The School System

[ocean eyes]

So many of us don't use some of the skills we learn in school. Do you think that we should be able to choose whether we take all of our subjects including Math, Science etc. from a certain younger age then we do now? That way we concentrate more on our own personalities and what suits us.
Opinions

 

[Womplord]

I think that you need time to develop interests. Also, I think teaching people about maths and science is very important for this reason. The more time people spend doing it the more chance there will be something that they like about it (if they approach it with an open mind) and while these areas may not be useful for most people in everyday life, they are extremely important in the advancement of humanity. So no.

 

[snafupants]

Schools should be stratified by cognitive abiltiy; end this no child left behind crap and embrace human difference. As is, everyone is a loser except the child directly in the center of the bell curve: the dull child because the work is too challenging, and the bright child because the work is dull. People vary by height, weight, and everything else, so why wouldn't they vary by intelligence? Political correctness is ruining lives.

 

[Da Blob]

The school system in America was designed by the ruling class, via the Harvard Curriculum Committee of the 1890s. It was designed to keep individuals from the lower classes from being able to compete with the progeny of the ruling class for the top spots in society.

There has never been a public school system designed by child psychologists or educators. Such systems are reserved for the children of the rich.

Educate your own self, for the system will not provide what is needed to fulfill potential...

 

[TylerRDA]

I've decided I've spent enough time being pissed off at the school system. The conclusion I've reached is that they teach people
-how to learn, for those who can't already
-how to communicate, for the socially retarded (case in point)

 

[EditorOne]

What Tyler said. Manage your expectations, take from school what you can, and be prepared to pursue knowledge and skills on your own in addition to all that.

And maybe don't get blinded by your natural skepticism about all authority into not seeing the more attractive aspects of school.

 

[Nocturne]

I believe school should be only mandatory for 5 years then we should be allowed to pursue what we want. Sometimes, I don't understand the reason why teachers go on and on about completely absurd/ useless topics. (e.g.- Forced to watch basketball for a hour for P.E., I sneaked out. )

 

[milesck]

The school system is broken because we work for grades not knowledge, because of this system I only remember things that interest me to some degree, the subjects I find boring fall through the cracks. I am so fed up with school I am thinking about packing up and studying/working abroad, maybe taking a break once I graduate.

 

[Thaklaar]

The school system isn't broken, it's functioning precisely as it was designed. Of course it was designed a century ago to turn immigrants and farm boys into factory drones willing to spend forty years punching out widgets on an assembly line and that goal may be a touch outdated, but it's functioning perfectly. There was no golden age in the past when schools fostered independent critical thinkers.

I doubt it's possible in today's climate to gather the political will to update the system in any useful way. I'm sending my kid to public school. We don't have the cash to do private (and I don't buy that private schools are any better). But I plan on teaching her to think myself.

 

[Artsu Tharaz]

The school system isn't broken, it's functioning precisely as it was designed. Of course it was designed a century ago to turn immigrants and farm boys into factory drones willing to spend forty years punching out widgets on an assembly line and that goal may be a touch outdated, but it's functioning perfectly. There was no golden age in the past when schools fostered independent critical thinkers.
...
I'm sending my kid to public school. We don't have the cash to do private (and I don't buy that private schools are any better). But I plan on teaching her to think myself.

This this this.

I doubt it's possible in today's climate to gather the political will to update the system in any useful way.

Pessimistic, but also a reminder to be realistic.

I think it's a realistic goal to try and set up small institutions to foster independent critical thinking, set up by those few people who do have the will to foster such a thing, and target the students who would benefit most from it. Major change might eventually follow once we show the superiority of the new models, and basically lay out for the people in charge how to implement such changes.

 

[Thaklaar]

This this this.


Pessimistic, but also a reminder to be realistic.

I live in Texas. I come by my pessimism honestly.

 

[Artsu Tharaz]

I've decided I've spent enough time being pissed off at the school system. The conclusion I've reached is that they teach people
-how to learn, for those who can't already
-how to communicate, for the socially retarded (case in point)

"This happens while kids go through school -> without school, this wouldn't happen"

Everyone can learn. School tries to teach people to learn in a specific way, which is unnatural for most. I don't think much/anything school teaches, once you have the three R's down, is worth teaching.

