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For me, its simply an education system which teaches and challenges students to apply what they have learned and to use their critical thinking skills when solving problems.
For example, a math professor I know structured his exams in such a way where you had to think through the problem to arrive at an answer. His tests weren't simple as looking at the problem, using the correct formula, imputing the proper values, and arriving at an answer. He required you to not only understand and apply concepts but, you had to do a lot of work and think the problems through before arriving at an answer.
Its a bit difficult to describe since I don't have examples for the above. To answer the OPs question, a rigorous education should encompass a more in-depth look into topics such as government, economics, and math and should be more challenging than your current education system of take notes, look at formulas/definition, take a test, and get a grade.
We live in a capitalistic nation. That applies to education. Everyone wants A's and to get into Harvard. It simply can't happen for everyone. Therefore, schools weed out kids through these courses and standardized test scores. They get more difficult each year as students are brighter and have access o better resources so the average SAT scores increase and so do the GPA's. Teachers then have to make exams harder and assign more homework. No one wants to hear any of this but it's the truth.
In my experience, the "best" schools are glorified homework mills. They get the best students by weeding them out through entrance exams. Then they pile on the homework where high school kids are studying like medical students. They go to school full time and then spend an additional 4-6 hours of homework and reading at home. And in my experience, the teachers at these schools are nothing to brag about. They are usually nothing stellar and are often mediocre who simply assign homework but can't teach.
My advice is to truly research schools. There are a small number of schools that have great reputations but are not homework mills. Sure they assign homework but it's more reasonable as in 2-3 hours per night and quality of the teaching is outstanding.
You don't want your child to attend a homework mill.
For me, its simply an education system which teaches and challenges students to apply what they have learned and to use their critical thinking skills when solving problems.
For example, a math professor I know structured his exams in such a way where you had to think through the problem to arrive at an answer. His tests weren't simple as looking at the problem, using the correct formula, imputing the proper values, and arriving at an answer. He required you to not only understand and apply concepts but, you had to do a lot of work and think the problems through before arriving at an answer.
Its a bit difficult to describe since I don't have examples for the above. To answer the OPs question, a rigorous education should encompass a more in-depth look into topics such as government, economics, and math and should be more challenging than your current education system of take notes, look at formulas/definition, take a test, and get a grade.
Yeah, that's neat but the problem with that approach is you have some smart$$ teacher who wants everyone to "think" their way through problems and then they make the tests ridiculously hard and only a few students if any can get a high score. That hurts their college application and doesn't prepare them well for standardized tests. It's an impractical approach. You want to avoid schools and teachers that try to get cute like this. That's why you should research schools.
Yeah, that's neat but the problem with that approach is you have some smart$$ teacher who wants everyone to "think" their way through problems and then they make the tests ridiculously hard and only a few students if any can get a high score. That hurts their college application and doesn't prepare them well for standardized tests. It's an impractical approach. You want to avoid schools and teachers that try to get cute like this. That's why you should research schools.
Fair enough but, the problem with research schools IMO is that, a majority of the professors are purely devoted to their research, graduate students/Ph.Ds, and focusing on their fame (e.g. giving lectures internationally, giving interviews with the media at events throughout the year, etc) and not so focused on teaching undergraduates especially when undergrads are crammed into a 500+ student lecture hall.
Fair enough but, the problem with research schools IMO is that, a majority of the professors are purely devoted to their research, graduate students/Ph.Ds, and focusing on their fame (e.g. giving lectures internationally, giving interviews with the media at events throughout the year, etc) and not so focused on teaching undergraduates especially when undergrads are crammed into a 500+ student lecture hall.
That was not what he meant. He was talking about researching which school to send your child to. We are talking about k-12 schools here. Note the part about the school hurting the student's college application.
what do the words "rigorous education" mean? I believe that is school speak meaning that students with learning disabilities may not succeed. There might be a 2 track system but the majority of the students score highly on national stanines and are working above grade level. Often, after high school at a rigorous school, the graduate finds college work to be a breeze
I see this word "rigorous" bandied about endlessly, both here in my neck of the worrds as well as in much of the popular and national writing about education. Eveyone thinks a rigorous education is good, but no one, to my satisfaction had ever really defined it.
At least in NYC all it means is that a kid (we're talking K-12 here) gets a ton of reading and lots of homework and projects. In other words, rigorous="worked to death", with no real thought to any deeper meaning and no different that what you'd find in a less rigorous school, just more of it.
It's a word that has lost all value as far as I'm concerned. But I want to hear what others think. To parents, educators and students out there, what's you defintion of a "rigorous" education and what does it look like in practice?
At my school rigorous means college level work, original research, and community service responsibilities.
I was in the top few students at every high school I went to even though I got thrown out of a couple. I picked up 16 high school credits in a single year simply by taking multiple courses at the same time. It was actually not possible but the administration let me anyway. I then took all the exams and did fine.
When I went off to college I actually ended up in a "rigorous" engineering program. I was still smart...but so were most of the other students. And the school challenged us all. You swiftly learn that open book and collaborative tests are not necessarily easy things.
I see no way you could do that without a selected student body. If you did not have above 600 SAT scores you simply could not play in that ball game. We actually carried a couple of people of good personality and weaker intellect but it had to be very few. It is a lot of work to teach those who have weak understanding.
I suppose you could challenge everyone. But that is an impossibly tall order. And now you end up with the really "rigorous", the somewhat "rigorous" and the not really "rigorous" at all.
If you want a rigorous education put your child into a military academy.
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