Yeah, I keep wondering if the faculty responded enthusiastically or with that confused start and stop clapping or if there was some kind of collective awkward in the whole crowd or what exactly.
I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer - not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition - a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker.
LOL@Coxsackie-Athens High School on accounta they are named after a virus
It's funny but I'd say she has learned a very big lesson.
Struck a real chord with me; I've been in education almost full time for the last twenty years. I had a goal with it all, but its now evaporated. And I'm left trying to find what remains behind I have a passion for.
__________________ The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve. -Eugene Wigner
Wow Dragar, that's pretty heavy shit. May I ask what you are finding with regard to passion? Are there maybe some less traditional avenues* that would allow you to maybe meet some of your original goals?
*Tutoring, writing, starting an afterschool or summer class of some kind
Erica Goldson, the Class of 2010 valedictorian, encouraged her classmates, and those who will come after them, to question authority and push the boundaries.
“Focus more on learning, rather than on getting good grades,” she said. “Step up and ask questions.”
I would make a terrible teacher. The very first thing I would tell my class would be, 'anybody that doesn't want to be here, leave now.'
I would either be left with an empty classroom and I could pursue my own research or those remaining would be the hard core and we would cover some serious ground.
This idea that we have to educate everybody is nonsense. We should make education available to anyone that wants it but forcing people to learn is just silly.
In my mind the major question we should be asking about the educational system in the US is how do we take young children who are crazy about learning and turn them into people that think of learning as awful drudgery.
At this point I think how kids are taught is more important than what is taught.
There are no stupid children, only children with impediments, disabilities, nonabilities, etc. The focus - at this point - should be on nurturing and cultivating every child's innate desire to learn and grow.
Also, there has been much discussion on students and parents, with little mention of educators. In terms of compulsory schooling, teachers need better support, and not just monetary. The curriculum really doesn't matter if a teacher is burned out, or is embittered by a failed system, or is just a dick who likes to hear himself talk more than help his students, por ejemplo.
__________________
IF HULK CAN’T DANCE, HULK NOT WANT TO BE PART OF YOUR REVOLUTION.
-feminist hulk
Her education would be conducted through the Wereldschool (Worldschool), an educational institution that would provide her with material for self-learning. During hurricane seasons, Dekker plans to fly home to study there.[11]
At this point I think how kids are taught is more important than what is taught.
I think both the how and what are important. Unfortunately the how is an even more complex question, as we have new info on the learning brain all the time.
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There are no stupid children, only children with impediments, disabilities, nonabilities, etc. The focus - at this point - should be on nurturing and cultivating every child's innate desire to learn and grow.
Agreed
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Also, there has been much discussion on students and parents, with little mention of educators. In terms of compulsory schooling, teachers need better support, and not just monetary. The curriculum really doesn't matter if a teacher is burned out, or is embittered by a failed system, or is just a dick who likes to hear himself talk more than help his students, por ejemplo.
Any suggestions on how best to accomplish this and prevent burn out or embitterment?
My take is that children are little imitators. They seek role models to imitate. If that is so then we should be more concerned with exposing them to teachers that are actually well learned in the areas they are teaching and are actively engaged themselves in expanding their own knowledge. IMO the fatal flaw in so-called modern education is the idea that a teacher is a kind of production line worker. They don't need to know how the thing they are building works in much detail, nor how to design it or even care much about how to make something work better than the last item they built. They only need to posses very small and relatively simple and easy chunks of knowledge and apply them repetitively.
Standardized curriculum is the bane of a good education because it is built on the idea that you can train a low skilled person with an at best mediocre knowledge of the subject as a teacher. In other words the system is structured so that if the math teacher is out sick the coach can take over.
It is no wonder that teachers burn out. No different than the workers on a production line. The more standardized and repetitive you make the work the more likely they will burn out.
Also the worker that we place in front of the class of young imitators is not someone that we would want our kids to imitate, someone that is a good learner themselves. People that are intensely curious and constantly trying to expand their own knowledge usually self select themselves out of the system because they would go batty if they stayed.
I'm reminded of the montage at the beginning of Election when Matthew Broderick keeps drawing the "Legislative - Executive - Judicial" triangle on the blackboard year after year and it keeps getting sloppier and less legible.
It would be interesting if we sort of ran the whole system backwards. Take university professors, people well educated themselves and each year or so have them teach a year earlier. I would imagine that they would over the course of a few generations figure out the best way to teach children. It is a kind of cheating, working the problem backwards.
At this point I think how kids are taught is more important than what is taught.
I think both the how and what are important. Unfortunately the how is an even more complex question, as we have new info on the learning brain all the time.
I agree how and what are both important.
My comment focuses on compulsory schooling. The debate about "what should be taught" may never go away, and I think that would be a good thing.
By "how should children be taught" I mean - at least initially - very simple things, such as having teachers who want to be there, or encouraging greater parental involvement, or getting rid of busy work.
Here is a talk by Dan Meyers about changing how math is taught. Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover. Rather than providing students with all the information, he advocates allowing students to figure it out for themselves.
Oh yeah, my comment that at this point how kids are taught is more important is within the context of my thoughts on reforming compulsory schooling. We need to think of it as a long process that is not going to effect every child and not right away. I am a strong believer that parental involvement is imperative to any real reform. In that vein, because reform will not effect every child and not immediately, I think it would behoove parents/caregivers to do whatever they can to cultivate the innate desire to learn and grow that children - as human beings - have.