I don't know that having schools really develops children socially, or helps them to communicate, any more than they would already. The way they do so is certainly effected however, and I don't know that it's for the better.

 

[Sosekopp]

I loved the teachers I had in primary school, because whenever my class was learning something I knew already, they let me to go to the library or play the piano, or they let me work with textbooks for secondary school.

My teachers in secondary school were following the curriculum rigidly, and I stopped doing my schoolwork fast, because then I only would get more tasks that were completely the same. Then I started getting unmotivated, my grades got progressively worse and I became more and more sociophobic and introverted. It wasn't until last year, when I realized that I had to work hard if I wanted to get admitted to the high school I wanted to go to, that my grades got better again.

In my opinion the Norwegian school system's centralized curricula should be removed or simplified, and the schools and teachers should be given more freedom to adapt the teaching to local conditions, as long as all children learn reading, writing, arithmetic and basic critical thinking.

 

[Words]

The system? Yeah~ inefficient in my opinion. As noted by previous posts, it has the degenerative absence of psychological stratification. This absence causes the lack of personalization. The lack of personalization means the absence of stimulation. The absences of stimulations produces the lack of efficiency. This is why, in children, the idea of "School" predominantly surfaces the idea of "Work", which really shouldn't be the case.

In a developed point of view, people do not have to play the role of weary mindless robots. In an unceasingly developing point of view, a more efficient system always exists. In the undeveloped point of view, however, societal functions help ease what it can ease.

Regardless of your society's school system, it is always helpful to find your own path.

 

[TheHmmmm]

The school system in America was designed by the ruling class, via the Harvard Curriculum Committee of the 1890s. It was designed to keep individuals from the lower classes from being able to compete with the progeny of the ruling class for the top spots in society.

There has never been a public school system designed by child psychologists or educators. Such systems are reserved for the children of the rich.

Educate your own self, for the system will not provide what is needed to fulfill potential...

Never heard so much bullshit about the school system in my life.

I come from a lower-middle class family that has only one college graduate in it (early deceased) and she CERTAINLY didn't come from a wealthy school or an Ivy. None of us are "privileged". This applies to the rest of the kids in my upper-level (Honors, AP, IB, whatever floats your boat) too. I can't think of a single one of us that's wealthy or an Ivy League legacy.

And with that, I feel compelled to tell you that I got accepted to an Ivy League university. Surprisingly, they accept a VERY diverse population. Yes, legacies get some advantage, but obviously everyone else has some chance based on the merit of your work. Hell, the "ruling class" universities (Harvard included) use need-blind admission processes. And the old "rich kids afford SAT tutors" thing is almost irrelevant, as the woefully oligarchial universities use a fairly holistic admissions process. The school system is one of the more meritocratic systems of society, for better or worse.

Also, if anything, with legislation like No Child Left Behind, schools are beginning to cater most to the lower class and under-performers.

Now, I'm not going to say that the school system is perfect, for I consider it to be far from it. After going to the ringer, I learned that some parts of it are really helpful (mandated math/science classes) and some are completely useless (four years of English). Also, there's almost no career exploration at my school beyond trade technical classes, which don't apply to most students.

 

[kinetickyle]

I live in Texas. I come by my pessimism honestly.

Amen, brother (or sister - whatever)!

The American school system is based on the idea of the "classical education" where students will get exposure to a wide range of topics. Even if the student doesn't excel in math or languages or science or whatever, they have some familiarity with it. Besides, how is a person supposed to know what he/she is good at if they don't sample everything?

I have a good friend that teaches literature in high school. She's very passionate about the subject and cares about her students. The problem is institutionalized micromanagement. According to her, she spends an increasing amount of time/effort teaching to these idiotic standardized tests, which only test a student's memorization skills, not critical thinking. I think the system itself is fine, but the bureaucracy surrounding it is bloated and broken.

And it sounds like Da Blob is a little too into conspiracy theories. I'm with TheHmmm on this one. My grandparents were all depression-era farmers and railroad workers. You don't get much more working class than that. My dad was the first person to go to college, my sister and I are second and third, respectively. My dad and I used the military to pay for our educations. My sister did it through hard work. If Da Blob's system were a reality, we'd have never made it.

