{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.kaine.senate.gov/tim-in-the-news/a-very-personal-reflect-on-school-from-sen-kaine", "A very personal reflect on school from Sen. Kaine", "2013-11-29", "2013", "2013-11", "Democrat", "House", "VA", "Tim Kaine", "K000384", "www.kaine.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "\u201cOne of our children needed an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for one year -- focused attention during that year solved a speech deficit,\u201d Kaine remembers. \u00a0\r\n\u201cSo, the natural question is, why don't we personalize learning for every student? Shouldn't we strive for an educational model that involves individualized education for all? We don't live in a 'one size fits all' world and our education system should reflect that.\u201d\r\nIt\u2019s not as daunting to teach child-by-child as you might think, either.\r\nKaine himself tried, working at a small vocational school in El Progreso, Honduras in 1980-81. \u201cWhen I arrived, a fine carpenter was teaching the boys \u2026 \u00a0He would give students projects that were too easy or too hard,\u201d Kaine writes. \u00a0Kaine worked up a list of about 60 projects for the kids, arranged fromeasiest to hardest and \u201cWithin a few months, the kids were all working on different projects, but developing at their own pace in a way that was simple for a single teacher to administer.\u201d\r\nKaine also writes that his daughter\u2019s experience in Virignia\u2019s Pre-K program convinced him of the importance of early childhood education \u2013 a view that Virginians from across the political spectrum have come to agree on, from Kaine himself to Republican former Gov. George Allen, who kicked off the state effort, and now the state Chamber of Commerce, as it unveiled its Blueprint Virginia proposals for the state's economic development at a conference in Williamsburg last week.\r\n\u201cMy children have all attended schools subject to high stakes tests pursuant to the\u00a0Virginia Standards of Learning\u00a0that were adopted in the 1990s as a forerunner of the federal No Child Left Behind law,\u201d Kaine continues.\r\n\u201cUnlike some who dismiss the idea of tests out of hand, or shake their fists at federal involvement, I see value in having standards and having periodic assessments \u2026 But there are serious problems,\" he writes.\r\nOne is that tests make a minimum standard the benchmark of success, rather than anything more ambitious.\u00a0 Another is a tendency to test too much too early.\r\nTests, particularly those elementary school ones were \"young kids memorize historical facts and figures or struggle with science concepts\" can be counterproductive, he writes. But \u201cThe only bad year we experienced as parents of public school kids was during a first year in middle school,\u201d Kaine continues, as he recalls his family\u2019s experience.\r\nThose are tough years, most of his friends agreed as they talked about their kids\u2019 experiecnes. \u201cPart of this is just adolescence. But I think part of the middle school blues is an uncertainty about its pedagogical purpose,\u201d Kaine writes.\r\nHe thinks one answer might to be start kids thinking more about what their lives as adults might be like.\r\n\u201cThink about this question--what does the average kid know about the world of work?\u201d he asks.\r\nThere\u2019s more to school than sitting in a class sweating over an algebra problem or diagramming a sentence, though.\r\n\u201cAll three of our children started instrumental music in the 3rd grade and played for at least eight years. One son became impassioned in high school by creative writing, architecture and digital video instructors \u2026 Our other son, currently in the military, benefited from musical education by becoming proficient on the trumpet and absorbing important teamwork skills through playing with school bands,\u201d Kaine writes.\r\nWhen his daughter wanted to to go to an arts magnet high school, \u201cI was reluctant, thinking that a more traditional academic curriculum would be perfect for her,\u201d he remembers. She went, though. (Kaine is a listener, after all.) \u201cShe learned perseverance through endless practices and teacher critiques. She learned flexibility and problem-solving--the stage manager has to adjust on the fly when a prop breaks mid-act or an actor unexpectedly jumps ahead three pages in the script,\u201d he writes.\r\n\u201cThe things that really matter for life success don't all fit neatly into today's public school curriculum. Once again, it's about individualization.\u201d\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.kaine.senate.gov/tim-in-the-news/a-very-personal-reflect-on-school-from-sen-kaine"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7654109504073858, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}