The problem lays with the Students - not The Teachers .. WE NEED AN OTHERWISE HARMLESS PILL or Vitamin That Creates A "DESIRE TO LEARN" - and advance the process of learning ..
DON'T TELL ME IT CAN'T BE DONE .. there was a time when the average life span was 30+ years NOW IN SPITE OF ALL THE STRESS & POLLUTION WE'RE EXPOSED TO IN OUR DAILY LIVES - the average life span has been more than doubled - men have walked on the moon - animals (and maybe people) have been cloned ..
Don't tell me we can't develop a pleasant and harmless way for "everyone to acquire he desire to learn" !!
SOMEBODY - WORK ON THAT !!
pete(popo)evans
The U.S. Constitution, English language at grade 10 at least, some Civics classes, basic math, basic computer.
Not all students are heading to college but we can raise the minimum level of knowledge to what it takes to participate as an adult citizen.
I studied contract law as a MBA student, I hadn't heard much of it before then. Thats a shame, people would benefit from a simple understanding of law.
The federal govt should develop a citizenship cirriculum, not to get people into college but to have a productive country.
The decline of American education lies not with the student nor the teacher. The problem lies with the parents. When I got myself in trouble in middle school 25 years ago, my parents' first reaction was, "What did you do this time?" Now, parents' first reaction to the situation is, "Not my kid. S/He'd never do that."
We live in a country with more latchkey kids than ever before. In the rare instance in which both parents live under the same roof, they both work, so there's no one home to make sure the students are doing their homework. So the children busy with their IMs, X-Boxes, and iPods---things we never dreamed about 25 years ago. When they are home, too many parents are more worried about being their kids' friend than being a parent.
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you're reading it in English, thank a veteran.
One reason many families have both parents working is to pay their 40%+ tax bill.
The problem with education is not the curriculum, the kids, parents, or teachers, it is a cultural one. You can tell kids to study but if kids continue to come from environments where no time is available, TV, peer influence, and etc. will continue to be dominant. Kids are getting a pre-school and ongoing cultural education that is in direct conflict with goals of our education system. The gap between the commercial pop culture that technology inflicts upon kids is a constant source of conflict for kids that need to focus. As long as we continue to modify kids behavior in ways that aren't conducive to achievement at school, they will continue to struggle and sag lower.
Home schooling is one reaction to minimize those outside culture influences. While some success can be found in those efforts, failures by incompetent parents merely add to the problem because they demonstrate isolation and do not encourage the interaction that bonds people together to make strong communities.
Trickle down theory provides some lessons for change. If we are to eliminate destructive influences we might consider starting at the top. The need to eliminate the influence that special interest groups exert over government is a step in the right direction. If we are to improve education we must get away from the practice of just preaching "do what I say" and replace it with "do as I do."
Next step, Economic Justice.
Phil
Been to the Unity08 Delegate wiki lately? Join today!http://unity-usa.org
Lets uncorrupt our government!
It seems to me to be the answer is to abolish the public school system. I for the life of me cannot figure out why the catholic and private school model is so disturbing to this country. They teach more diverse children, more of the graduates can read and write, more go on to college, more are successful and they give back to the community. They do it for less money. They have fewer problems. They work in the worst and the best neighborhoods. They accomplish their task with or without parents input. Their students are from all walks of life, single moms, single dads, junkie parents, perfect parents, no parents. So why is it so hard to understand.
If you look at the model there is no fluff. They teach reading, writing and math. They teach history and geography. No diversity classes, no envoirnmental awareness classes, no political liberalism classes, no find your way through La La land classes, no cultural awareness classes.
They teach bare bones education. They separate the children who can hack college and send the rest to shop class and teach them a trade.
FYI. They have been doing it well for over a hundred years. Oh and the union does not have the say over the school plans. All the excuses are a smoke screen, poor kids can't learn, only rich kids can go, the parents pay, they can pick and choose students. It is all hogwash and propoganda. The public school system is a failure and has been since the 1950's. Abolish the public schools and start over.
I would agree stump. If you teach a student to read, write, do at least basic math, accurate history and geography, you have created a student for life. Who among those writing on these posts has not learned 2,3,4----- fold what they learned in school. Leave the frills to the ones a student chooses to study on his own.