 

[JesusChrist]

The school system is a joke, created for no reason other than to "teach" you how to sit still and take orders for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I was repeatedly kicked out for failure to follow up on daily assignments (though I passed everything just short of honors going on nearly tests alone), and wreaking havoc on the school computer network (I wasn't a hacker per se, just more interested in what was going on on an interesting system). it eventually lead to expulsion in grade 11.

It just so happened that my expulsion coincided with the opening of an "alternative" school in my town, where students who didn't seem to succeed in a classical setting worked on correspondence modules instead of working in a standard classroom setting. The workload was the same, and the curriculum didn't differ, the only thing that was different was that the student set their own pace. I completed almost an entire year's worth the courses and credits in about 3 months time while maintaining honors.

I came back to the highschool to complete grade 12, and just dropped out after the first couple months returning to the alternative school, which I eventually lost patience with too and left when I heard stories of friends graduating and making big money fresh out of school in the oilfield. Which i did for a few years, making really good money. Highschool education didn't play any roll in that job.

I wound up going into internet marketing and working for myself, which I've been very successful with. If someone were to ask me if I thought the school system had done me any good, I'd answer them as honest and bluntly as I could. "No!" If I could have I would have went straight into the work market at 16. Once you have the basics of education you should be free to choose where you continue with your education from there.

Beyond learning the basics of mathematics, science, and English, I don't see any reason to sit people at a desk learning things they have no interest in for another 3-4 years beyond what they really need to. It's nothing but conditioning for a shitty 9-5 life... $0.02

 

[gilliatt]

The US Constitution should include: "The state shall make no law with respect to the establishment of education".
A quote from Isabel Paterson: "Every politically controlled educational system will inculcate the doctrine of state supremacy sooner or later...Once that doctrine has been accepted, it becomes an almost superhuman task to break the stranglehold of the political power over the life of the citizen. It has had his body, property and mind in its clutches from infancy....A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state".

If government intervention fails when applied to free markets/supermarkets, etc why would we think it to be different with education.



Government schools=a jobs program? are am I missing something!!!
The correct answer is "Freedom".

 

[Geminii]

I'd prefer that a national educational body have a say in school systems more than, for example, a local political hack looking for re-election, or a religious group into indoctrination, or some wingnut with an agenda, or corporations looking to produce graduates of Microsoft-Coke-McDonalds-Nike Flair Wearers 101.

 

[Artsu Tharaz]

The whole damn thing needs redoing.

They made school so that anyone can do it, which means no one benefits. They need to focus on teaching practical skills, thinking skills and creativity, but most of the teachers are probably incapable of this.

 

[Kellhus]

Generally, I view school [where I am] as a way to test the functionality of the average member in society for further education. Thusly, I find it's very role annoying and uninteresting, but put up with it in order to gain that in which I must, and that in which I wish [independence]. It is highly subjective on the course offerings by location, but going under the impression one is in a fairly urban place as I am, I find it not necessary to specify the courses I would wish to have taken at an earlier time. One changes their desired profession so very frequently in their "identity search" time period of their life (ages 10-16) that it would be a bit absurd to expect any lasting fortuitous results from them. Another reason though, is that if one has the intellect, and if one has the desire to display such, opportunity will infailably present itself [granted one is not in a third world country, and even then, at times it is more favourable than the aternative(simplicity of mind)].

 

[gilliatt]

First thing, wrong first premise.

Separation of School & The State. Do we really believe the state is interested in teaching us " to think". Could the states underlining idea be to assume power over us subjects, indoctrinate us to follow arbitrary rules that we know are for no other purpose than to control us and extract our hard earned cash/property. This is so obvious a oxy-moron could see it!!http://www.intpforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1638&stc=1&d=1314279087

 

[Fghw]

The problem with the school system is the fact that it institutionalizes learning. Too much of my life depends on my ability to conform to the system. It categorizes people by age and general level of test-taking ability, yet my GPA relies on homework. It drives you to excel at things you do not want to do. I believe that if people can do what interests them, it will benefit them in some way.

I also don't understand the point of PE, extracurricular activities, or community service hours in determining whether one is worthy of a higher education.

