How Would You Change Education?
In response to A. D. P. Efferson's post on gender-segregated schooling, I thought I'd ask the Ricochet community what they would do to change education on the school level.
So, put on your imagination cap: you've just been made sole owner and president of a K-12 private school, with no restrictions on how the kids are to be taught.
The biggest change I'd make would be to allow kids to go at different paces through computerized testing. Leaving aside essay-based tests that require a human grader, most tests can be computerized. A student at my school could walk into a computer lab, tell the invigilator, "I'd like to take (or re-take) 7th grade math, test 2." The student could then take that test, and either get ahead of or catch up with his peers. Tests would be generated from a database of questions, so students could re-take tests many times without repeating the same questions.
There would be video-lectures available on all subjects (like the Khan academy), but there would also be traditional teachers teaching traditional classrooms.
Also, I would abolish Summer vacation in favor of smaller breaks throughout the year. Students could still do independent study and tests during breaks, but there would be no classes scheduled.
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Comments:
Nov '10
Re: How Would You Change Education?
Most special-ed "faculty" should resign. In my 7-12 school 25% of budget went to special-ed in one form or another. Accordingly, about 25% of the kids have "special-needs" files in the special-ed department. All of them just need a paddling.
It is a huge obstruction to classroom order, as most special-needs are behavior disorders. These are easily cured. I finally got over the last of my special-needs in army boot-camp.
If you agree with me, prepare to be insulted as mean-spirited.
Feb '12
Re: How Would You Change Education?
Nick Stuart - That is key. If public education's goal is to ensure that the public is educated, why should those parents who are educating their children outside of government programs be forced to pay double tuition, especially since many parents sending their kids to the government programs could afford to contribute more. (I just want government school parents who make a decent living "to pay their fair share.")But of course the true goal of government schools is to control the information our children receive and punish the parents who don't give in.
Feb '11
Re: How Would You Change Education?
I used this: http://www.gbt.org/text/sayers.html to design my home-school curriculum. It worked exactly as it says. As Valiuth suggested, I taught Physics and Math only for science. All other science subjects are Gee-Whiz classes in grade school which can easily be picked up in college, but cannot be pursued beyond an elementary level without proficiency in Physics and Math. I taught History through literature in strict chronological order.It really sticks that way. We were always finished by noon. The kids are now a Physicist/Navy Aviator, an MS Robotics Engineer/ Sculptor, an Historian/Accountant and an MS Plant Pathologist. We had such fun.
Feb '12
Re: How Would You Change Education?
My husband and I have discussed this subject a great deal.
The first step is to define what must be learned in each subject by defined time limits. (e.g. by the end of first grad, be able to add; by third grade, be able to recite multiplication tables.) Being able to take longer for certain subjects is fine, but some time limit is necessary to ensure that skills can be taught in their logical order to reach a given competency by graduation. (e.g. You can't take five years to master addition and have time to get to any level of algebra.)
Second, set up competency trials to ensure that no one is advancing past material they haven't mastered. (e.g. You can't understand algebra if you're still struggling with arithmetic; you can't write an essay if you haven't mastered grammar.)
As for daily structure, we noticed thought our college schedules provided a good model: 3/4 hours of morning classes followed by 4/5 hours of labs for hands on learning, office hours for questions, and homework to practice the skills learned.
Nov '11
Re: How Would You Change Education?
Leigh
You’re right, it is easier to judge coaches than teachers. The basic difference is competition. Competition in sports quickly identifies who is and who is not effective. Competition drives teams and coaches to get better. The same could work for education. Increase competition at every level: between students, classes, teachers and schools. Increase the rewards, especially the psychic rewards, for being a top student. Encourage academic competitions. Eliminate tenure and pay the best teachers more. Give teachers more control over the classroom. Reduce the power of teachers’ unions (which block competition) by eliminating coerced payment of union dues. Support, or at least stop attacking, home schooling, vouchers, and private schools.
Nov '11
Re: How Would You Change Education?
