. The study, concluded over the course of one full school year, increased anxiety and depression, personal distress, and a lack of feeling of belonging in homosexual men and higher levels of withdrawal in lesbian students.

Victimization on the basis of sexual orientation, argue Poteat and Espalage, has an enormous impact on both psychological and social development, although young males generally present a higher level of observable symptoms. The writers also argue that teachers and administrators must intervene in situations where LGBT students are being targeted in the school setting. The importance of this article lies in the fact that it goes beyond the statistical research to charge educators with a duty to intervene. No longer is gender-orientation based verbal and physical abuse allowed to be ignored. Attitudes and perceptions must shift in order to allow these students an equal opportunity to learn and grow in an environment that does not foster exclusion.

While a growing awareness of the seriousness of the issue is the first step towards solving the issue, we have a long way to go, both as a society and as an educational network, towards truly addressing the needs of the LGBT community. Each of the articles mentioned explore, in some way, aspects of this issue. They examine the often brutal treatment of gender-different students, and they promote awareness of the growing litigation against educators and administrators in response to the situation; however, they do not propose solutions.

This is because the ultimate solution to the issue of discrimination against queer students at the high school level is tied not only to the imposition of rules and regulations within the school system, but also to the expansion of laws in the United States as a whole, as well as the education of the general public who still suffers under many dangerous misconceptions fostered by an historic acceptance of heteronormal culture as the dominant culture. In order to implement change as educators, we need to step beyond the district and school board level and address these issues at the national level as well. Educators must strive to facilitate change at the national level through involvement in hate crimes legislation as these crimes are the basis from which acceptance of violence against the other has its foundation.

Throughout the 1960's, an ever-growing dissatisfaction with inequality led to the beginnings of change. The Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement and the Black Arts Movement promoted awareness of the needs of the African American community. The Feminist Movement and the Womanist Movement, similarly, began to address the concerns of women.

Shortly after midnight on June 28, 1969, at the end of a decade of awareness and activism, the Gay Rights movement received its first major boost in the form of a spontaneous act of unification against unfair treatment of homosexuals by the police, immortalized in history as the Stonewall Rebellion. Since then, strides have been made in other areas to foster inclusion of all groups into the educational system, but the gay rights movement has lagged in its acceptance. Throughout history, human beings have sought to form groups based on similarities such as race, gender, and political or religious ideology.

We have learned to be tolerant of difference, but only to a point. Fear of the other, that which is not the self, that which has difference, has always prevailed. Out of this fear we breed hate ands violence and, ultimately, the need to legislate against such violence. For all people whose gendered identity differs from that of the majority, this fear is a real issue. Until we, as a society, reach a full understanding of gendered difference, that fear will continue to exist and permeate all aspects of life, including education. School districts and education programs at the college level need to take an active role in fostering understanding and acceptance of LGBT issues in the minds of current and future teachers.

Because much of this hate and fear is born out of religious and moral conditioning, change might, at times, have to be forced upon certain individual through the establishment of laws and legislation. Religion and its inherent belief systems as held by specific individuals has been used, or misused, for centuries to defend such violence as the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition, and acts of persecution such as the Apartheid in South Africa and slavery here in the United States, as well as Hitler's Third Reich and the Holocaust and even the Salem Witch Trials. It is the same for prejudice and hatred in the school system.

The need to educate and fight discrimination in the school system is no different for the LGBT community than it was for the black community after Brown v. Board of Education enforced desegregation on the basis of race. Certain individuals will never be coerced into acceptance, but they can be legislated into accountability for their actions or, in many cases, their inaction in certain key situations. School boards, administrators, and teachers cannot be allowed to allow personal beliefs to sway their actions.

If a student is being harassed or threatened in any way, the issue must be addressed immediately. The current trend towards openly discussing these issues in education journals is a key starting point for the dialogue. As educators continue to be made aware of their responsibility to protect teenagers at the formative stage of their gender-orientation identity, attitudes will begin to change and inclusion will be more equitable for all students, regardless of sexual orientation.

One isn't necessarily teaching what the student does not already know. Most often the student is a storehouse of grammatical information and idiomatic expressions waiting to be putting into practice. Often the task is just putting them at ease to be able to verbally express their knowledge in public. They need to communicate orally. The teacher's task should then be helping them put their thoughts in order so that clearer sentences come out and they follow a particular pattern leading to a conversation. Often enough it is the task of the teacher to learn whether the student is comfortable with newly acquired expressions and if not getting them to speak plainly is quite enough. In other words, the teacher doesn't have to complicate the life of the student because of the latest book on idiomatic expressions that has come out on the market.

These thoughts and others are my own when thinking "teaching is useless unless you learn from your students."

 

But what if this year, you're going back to school too? The kids are getting older; they don't need you to baby-sit them 24/7. They're in high school or will be soon and then what are you going to do. Is that teaching credential still calling out to you? Is the MBA you put on hold to have kids whispering in your ear? Why not?

Many moms are going back to school. College schedules are generally flexible and you can often be home before the kids. Or not long after. An inexpensive way to get a degree is to get basics out of the way at community colleges, saving the major course work for the larger state or private universities.

The real key to going back to school while your kids are still in school is to get organized - and to delegate. If you're kids are old enough to dress themselves, they are old enough to help around the house. I know, it won't be easy. But make a chart. Everyone has a job. Even a five-year-old can drop white underwear in one bag and dark t-shirts in another. Older kids can do a load of wash and throw clothes in the dryer. Setting the kitchen table is not rocket science. The trick is to make a weekly or monthly schedule so everyone knows that they're job is every day. A monthly schedule make work better for younger children so they don't have to change jobs so often.

Studying is a whole new skill when you haven't been in school for awhile. But it's not a problem if everyone is studying at the same time. Set a specific time each day for kids to ask questions about their homework. Then set time when everyone else does their own homework independently. If someone pipes up, “I don't have any,” don't throw pillows at their head. Let them read a book. Yes, I said read a book. If your kids like sports figures, get them books about their heroes. They'll be more likely to read something that interests them. While they're studying or reading, you study.

Use weekends for major cooking projects. Cook enough for the week and put dinner portions in freezer-friendly packages to defrost during the week. If you've made enough entrees for the week, someone (it doesn't have to be you) can make a salad, pour drinks and cook microwaved vegetables. Fruit makes a great desert.

No, it is not easy. But when next summer rolls around, wouldn't it be nice if you kids came to your graduation? Let them know with the extra money you'll be making, there might be a decent vacation in it for them and you might actually have some enthusiastic support.