 

[snafupants]

So many of us don't use some of the skills we learn in school. Do you think that we should be able to choose whether we take all of our subjects including Math, Science etc. from a certain younger age then we do now? That way we concentrate more on our own personalities and what suits us.
Opinions

The most important overhaul is stratification based on intellectual ability. Right now, the smart and stupid kids aren't really profiting from education geared towards intellectually mediocre students.

 

[walfin]

http://m.theatlantic.com/national/a...gnoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/

 

[Absurdity]

http://m.theatlantic.com/national/a...gnoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/

This article is awesome.

 

[Valentas]

What's more is that I read countless research articles where results are stated like this: a person learns the best when he is interested and moves his body.

Classroom is very opposite. You sit still, you usually are bored because they teach you what is in the curriculum not what you want to learn now yourself.

This fact about movement while learning helped me a lot too. I am a fan of audiobooks because I tend to get bored reading. Thus I take my mp3 player and go for a run while listening to audiobook. Try it. The amount of information remembered is astonishing.

I used to forget loads of crap while sitting in school :\

And yes, Finland was voted as best education system, at least in Europe.

 

[Hadoblado]

@walfin
That article is very interesting, no small part due to it running contrary to what I would consider an improvement in the system: government non-interference. I might research this more later.

-----------

My Grandfather, who was a prominent member of an Australian educational research group, gave me a whole bunch of papers on research from the 1960s up to about 2000. I read through a few but the rest remain unmolested under my bed.

What struck me was that the quality of their research and the thought that went into policy making was actually pretty solid. The reason this was surprising is because schools where I come from are garbage, with little to no reasoning behind the curriculum. How can so much effort go into the development of sound educational policy only to produce an entirely shitty education system?

 

[Valentas]

Very easily.

Fake specialists come to work for fake organisation on education. Money and influence of rich guys make education system as it is now.

Also another factor is laziness. Why bother changing system if it seems to be quite good? A lot of countries are either trying to show that they work on better system but usually it's BS. I'll tell you an example. In our country, every 4 years ministers chamber is being changed: conservatives, liberals and so on... Once a new guy comes to Ministry of Education, he starts to issue new laws, create something new. Usually that dumbass has no idea what he is doing and whole country wants to kill him for that, especially teachers.

For instance, a law that teachers must work until 65 years age. That is complete BS. Anyone who worked for over 30 years as a teacher is so freakin' off-track that forcing to work these people is a crime. Yet some young idiot minister decides that it's cool. Thanks god, usually professional union have enough power to put such an idiot to jail :P

Yes, a lot of money goes into education but as I said: people are lazy. They imitate their work that they usually do something. But no one raised a huge protest over education thus government sees no reason to change anything in schools. Also universities need new meat every year to keep their profits.

But there are exceptions. Countries which don't give a shit how they look like to others.They have their own education system and they usually win. Finland is an example of superior education system. Hands down and great respect to them for preventing laziness of great minds i their country who managed to complete their education system. Also, on the contrary to other countries, teacher profession is highly respected there and very highly paid. In other words, only smartest people go to education of pupils, while in other countries it's the opposite.

I think I said enough. We complain but why not try to invent new, more natural way for children to learn? You can think through this too and contact government about this. That would be the start. If no one pushes new way of thinking, nothing will change. Simple.

 

[Deep_in_thought]

It was not till I became an adult that I realized that the school system is terrible. The system teaches students to 1. obey authority...and 2. to focus on tests. I had problems in school that I really didn't fathom about, till I was, again, an adult. I have semantic dyscalculia. This means that...any mathematical information goes into my brain, but doesn't stick...if it does...it becomes lost over time. Think of it as filling a glass with water quickly. It makes bubbles which stay for a few seconds, then pop. The bubbles are math, and the pop is the time they stay in my head. I'm 21 and I still don't know the times table, I can't remember how to do division, percentages, or fractions. I have to use my fingers for counting, even with single digits at times. I remember 3 times from 1st to 3rd grade I can remember my math being bad. 1st grade...I couldn't count beyond 10 for some reason, I was stuck on 6+6 and kept thinking...''well..it's 6!, it HAS to be'', I looked over on someones paper and saw 12, I'm like ''well...ok...I guess that's right''. 2nd grade, I was the only one in my class who did not, and could not memorize the times table. 3rd grade, I could not understand fractions at all...cross multiply and divide what?! It was worse with them being odd numbers at times. All this agony went up till I was home schooled in high school, which did nothing to help either. The schools did nothing, and it seems they didn't notice, I never thought of asking for help either since I'm naturally shy. I'd rather have a 1 on 1 lesson with a teacher anyway.

