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I agree that elementary education should focus on only the basics, the skills needed to actually LEARN, throughout life, anything they want.
I've always believed that if you are a strong reader and know how to find information you can do almost anything. Add math/logic skills to that and you are all set.
As an English lit. major, I agree wholeheartedly that reading and comprehension is THE critical cornerstone in education.
As far as the public school system dumbing down children, I would also have to say that I do think it does. I have had my children in private, Christian school for the last 4 years until this school year, and I can see the vast difference CLEARLY. Sadly, I feel that they've taken some steps back in terms of the education they're getting, and when I am able to put them back in private school, I will not hesitate to do so.
I had this talk with some people the other day about this and they say yes, it's a mess.
So what can we do to change the tide before kids look at school as a glorified daycare instead of a place of higher learning?
whose fault is it? the school system? the teachers? the parents? All?
Well it use to be that high school was the ticket into the middle class. Now it is colage. We need to change the workplace dynamics to make getting an aducation mean something and then it will.
My experience with the public school system was not favorable. I felt like most public school teachers are more concerned with following rules and maintaining their authority as opposed to teaching and connecting with students. It's not difficult to understand why this is the case. When you are only paying people 20-30K per year, you are not going to attract the most talented people. Unless you are talking about the Ivy League grad who enters Teach for America so that he or she can put on their experience on their application to law school in a couple of years, you are not going to get a talented person. Think about it, if you are a strong student who is socially and psychologically well adjusted, why would you aspire to enter a job that pays 20K per year? It's not a secret why most teachers are Joe or Mary Sixpack instead of the compassionate, patient and enlightened teacher who tries to connect with students. There are exceptions but most teachers are pretty trashy and have psycho-social issues themselves. This is why the most famous superintendant in the country and well regarded reformer Michelle Rhee believes the answer lies with firing bad teachers and holding teachers accountable. And her method seems to work.
A. Coach - He doesn't care about teaching but he wants to coach athletics and this enables him or her to get on the ground floor of their coaching career.
B. Rich Wife/Sorrority Girl - She has a husband who earns a lot of money so she gets the perfect day job and doesn't mind connecting with kids because her husband is bringing home the real money. Think sorrority girl!
C. Confused Humanities Major - This is the confused English, History, Philosophy and Sociology major who didn't have a plan after college and just enjoyed their chill major while their friends were working their a$#4 off in science, math or finance. They didn't want to go to law school but can't get a job in the corporate world either so they settle on teaching school.
There are exceptions but this seems to describe most teachers. Then when they start working, they realize that everything stinks about their job except for their authoritative position (power trip) and then they focus less on teaching and more punishing little Johnny when he speaks out of turn or is 2 minutes late to class.
My experience with the public school system was not favorable. I felt like most public school teachers are more concerned with following rules and maintaining their authority as opposed to teaching and connecting with students. It's not difficult to understand why this is the case. When you are only paying people 20-30K per year, you are not going to attract the most talented people. Unless you are talking about the Ivy League grad who enters Teach for America so that he or she can put on their experience on their application to law school in a couple of years, you are not going to get a talented person. Think about it, if you are a strong student who is socially and psychologically well adjusted, why would you aspire to enter a job that pays 20K per year? It's not a secret why most teachers are Joe or Mary Sixpack instead of the compassionate, patient and enlightened teacher who tries to connect with students. There are exceptions but most teachers pretty trashy and have psycho-social issues themselves.
A. Coach - He doesn't care about teaching but he wants to coach athletics and this enables him or her to get on the ground floor of their coaching career.
B. Rich Wife/Sorrority Girl - She has a husband who earns a lot of money so she gets the perfect day job and doesn't mind connecting with kids because her husband is bringing home the real money. Think sorrority girl!
C. Confused Humanities Major - This is the confused English, History, Philosophy and Sociology major who didn't have a plan after college and just enjoyed their chill major while their friends were working their a$#4 off in science, math or finance. They didn't want to go to law school but can't get a job in the corporate world either so they settle on teaching school.
There are exceptions but this seems to describe most teachers. Then when they start working, they realize that everything stinks about their job except for their authoritative position (power trip) and then they focus less on teaching and more punishing little Johnny when he speaks out of turn or is 2 minutes late to class.
I usually like what you write but I gotta disagree. CHILL major? I am going for English and no way is it chill as you put it. All subjects are honorable and difficult in their own way. I know some math talented people who find English VERY difficult and then the opposite as well.
I usually like what you write but I gotta disagree. CHILL major? I am going for English and no way is it chill as you put it. All subjects are honorable and difficult in their own way. I know some math talented people who find English VERY difficult and then the opposite as well.
I double majored in English and Biomedical Sciences/Pre-Med. My pre-med coursework was infinitely more difficult than my English degree. You can't study the night before a physics final and get an A let alone pass it in most cases. However, I could easily do a paper the night before it was due and get an A on it. And yes, I had a lot of people in that major who made the same argument you did but had no experience to compare the two. Let's put this way, I learned much more about life from my English degree and would probably argue I gained more from it overall, but in terms of difficulty, it's not even comparable. The competition to get into medical school, dental school and other health professional schools made those biology courses competetive to the point that I would study 30 hours before a test because I had to memorize pages of information.
And I would say we had it easy compared to the engineering and math majors so I'm not being biased just honest
Doesn't it all depend on the school districts? Full disclaimer, I have no kids, but plenty of my friends do (not that it makes me overly qualified to comment!). I have seen the homework and just the overall scholarship of kids in one district being completely stellar compared to a child in another district - sometimes just miles away.
As for the amount you pay in taxes - in my opinion, it does not equate into better education for children in that county. For example, I am in a largely urban area where the majority of people are single, child-free OR just married with babies. We are still something like 5th in the nation based on the % of tax we pay - yet from all I hear, the public school is a disaster.
Based on friends where I grew up, I would stake my private school education (yes, Catholic) against theirs any day of the week. The public schools in my district growing up were simply not comparable to the private schools at that time. Things change - I know. I'm just stating my experience from many years ago when the dinosaurs were walking the earth!!
I think it starts with parents. Teachers are willing to teach those who are willing to learn. The problem is most kids are distracted by things other than academics such as athletics, and being popular. It is kind of sad that bright students are still called nerds considering that you have to be a nerd if you want to succeed in jobs aside from the rare ones in the the arts and entertainment realm which includes sports. Every student should aspire to get straight A's and every parent should motivate their child to achieve their personal best in academics. Sadly, that isn't the case, and too many parents are content with their kids simply passing their classes or getting mediocre grades like B's and C's. And kids who just want to pass classes with mediocre grades can truly be lazy as it takes little effort to get a C in a class in a public school system. The most important criteria to your child succeeding, in my humble opinion is for them to be surrounded by people who aspire to succeed academically. When perusing private schools, I often discovered that many were just glorified social schools that catered to wealthy kids. I also learned that many are in fact nerd schools in which every student aspires to get accepted into a competitive college and whose primary goal is academics. In the public school system, you are dealing with students of all socioeconomic backgrounds, many of which don't push their children academically. In the private school system, most parents are of a higher socioeconomic background and were usually successful students themselves for them to achieve their economic success. Thus these children often tend to be more motivated and not burdened by the social issues that often plague students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds
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