Richard Fulmer
You’re right, it iseasier to judge coaches than teachers. The basic difference is competition. Competition in sports quickly identifies who is and who is not effective. Competition drives teams and coaches to get better. The same could work for education. Increase competition at every level: between students, classes, teachers and schools. Increase the rewards, especially the psychic rewards, for being a top student. Encourage academic competitions. Eliminate tenure and pay the best teachers more. Give teachers more control over the classroom. Reduce the power of teachers’ unions (which block competition) by eliminating coerced payment of union dues. Support, or at least stop attacking, home schooling, vouchers, and private schools. · 5 minutes ago
I agree about competition -- on one side of things. But there's one difference: a coach is training the best. A classroom teacher is teaching them all, from twenty different starting points, and the goal is not simply to win one competition but to equip them all for life -- whether they can ever be an award-winner or not.
In sports, the competition is, basically, the whole point. In general education, it's only a free-market means to an end.
Edited on July 21, 2012 at 5:17amJun '12
Re: How Would You Change Education?
I am an 8th grade science teacher, and I agree with much of what is being said here. One aspect that you do not consider is that you are (probably) all educated people. My students' parents are not. Many have no computers, no parental guidance, and come to me reading 3 to 5 grade levels behind. So, I teach them how to think. I would agree with no tenure (yes, I have tenure) if a few changes were made. We need to throw out the vast majority of educational bureaucracy and divert that money back to the classroom. Pay the good teachers what we are worth, and kick the bad to the curb. I do not think that the internet is the big solution. It is a marvelous tool, but only a tool. This one-room school house to which some keep referring usually had one book: the Bible. I don't need computers to teach. I need the State to get off my back.
Apr '11
Re: How Would You Change Education?
I've spent a lot of time thinking and writing about this recently, as in the last six or seven months. I'm not sure there's a lot I'd change in the K-6 area at all, except that there should be more documentation of students' aptitudes and more attention to their tastes and desires in the activities they prefer. At the secondary level, I'd like to individualize the whole thing around the answer to the question: What do you want to be when you grow up?
I know it doesn't improve my credibility at all in this particular venue, but I am actually a secondary classroom teacher (mathematics and quiz bowl); I chafe at bells and walls and one-size-fits-all education in general. I am about to begin working at a Catholic preparatory boarding school where the purpose is defined in the promotional literature: college (and not just any).
My ideal education paradigm won't fit into 200 words, but I've already composed and developed it here, here, here, here, and here, if you're interested. If you do read any, I'd love to receive feedback, especially from this audience.
Cheers.
May '10
Re: How Would You Change Education?
Latin. Early and often.
Nov '10
Re: How Would You Change Education?
You know, I had no idea just how poor my school district was until I got to college and found that everyone else from New Jersey (and I'm talking about public schools here) had already read The Aeneid... in Latin. I really, really, really, really resent that.
(Naturally, the county was a Dem stronghold.)
Feb '12
Re: How Would You Change Education?
I read a fantastic homeschooling curriculum where they introduced Latin in third grade. How fantastic! After all, studying Latin actually teaches you everything you need to know about English grammar.
Jun '11
Re: How Would You Change Education?
How about......stop expecting the system to educate your child? Take it upon yourself.
Don't put them on the bus.
The mass educational system is the Experiment. It has not shown it works. Don't put your kids into the system. The current system is designed to create drones.
Was Aristotle public schooled? Was George Washington?
Since the early 1900's, they have convinced us that the State is capable of educating our children. Many of these comments seem to go along with this meme.
Step away from the cubicle.
Nov '10
Re: How Would You Change Education?
michael kelley: How about......stop expecting the system to educate your child? Take it upon yourself.
Don't put them on the bus.
The mass educational system is the Experiment. It has not shown it works. Don't put your kids into the system. The current system is designed to create drones.
Was Aristotle public schooled? Was George Washington?
Since the early 1900's, they have convinced us that the State is capable of educating our children. Many of these comments seem to go along with this meme.
Step away from the cubicle. · 6 minutes ago
I want to agree with this so badly, but some kids have really crap parents, and while a part of me thinks that the right response to this is, "That's a sad story, but things are tough all over," another part finds that terribly cruel and unsatisfying.
Nov '11
Re: How Would You Change Education?
Leigh
Increase competition at every level: between students, classes, teachers and schools.
A classroom teacher is teaching them all, from twenty different starting points, and the goal is not simply to win one competition but to equip them all for life -- whether they can ever be an award-winner or not.
A good coach demands and gets the best from every one of his players – the stars as well as the sloggers. A good teacher must do no less. Children will be equipped for life only if they are faced with challenges and learn to rise to them.
