Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I read the week magazine, the ny times, try to stay up on current politics and affairs in general. I am not trying to shed light on myself here, I'm just saying I may not have a narrow focus as you think. I just prefer to go about my learning in my own way.
Yes that's how I've always been. I hated high school probably more than you did even but have always read widely on many subjects.
That is due to the fact those kids acing ACT and SAT were NOT educated in conventional 'joe-average-USA-public-school'... Honestly the only ones I know who consistently perform this well, were Singapore 'Public Educated' Americans. Worked well for many of my ex-pat friends. Their kids got FREE full rides in USA Ivy Leagues and now have GREAT international employment.
We have lots of schools that good here, some even better. I know I work in one.
If more schools ran like my district we would be able to improve education across the board. But no one wants to hear from those who are successful.
I respectfully disagree with this and the reason is that the successful students are the ones for whom the system works very, very well. The teachers are often those who did very well in school, love the school environment, and teach just as they were taught. The people in the "think tanks" with the professional degrees who've not really gotten their feet wet in a classroom are often the ones who set school policy and come up with these highly improbable ideas about educational reform and they were probably the very top students in their classes but what worked best for them is often not what will work best for the others. All of the best teachers I know tended to be little rebels in school when they were young--not particularly bad kids or party animals, but they were always "talking back" to the system, even if just in their heads.
Also the reality of the system is that those who feel that they can't win or are non-competitive will stop trying and lose interest and even some good students lose interest and motivation b/c they feel that their needs aren't met. Kids who have chaotic lives at home and eat crappy food are not at their best and kids with untreated AD/HD are often founts of wild ideas and can be quite bright but they tend to get left behind in the academic environment b/c it's not suited to their temperaments. All of those are the ones I would like to ask about school improvement.
My district is the number one district in my state, and likely in the nation. We take the cream of the crop, and those who cannot function in a regular school setting. For both of those groups our value added is off the charts. Primarily due to our intense tracking, ability to give incredibly specialized instruction and thematic nature (for example all of the science/tech teachers come from research/engineering directly related to our classwork).
This tracking is also a large part of the success overseas and can be implemented at the county level here. But it requires commitment, and will be initially costly. There is no such political will for that here. Its a shame.
As for the anecdotes about the teachers. I seriously doubt the ability of a parent (or any person not in the room with the teacher) to judge who is or is not a GOOD teacher. Hell, I doubt all the people who think they can recognize a good teacher could even agree on the criteria that makes a teacher "good". I have worked with people for years and would be the first to say I cannot really say whether or not they teach well since I haven't been in the classroom of the vast majority of them.
. I just prefer to go about my learning in my own way.
And who stopped you from doing that?
One of my students has been working on cosmic ray research on his own since freshman year. It is not a topic covered in any class except over so slightly (maybe one day) in Physics. He has built a state of the art scintillator panel system, found a unique correlation factor, and has beasted the science fair/symposium circuit this year.
He learned that which interested him on his own. I polished it, taught him some stats, how to write it up and all the other little things he needed to be successful at sharing his research.
My point is, a typical high school education is not going to prevent you from learning anything you wish to. But as a society we have established there is a minimum level of education we expect our citizens to have. Learning Algebra I did not prevent you from going out and learning anything. So what you are really complaining about isn't about learning what you want, but about having to learn things you do not want.
Tough. There are parts of our entire lives we are not excited about, taking out the garbage, TPS reports (office space??), whatever. Part of learning includes learning a good work ethic, which includes learning to do the less "fun" parts.
I believe that it's finally time for me to unleash the wide array of gripes I have about the educational system. Now that I have finally earned my stripes and am graduating in the next month or so; the time has finally come for me to bury the hatchet for good. I know I am not necessarily a doctor in education, although I do have some valid things to say about this topic.
First of all, school had a paradoxical effect on motivating me from a very young age. Before I entered the structured world of the educational system, I was much more intellectually curious and willing to exercise my interests on my own. The minute I was forced to succumb to the generic, cookie cutter form of education, I became very disengaged and apathetic. For example, when I was very little (4-6), I was very interested in reading anything I could about space. The planets, stars, comets, etc, all fascinated me. When I entered kindergarden and was forced to read the same monotonous material as everyone else, I immediately dissociated myself from it because it took away from my interest in space. This is just one example of many that I've experienced that justify my pessimistic perception of the education system.
Anyway this thought pattern of mine continued throughout elementary school. Rather than using school as a tool to expand my intellectual horizons, I subconsciously began to label it as a suppressant that prevented me from exploring extracurricular interests.
This is an appropriate time to present a valid counter argument. I do believe that a basic ground level of education needs to be reached (i.e basic math/literacy skills, although I was already reading on my own), however, once this ground level is reached I think it's appropriate for children to be able to deviate away from the generic system.
Anyway, the concept of the suppressing force began to increase as I aged. Obviously you are not going to do elementary level work forever and will therefore enter a new realm of strenuous monotony. This concept became particularly apparent as I made my way through eighth grade. "Mom, how are geometric functions at all pertinent to my career?" I remember moaning. The workload I began to experience was not necessarily more intellectually stimulating, just more immersed in monotony, like I said.
