Education

Yep.  Registration required to post.
Post Reply
71-1085092892

Post by 71-1085092892 »

So what's wrong with the education system in America, today?

Is anything wrong?

I personally dont think the solution is to throw more money at it. I believe the problem is that parents don't give a shit enough to make sure their kids are doing the work, and school administrators have been castrated by the legal system and can't actually do anything to fix the attitude cases.

So... how do we ensure the kids can read before they're 10?
TPRJones
Posts: 13418
Joined: Fri May 21, 2004 2:05 pm
Location: Houston
Contact:

Post by TPRJones »

GORDON wrote:So what's wrong with the education system in America, today?

Everything. In my entire education (kindergarten through bachelor's degree) I only had three teachers that actually had any idea how to teach.

1) Find some way to get parents to give a damn. Can we incentivize that somehow?

2) Pay your teachers more. Much more. Much much much more. Be much more picky about who teaches. Also, teach them how to teach. I don't mean make them major in Education because that's a completely bullshit degree plan. Really teach them how to teach. Every large school should have at least one trainer of teachers, who does mandatory workshops one Saturday a month and spends some time each day with one teacher reinforcing their style and abilities, especially the newer teachers. Smaller schools can share an itenerant trainer. Hire your teachers based on what they know and what sort of potential your trainer thinks they have to be a good teacher. You can get excellent trainers from private sector companies to start (most really good instructors these days are doing laser safety courses or SAT courses or any other number of things in the private sector, where there is much less bullshit and much more money), and get them from your star teachers who are ready to move to the next level later on.

3) Cut out 90% of the administration and rules (this gets you plenty of money for #2 above). Replace it all with individual oversight by successful retired military school Commendants who visit schools to review the Principal/Superintendants/Whoever and have the authority to relieve them at will, but with orders to give them a list of issues and a chance to shape-up first. The military guys don't actually run the schools, that's done by civilians, but they can kick out administrators that are too full of bullshit to do the job right.

Put those three things together, and you have students ready to learn, teachers who will be able to get the job done, and an environment where teachers can do their magic. Plus, with the increase in efficiency, we can teach everything most students learn now in half the time, so that there's plenty of time for their high-school years to be devoted to college-level stuff.
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
Malcolm
Posts: 32040
Joined: Fri May 21, 2004 1:04 pm
Location: Minneapolis

Post by Malcolm »

Part of the control high school had over me was that they said they were gonna "prepare" me for college. Thus, all the shit I put up w\ before I actually learned they were mostly talking out their ass was for naught.

& yes, most teachers don't know a goddamned thing about teaching, particularly in Comp Sci up at my university.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
71-1085092892

Post by 71-1085092892 »

Thing about schools though... they begin to instill discipline, in addition to actual book lernin'. What's the first thing they say to you in kindergarten? "Everybody line up so we can walk down the hall single file to use the restroom."

It's that kind of regimental discipline that has the hippis in Cali doing that "free form schooling" crap.
mbilderback
Posts: 1282
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 9:50 am
Location: Memphis
Contact:

Post by mbilderback »

I agree, legalize and encourage capital punishment, and if the parents complain, legalize and encourage capital punishment on them beside their child. Make the parent responsible for the child's discipline problems, that will require the parent to be as involved as possible. I get up and cheer every time I hear of some parent getting jailed here when their kid missed XX number of days of school last year. Hells yeah!
TheCatt
Site Admin
Posts: 53728
Joined: Thu May 20, 2004 11:15 pm
Location: Cary, NC

Post by TheCatt »

On the other hand, Gordo, I think it's important for peeps to learn to be individuals, etc. Conformity is not necessarily a good thing. OF course, we all just draw the lines between free-thinking and conformity at different places.
It's not me, it's someone else.
Post Reply