More time and energy should be directed to teaching our kids how to think properly. How to evaluate evidence, and, perhaps more importantly in todays environment, how to detect nonsense that permeates our culture. Our children need to be taught both at home and in our schools that belief and truth are not synonymous, and that evidence matters. Just because you wish for something to be true...won’t make it so.
More than just "public" schools, traditional schooling in general is based on a model that no longer serves a purpose. The factory model of education was adopted from Prussia - to create low-skilled workers. Our economies now need so much more; our world needs so much more. We need young people to learn the skills of emotional intelligence, problem solving, and critical thinking. The problem is we are still giving stickers and useless incentives hoping to "motivate" kids and not giving opportunities for leadership and growth, which they so desperately need!
A need to provide learning opportunities outside of the classroom as well as an equitable access to a network that support student's to creating and implementing a plan or pathway towards their end goal - career, college or community based.
IMO the teachers are being asked to do so much non-educationally related that it takes the joy out of teaching - testing, drilling facts, having to use "evidence-based" practices instead of allowing students time to explore and experiment, practicing lock downs as though protecting from gunmen, and now being armed themselves? Couple that with relatively low pay and long hours, and the students' human needs that are not being met elsewhere...it can be overwhelming. Budgets are tight, but the students are still needy. Teachers who care end up spending their own money on classroom supplies of not only teaching materials but food and drinks for the students who come hungry or whose parents are stressed and don't take as good care as they might. So many teachers leave the profession in the first couple years, and so many others move to administration as soon as they can...who's left to nurture and inspire?
I gave up teaching shortly after my first exposure to the "real" public school system. Students are great and their minds are ripe to absorb an education but our public school system, sad to say, is all about converting the student to a pattern of thought. We no longer teach critical thought so the student learns to replicate the bias of the instructor in order to get a grade that will push them on to college or a scholarship to college. We no longer have academic accountability for the public school system leadership so educators are not responsible to core values of the three "R's" and can go in tangents based on their perceptions no matter how ill conceived they may be. In retrospect to that comment, some schools do hold science to a higher level but many do not. The public school system is in great need of repair and there are many problems from funding to class size but I believe that the process of teaching critical thinking skills and the accountability of the rank an file as well as the board tend to be the biggest challenges we face.
Education should be about learning. Students are individuals.
Let's keep those premises in mind. While public education still cares about learning, the content is sometimes questionable, and our students are statistics, they are not individuals.
I'm sure many people are thinking at this point, "what about the good teachers who treated me/my children very well?" Yes, they are treating their students as individuals, but the education system itself in most countries don't. The fact that countries like the US severely underpay teachers is a sign that the system doesn't even view educators as individuals, let alone, students.
The problem with our education is that at every grade, with every test, there is a standard that is being promoted. While standards are absolutely necessary, what constitutes as a standard and whether or not a student should be expected to reach that "standard" can be a bit arbitrary.
Say I have a student who excels at writing papers, logical thinking, researches well, etc. Does it make sense for me to then expect that this person must be equally capable of handling complex mathematics? Perhaps mathematics doesn't resonate with a certain individual, maybe they do not have interest in it, and therefore, find the practice of learning it to be unproductive and irrelevant. That does not mean that we should not demand that this student learn mathematics, but we should question the standards and the focus of such an individual.
To question our current standards and to constantly modify them to individuals will require time and resources, and money. That is why our governments and our education systems strive to reach broad standards demanded of all students within the system. They will not attempt to change this system unless if they are faced with genuine pressure and repercussions.
If we are going to criticize the diseased fruit of public education, we must first examine the root to diagnose the source of the symptoms. Our teachers are trained in colleges and universities which are, for the most part, indoctrinating those who will help raise America's children, spending more time with them than their parents during their formative years. Ideologies are being promoted from the top down with careful political correctness. Too much time and energy are spent in our schools passing along "lessons" in gender issues, birth control, and sexuality, global warming, a hatred of conservative thought and discrimination against anyone who expresses views to the contrary. Public schools are a tool of the left to capture the minds of impressionable children and create an army of programmable robots who will do their bidding. Unfortunately, the scheme is working, but people are beginning to awaken to the problems and change is coming. If you have rotten fruit, look at the rotten root!
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Answers (1-10)
Student:Teacher Ratio Too many students for one teacher. We are not robots. Not enough credit is given to teachers.
More than just "public" schools, traditional schooling in general is based on a model that no longer serves a purpose. The factory model of education was adopted from Prussia - to create low-skilled workers. Our economies now need so much more; our world needs so much more. We need young people to learn the skills of emotional intelligence, problem solving, and critical thinking. The problem is we are still giving stickers and useless incentives hoping to "motivate" kids and not giving opportunities for leadership and growth, which they so desperately need!
in a word ... indoctrination.
A need to provide learning opportunities outside of the classroom as well as an equitable access to a network that support student's to creating and implementing a plan or pathway towards their end goal - career, college or community based.
We no longer teach critical thought so the student learns to replicate the bias of the instructor in order to get a grade that will push them on to college or a scholarship to college.
We no longer have academic accountability for the public school system leadership so educators are not responsible to core values of the three "R's" and can go in tangents based on their perceptions no matter how ill conceived they may be. In retrospect to that comment, some schools do hold science to a higher level but many do not.
The public school system is in great need of repair and there are many problems from funding to class size but I believe that the process of teaching critical thinking skills and the accountability of the rank an file as well as the board tend to be the biggest challenges we face.
Education should be about learning. Students are individuals.
Let's keep those premises in mind. While public education still cares about learning, the content is sometimes questionable, and our students are statistics, they are not individuals.
I'm sure many people are thinking at this point, "what about the good teachers who treated me/my children very well?" Yes, they are treating their students as individuals, but the education system itself in most countries don't. The fact that countries like the US severely underpay teachers is a sign that the system doesn't even view educators as individuals, let alone, students.
The problem with our education is that at every grade, with every test, there is a standard that is being promoted. While standards are absolutely necessary, what constitutes as a standard and whether or not a student should be expected to reach that "standard" can be a bit arbitrary.
Say I have a student who excels at writing papers, logical thinking, researches well, etc. Does it make sense for me to then expect that this person must be equally capable of handling complex mathematics? Perhaps mathematics doesn't resonate with a certain individual, maybe they do not have interest in it, and therefore, find the practice of learning it to be unproductive and irrelevant. That does not mean that we should not demand that this student learn mathematics, but we should question the standards and the focus of such an individual.
To question our current standards and to constantly modify them to individuals will require time and resources, and money. That is why our governments and our education systems strive to reach broad standards demanded of all students within the system. They will not attempt to change this system unless if they are faced with genuine pressure and repercussions.
The cost of special education.
If we are going to criticize the diseased fruit of public education, we must first examine the root to diagnose the source of the symptoms. Our teachers are trained in colleges and universities which are, for the most part, indoctrinating those who will help raise America's children, spending more time with them than their parents during their formative years. Ideologies are being promoted from the top down with careful political correctness. Too much time and energy are spent in our schools passing along "lessons" in gender issues, birth control, and sexuality, global warming, a hatred of conservative thought and discrimination against anyone who expresses views to the contrary. Public schools are a tool of the left to capture the minds of impressionable children and create an army of programmable robots who will do their bidding. Unfortunately, the scheme is working, but people are beginning to awaken to the problems and change is coming. If you have rotten fruit, look at the rotten root!