What is school like today compared to 20 years ago? (elementary school, grade, history)
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I just wanted to point out, that many American adults don't engage with kids that way. They don't expect kids to to be bright, interested in adult topics, or able to carry on a conversation with adults that's not about "kid stuff". Adults tend to hold kids back that way, by their low expectations. Rare adults who recognize teens, and even pre-teens/tweens, as budding adults full of curiosity, initiative and intelligence capable of absorbing vast amounts of information in areas they're interested in, engage with said kids completely differently. IOW, they are taken seriously, and develop into the type of youth you've encountered from abroad.
It takes an enlightened attitude to treat young people that way. That seems rare in our society.
Not to mention that SR has experience with a self-selected audience of people who come to the US and do homestays. I hardly think that they are an accurate sample of people from a particular country in general, particularly if we are talking about a country where most people have not even traveled abroad.
You also have different situations depending on countries. For example, most children in China are now only children, so they spend a lot more time with adults. Only children do tend to get along better with adults because that’s who they are used to being around. My best friend’s oldest is apparently a “problem child” although I have never had any particular issues getting along with her. She is a sweet young woman who happens to do horribly getting along with kids her own age. She loves younger kids and generally does well with adults.
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Originally Posted by RamenAddict
Not to mention that SR has experience with a self-selected audience of people who come to the US and do homestays. I hardly think that they are an accurate sample of people from a particular country in general, particularly if we are talking about a country where most people have not even traveled abroad.
...
And living and working (and hiring) abroad (among the locals) for the majority of my career is not of merit?
Teaching in foriegn trade schools?
Far surapasses the frequent hosting of international guests and their families. But all of it keeps me current. I daily chat with international friends from ages ago. (several are currently teachers in foriegn nations)
I'm glad my kids experienced the benefit of being immersed in foriegn culture and the +/- of that. Especially interests and engagement with adults who were genuinely interested in my kids. ("Hey, why are you not in school?")
Ironically, many kids I meet in foriegn countries (including China), know far more about the workings of the USA than my US neighbor kids. Students who are ALLOWED and encouraged to learn have an insatiable curiosity to continue to growth and learn. Kids who sit on their hands and follow instruction... wait for instruction. Surprise, still waiting in the USA.
I'm pretty amazed at what my grandparents learned while only attending tiny school until 6-8th grade. Not that rare, since many of use were done with school by that age, we just hung aroung for a
few more credits so we could graduate. Additional learning's beyond elementary school were not spectacular.
I graduated college in 2005 and back then we had paper books and few online assignments and no online tests. Tests were graded with scantrons. What is it like today? Is everything digital? Does everyone have a computer in the class room? Are assignments online?
Compare it to 40, 50 years ago. We had to actually learn math, no calculators allowed. We also had to learn cursive writing, I don't know if you did or not, but I've heard the kids today don't learn it. We were taught to read by Phonics. We also failed if we couldn't read, none of that "no child left behind."
We also had Art class, and Music class. We were allowed to choose an instrument if we liked music enough, and then our parents could hire a teacher/tutor for after-school practice. We were taught to read music, not all of us did, but it was offered.
We learned much of Shakespeare through books and plays on our schools' stage. We had to read many classic books and do book reports on each of them, starting in 5th grade.
I think you guys still do field trips to the local museums and parks, right?
But kids today learn computer and the digital world. Computers were stuff for NASA when I was a kid. To learn anything computer, I had to have my wife teach me, whose 7 years younger and taught herself by getting a computer and stumbling around with it. She can write code and other things I know nothing about. Got to keep up with the times.
Me and the OP are kids of yesterday- we had cursive writing... or at least I did, and we're practically the same age.
LOL, the way I read "Aha," it's almost as though you caught a criminal.
Anyway, the OP did not specify public or private. And I would hope they had similar curriculums?
OP did confess to having gone to a private school. And no, they don't have similar curricula. I briefly explained some differences in the "Aha" post.
But sometimes, the public schools come out ahead in the comparison. In CA, for example, private schools aren't required to teach World Geography or California History in high school (or at any other stage). Those are required courses in public high schools.
Compare it to 40, 50 years ago. We had to actually learn math, no calculators allowed. We also had to learn cursive writing, I don't know if you did or not, but I've heard the kids today don't learn it. We were taught to read by Phonics. We also failed if we couldn't read, none of that "no child left behind."
FORTRAN programming with a keypunch machine and carrying a box of cards to the computer room at midnight.
Now you can have a free C compiler and Python interpreter on a Linux machine purchased used for $200. And the Linux machine is more powerful than the mainframe that compiled the FORTRAN.
When I was in school all meals were cooked in the school cafeteria and occasionally included local cultural foods. There were no vending machines. There were many water fountains inside and outside the school building and most were not refrigerated to cool the water. We drank straight tap water. School lunch drinks were a choice of milk or juice. Calculators were not allowed until calculus level math. Our school was poor and rural so photocopiers were too expensive until the mid to late 80s and even then it was reserved for the library to allow students to copy pages for reports. Students went to the school nearest their home. Today, locally, schools are trying to be racially balanced forcing students to travel far across the parish to attend school. This results in long bus rides, sleepy students, and less time for those students to do homework. I’ve seen some of the school lunches given out locally today and they don’t look good nor do they have the calories for growing students to be satisfied to get them through to the end of the day. Some students have had to bring food from home to supplement the school lunch because they never know what they will actually receive nor the condition of the prepared food.
Today I am loving the convenience of using technology (Google Classroom, digital reading, math, and social studies materials that I can assign and have transferred to a grade book.
The one thing that bothers me a lot is History. As far as I know, their classes today are just as long as they were when I went to school, yet they have to learn more than 50 years of additional history than I had to learn. You know that saying that has to do with those who don't know history/the past are condemned to repeat it. As we move into the future, students will just get an overview of history simply because the class time hasn't been increased to learn more history commensurate with the increased amount of time that has elapsed. The leaders of the future will repeat past mistakes maybe with more dire consequences. I wonder if any country on earth has considered that.
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