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YMMV but my experience is parents like what their children do well at. When their children don't do well, it's the system's fault. Not theirs or their child's.
We have the testing we have because parents wanted proof that schools were delivering. Problem is, the tests stink.
I guess I am unusual because I even though my kid got straight A's I thought much of what he was learning the public school was a waste of time. That's why we took him out.
My criticisms of the way we 'educate' children are best summed up by the writings of John Taylor Gatto.
Why are technical schools being cut if we're losing jobs overseas and worried about offshoring? We should be strengthening them.
Why is technical school funding being cut if unemployment is going up?
It doesn't make much sense if you start connecting the dots.
-Why don't they look at what would simply keep potential highschool dropouts interested in school? They would give you answers different than just what they are being tested on.
The student in the Ny times article just wanted to do practical stuff. He can make a good wage in his area doing machining jobs. I think the elite are more interested in political correctness and indoctrination than giving kids a decent wage.
"The only real alternative to public schools for career training is profit-making colleges and trade schools, many of which have been harshly criticized for sending students deeply into debt without improving their job prospects."
Even the mainstream media admits this.
"Others question whether the skills shortage is simply a matter of employers not paying enough for qualified workers. In fact, the skills that employers most frequently say are in shortest supply are critical thinking, the ability to work in teams and communication, not specialized training."
I think the last thing the elite want are critical thinking 16-18 years olds. Maybe they'd start questioning, why is technical school funding being cut if unemployment is going up, and we're losing jobs overseas, call centers in India, etc.
Why are technical schools being cut if we're losing jobs overseas and worried about offshoring? We should be strengthening them.
Why is technical school funding being cut if unemployment is going up?
It doesn't make much sense if you start connecting the dots.
-Why don't they look at what would simply keep potential highschool dropouts interested in school? They would give you answers different than just what they are being tested on.
The student in the Ny times article just wanted to do practical stuff. He can make a good wage in his area doing machining jobs. I think the elite are more interested in political correctness and indoctrination than giving kids a decent wage.
"The only real alternative to public schools for career training is profit-making colleges and trade schools, many of which have been harshly criticized for sending students deeply into debt without improving their job prospects."
Even the mainstream media admits this.
"Others question whether the skills shortage is simply a matter of employers not paying enough for qualified workers. In fact, the skills that employers most frequently say are in shortest supply are critical thinking, the ability to work in teams and communication, not specialized training."
I think the last thing the elite want are critical thinking 16-18 years olds. Maybe they'd start questioning, why is technical school funding being cut if unemployment is going up, and we're losing jobs overseas, call centers in India, etc.
Why are tech schools being cut when we have unemployment? Because we don't need more trades workers. The only way tech schools impact unemployment is if we're training people to fill jobs where there is a shortage of workers. Is there a shortage of trades workers? I can't think of any there are shortages of right now. So many occupations are moving over seas or being automated.
The next ten or so years will be interesting to say the least. On top of everything else, education is poised to go on line. So we'll add teachers to the ranks of the unemployed. They can join the line wokers and engineers already there. About the only occupation I see as, remotely, safe is medical and that's temporary. As the baby boomers age, there will be more need for medical professionals but when they baby boomers start to die, that will quickly turn to a glut.
I guess I am unusual because I even though my kid got straight A's I thought much of what he was learning the public school was a waste of time. That's why we took him out.
My criticisms of the way we 'educate' children are best summed up by the writings of John Taylor Gatto.
I want my kids to learn lots of things. I don't care if some look like a waste of time. What they learn is not nearly as important as how they learn. The process is what expands he mind. Most of my students will never use the chemistry I teach them but they will use the brain they grew as a result of learning it.
I want my kids to learn lots of things. I don't care if some look like a waste of time. What they learn is not nearly as important as how they learn. The process is what expands he mind. Most of my students will never use the chemistry I teach them but they will use the brain they grew as a result of learning it.
Oh, gosh. You stated this idea so many times. Quit repeating it, Ivoryticker. The educated people know it already. Uneducated people will never understand it. They will keep repeating: why do I have to learn Math? why do I have to learn chemistry? why do I have to learn physics?.. and on and on and on. Jeasus, I am sick of it. It is less pathetic when a child, who is just lazy says so. But it is much worse when adults deliver that kind of idea to their children, without even trying to give them a chance, a chance for their brain to ever develop... in order to realize, that this is how your brain develops and that is why you study.
Oh, gosh. You stated this idea so many times. Quit repeating it, Ivoryticker. The educated people know it already. Uneducated people will never understand it. They will keep repeating: why do I have to learn Math? why do I have to learn chemistry? why do I have to learn physics?.. and on and on and on. Jeasus, I am sick of it. It is less pathetic when a child, who is just lazy says so. But it is much worse when adults deliver that kind of idea to their children, without even trying to give them a chance, a chance for their brain to ever develop... in order to realize, that this is how your brain develops and that is why you study.
Any good teacher knows you may have to teach something several times before some get it but you're right. Some never will.
I still think this goes back to how we are wired and we have to learn to look at education differently. I think we're wired to see the short range value in a skill and then to seek to learn the skill. Way back when we lived in caves, a boy saw dad use a spear to kill an animal and his belly got full. Lesson learned: Skill with a spear is a good thing. So he learned to use a spear. Today, it's a convoluted path to what we'll actually use of what we are being taught and the #1 thing is being able to think. Some people just never will see the value in that. And they walk among us, breed and vote....
The goals of education are now long range not short range. We may not see the value for many years and that is hard for some people to deal with. They want the uncle Ben's instant version of education. Just give me the download of EXACTLY what I need and no more so they can go play.... Sadly, it's when you look back on your education that you, truely, appreciate it and that perspective isn't something you can teach to a novice. You can just tell them but if they don't get it, they don't get it.
