We have Bush & Co. (+ Congress) on one side taking us down the path to economic and societal doom with constant war, Big Brother laws and so on. On the other we have schools screwing our future by not teaching our kids what they need to know to keep us from descending into mediocrity.
50 Years Later, a New ‘Sputnik’ Crisis: The War of Minds
Lacking a clear and present danger, the American education system is not mobilizing to support science, technology, engineering and math. Today’s generation of kids is the most technology savvy group that this country has ever produced. They are born with an iPod in one hand and a cell phone in another. They’re text messaging, e-mailing, instant messaging. They’re on MySpace, YouTube & Google. They’ve got Nintendo Wiis, Game Boys, Play Stations.
Their world is one of total interactivity. They’re in constant communication with each other, but when they go to school, they are told to leave those “toys” at home. They’re not to be used in school. Instead, the system continues teaching as if these kids belong to the last century, by standing in front of a blackboard.
>>With a little due diligence, homeschooling your child will insure
>>them a proper education.
Yeah, and they won’t have to learn any of that nasty Darwinism shit either. After all, isn’t that the primary reason for homeschooling?
#32….Mustard….I cited the figures on who and why kids get home schooled. Even to my surprise, *religion* wasn’t the number 1 reason….the number 1 reason was poor local schools…..followed by religion….I think the numbers were like 33% for poor local schools and 31% for religious reasons.
Fusion isn’t completely off target…..things are better in many areas of education, and by and large most districts do a pretty good job.
The biggest 2 problems, to me, with public education is the money spent on peripheals, instead of core subjects and learning equipment. I have always felt that way to much is spent on sports and sporting venues in public schools. While the physical education is sorely needed, all the fancy stuff isn’t. The second problem is the Teachers Unions. It’s typical goverment…..you can’t sack the bad apples, or the terminally lazy…..and they drag down and take the spirit out of those who go into teaching to actually teach. The Unions will allow no diviation from the norm, it’s a screw the kids, protect the teacher’s mind set. My Aunt is a teacher and from what her students say, a good one. She talks a lot about lack of tech equipment, teaching to the tests and nothing more and the unions zeal in weeding out dissenting voices among the teachers to the *party* line.
She feels that only those able to pick up a subject quickly learn anything, those that need a little more time are left in the dust, because of the emphisis on short classes and no out of classroom research, as well as a refusal of many districts to hold back students that just aren’t ready to move up the ladder.
I was home schooled, but it’s not for everyone. Not every parent is able to provide a comprehensive classroom, it can be time consuming and expensive. I was lucky that my mother had a Masters and one of her undergrad degree’s was secondary education. Plus, I was the 4th and last of her son’s she home schooled, so she had all the bugs worked out by then.
Education is just another of a host of problems with our society and I seriously don’t feel we will ever get them all solved, at least not in my lifetime.
#19
> The first thing you learn in Education is that quality is not quantifiable.
IMO, it this attitude that is the crux of the problem. How do we know whether the current education techniques are working? We have kids graduating from High School that are unable to read. The Teacher’s Unions want everyone to believe this but it is nonsense. We MUST find a way of quantifying quality of else we will continue to spend billions on education that is ineffective.
If there are too many tests right now, then lets trim a few. However, as it stands now, the only way to verify that a child has absorbed the material is through standardized testing. If children are not learning critical thinking, then let’s devise a way of including it in the curriculum and verifying that the children have absorbed it.
the govt is taking a cue from religion – stupid people are easier to control.
thats all it is. dont make a big deal out of it
#37, tallwookie,
I disagree. Just 25 years ago half these kids would have dropped out of school. These are the kids that make up a good percentage of the bottom portion of the test scores. In spite of all those kids, scores are showing improvements. Kids are learning.
Another thing many here forget, as our knowledge grows, so too has the work load on kids. Things kids learned in Grades 1&2 and now being taught in Kindergarten. Things we learned in Grade 9 are now taught in Grade 5 and 6.