In my mind, there are many, many ways in which the public school system could be improved.
Which changes need to be made vary widely from school to school, and probably from classroom to classroom (teacher to teacher, even).
But, in a general way, several things spring to mind:
--------------
Parental involvement in learning:
Parents have become far to uninvolved, in general, as opposed to previous generations.
I think it could easily be demonstrated that parental involvement is behind nearly all of the higher-quality products of the public education factory.
Key here, however, is to point out that, in my mind, those high-quality products are produced
despite the problems of the public school system, not because of it.
Sure, in some areas the public schools may have a good record, but I’ll only be satisfied when it’s 99% or better.
--------------
--------------
“Factory” mentality:
Far too often, I think, public schools try to implement a “one size fits all” teaching method, wherein those who have the most issues with the chosen system are passed on to the special education section.
Personally, I would guess that at most, 1% of the students have a learning disability that can be treated by giving them drugs.
The rest, simply need a different teaching method applied.
To solve this, students should be classified by learning type, if such a classification can be developed.
Those who learn best in one way, are taught together; and those who learn better in another way, are also taught together. Learning methods that complement each other can be combined, but I’m sure there are some students that would learn better left alone, and others who would learn better in a more group-based environment.
That said, learning about others is key to developing a child (I would think), so there should be times when students of one learning type gather with another, and such…
--------------
--------------
Teacher quality/Teacher unions:
- Poor quality teachers need to be removed from the teacher pool permanently.
- Blacklist em’, if a method to do so can be developed without being abused too much.
- Teachers unions should, at most, be organized at the state level, and I would far prefer at the county/parish level.
- Loose coalitions that have, like, a newsletter they send around with teaching tips and developments in the field, can be allowed at a multi-state or national/international level.
- They can temporarily band together to support a federal education bill or whatnot that they agree with, but it should be voluntary, and I can see one state’s teacher unions agreeing and another’s disagreeing.
--------------
--------------
School boards:
Need to be reorganized.
Some ideas:
- Must include a teacher/former teacher as one member.
- Must include a parent of a currently enrolled child or very recently graduated child as a member. Obviously, the potential for favoritism exists, but I think the benefit of a connection to the parents of current students is necessary.
- Must include a junior/senior student, perhaps class president? Currently, I believe the class president bit is sort of like this, but they cannot be a voting member of the school board.
- Parent cannot be related to student member.
- Must include a number of professional education experts, qualifications as determined by the school board in each county, with a more general requirement level determined at the state and federal levels. Number of education experts must be less than the majority, I think. But I’m not well versed in this area, by any means, having been home-schooled.
--------------
--------------
Well, I’m sure a few more ideas are bouncing around in my crazy mind, but I’ve probably passed WOT status already, so…