March 11, 2009
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WCFQ 39d: Our Education system... it's terminal
The origin of the current school term goes back to our agricultural roots and the large families once encouraged by harvest and religion. At one time, it was typical for a family to produce as many children as possible. The (few) children who survived infancy and childhood disease were put to work on the farm. They only went to school in the winter months after the crops had been brought in. With the industrial age, society adjusted to city life slowly. Some would say society is still adjusting as immigrants from agricultural societies (and religious zealots with the message of "go forth and multiply" on permanent play in their heads... I know I'm being mean there, but we need to start thinking about the impact our population has one the Earth) continue to have large families with no ready outlet for their idle hands. Even while the birth rate has dropped, large families no longer a necessity, better medicine still means more children live into adulthood and have the potential to grow up as law abiding citizens or illiterate little urchins. Beyond what they learn at home, which isn't much if both parents work, school is the first line of defense between a life as a law abiding, productive citizen or one of permanent welfare or criminal inclination.So how do school terms based on agricultural limitations make sense now that most families do not need the extra hands? At this time, most kids start school early in the morning, much too early if you ask me. I can remember being a kid and being barely coherent enough to walk there, let alone learn anything. I've seen the buses, like limo service, picking kids up and dropping them off within blocks of each other. It's no longer a safe enough environment for them to walk a few blocks to a central pick up point. My nephew gets picked up at 6:30 in the morning, and he's only five.) Studies have been done which show kids, and teens, should be allowed to sleep later in the morning according to their natural biological clocks. Like having a breakfast, sleeping till eight, instead of five or six, increases cognitive function.
In all sincerity, I think that the US education system needs a complete overhaul. Not just in the way children attend, but in how they are taught. America has one of the shortest terms and also one of the worst education records in the world. I think kids should be sent to school all year round, BUT I think that their days should be shorter, and a rotating schedule of attendance would make classes smaller and more manageable, ensuring they get more one on one time if they need it. I consider myself self-taught because of how much I was neglected by the system. I spent all my time in libraries and still belong to eight while working in a bookstore, but most people, and especially most children, are not so self-directed.
I would like to see reduced daily hours for kids as well as an alternating schedule for the students, half going one day and the other half going the next. Or if not that, then half in the morning and half in the afternoon, like kindergarten used to be (Is it still? My nephew goes all day.) I think kids would get more out of the smaller classes. The shorter hours every day, stretched out over a longer period, would be less stressful for them and hopefully help them to better assimilate the information. Of course, this attendance issue is only one thing I see wrong with how schools in the US are run... there are many more areas I'd address if I were in charge. In reality, I think if the government, local and federal, were really concerned with the education the next generation received, they'd cut frivolous spending on toilet seats, screwdrivers, pens, and certain military ventures and devote more time and effort to overhauling our failing education system.It's a shame that in this country, people are encouraged more to put in their time and go home than to honestly care about the quality of work that they do. But then, I work in retail and lately Borders has encouraged nothing less than indifferent drudgery (but I'm not allowed to blog about work any more if I want to keep my job... which I don't really, alas). When you deal with kids and impact upon the quality of life so intimately as educators do, indifference is really not a personality trait I'd like to see encouraged by our leaders.
Not that anyone would ever give me power by donating to get me into office or anything. lol No one wants to see a Pagan, socialist, female president any time soon. Poor Obama gets enough bashing for his "socialist" leanings. I'd hate to see what they'd say about me since I actually admit to being socialist among other things!
March 11th
In 1314, Jacques de Molay the last grand-master of the Knights Templar was burned at the stake by King Philip IV. He predicted that the King and Pope Clement V would follow him in forty days which they did.
In Greece, feats of strength and superhuman acts of courage are preformed in honor of Herakles or Hercules today.
Comments (9)
If only a Pagan socialist woman could be elected...
I agree with you completely. My little brother switched schools to this place called Futures Academy, which is basically a high school for drop-outs. The funny thing is, he attends only 4 hours a day, 4 days a week, and yet most students there manage to power through all of their high school course work at least a year ahead of the kids who go to regular high school. And I'm not surprised, since high school for me was an insane time waster. Especially senior year; I spent most of my time reading books during class.
you seem to know a lot about how it should be as far as getting the most out of learning for kids. did you take a class or course on it or did you learn this all from your own interest/drive to learn yourself?
as far as presidents concern. it doesn't matter who's in office it's the presses job and everyone else to conbat whatever it is their agenda is. at least that's how i'm seeing it.
@NightlyDreams - Mostly it's just what I think would work better. I have done some reading on different learning styles, but beyond that, I just think there needs to be a change. It's just a shame that the kids have to pay for the indifference of the adults in regards to their futures. Just because the kids aren't their kids doesn't mean that the adults those kids grow up to be won't have an impact on everyone.
@heidenkind - I quit high school because I couldn't take the abuse any more. I was terribly picked on by the other students. And they still made me wait until I was 18 to take my GED and go to college. They should have let me take the test right out of school and gone to college early, I was ready, but that wasn't the way it worked, apparently. So far as I'm concerned, the system, especially the grade school system) is not designed for people who want to learn. It's designed for people (teachers and administrators) to draw a pay check. Colleges are only marginally better, but lack the ability to remove problem teachers once they achieve tenure. I had a few in college who should not have been teaching, but since they had tenure, the complaints fell on deaf ears.
@harmony0stars - It is meant for administrators to draw a paycheck; that's what things like CSAP tests and attendance are all about. I stuck with high school, but for years I wished I had dropped out and just gotten my GED. I think that's ridiculous that they made you wait until you were 18 to take it.
@heidenkind - I don't have a problem with them getting paid for their work, but when the work they do impacts how someone will live their life in later years, it's important that they make the effort to do their job well. I understand job frustration more than just about anyone, but when it comes to kids, can we really afford to have teachers who don't love their jobs?
I personally don't believe in doing a job unless I'm going to do it well, which is another thing that contributes to my current job frustration, but that's doubly important in a profession where how you do your job affects the cognitive and emotional development of your "client."
@harmony0stars - Teaching is tough. I honestly don't know why someone would keep on doing it for years and years if they didn't love it. That would turn you into a bitch in no time.
Your views on education are very interesting. I have never thought of having a staggered day were half of kids attend in the morning while the other half attends in the afternoon. That would be an excellent way to reduce class sizes without having to expand facilities and teaching staff, helping poorer school districts.
I also believe the entire education system needs to be overhauled. Kids probably should go year round with breaks interspersed throughout. We need to care about early education, plain and simple. We set up our kids to fail in understaffed, under-equipped schools were teachers are undereducated and not held accountable. I think teachers in elementary and high school need to be held, at least partially, to a performance rating system like college. Teachers should be evaluated at the end of semesters. In elementary the parents should do the rating and then in junior high and high school the students should be allowed to do the evaluations.
I won't blather on but we need to start holding everyone accountable for education: teachers, students, government, parents, etc.
@Altered_Sight - It just seems that summer is no longer the most logical break when snow days and bad winter weather do more to delay class and actually threaten the welfare of students and teachers alike. At least if school was in session in summer, the kids would have access to air conditioning.
As for accountability, there's a deficit of accountability across the board. No one wants to be responsible for their actions (teachers, politicians, the guy who cuts you off in traffic), especially not when their actions affect hundreds or thousands.
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