I want my kids to learn lots of things. I don't care if some look like a waste of time. What they learn is not nearly as important as how they learn. The process is what expands he mind. Most of my students will never use the chemistry I teach them but they will use the brain they grew as a result of learning it.
I want my kids to learn to think critically, figure out how to find the answers for themselves, write clearly and succinctly, calculate, and comprehend what they read. I also would like them to appreciate what history has to teach us and to learn logical reasoning. He wasn't getting that in public school. Period.
I hold a JD with honors and my husband holds an MS in Electrical Engineering. Clearly we value education, but it was clear our son was wasting time in a public school system that bases its educational objectives on what some arbitrary committee decides is important to learn.
As I wrote in an earlier post, my criticisms of public education closely reflect those of John Taylor Gatto. He was an educator in the NY public school system for 30 years and his observations about the way we are educating kids are spot on.
He writes, "I've come to beleive that genius is an exceedingly common human quality, probably natural to most of us...I began to wonder, reluctantly, whether it was possible that being in school itself was what was dumbing them down. Was it possible I had been hired not to enlarge children's power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy on the face of it, but I slowly began to realize that he bells, and the confinement, the crazy sequences the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think and act to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior."
[SIZE=5] [/SIZE]
Public compulsory education started in this country to create a docile workforce. the people in power needed a bunch of obedient yes men. We still use the same model. It's deeply flawed and it will be our downfall.
I want my kids to learn to think critically, figure out how to find the answers for themselves, write clearly and succinctly, calculate, and comprehend what they read. I also would like them to appreciate what history has to teach us and to learn logical reasoning. He wasn't getting that in public school. Period.
I hold a JD with honors and my husband holds an MS in Electrical Engineering. Clearly we value education, but it was clear our son was wasting time in a public school system that bases its educational objectives on what some arbitrary committee decides is important to learn.
As I wrote in an earlier post, my criticisms of public education closely reflect those of John Taylor Gatto. He was an educator in the NY public school system for 30 years and his observations about the way we are educating kids are spot on.
He writes, "I've come to beleive that genius is an exceedingly common human quality, probably natural to most of us...I began to wonder, reluctantly, whether it was possible that being in school itself was what was dumbing them down. Was it possible I had been hired not to enlarge children's power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy on the face of it, but I slowly began to realize that he bells, and the confinement, the crazy sequences the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think and act to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior."
[SIZE=5] [/SIZE]
Public compulsory education started in this country to create a docile workforce. the people in power needed a bunch of obedient yes men. We still use the same model. It's deeply flawed and it will be our downfall.
I can definitely see your point. Look at the present days textbooks. they are HUGE. They have pictures and fun stories and lots and lots of extras in order to make math look like fun. THIS IS NOT what makes math fun.
I saw math being taught like a cookie recipe. Many many different cookies. This was not very developing. This felt booring. The worst thing was that you did not have to understand the concept in order to get an A. And those people who did try to understand it were in disadvantage since they were penalized for lack of accuaracy and were given zero credit for their own thinking.
One would say : it all depends on a teacher. I totally agree. but I assure you, that in a public school it is much much easier to teach math like a cook book. It takes a lot of work and motivation from the teacher to try to give a more profound knowlege. In a system where teachers are not given much respect, freedom, support from the administration, teachers would be hardly motivated to do much more then to reduce teaching sciences subjects as cook books. It is easy.
So many occupations are moving over seas or being automated.
So maybe we should think of policies that would bring these occupations back?...
So many occupations in America today are so useless it is downright pathetic. Much of the American economy is a huge fraud. We're not producing much of anything, just packaging and re-packaging ultimately useless and often harmful ideas.
I want my kids to learn to think critically, figure out how to find the answers for themselves, write clearly and succinctly, calculate, and comprehend what they read. I also would like them to appreciate what history has to teach us and to learn logical reasoning. He wasn't getting that in public school. Period.
I hold a JD with honors and my husband holds an MS in Electrical Engineering. Clearly we value education, but it was clear our son was wasting time in a public school system that bases its educational objectives on what some arbitrary committee decides is important to learn.
As I wrote in an earlier post, my criticisms of public education closely reflect those of John Taylor Gatto. He was an educator in the NY public school system for 30 years and his observations about the way we are educating kids are spot on.
He writes, "I've come to beleive that genius is an exceedingly common human quality, probably natural to most of us...I began to wonder, reluctantly, whether it was possible that being in school itself was what was dumbing them down. Was it possible I had been hired not to enlarge children's power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy on the face of it, but I slowly began to realize that he bells, and the confinement, the crazy sequences the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think and act to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior."
[SIZE=5] [/SIZE]
Public compulsory education started in this country to create a docile workforce. the people in power needed a bunch of obedient yes men. We still use the same model. It's deeply flawed and it will be our downfall.
I would suggest home schooling. Seriously, if you don't like what the committee has decided is important to learn, pick what you think your child should learn yourself.
Personally, I'm leaving it up to the committee. I figure a collective body is likely to know things I don't. I, as a parent, will enrich where I think things are missing.
And I don't think the point of education is obedient yes men. I think it's to learn to think. I just think that you need to learn a lot of things to make sure your brain learns to think it's best. I'm certain I didn't learn enough but there is only so much the system can do. The rest is up to me.
Do you know why Thomas Edison was a great inventor? In part because he worked at a pattent office and saw lots and lots of ideas. Being exposed to ideas like that can lead to your own ideas. That's kind of the point in learning lots of things. After a while, you know so many things that you start putting them together in different ways.
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The only way tech schools impact unemployment is if we're training people to fill jobs where there is a shortage of workers. Is there a shortage of trades workers? I can't think of any there are shortages of right now. So many occupations are moving over seas or being automated. 
And they walk among us, breed and vote....
