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I understand that America's k-12 system is flawed. What is the solution? Charter Schools? are Charter Schools just a way for some to get rich through subsidies?
How will America's youth compete with China and other countries?
Will Charter Schools fix America's education system?
No.
But it will be harder and harder to separate the incidental things associated to their existence...
from being the same basic elements needed to repair public schools as a whole.
Things like:
Cash, parental involvement, cash, motivated teachers, cash, involved community members, cash,
functional buildings, cash, well outfitted classrooms, cash, higher expectations, cash,
Note a theme here?
Quote:
I understand that America's k-12 system is flawed. What is the solution?
Like unemployment being far less about not having enough jobs...
and far more about having too many people for the jobs that actually need doing...
The schools have Too Many Kids in total to serve well and too many "special" programs adding to that burden.
So... less to do in total for fewer and fewer kids so that what money we're willing to spend has a higher per pupil ratio.
The problem of course is that (generally) the people willing to self regulate the raw number of their progeny...
are also (generally) the people most suited to do the parenting job best.
Last edited by MrRational; 05-15-2011 at 06:57 AM..
They aren't the answer but this is an experiment that will be conducted. I predict we'll also try on line learning en masse at the high school level. I see the face of education changing, drastically but I don't see a solution in sight. The biggest difference between our kids and kids in countries that better educate their kids is the attitude of our students. Here, education is something forced upon you, it's about grades not learning. There, education is a privilidge and there is a sense of honor associated with doing well. Until we change our attitude about education, little will change. Unfortunately, we will be well on our way to being a follower nation rather than a leader nation long before we address that issue.
We really need to stop experimenting with education. There are plenty of other countries we can emulate if we want to do it right. Our own arrogance will be our downfall.
As long as the public and legislatures believe that it is the job of the teacher to MAKE KIDS LEARN, and that the kids do not have any responsiblity in this, then we will have "failing schools".
As long as the public continues to have the media keep harping on bad teachers as if they are all over the place, when in my career of 40 years I only met one, we will be putting the blame in places where it doesn't belong.
As long as public schools(not charter schools mind you), are being required to make impossible targets for success based on biased tests given in one week period in the spring, and then are chastised for being poor schools, things won't be fixed.
As long as schools have become the mode with which we have to fix every ill in society, it will be difficult for schools to actually do the job that they were designed to do.
As long as the public is kept in the dark with the fact the public schools programs and actions are controlled at about 85% level by massive unfunded madates in Special Education and No Child Left Behind, BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, and that private schools and charter schools have none of these mandates, public schools will be contually seen as failing when in reality they are doing an outstanding job with the circumstances provided to them.
What needs to be fixed is not teachers and schools, what needs to be fixed is totally wrong perceptions of how education operates and how education is handled by John Q Public and our legislators at the local and federal levels.
The BOTTOM LINE is that American public schools are laboring under a massive problem caused by unfunded mandates from the federal government, parents who unlike years ago will do nothing to encourage their children, and children who are too consumed by TV and video games and other stuff to care to work in school.
Given what we all know we have to work with, and work through, educators know that they are not failing,
I understand that America's k-12 system is flawed. What is the solution? Charter Schools? are Charter Schools just a way for some to get rich through subsidies?
Yes
Quote:
How will America's youth compete with China and other countries?
They won't. Our educational system is the main driving force behind the devolution of America. This generation likes to regurgitate the phrase "think outside the box" but never in my 63 years have I seen such closed mindedness with many (50%?) of today's college students behaving like a herd of stupid, stupid animals.
America has evolved to worship stupidity even going so far as to subsidize the stupid. Billions being spent on stupid animals that should be digging a ditch when we would be much better off investing that money in minds that can make a difference in the countries future.
"No child left behind", what a treasonous pile of crap that one is. Thanks Ted Kennedy and that idiot George who signed it!
As long as the public continues to have the media keep harping on bad teachers as if they are all over the place, when in my career of 40 years I only met one, we will be putting the blame in places where it doesn't belong.
C'mon.
Huge bias alert.
There's plenty of apathetic rotten-to-the-core teachers. Maybe they started out good and perhaps they are not the main issue. But please don't post these untruths.
This brings me to my point. I feel like grades 6-12 should be like college (basically the class grade starting where a child is able to sit still in a chair). If you have a crummy college professor, you dont blame your lack of understanding of the material on the professor. Its your responsibility to pick up that book, visit that museum, visit that website, practice those equations. Its up to you.
We need to put the responsibility on the children and see if they take the challenge.
High speed internet access runs 24 hrs a day. There are no excuses.
We need to put the responsibility on the children and see if they take the challenge.
But won't Johnny feel stressed, suffer a lost of self esteem and not feel so special anymore?
Instead of stigmatizing Johnny why not declare him a victim of ADHD filling him full of drugs to the point where he will behave in the classroom? When Johnny is over in the corner with drool hanging from the corner of his mouth we'll play the Mr. Rogers song "you are special, we are all special...."!
There's plenty of apathetic rotten-to-the-core teachers. Maybe they started out good and perhaps they are not the main issue. But please don't post these untruths.
This brings me to my point. I feel like grades 6-12 should be like college (basically the class grade starting where a child is able to sit still in a chair). If you have a crummy college professor, you dont blame your lack of understanding of the material on the professor. Its your responsibility to pick up that book, visit that museum, visit that website, practice those equations. Its up to you.
We need to put the responsibility on the children and see if they take the challenge.
High speed internet access runs 24 hrs a day. There are no excuses.
Oh yes there is. I had a student tell me, just the other day, that he should not have to take the quiz I had posted we'd have on my web page because his internet isn't working and it's not fair because he would have studied if he'd known there was a quiz.
I do agree. As a student, you have to take the initiative. If the teacher isn't giving you what you need, YOU need to figure out what you need. Not sit there like a bump on a log because what is being handed to you in the classroom doesn't fit you personally. Teachers run the gammut from fantastic to not so great and even when you get a fantastic one, their teaching style may not fit you. I have a need to understand before I can do. This slows down my learning curve but I know I have this issue and *I* deal with it. I don't expect my professors to cater to me in class. I will go see them during office hours to discuss things I don't understand but I come prepared. To quote my high school trig teacher I'm a "why person in a what world". I have to take the time to understand before I can do. Others can just follow instructions. I can't. Until I understand it, I won't even remember it. This is MY issue to deal with. Though I have found that my profs have always welcomed my questions. I think they find it refreshing that someone actually wants to understand the material.
There's plenty of apathetic rotten-to-the-core teachers. Maybe they started out good and perhaps they are not the main issue. But please don't post these untruths.
This brings me to my point. I feel like grades 6-12 should be like college (basically the class grade starting where a child is able to sit still in a chair). If you have a crummy college professor, you dont blame your lack of understanding of the material on the professor. Its your responsibility to pick up that book, visit that museum, visit that website, practice those equations. Its up to you.
We need to put the responsibility on the children and see if they take the challenge.
High speed internet access runs 24 hrs a day. There are no excuses.
6th grade is a little early for that; so is 9th actually. Maybe by 11th grade.
Charter schools were the "great white hope" out here in CO for a while. Some failed. The ones that failed tended to be schools that were run by groups of parents who thought they could run a school better than school administrators; that hired totally unqualified teachers, etc. The ones that have been most successful prefer to have licensed teachers.
Another problem with charter schools is that they tend to fill with lots of "problem students" whose parents think they'll do better in some other situation.
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I had a student tell me, just the other day, that he should not have to take the quiz I had posted we'd have on my web page because his internet isn't working and it's not fair because he would have studied if he'd known there was a quiz. 
