So how do we fix our education system, student must apply themselves for a great education. If they apply, they would not end up making pizza and tossing it up and hit the fan while it’s on motion – not a good idea.

Anyway, did you know South Korea and Finland are way ahead of us? South Korea has long school days and school years with a strong focus on standardized testing.Finland is much more lackadaisical – except in its approach to teachers and teaching. In Finland, teachers are revered; it’s tougher to get into masters programs for teaching than it is to get into higher education for medicine and law.

So instead of sending your child into a military school for bad behavior, send him to South Korea. Probably, their food will taste much better – coughing up fur balls. Fluffy?  Spot?

So what we can do? Tell your child to study hard. If they need help in any subject, they should check out Khan Academy and on his site, he has lots of videos, and it can help your student, and it’s free. It’s like an online tutoring. Parents can save their money for tutors.  Sal Khan is the creator of the Khan Academy, a YouTube-based “classroom” that so far has gotten over 80 million hits – and reports of success using it in real classrooms. Emphasis your child to look at these videos, and it can help your child to succeed. Even I used them. I have a Master degree in Mathematics, and I used it to brush up on my mathematics. Even though I can’t find a teaching job in the university level, in which I am studying to be a librarian for I can help students to find the right resource materials.

There was time when I was a substitute teacher, and I hear this all the time. “I can’t read” this is my pet peeve, and it annoys me and shocks me that students can’t read. Is it a disability? Maybe so, apparently these are middle school students who are very smart, and they told me they can’t read.

You know what I said to them, “Take out your books and found something interesting in the book to read. And write a one-page summary of the story. You have 45 minutes.”

And a shocker, “Either that do you want me to come over to your house and read you a bed time story and use strange character’s voices.”  That would scare them. A couple of cute female students in the class raised their hands for the options for me to read some books to them in bed – I said no.

So, they started to read their assignments – quietly, and I got their papers under 45 minutes. And I was asked to come back for another day. I did for a few times. This was too much for me, and so I stopped being a substitute teacher.

Teachers are like performers as to actor in a movie or in play.  Teacher’s should think of themselves of what they could do to make the student learn and keep them in their seats during the time period of learning. A warm up exercise for the class, or a subject relating joke to the class. A news item of what is going on in the local area in town. If there’s a community theater in town, and they need some audience members, mention it and ask them to give a one or two-page  review as an extra credit. Or anything  that relates to the subject matter, tell your students to write a review and explain what a review is. You can use some of these ideas in the classroom.