THE STRESS KITCHEN
Why kids hate school and what WE can do to change it
by
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Welcome to the STRESS KITCHEN………………………….
THE STRESS KITCHEN is just a metaphor for education, a process we have all been through. Some of us have eaten the prime rib, and some of us have washed the dishes…I offer this writing as an explosive wakeup call to everyone involved in education. You cannot expect a person to win a race when they are not fed properly, not given nurturing and direction, when they are unfairly challenged, and stripped of their confidence and self-esteem. Nevertheless, every day we ask all KIDS to perform in exceptional ways in subject areas that are taught in a rigorous fashion. Yet 75% of them cannot relate to, understand, or buy into these subjects in any way. Shame on us.
There are 48,000,000 students enrolled in Elementary and High Schools in 2004. That means about 36,000,000 of them are not having their needs met. This is an extraordinary statistic. I am certain there are many people who feel as I do and feel a variety of pressures to keep quiet, and sit on their tongues. I hope the writing of this book will act as a catalyst to ignite change, through them. We are the silent majority. Unfortunately, the loud and antiquated engines have been getting too much of the oil.
Let me make it very clear that I and only I, am responsible for the content and opinions in this book. There are times I offer percentages to try to clarify an opinion. Those percentages are my statistics based on my experience. If you do not agree with them, that is fine. If you agree, that is also fine. Nevertheless, I have at least tried to place a numerical value on an issue that I think is important and it is only after great thought and experience that I arrive at these numbers.
I had someone read a preview of the book and they wanted me to say (some) teachers, instead of teachers, when I referred to teachers, in what they thought was a negative tone. I told them that the word some, sounds like a few, and that I did not think it was a few, I thought it was, many. My point here is I want you to make the decision for yourself. If I say for example that I think 40% of educators are effective, you decide if you agree or not. If I ask ten different people to express feelings about their high school experience, I will get ten different responses.
Another person said, “Who do you think will buy this book?” “Do you really think these middle groups of people you are targeting are going to be smart enough to go to Amazon.com or Borders.com and type in the word education, and honestly find your book?” Do you see what I am working with everyday? By the way, this person happened to be a teacher. They also told me, parents are incapable of making decisions concerning the courses their KIDS are taking because they do not see the “BIG” picture.
When we look back at the horror and tragedy of Columbine, we must see two “KIDS” who were at risk, crying for help and tragically ignored. There are millions of KIDS crying for help and being ignored. There are things we can do to help! As
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About the Book
I began teaching 35 years ago, but this is not a book about how wonderful schools are. Nor is it a book complementing education about a job well done. KIDS never seem to rise to the level of expectations of the caretakers of our schools. Unless they’re the students who completely comply and excel, it seems some little part of their make up, too often repulses the people who are supposed to have compassion and understanding for their weaknesses and psychological frailties. Education has a knack for suffocating creativity, establishing unrealistically high expectations, repressing exciting, expressive adolescent personalities, and perpetuating a system that is dull and disconnected from the potentials of technology. Instead of paving the way for student success, it creates unnecessary and complicated roadblocks that constantly keep students and parents off balance and confused. Teachers and administrators led by the “Theory Heads” in state and federal government positions have established success in college as the gold standard. Everyone is judged as a person according to whether they meet that narrow standard of success. There within the problem lies. The common thread that runs deep throughout this system is the fact that most of the people making the rules are well-educated, were great students, wouldn’t recognize a disability or a “child at risk” if they slapped them in the face and yet they are the people who pave the runways by which we all fly. They equate high GPA’s with effective teaching and effective learners. They want to perpetuate the system in their own likeness and they have. Students in the top 25% of their class will always succeed. However, a group I call the “Muddled Middle” gets the leftovers, and little respect. It is those misunderstood, lost and timid souls, along with their families for which I write this book.
About the Author
Pat Patrick is a math teacher who has been teaching since two weeks after
He is the father of two and been married to the same women, a fifth grade teacher, for over thirty years. He spent all of 1971 in
He never met his biological father and was deeply moved when at the age of 45 he returned to his roots in
The Stress Kitchen is just a metaphor for our Public Educational System and Patrick is tired of seeing KIDS, especially the group he calls the “Muddled Middle”, being beaten up by the system. He has found a media/technology-based solution to many of the problems that plague education. He believes technology has stripped us of all the excuses of the past and that things are about to change.