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If the purpose of education is to help produce the brightest and best to help us compete in the global marketplace. What's the problem? Tournaments are designed to find the best as schools ought to be also. What are taxpayers being asked to levy up so much?
There is no problem per se, but whether this format is what we want as taxpayers is not so certain.
In the free market, we can pursue whatever it is we want with as much reckless abandon as we so desire. Tennis parents pour in a small fortune at the chance to creating the next Agassi or Sampras, two manufactured tennis stars. Along the way lies the wreckage of many parents' dreams. But aside from comments on parenting choices, we do not think twice about the right for such pursuits.
With education as presently practiced, there is a huge difference. For one, all three levels of government are heavily involved in public schooling. Two, government uses taxes and credits for social engineering wrt schools, i.e. payment for schooling is not done out of general funds. Three, primary schools are linked to junior high schools and universities and graduate programs through a rather complicated web of relationships, programs, and funding. Even our top private universities are given non-profit status. All this amounts to considerable presumption on behalf of the public on the objectives of their public dollars.
So if taxes are to be levied for schooling (something worthy of a larger debate), should they not have the right to accountability according to a collective vision of what schools should offer? The answer of course is yes.
So what vision? Clearly the answer will be multi-layered because the people offering their visions are incredibly diverse and from all income classes. So from all these different peoples a core consensus has to be hammered out as to the purpose of the school. If no core exists then public funding of schools will create a persistent tension among those who feel they are paying for something which does not serve their interests.
How to make the core? Easy, keep schools focused on economic value-added and allow the school to offer a quasi customized education that can fit a multi-layered and diverse group of students.
How not to make the core? Shove propaganda, waste & fluff, political agendas, uniformity, political fiefdoms, and irrelevance...much like we see in our worst school districts.
Finally, what about districts so poor as to have the ability to raise their own funds, but must "borrow" from wealthier areas by way of joint attendance? For the richer, there needs to be some kind of a economic quid pro quo. What about the poor? They need to be freed from laws that perpetuate their financial dependency and undermine the capital and job formation so badly needed. Doubt this? Do yourself a favor and visit some of these areas? They will appear hopeless and in need of charity. They will also appear to be the worst investments one can make. Yet, with removing barriers such a minimum wage laws and taxes, economic life will slowly reemerge.
A final comment: remove any participation of the government and we will have a tournament whether we like it or not. But by keeping such a huge government presence, the tournament will continue to be fixed and perpetuate a favoritism that will continue to leave many embittered.
I can not get over the difficulty my young High School aged relatives face in High School today. They go to good schools but not elite institutions. The level of classes they have to take and the amount of homework is absolutely incredible. Tough high level math, science, foreign languages and tough testing requirements. They are spending hours and hours on homework and expected to get involved in countless sports and activities so they will look great in a college application.
Don't forget the pressure that they have to do well on the SAT or ACT. Hours and hours of prep classes and practice tests. Finally, the social pressures are much higher today in High School.
Things are twice as tough for college bound High School students than I had it 25 years ago. Then why is everyone saying that the schools are so terrible?
What a joke of a thread this is.
High school is a joke. I don't think I ever stayed up past midnight once in HS doing HW and I managed to graduate in the top 10% of my HS class (in 2004) and get a scholarship to an elite university.
High school is a joke. I don't think I ever stayed up past midnight once in HS doing HW and I managed to graduate in the top 10% of my HS class (in 2004) and get a scholarship to an elite university.
Maybe we need a thread about what a joke an education at an "elite university" is.
Tough high level math, science, foreign languages and tough testing requirements. They are spending hours and hours on homework and expected to get involved in countless sports and activities so they will look great in a college application.
Don't forget the pressure that they have to do well on the SAT or ACT. Hours and hours of prep classes and practice tests. Finally, the social pressures are much higher today in High School.
Things are twice as tough for college bound High School students than I had it 25 years ago. Then why is everyone saying that the schools are so terrible?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tnt-User
Quality is more important than quantity in education. Yes for some there's lots of work but if their not learning anything what's the point.
Exactly. Doing hours of homework does nothing for the student. I can tell you I did hours of homework in high school and didn't learn a lick. All my learning was done at an adult institution, a college. Its wonderful to be exposed to so many wanting to teach.
Nothing like wasting time for four years of "life math" and "earth science" with a 10 year old book. Oh I forgot the regurgitation of what a noun,verb, and adjective are.
Exactly. Doing hours of homework does nothing for the student. I can tell you I did hours of homework in high school and didn't learn a lick. All my learning was done at an adult institution, a college. Its wonderful to be exposed to so many wanting to teach.
Nothing like wasting time for four years of "life math" and "earth science" with a 10 year old book. Oh I forgot the regurgitation of what a noun,verb, and adjective are.
Well, I can say that I did do hours of homework a night and learned plenty. That's the only way to learn a foreign language in a non-immersion setting and I learned 2 that way. Not to mention I didn't do the grammar regurgitation past elementary school (thank goodness). I might have had hours of homework a night, but that's how I got 5s on several AP exams and scored the equivalent of top marks in the IB classes I took.
To be fair, I often stayed up past midnight because after 10th grade I took no electives and I also was in marching band which practiced until 7:30 every day after school and off season was the editor of the literary magazine which kept me after school for hours. I probably would have been done early if I hadn't been so active. Still, my average graduating in 2006 was 4-5 hours a night.
I don't know what kind of schools you have heard about, but my high school was pathetically easy. All you had to do was show up and you were passed through. I was stoned everyday and I never studied. It was the easiest thing I have ever done.
So now I'm curious. What is your career now? Did you go to college?
So now I'm curious. What is your career now? Did you go to college?
Yes, I got into a university as an engineering student (I have no idea how I managed that). I did well but was forced to leave at the end of my second year because of a family emergency and I never went back. I worked for several years and then got an associate's degree from a trade school. After attempting to pursue the trade I had the degree in for two years I realized I hated it and became a bartender (I actually make very good money). However, I realize that I cannot do this forever. I am eyeing going back to finish a degree (I am leaning toward economics).
Well, I can say that I did do hours of homework a night and learned plenty. That's the only way to learn a foreign language in a non-immersion setting and I learned 2 that way. Not to mention I didn't do the grammar regurgitation past elementary school (thank goodness). I might have had hours of homework a night, but that's how I got 5s on several AP exams and scored the equivalent of top marks in the IB classes I took.
To be fair, I often stayed up past midnight because after 10th grade I took no electives and I also was in marching band which practiced until 7:30 every day after school and off season was the editor of the literary magazine which kept me after school for hours. I probably would have been done early if I hadn't been so active. Still, my average graduating in 2006 was 4-5 hours a night.
That is good and wish the best for you. You went to a better school.
Pretty sure the only times in high school that I studied late into the night were when it was by chioce (writing a couple of research papers that I was really, really into), or during tech week during play season. Because I did theatre, and our final week before performances meant not getting home until very, very late, so if I had homework, then, it was late night before it started. But under normal circumstances, the workload wasn't a "stay up all hours" kind of workload at the high school level. I often did stay up into the wee hours reading (and still do), but that was for recreation, not for assignments.
In college, I had more than enough classwork to keep me up all hours.
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