I agree with you. The problem is how to get there from here, especially when we're all committed to universal education.
The answer is two-fold. First, the Federal government should stop funding education. No more taking money from the states just to send it back with strings attached.
Second, states should adopt universal education tax credits. These are non-refundable tax credits (meaning you can use them to reduce your tax liability, but you can't wind up receiving a subsidy). Taxpayers receive credits for their own children's educational expenses (paying for the public or private school of their choice, paying for additional educational materials, paying for tutoring services, etc.). Additionally, taxpayers can receive credits for any money they donate to a Scholarship Granting Organization (a public or private organization that grants scholarships to students). Scholarships from an SGO can be used to pay for any qualified educational expense, at the discretion of the SGO.
If we where to time line the decline of the American Education system you will see that it coincides with the involvement of the federal government. The Federal Government does not have the right per the constitution to involve itself with the education of American Children. That right is solely designated to the states and local governments. The issues that have affected schools stem directly through federal involvement in the system.
The first issue is consolidation. The federal government has pushed schools into consolidating for reasons other than education. This consolidation has left us with large schools, and an uncontrollable population of students who are under absurd rule sets and guidelines. The likelihood that a child in a 1000 person school getting a decent education is slim, and a child in a 3000 student school is almost nonexistent, common sense would dictate that consequence. The states and local communities should take back control of their school systems and parents will quickly fund the needed facilities. These administrators expect these kids not to fight or in essence be kids. They try and treat them as adults. If they do something wrong or cause trouble they no longer handle it by acceptable punishment forms rather they send the kid off to jail causing that child quite possibly a lifetime of crime. This is absurd just to think about the possibility of that outcome. Expecting 500 Males to enter into a building with varying degrees of temperament and hormones without the capability of error is egregious.
The second issue is teaching to the lowest common denominator, aka "No Child Left Behind". We have to challenge children to do better and not teach to the lowest intelligent child in the class. The children of the class should have to keep up with the smartest kid in the class not the other way around. Children love to be challenged and should be challenged on a regular basis. National testing is a joke, and those tests are below acceptable standards. We need to go back to teaching phonics and not whole word learning. We need to learn things in the correct historical context and stop sugar coating the past due to political correctness. We need to make all children take tests in English, and not allow immigrants to get by with the language excuse.
The third issue is the learning environment. We are too busy bringing our kids into this social debate and teaching them absurd information such as racism, homosexuality, sex, and feminism. The child has no need for these skills as far as education is concerned, and these topics should never be placed in a school classroom. The school may hold forums on such debates and children may volunteer to attended, but the fact that we seem to want to teach kids more about George Washington as a slave owner and not the constitution is incredulous. People are actually teaching about Sally Hemmings and not the importance of the Declaration of Independence. I hear more about the South being dumb stupid slave owners, rather than about States’ Rights and the fundamental freedoms that they believed they were fighting to maintain. We must teach what is relevant to learn and understand our system of government, math, English, science, and history. We must not lose focus on what is important to idiotic thought of political correctness.
The fourth issue is teaching our children to love this country. Every morning the class should have to say the pledge of allegiance. This will ingrain some respect for the principles that this country was founded upon. This is important. I see too much decadence in our population. Too many people believe that they owe nothing to this country for all that it has given to them. This country has its flaws and always has, but it is the best country on earth and that needs to be known. Some nationalist pride would not hurt.
We must not pose our own views but allow debate to be open and honest in the class room. Politics should play no role in learning, it only distorts the mind. The children are not learning because they are thrown into a situation with thousands of other students, asked to be adults and not children, politically taught, and asked to toe the line or they will be labeled as political incorrect.
Why, when I look at our schools do I see a prefect module for a business? When did our schools ever become a place of business? Scandals, kickbacks, pearks, and all the rest of the things that happen in our school systems just sicken me. Should we not be teaching any and everything that a child will need in order to make it in the real world? How many of you each day walk around and watch as our children cant do the simple functions in life?
What gets me is there are to many people that have way to much pride in their area of study. That in order to remove the crap that is not needed in our school systems would take an ack of GOD. You would have to tell people, that the years of study they put into that field of study is no longer needed! That algebra is pointless, Beowolf was a pointless story. We need a simple formula for our school systems to give us a simple return.