Jun '11
Re: How Would You Change Education?
Not JMR
michael kelley: How about......stop expecting the system to educate your child? Take it upon yourself.
Don't put them on the bus.
The mass educational system is the Experiment. It has not shown it works. Don't put your kids into the system. The current system is designed to create drones.
Was Aristotle public schooled? Was George Washington?
Since the early 1900's, they have convinced us that the State is capable of educating our children. Many of these comments seem to go along with this meme.
Step away from the cubicle. · 6 minutes ago
I want to agree with this so badly, but some kids have really crap parents, and while a part of me thinks that the right response to this is, "That's a sad story, but things are tough all over," another part finds that terribly cruel and unsatisfying. · 27 minutes ago
I'm not being clear.
Crap parents or good parents, don't put your kids into the Experiment.
It's not about leveling playing fields or being cruel or nice.
The Experiment is to take 3,000 kids, put them in a box with governmental control and hope for the best.
Jun '10
Re: How Would You Change Education?
I'd focus on the basics, beginning with reading, writing, arithmetic, and proper behavior for the first three years. Students would only pass on to the next grade after satisfactorily completing every section of every level. A kid can't learn until he can read, write, cipher and behave.
I'd eliminate kindergarten/baby sitting, and start at first grade. I'd civics and citizenship classes in fourth grade and continue them until graduation. I'd include the everyday skills a person needs such as balancing a budget and dealing with the government. I'd not only have them taught their rights, but their responsibilities as citizens.
I'd bring back home ec, shop classes, home repair, computer literacy and other skills people will need in everyday life.
I wouldn't depend on their parents for help, but I'd open the doors to them to learn themselves. Our society has fallen below the point where it can sustain itself. Parents can't teach their children because they don't know how.
Nov '11
Re: How Would You Change Education?
Richard Fulmer
A good coach demands and gets the best from every one of his players – the stars as well as the sloggers...
My point is that a coach has only the students with some football talent and those who want to play football. If you're not a football player, fine. Not so with reading. Competition between students is great, but as a teacher the student with a reading disability and a single parent who never helps with homework is just as much my responsibility as the star student who wins all the competitions. And no bureaucrat examining test scores and data can tell whether I've really done the best with that child.
I've got to bring the best out of those who haven't got a chance or any interest in the competitions.
I don't think we're disagreeing on substance. I'm only arguing that it's harder, in the abstract, to judge whether a regular classroom teacher is bringing the best out of the students.
If it's your child, you do know. Which is why the parents should be the decision-makers.
Edited on July 21, 2012 at 2:56pmSep '10
Re: How Would You Change Education?
Garrett Petersen:
So, put on your imagination cap: you've just been made sole owner and president of a K-12 private school, with no restrictions on how the kids are to be taught.
I would devise a system where parents have maximum involvement and in-put. As owner I would be primarily concerned with making a buck and this would keep my customers happy. I do not assume me or anyone else would be better qualified than the parents who certainly care the most.
Mar '12
Re: How Would You Change Education?
Make it a Montessori school!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori
Hands on learning at the childs natural pace.
The current system of grades assigned by age was designed by an industrial engineer following the assembly line factory model. Most old school buildings look like old factories.
Jul '12
Re: How Would You Change Education?
I am a middle school teacher in a Catholic school. Based on my research and educational experiences here are some things that would boost achievement in any school setting:
1. Longer school days with proper educational enrichment opportunities (Patall, Cooper, and Allan, 2010).
2. Substantial, potentially required, parental involvement with emphasis on involvement at home (Carter, Suzanne 2002). Parents are the first and most important educators.
3. 1-1 "office hours" before and after school for students to conference with their teachers.
4. Every teacher in the school on 1 year contracts.
5. Frequent assessment to monitor student needs, including early interventions if learning deficits are noticed, and early enrichment if student needs to be challenged.
6. Teachers with certifications for delivering differentiated instruction to meet the needs indicated by the assessments in #5.
7. Heavy emphasis on critical thinking skills: problem solving, logic, real world application of understandings learned, inquiry based learning in the Language Arts.
8. Heavy emphasis on moral and ethical behavior.
9. Most important: HIGH EXPECTATIONS. Students would not be allowed to fail in my ideal school.