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I'd like it to be a denominational school with chapel and prayers.
homework most often would be an assignment that doesn't require a book, unless for reference.
"Tonight, take a notebook anywhere outside and note ten things that catch your attention for more than one minute; describe them"
teachers could write down a page of math problems and photocopy it, and send the page home to be worked on. The instructions for working a group of math formulae would be sent home at the top of the block of related lessons.
children would read a book each week in order to write a book review for every Friday, to read out loud in class. Any book they like. If it's long, their reports could be serialized.
Teahers would have read the textbooks before the first day of school, and in the first few days of school would walk the children through
the textbook's table of contents
its design layout
the style in which the book is written, the publisher, etc.
etc...the goal being to demystify the book (and textbooks in general) and its content, and to see the arc of what they're going to learn this year. Might even assign them to rewrite sections of any of their textbooks.
The teacher would read to the kids, even in the 8th grade. Not necessarily only fiction but from some textbooks - the history textbook for instance, and supplement it with other readings and images. Not a formal presentation - a serialized story that's the Story of Us :P I can totally see this in telling the story of empires - Spain's Golden Age, and her decline.
The kids in this school would graduate in love with history and thirsty for more, by the way They'd see it repeated in the present world and be able to parse te politics and economies of nations...arrrgh, stop me.
Geography tests every Friday: label the map type.
Correct English grammar and spelling would be drilled into them. Sentences would be diagrammed daily.
Maybe most importantly, the base curricula would be the same as or an improvement on the currics of advanced prep-feeder schools, here and in Europe. Maybe of some from the past.
There'd be no race to get to a certain point of achievement by the end of a school year. (Not sure how to accomplish this other than the teachers make sure to plan well)
NOTHING would be dumbed down or address children from "a kid's eye view." They *should* have to concentrate to understand a line of thinking.
Those are some of my ideas. Please adjust this one, or create your own dream school!
Last edited by delusianne; 04-01-2008 at 01:15 PM..
Reason: can't stop tinkering
The teacher's salaries would start at $75,000 a year, and the revenue would come from the profits from the local professional sports franchises. Yes, I would make $200,000 a year, and the starting pitcher for the Red Sox/Yankees/Phillies/whatever would make $10/ hour- based on how often they WIN......
I've always dreamed of an education resource center where people of all ages can go to learn things that they want to learn. Sort of like a university campus that is open to the community and you can check out or rent items like musical instruments or microscopes as well as the written materials to accompany them. Or you could get a group of likeminded people together who are into something like philosophy or lit and they could form groups to discuss what they've read. It would be like a fluid classroom for everyone and people wouldn't get the idea that education stops after school is out.
I've always dreamed of an education resource center where people of all ages can go to learn things that they want to learn. Sort of like a university campus that is open to the community and you can check out or rent items like musical instruments or microscopes as well as the written materials to accompany them. Or you could get a group of likeminded people together who are into something like philosophy or lit and they could form groups to discuss what they've read. It would be like a fluid classroom for everyone and people wouldn't get the idea that education stops after school is out.
Wow, as a homeschooler, that sounds like my dream come true! No age segregation, people could follow their interests, and it doesn't start abruptly at 5 and end abruptly at 18... awesome idea!!
In the younger grades, K-5, I would see children taking a core process curriculum with literacy, math, physical education and the arts (music, visual arts), and core content curriculum for science and civics (including history and citizenship). Cooperative and communication skills would be embedded.
In grades 6-8, students would continue to take literacy, math, and p.e. on a regular basis. Students would formally learn technology, metacognition and study skills on a repeating basis. Students would also cycle through a variety of electives including science, civics, arts, finance, languages, and vo-tech subjects.
In grades 9-10, students would continue to take literacy and math regularly, but begin to focus on some sort of disciplinary track, like college prep, vo-tech, health, technology, or arts. They would still take at least one course per semester in a different discipline track. By grades 11-12, students would focus mainly on their chosen track, with some elective opportunities.
Wow, as a homeschooler, that sounds like my dream come true! No age segregation, people could follow their interests, and it doesn't start abruptly at 5 and end abruptly at 18... awesome idea!
Thanks, I'd love to claim credit for it, but John Holt wrote about it in one of his books, and I loved the idea. One thing he said that got me--we taxpayers support our schools and a big chunk goes to universities as well. And yet we are not allowed to use these campuses or equipment or their libraries, unless we are a student of that school. That kind of stinks doesn't it. We homeschooled too. Loved it but the girls are back in school and doing very well.
I'd like it to be a denominational school with chapel and prayers...
There are a few things I thought were ridiculous about my school that I've been able to see as sensible ideas since I left.
Firstly the discipline. Because it was so strict, we used to complain like hell about it, but you do find that when rules are tiny, the ones that get broken are also tiny. I was formally disciplined ("got a report") twice for the following disgraceful misdemeanours:
- I was 3 minutes early for lunch once;
- I left my gym top in the changing rooms after class.
We would also be reprimanded for having our socks rolled down. I swear to this day that our headmistress must think girls between 11 and 15 spend all their days pulling their socks up, because that's all we did in her line of sight.
Once someone was found with marijuana in their desk, and that was BIG news. In fact it might not even have been true, but the rumour spread like wildfire.
So - bizarre and petty rules = small and non-life threatening misdemeanours.
The other thing was the behaviour of teachers. I feel so much for teaching staff these days not being able to go near or discipline the kids in almost any way at all, it must make it so difficult. We had teachers who would frisby your homework back to you, throw board rubbers at you, an art teacher who would spray your hand with spray-mount if you handed your homework in late, but it was all done with humour and the point got across. Our geography teacher's catch phrase was "any more silly questions?" Very non-PC of course, these days there's no such thing as a silly question. The girl I sat next to was so inspired by this woman that she's now a geography teacher herself.
We also had an English teacher who was a complete witch and frightened the life out of everyone, but your spelling and grammar was pretty red hot by the end of it. I would imagine that most of those eccentricities would be very much out of the window now.
We also had prayers in the morning with ...erm.... thingys... what are they called now?.... short sung things. Somewhere between a prayer and a hymn....vespers!! I still have nightmares where I've missed the call into prayers in the morning and I'm hanging around an empty school scared of getting caught and dragged in in front of everyone!
Quote:
Originally Posted by delusianne
The teacher would read to the kids, even in the 8th grade. Not necessarily only fiction but from some textbooks - the history textbook for instance, and supplement it with other readings and images. Not a formal presentation - a serialized story that's the Story of Us :P I can totally see this in telling the story of empires - Spain's Golden Age, and her decline.
I'm puzzled by this as a fantasy idea. What do most schools do? As far as I remember, most of our lessons were a mixture of reading from text books and other sources, questions/ discussion and taking dictation (no this wasn't the 19th century, it was 1985-92!).
Uniform - thank GOD for uniform. Of course clothing snobbery still exists outside of the school day, but I'm so glad I was spared it in school until the 6th form at least.
Re the idealised version - I agree with one of the comments above about financial education. I do wish I'd been taught something about finance instead of some of the less useful subjects (I'm thinking European History - others may suggest Latin. )
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They'd see it repeated in the present world and be able to parse te politics and economies of nations...arrrgh, stop me.
