take out the government, parents need to parent not society. Teachers need to be weeded out, some of them just suck. School needs to be about learning not a giant social petri dish as well. thats all i got so far.......
if you take out the government so many children would never get an education, most parents are stupid as fuck, and school needs to be a social environment, where else are kids going to learn how to be social? get rid of standardized testing, get rid of "curriculums," raise teachers pay, put more effort into teaching children the arts, eliminate biased history books, but most importantly teach children how to think not what to think.
Ask the students what they want to do and allow them to go to whatever classes they want make it more for the students let it be run by the student for it's made for them but in reality school should just be destroyed it's not doing much anything anyone truly care's for they'll pursue it their own with the need of a "teacher"
Giving better incentives and raising pay would help A LOT! A lot of teachers would strive to be better. We need to teach foreign language K-12, it should be a required class like English. Other countries kids at the elementary age can speak anywhere from two to four languages, some even more. I hate that I can only speak one language, I wish I would have been taught at least Spanish, fluently enough. It would also add a lot more culture and appreciation for other cultures. Any we need to focus 100% more on math and the sciences, these are extremely critical and we are lacking behind a lot of other countries.
1) Hold kids accountable for their performance. If you don't do your work, you don't get credit. If you don't know the material, you don't pass. Kids should be held back in 4th grade if they can't read--which by the way they arent--instead of being passed along to the next class when they haven't mastered the level before. The reason being held back has suck horrib;e debilitating stigma attatched to it is because it is so uncommon: most kids who don't understand are just handwaved along, only kids who are REALLY struggling AND have discipline problems and don't get along with their peers get held back, if anyone does at all. I went to a very intense school for 6th-12th grade, and there, when if you didn't pass the comprehensive exams each year, or you failed a class, you had to repeat the grade. Most people passed, but it wasn't uncommon for a kid to fail, and you know what? The ones who did weren't treated badly for it. They didn't get bullied or laughed at, because everyone knew the work was HARD. There were some smart kids who looked down on them, but most of the class knew "That could have been me." and didn't treat those kids any different. But if you can't fail, no matter how badly you do (which is the case in many schools in the US) why bother to do any work? It's not like a job where you have to get paid. If your parents care about your grades and punish or reward you for them, you'll try. But for many kids, there's no reason to care. Its a choice between "do a boring assignment that either teaches nothing or something useless" or "go do something fun". They know they'll still pass even if they don't study or do any work, so they don't study or do any work. 2) hold teachers accountable when they suck. And hire good teachers. Hire teachers knowlegable in their subject. Teacher education in the US is often a sad compromise between knowing one's subject and knowing how to teach. Many teachers don't master either, which is a shame. Good teachers--the kind who get kids excited and change their lives for the better should be identified and given raises if possible, or at least recognized for their efforts. Bad teachers should be recognized after the first year or two and given pink slips. Teachers are a school's most important rescourse. 3) parents need to teach their kids that their education is important, and parent effectively. But the education system can't make parents do anything, so I don't really see what can be done about this.
[quote name='"SmokeyH"']I would throw textbooks at people and yell read this its bullshit[/quote] Lol ^ This ^
this will work better for older students, once the kids have the basics down enough. But I think the basics have to come first. I mean, if I had been given the choice, I'd have never taken a math class ever. But I had to. Every yer, I was given one choice, and that track took me to calculus. Once I got there, I loved it. But I'd never have had the tools to understand calculus if nobody made me take algebra and trigonometry and all the preceding shit. But I see what you mean. More options is better, and if kids can take charge of what they study, they'll have a vested interest in it, and they'll care more about learning in those classes. And the more they care about learning, the more they'll learn.
im so pissed i never got to take astronomy... instead i was in biology senior year, what kind of bullshit is that? fucking hated that class and never did shit in it.
A higher ratio of of teachers to students would be immensely helpful. A lot of the kids who can just coast through, will get called out on that. And yeah, go back to the days where tests involved you talking to the tester about the topic in question. You don't really learn much when all you do is memorize shit.
1) Putting more funding into the education system is a huge step, and it being used properly too. More money being put in the proper place can make a world of a difference. 2) more physical activity, and not in the regular gym class sense. Gym should be about eating and living healthy, and teaching kids how to do proper exercise along with sports. Not just focusing on sports themselves. If you want a sports style gym class, have one that is separate. I remember for grade 10 gym class once we had to fucking spend 2 months on Aussie Rules Football.....FUCK THAT SHIT. I dont want to sit in class and hear my gym teacher talk about the rules. I want to run, get healthy that sort of stuff. 3) Have skills classes, not like shop or anything, but life skills classes. How to handle money, interact with society and others. How to function in life. Work ethic, time management etc.... 4) Mandatory daily reading period and daily exercise period. Both prove to be so helpful in cognitive development. 5) I do not agree with the dont understand or cant read dont pass idea. Just alter that kids curriculum a little so it better suits the kid, so they can still function at their level. my 2 cents, so many more ideas, but thats my highlights
Why would you raise the teachers' pay? Shouldn't people be rewarded for doing a good job, not a bad job? Also if we get rid of standardized testing, how do you propose we separate the kids who don't feel like doing any work from the kids who are willing to work hard?
I think it's fine as it is here in Canada. Sure, there could be some changes that can be made, but overall the system has worked well for everyone. The kids in high school who want to work and have ambition make it into university or college and do well, and the kids who don't drop out. Then you have people that go straight into the workforce, which is also an important factor. If you ignore the problems that are being created by the idiotic federal governments, then you will notice that the people in the workforce are actually hard working and smart individuals. Unemployment isn't caused by the education system, so I don't really see a lot of major issues that need to be fixed. People are going to bring up problems in this thread, but almost all of them will be the result of other social problems, not the actual education system itself.
school should be about learning, not working.... standardized testing only teaches kids how to pass tests...
I think if we fully funded education, not just high school, but college, university, etc...if all that were free, people would take advantage of it. we'd be smarter, more independent, more likely to go out and pursue the things we want to do, to make society better. we'd have more builders, more thinkers. This would literally pay for itself. More inventions, more ideas, more changes in the future, more jobs, better economy, etc. The welfare cuts alone would probably fund 50% of the cost. I think if we started changing the high school system. Fuck these courses you "need" to take. Let's get that shit out of the way by 9th grade. By 9th grade you should have all your general knowledge in the main subjects. Everything after that should be based on what YOU want to learn. Whatever that may be. And if someone is very directed and knows what they want, then they can get a head start on that. And if they just want to learn on a broader spectrum, they can do that too. However, I find it wasteful that we don't just teach kids the basics sooner, so they can get on to more advanced or specialized education. And without having to pay to become a more educated human being, more people will utilize the power of their minds and expanding it.
#3. Probably the most important thing you could possibly gather before college. Any class of parents (high,middle,low) can forget how to teach their kid how to do this. I think England has something similar to it, it's called etiquette. I'm sure it's available in private schools in the US, but it should be available everywhere. My 2 cents: I've had teachers who were overqualified for their job. My sophomore year world history teacher formerly taught at Harvard (probably laid off because she was boring and impossible to understand). At the time I was 15 and I'm not going to lie, I couldn't understand what the fuck she was talking about. No one could. You know why? Her prose was too sophisticated. She didn't do study guides. And she basically treated us like we were college students. If it weren't for the textbook readings, I would have definitely failed her class because I literally couldn't grasp anything from her. So in other words, make sure the teacher is knowledgeable and more importantly capable of getting the point across. How do we do this? I'd say have psychologists do the interviews rather than people just looking for a fancy resume. I'm sure they'd be able to pick out the good communicators.