1+1=2
2+2=4
3+3=6 folks and that is how it should be done. Though it is a cookie cutter formula, it equals results that are not being meet on a basic level in our school systems! Some of you might cry foul, but stop and think when was the last time you used Algebra, or had a need for Beowolf. I myself have looked back and found one time that I needed Algebra. It was a test given before you interviewed for the job. Though math has always been simple for me, the job had no use for algebra. I still find almost 40 percent of it pointless, and un- usable in any form in todays world.
We need to build a system with a base and then allow our children to work off that base. We need something that is going to teach them the basic information of everything they will need in order to function in life. After that, they can make the call on what it is they wish to learn and how much of it they wish to learn.
Its late and two hours of sleep is showing itself in my train of thought.
I believe that what we need is a vision, something great and wonderful to look forward to. When I was younger it was the vision of exploring outer space. What do we have to look forward to now? A vision of how we want our nation to look 10, 15 or 25 years from now might be a place to start.
As a teacher I try to give my students a glimpse into possible futures they could actually obtain, possible dreams they might actually imagine and have come true. I find that when they get a mere hint of the possibilities awaiting them, sometimes they perk up and set positive and obtainable goals for themselves. Sometimes, it actually works.
By vision I do not mean some "feel good" mamby-pamby set of general ideas, but an actual, concrete set of national goals that will focus our attention on ways to make this nation better than it has been before, a nation which commands the respect we seem too often to just assume we deserve without much effort or forethought.
Naturally, it would take great effort to create such a vision and then "sell" it to the public, but I believe it can and must be done. Any thoughts from others on this idea????
Sadly, to me, anyway, I agree with all of you... it's all of the things you speak of. The teachers, the parents, the public school funding (or not, correctly funding, etc. ) ,, and for myself, I add the miserable wretch, corporations. The ads and come-ons and giveaways, and blurbs, and we know by now, the corporation CEO, don't care if your child is filled with lead or chokes on a hazardous object, so long as they make the mega-profit.
Davey K. in Florida
Create a pill...seriously? Is that what we have come to hope for in this country? A pill to save us all...that is the last thing we need...another freaking pill to shove down our childrens throats to "make" them learn. Learning is a desire that EVERYONE has...no matter the subject. The problem is at home. Parents are not parents, they are friends. The parent doesnt have the guts anymore to stand up to their own child and tell him/her what they have to do. I made it through school...sure I had my problems, and I fought and screamed the entire way, but I thank my mother everday for making me go and not letting me just drop out and become a bum. Schools need to stop trying to be the parent...schools need to focus on education, pure and simple.
Your answer is terribly single-minded that I have to object. My parents have never beaten, forced, or even paid me to get good grades, but I've gotten top grades in all my classes. I know parents who punish their kids, but get no where while doing it. Is there some delusion that the responsibility of learning should belong to anyone but the student? Isn't s/he the only one benefiting from going to school and trying to understand the concepts presented (in theory, anyways)? Don't try to blame the parents, the school, or anyone else. My dad had lousy teachers, lousy parents, but he would go past that to learn what he needed to learn to get his grades up and be one of the smartest men in state (no, he's in politics, he's a honest man).
It's the students' who must want the education, not the parents or anyone else.
It's figurative. I have noticed when you allow the students to have more control of their learning, they enjoy it. Making it into a choir or something to groan about, learning loses its light. Everyone--even children in school--learn every day, and like to learn. Using iPods, cellphones, computer programs, and even blogging are all examples of how children learn every day BY themselves. Teachers who lecture upon lecture won't get the students attention. The students are in charge of taking it upon themselves to learn, though it is sometimes hard for them: after all, who wants to learn how to measure a triangle in math class? Or diagram a sentence in English? Or what Presidents were shot in history? Unless it is made interesting, and something worth-wild of learning, there is no point for the learning. Curiosity has to be rooted in the student's mind, instead of grades and status and jobs and so forth.
There doesn't need to be a 'pill' made, and if we allow that to happen, we have given all our humanity to science tubes. The easy solution tends to be the wrong one, as is here. Schools need to change their ways so the average student can find an interesting, worth-wild aspect about their learning.