I agree with some of the posts on this page, the schools don't compensate for the learning style of all the students, especially the introverts, everyone seems to be taught to be extroverted. Update the system to be like Finland's, and make sure the teachers have a higher degree, not just a certificate or bachelors.

 

[Pinion]

We don't use what we learn because either we have terrible teachers or we don't have the learning style and mental abilities their teaching style caters to. In my case I was first not taught any theory when theory was needed, and then had a bunch of vague silliness and metaphor heaped on me when what I needed was the concrete facts of how the subject functioned.

Ignoring everything in a classroom except for the general direction and qualifications continues to be one of my best life choices. I need the skills, just not taught the way schools offer them.

Trust me, you'd use math if you weren't taught the thrice-inbred rote forms of it.

 

[RaBind]

I think a larger set of subjects should be taught at school and e-learning/distance learning should be an available option to attending school.

 

[sushi]

schools still preach workaholism rather than learning for learning sake, it has become a business that manufacture qualified workers and selling degrees rather than pursuit for knowledge's sake. The sucess of the said institution depends on its ability to train corporate slaves that have the highest demand in the labor market.

Basically it just teaches math and language, but less so towards how it works in the real world.

the solution is:

remove deadlines in work (I honestly don't see the fucking point as in obstructs with the pursuit of knowledge and mastery of subject)

less paper learning, more physical work and experimentation

more effort needed towards teaching the young how on hard skills of how to survive in society and in social reality, rather than teach them to look for jobs

no fallure everyone passes, user the point system , but you get more points for more effort you put in your work ( or maybe just pass or fail, no excessive grading and ranking , and test and assignment difficulties could be ranked as easy, mediutm and difficult , kind of like ladders in games).

(or just eliminate grading entirely, do the exercise and test on the computer, computer tell you where you did right, where you did wrong and where you need to work more on. )

teachers are shitty people pron to bias, they should be only there to teach. its better to led software and omputer give assignments, test and excercises and rank those assignments.

the students should have more power to rate and evaluate the shcool's performance. If the school is doing a shiity job and learning is not enjoyable, the students can rate it and spread the give the schools a bad name. also teachers get to fired if the negative rating from students is high enough.

 

[pernoctator]

... or we don't have the learning style and mental abilities their teaching style caters to.

Who does?

The likelihood that it takes someone exactly n hours per day for exactly m given days throughout a year to effectively learn a subject, and that the same n and m applies equally to up to 5 subjects in parallel, for an n and m chosen based on a convenient and neat calendar-based schedule, is extremely low.

The likelihood that this is true for 12 or more consecutive years, and expanding subjects, is exponentially lower still.

The likelihood that the above is simultaneously true for 20 to 40 people, of the same age, in the same room, is cosmically tiny.

The teaching style doesn't cater to anyone, only to a system.

 

[Jagnat]

It is rather obvious that the school system is broken in modern society, and this has been known for quite some time. I think too many people focus on debating over whether or not it is functional, rather than questioning what can be done to improve it.

In terms of parts of school being optional, I think that depends on how well the earlier establishment of education in a person's life affected them. The majority of modern students at low age/grade levels (elementary) either have a dislike of the academic portion of school, or are otherwise not suitably engaged and eager to learn. This is, in my opinion, not human nature, just suggested through the system's method.

Because of this early instilled dislike of a learning environment, students will not make responsible choices about what they need or don't need through their future education. People shouldn't just learn words from a textbook, but should learn to analyze themselves and their environments and see exactly what they need.

Of course, there's also the problem of different learning styles/modes of social interaction. School cannot be institutionalized. Not only does it eject certain types of people, it removes individuality even amongst those that fit in the system.