I think it's important to point out that once I entered high school, EVERY interest I took up, even my eventual career choice (journalism) was not brought on at all by the high school structure. Everything I took up was an individualistic pursuit of my own. I did not care to play the GPA/SAT, extracirriculars game, which I deemed as superficial. I did the bare minimum throughout high school and only got by on intelligence. I am still attending journalism school in Seattle, which I believe is due to the admissions people being more open minded and less bureautical about the process.
Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that high school is not for everyone. Some people may be able to become engaged in it, which is fine. However we cannot continue to throw everyone in the generic, cookie cutter pool of education. Is time to be more innovative and open minded about this topic. Clearly it has not worked out too well, just look at the success of reality TV! But seriously, lets think outside the box here.
Thanks for reading.
High School, is basic education and also a foundation to higher learning. It seems you took the "high" in high school literally. It is what one does after high school that matters more that what they did in high school.
There is no cookie cutter pool of education. If their was such a thing then how do brilliance and ignorance come from the same schools?
Students are among the first to blame an education system on their lack of abilities, acquisition of knowledge and skills. The tired saying that if a student fails to learn then the teacher failed to teach is nonsense. Sometimes, the student didn't want to learn and teachers are not babysitters, the family psychologist, nurse, friend or parent.
High School is designed to get you to a point where you know what a box is so that some day you can think outside of it. The world is full of free thinkers. What the world needs are more doers.
As for the anecdotes about the teachers. I seriously doubt the ability of a parent (or any person not in the room with the teacher) to judge who is or is not a GOOD teacher. Hell, I doubt all the people who think they can recognize a good teacher could even agree on the criteria that makes a teacher "good". I have worked with people for years and would be the first to say I cannot really say whether or not they teach well since I haven't been in the classroom of the vast majority of them.
I have been in more classrooms than most. My criteria for what makes a good teacher: 1. cares about and treats students with respect, whether they deserve it or not 2. keeps the majority of them engaged by keeping things moving and teaching material in an interesting way and making sure to catch the different learning styles by using different ways to get the message across 3. Knows a lot of interesting background material to add to the lesson and make it engaging 4. Expects kids to work hard and expects a quality product and makes it clear exactly how they can produce that quality product That's just a few and I have seen very good teachers teach and everyone has their strengths (well maybe not everyone but most) and I've rarely seen anyone who was bad across the board. The worst teacher I ever saw was beloved by administration b/c she is great at getting paperwork in on time and knows how to schmooze but I was horrified by what I saw in her classroom.
We have lots of schools that good here, some even better. I know I work in one.
If more schools ran like my district we would be able to improve education across the board. But no one wants to hear from those who are successful.
You're wrong. I would love to hear about your school and know many others as well but you know darn well that education in America gets set in stone more every year and I swear I blame the standardized test companies the most b/c they lobby the politicians.
There are times in life when you have to check the box. Whether the process that allows you to check the box is of any value to you is often highly dependent on your attitude. High school to a large degree fits in that catagory.
You're wrong. I would love to hear about your school and know many others as well but you know darn well that education in America gets set in stone more every year and I swear I blame the standardized test companies the most b/c they lobby the politicians.
I have always thought they must have one heck of a lobby. They are destroying our education, and if you don't want to get that dramatic, they are definitely sucking the creativity out of education.
The school system clearly works well for a lot of kids but many simply don't do well in the educational model we use. Shouldn't we try to find out what we can do to meet the needs of those kids? I don't believe it's fair to pander only to one group of children as many could be successful under different circumstances. People in general, including kids, are very diverse and it's time for the educational system to recognize and adapt to those differences. One size doesn't fit all. The current system is as old as public school itself and we've learned a lot since it started and we should apply that.
A school's job isn't only to teach but to motivate to want to learn and although some individual teachers do this well the system as a whole doesn't emphasize it as much as it should. Adjusting the education to meet the needs of different students would go a long way to keep the children motivated. The system lose a lot of kids due to lack of motivation. The education system has an obligation to do what it can to help all children reach their potential, not only those who fit neatly into the mold and have parents to help them navigate the system.
I read about a charter school once that tried to meet the diverse needs of the students. For one, they had flex time because, they believed, some kids don't learn well early in the morning and others simply need more sleep than most which makes getting up at 7am very difficult. This turned out to be a great system for kids who had previously had an issue with tardiness and truancy. They also allowed some kids more freedom in how they learned. Not all kids have to sit in school all day to learn but may do better sitting in the park with a book and completing independent assignments. Basically, the school recognized that flexibility helped them meet the needs of more kids.
I know some will argue that kids have to learn to fit into a mold because they will have to do it in the work force but they'll have plenty of time to learn that when they get there.
As to the OP's point that High School is useless because it teaches you a bunch of stuff you don't care about I think the opinion has a lot to do with the OP's age and level of maturity. Once he get's older he will understand why being well rounded is important. I can agree that students ought to have a bit more control over the areas they study at some point but it's still necessary to learn about things you don't care about.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
) and I've rarely seen anyone who was bad across the board. The worst teacher I ever saw was beloved by administration b/c she is great at getting paperwork in on time and knows how to schmooze but I was horrified by what I saw in her classroom.
