The name of the book she is teaching is Life Stratigies for Teens by Jay McGraw. This is Dr. Phil's son who at the time he wrote this was in college and didn't have a degree yet. He has taken his Dad's book and made it for teens to understand. I read this book. There were some good things about it, some mixed messages I didn't like and lots of sterotyping which I also didn't like. This is not something that should be taught in a classroom. Mainly I don't like someone unqualifed counseling my child, like a LA teacher who thinks she has all the answers. She is giving these kids her own opinons on life, this should never be part of the classroom. This is parenting not LA. The principal approved this for the classroom. I called the county and they had never heard of this being taught in the classroom, it was not part of the county curriculum. But I was told as long as the principal approved it than it was okay by them. So it didn't matter to them that this is being done.
To think we read the classics to study Language Arts. Guess this is part of the "modern" educational system. This sounds more like a Health Class, but then again I consider the Bible a perfect book to study at any grade level.
And I think it shouldn't be forced on anyone until they are at least 18 years of age and can apply the thought process to it. If you are in a private school knock yourself out, but I like our forefathers think it has no place in a public school.
I would not expect the Bible to be used in public schools anymore. That is one reason why Charter Schools, Private, and Home Schools should be utilized more than they are. It used to as a textbook in public schools but those times have passed.
journaling the kids personal lives It's been about 5 weeks since the teacher started this self help book in the classroom. They are about half way through it so far (according to another child in the classroom). Another child in the class told mine that they are required to keep a journal of their personal life and they have questions they are required to answer about it. Some kids are asking mine how she got out of doing this book. They don't like having to write about their personal life or answer questions about it. I don't blame them! This should not be in the classroom at all. I am worried that it will take another 5 weeks to get through this book. Then they will have to do a project on it too. I have no idea what that will be though. So much time has been devoted to this already, time that could have been used to teach real LA lessons.
How is writing a journal not a real Language Arts lesson? When I was in high school 30 some odd years ago, when "Language Arts" was called by the less politically correct name of "English", we had to keep a daily journal and it was graded as a class year project.
My daughter graduated from Clayton High two years ago and she read those books. Most were on the assigned reading list but a lot are stupidly banned.