The way we deinstitutionalize the school system is by focusing on teacher education and training. Making teaching a desirable job will not only raise the standards of teaching, it will slowly dissolve the "standardized" system that is in place. Teachers will learn to recognize differences and teach multiple types of people based on their needs.

Of course, it isn't a completely refined solution, and implementation is nigh impossible at this point in time.

In practical application, I have no solution.

 

[gilliatt]

The school system in America, they are not public schools but government schools. Government land, employees, forced tax money for funding, government buildings, government everything. So, what about the students education, are you teaching him to think, to integrate, to survive on his own? Or is the goal to make a little socialist/communist/fascist out of that little child so you will be able to 'rule him.' Do you want him a brainwashed/indoctrinated voting monster that will always vote for your platform, ideology, point of view or a thinking, independent, rational human being that will progress mankind.

 

[QuickTwist]

Yes, the school system in the US is so fucked up with rules and regulations that it drives teachers crazy. The administators produce such asinine goals to follow for the teachers that it is impossible for them to achieve even half of wht they expect. They expect all children to learn at the same rate in the same way be at the same developmental stage as their peers and have no understanding of how different cultures ie. urban vs. suburban have a different effect on the way children learn. I don't believe that a structured environment is the exact opposite way to school children but the way they are going about it is completely nuts! I don't think that the burden to produce these ever increasing scores is the teachers fault. Most teachers in Urban environments have 12+ hour workdays and get paid shit. They have to deal with behavior children all day and never get any relief while the suburban or private school teachers are basically living the life of luxury. That is reality. how we go about changing things up is a very complicated matter and that is why I leave it up to more capable hands as how to bring some balance to the unproportional weight that the Urban teachers have to deal with.

 

[walfin]

Because of this early instilled dislike of a learning environment, students will not make responsible choices about what they need or don't need through their future education. People shouldn't just learn words from a textbook, but should learn to analyze themselves and their environments and see exactly what they need.

But if there is no learning environment, students will neither learn nor know that they need to learn.

I think the International Baccalaureate seems like a good balance at least on paper, especially with the Theory of Knowledge subject as well as the electives which can be chosen at a relatively early stage. Never had the chance to do it though. But I've read some stuff by students which says that Theory of Knowledge is a subject which seems thoroughly useless at first but is discovered to be useful later on - sounds like a good thing to teach.

 

[pernoctator]

But if there is no learning environment, students will neither learn

I have never seen any pre-schooled child who is not in a near-constant state of enthusiastically questioning and learning. It is only after their institutionalization that their attitudes change.

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9yUXVzs0Qw

nor know that they need to learn.

What is there that we can't function without, yet its lack would not be self-evident that we would need others to artificially provide a "learning environment" before we realize it's missing?

 

[Mantis Toboggan]

I'm surprised that no one has brought up a different kind of system, especially on this forum: teaching based on MBTI and stuff like that. As an American student that has suffered through the different types of American schools (public, private, charter), that we should base it off our types. Would anyone else love to be in a class full of INTPs, run by INTPs, and, most importantly, for INTPs?

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I'm surprised that no one has brought up a different kind of system, especially on this forum: teaching based on MBTI and stuff like that. As an American student that has suffered through the different types of American schools (public, private, charter), that we should base it off our types. Would anyone else love to be in a class full of INTPs, run by INTPs, and, most importantly, for INTPs?

MBTI application would be backwards in terms of optimized education for cognitive learning styles. What I mean is that expanding MBTI's theoretical scope to deduce how people understand information through a symbolic psychological apparatus(MBTI) is counterproductive because we already have fields that directly study the human brain.

My guess is at best it would be no more effective than tutoring, and at worst inhibiting as same-sex schools.

 

[QuickTwist]

Not to mention most of our functional stack isn't even properly used until we are almost retired.

 

[thegatorgirl]

One of the main issues with the American education system is how everything is so focused on memorizing things for standardized tests. I've never seen an assessment based on analyzing information, musical ability, artistic ability, athletic ability, or common sense. Many of the people who score highly on the current tests would do much worse if these subjects were added.