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Originally Posted by LadyShea
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Also, there has been much discussion on students and parents, with little mention of educators. In terms of compulsory schooling, teachers need better support, and not just monetary. The curriculum really doesn't matter if a teacher is burned out, or is embittered by a failed system, or is just a dick who likes to hear himself talk more than help his students, por ejemplo.
Any suggestions on how best to accomplish this and prevent burn out or embitterment?
A few...
I think, first and foremost, parents and caregivers must be more involved. Right now parents are more outside observers who occasionally are given updates on the progress/regress of their children. When kids go to K, they are given the impression that home is separate from school, that learning is achieved in school and that teachers/educators are the experts on learning. This is not the case. Parents/caregivers are the very first teachers, and this relationship - rather than be cut off, should be nurtured and utilized within the institution of school.
I think every parent and educator would benefit from understanding what kind of learner their child/student is. Understanding how someone learns is a great tool because activities can be tailored to meet that person's abilities and needs. The one-size-fits all schooling is detrimental to us as a species because we are masters of individuality and specialization at least compared to other earth species.
Schooling should not be all about text books and busy work. There should be more variety, and opportunity for the teachers themselves to learn. I think a lot of educators burn out from the repetition, from having kids that don't give a fuck because the material is boring or unrewarding.
I think the most important aspect of a teacher - i.e. what every teacher really should have, is the genuine desire to teach and to care about youth. An adult who genuinely cares is a powerful thing, and can make all the difference in a child.
I know a lot of this is general. Again, I think of reforming schooling as a process and something everyone should be in on.
__________________
IF HULK CAN’T DANCE, HULK NOT WANT TO BE PART OF YOUR REVOLUTION.
-feminist hulk
It would be interesting if we sort of ran the whole system backwards. Take university professors, people well educated themselves and each year or so have them teach a year earlier. I would imagine that they would over the course of a few generations figure out the best way to teach children. It is a kind of cheating, working the problem backwards.
I think that's a fantastic idea and have thought that myself. This would also strengthen ties between the university community and the greater community within which it resides.
I commuted to college 30 minutes away, and I was amazed at how disconnected the campus could be from the surrounding areas.
__________________
IF HULK CAN’T DANCE, HULK NOT WANT TO BE PART OF YOUR REVOLUTION.
-feminist hulk
Unlike in the U.S., Sweden's home-schoolers do not fit a particular religious profile and are about as secular as the rest of the country but favor an educational style different from what Sweden's state schools deliver.
Yet:
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"Since all teaching in Swedish schools is both comprehensive and objective, there is no need for home schooling with reference to religious or philosophical reasons, and this is why this is not an option in the new Education Act," she said.
I don't get it. Germany was worried about homeschoolers becoming separatists or something, what's Sweden's beef with it? Why the reference to religion if it's not a religious movement? Also the Netherlands all but bans it as well. What gives?
Also, are these EU countries? How do they justify these bans in light of the European Convention?
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The European Convention of Human Rights explains in Article 2 of the First Protocol that “No person shall be denied the right to education,” thus establishing education as a fundamental right of children. But it also allows for diversity of methods, “the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.” (p.160)
despite the drop in this year’s scores after the state recalibrated its standardized exams, students citywide were still making substantial progress, based on graduation rates and other data.
The testing changes, which were designed to make them more rigorous, caused fewer students to pass and made gaps in achievement among racial and ethnic groups more pronounced. More than half of all students failed English, and only 54 percent passed math.
It's not the education necessarily, it's the fucking tests!
Rather than start a new thread I am just picking one.
So, with the job and caretaker situation, I understand that my ideal of not sending DS to public school ever may not work out at all, or not work out long term. Shit happens because this is life and it's messy.
Anyway, I have been looking at it from the POV of mitigating those things I feel are the most harmful...standardized tests and crappy curriculum. I have been scouring the state statutes and board of education regulations, and cannot find the cited "state regulation" mandating standardized test participation for each individual student. I will need to call the BoE on that I guess to see what happens if one refuses to allow their child to take the test.
Then I was looking at the young child assessments, called DIBEL, used for K and 1st grade. They assess and apparently use something called nonsense word fluency...and I am literally shaking with rage over that.
Nonsense word fluency means they test phoneme knowledge using nonsense words. The problem I have with that is that the whole point of using phonics to teach reading is so that they can approximate the pronunciation of an unknown word and then connect the approximated word with an actual word in their vocabulary. Teaching phonemes in isolation is one thing (I work on them with Kiddo all the time), teaching them to be read in a non word context is completely counter to the whole point of decoding words.
Has anyone else ever heard of this shit? WTF? Is there any data or evidence to suggest that nonsense word fluency demonstrates improvement in reading comprehension or learning to read?
Not exactly, but similar. The DLAB is designed to test your likely ability to learn a foreign language. In the test you learn a really small and simple nonsense language and then answer questions about it.
I guess I can sorta kinda understand how that same technique could be used to test a kindergartner's ability to learn English?
Not exactly, but similar. I took the DLAB when I went in the Air Force. It's designed to test your likely ability to learn a foreign language. In the test you learn a really small and simple nonsense language and then answer questions about it.
I guess I can sorta kinda understand how that same technique could be used to test a kindergartner's ability to learn English?
I don't understand not using real English words when we are discussing a brand new reader.
Re: Fucking education! How does it work?
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