Someone suggested to me once that grades and exams should be gotten rid of all together. They said students should work towards mastery of one concept at a time. The job of the teacher would be to provide engaging, hands-on activities and explain complicated ideas the student doesn't get. Rather than have a class-wide test where you receive a grade, each student moves on to the next lesson when they feel they mastered the previous one. I like this idea because really, what's the point of having someone tell you that you don't know something if they won't help you learn? Besides, if a kid doesn't understand something they need for later lessons, the child will only fall further behind in school. As much as I like the idea, I'm not sure how practical it would be. Any thoughts?

Also, I'm not sure why more people don't suggest asking the students about the education system. Most adults would be surprised about how well we understand the system's flaws, but I'm not sure why since we go there almost every day.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

One of the main issues with the American education system is how everything is so focused on memorizing things for standardized tests. I've never seen an assessment based on analyzing information, musical ability, artistic ability, athletic ability, or common sense. Many of the people who score highly on the current tests would do much worse if these subjects were added.

Someone suggested to me once that grades and exams should be gotten rid of all together. They said students should work towards mastery of one concept at a time. The job of the teacher would be to provide engaging, hands-on activities and explain complicated ideas the student doesn't get. Rather than have a class-wide test where you receive a grade, each student moves on to the next lesson when they feel they mastered the previous one. I like this idea because really, what's the point of having someone tell you that you don't know something if they won't help you learn? Besides, if a kid doesn't understand something they need for later lessons, the child will only fall further behind in school. As much as I like the idea, I'm not sure how practical it would be. Any thoughts?

When I was finally allowed to choose electives in highschool I thought it was amazing and it renewed in me a curiosity to learn. I don't think I'm alone in feeling like typical government education just wants to beat facts into your head to get results(workforce drones).

Teachers are restricted in their educational capacity due to all the standardized expectations of both teacher and student. While I do think a basic set of skills is important to function in life, people are individuals and need to find what works best for themselves. By the time we have the freedom to do that in college it's already too late.

Also, I'm not sure why more people don't suggest asking the students about the education system. Most adults would be surprised about how well we understand the system's flaws, but I'm not sure why since we go there almost every day.

That could be an interesting experiment. School education is the largest institution of adults assuming they know better than kids. .

Looking at studies on various learning approaches would be nice, though I have no idea where to start.

 

[Draco]

One of the main issues with the American education system is how everything is so focused on memorizing things for standardized tests. I've never seen an assessment based on analyzing information, musical ability, artistic ability, athletic ability, or common sense. Many of the people who score highly on the current tests would do much worse if these subjects were added.



Someone suggested to me once that grades and exams should be gotten rid of all together. They said students should work towards mastery of one concept at a time. The job of the teacher would be to provide engaging, hands-on activities and explain complicated ideas the student doesn't get. Rather than have a class-wide test where you receive a grade, each student moves on to the next lesson when they feel they mastered the previous one. I like this idea because really, what's the point of having someone tell you that you don't know something if they won't help you learn? Besides, if a kid doesn't understand something they need for later lessons, the child will only fall further behind in school. As much as I like the idea, I'm not sure how practical it would be. Any thoughts?



Also, I'm not sure why more people don't suggest asking the students about the education system. Most adults would be surprised about how well we understand the system's flaws, but I'm not sure why since we go there almost every day.

The newly implemented common core standards doesn't help. Adding stupid to more stupid. "Higher order thinking" my ass. "Critical thinking" my ass. In an attempt to compete with the standards that other countries build we decide to add insult to injury.

 

[Alias]

This might help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPYDeOenQmA

 

[Terror]

What's all the more frustrating is seeing and experiencing it right when entering school, and yet parents who may be 30 or 40 years older can't see it.

And they wondered why I quit saying anything to them and withdrew.

Logic and reasoning, learning how think for oneself, should be the very first thing a child is taught. Not coloring within the lines or pissing about with ducks and gooses

In fact, a duck should be in classrooms. Have a duck teach



(Storks are alright, too)

 

[Frankie]

I would argue that the educational system will change very little away from the current trend because the current system satisfies a large number of people (the middle of the bell curve) and because the it is less expensive than catering to everyone's special needs for learning.

On the other hand, the current system is not likely to be efficient in the future given the amount of knowledge the students will need to learn in order to catch up with current trends (think biology and rote memorization)

 

[sushi]

yea its complete shit and a tool to create the working class.