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Which of these things would improve education in the United States?

Which of these things would improve education in the US?


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Kandahar

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There are lots of proposals for education reform in the US, not all of which can work together. What do you think are the most important things that can be done to improve education?
 
The only thing that's going to make a difference is having parents more involved and interested in their child's education.
 
You missed the most important two IF you want to catch up with other nations on international standardized test scores:

1- a national educational curriculum where the entire USA learns the same things from the same books and materials and takes the same tests which measure what is actually learned in ever classroom in America. Until you do that, you are NOT measuring what is actually taught in classrooms or learned in classrooms since we have thousands upon thousands of different school systems devoid of uniformity in curriculum which many other nations have notably Japan.

2- American education is a factory system where each raw material progresses down an assembly line at the same pace. That must be done away with. Teach everyone the concept of one plus one is two. Those that master it move on. Those who do not go to another teacher for another approach until they do master it before moving on. Do that with everything you teach and some kids will graduate in eight year, some in twelve years, and some in even longer periods of time. It will cost Xdollars to educate some, 1.5Xdollars to educate others and 3X dollars to educate some.
 
The option for REALLY making a difference wasn't listed, namely, improving the raw material going in to the schools. Ever since Paul Erlich/the Zpg movement/ the women's rights movement and voluntarily reduced fertility levels, the very people who tend to have the highest educational level, themselves, tend to produce the fewest children, and those with the lowest educational levels the most. Reversing this trend, while not a realistic expectation, would do the most towards improving schooling.

When children come from situations where education isn't valued, they don't value it, and when so many of the more intelligent potential parents take themselves out of the gene pool, then the school systems are limited to those who have more children.
 
Lots of things are needed to improve our education system. Parent involvement is of course a good one like Cephus says. But more than that is needed.

Teacher incentives such as basing thier pay on their students average GPA would be helpful. For example if the average GPA of a teachers whole class is 2.0 then that teacher should probably not even be allowed to teach. But if the average GPA of the class is 4.0 then that teacher should be making more than the average teacher.

Stricter rules when it comes to students. Right now the high school in my area does not enforce school attendence. Things like that need to change. Also enforcement of rules is a must.

Instead of just punishing kids for when they do bad we need to zero in on why they are doing bad and address the problem.

More emphasis on scholastics - less emphasis on sports. While sports are needed no one should get a sports grant. Such things only promote the old style of making the nerds do the jocks homework or cheating, or both.

Less union involvment. Unions are largely useless for what they were originally intended for in today's world. Now adays they're nothing more than a bunch of thugs that imo is part of the reason that companies are going overseas.

Less time off for frivolous holidays. Such as MLK day. Yes the guy was great. No denying that. But I'm pretty sure that MLK would be disgusted with kids today demanding to have a school day off to "supposedly" celebrate his achievements. Every kid knows that is just bunk and they just want to not go to school.

No more days off for "teacher inhouse day" or whatever the hell it is called now adays. In my day they use to just call it teacher meetings. If the teachers need to learn something new due to policy changes then they would do that on the weekends or over the summer...not in the middle of the week.

Smaller classes would help as the teachers are able to devote more time to individual students. There's a reason that the Sylvan Learning Center helps kids so much...and it's not because they have huge classes.

There are of course other things but this would be a good start.
 
Charter schools, what are they, why do they seem to do so well?
We need far, far greater parental involvement, particularly in schools that are not doing well.
We need, air conditioned schools, and smaller ones.
The costs may well increase.
We need to hear and listen to our youth.
They have the answers, if only we could change our attitudes.
School should be open 12 months out of the year.
There is probably much we can learn from Europe and Asia, even the Islamic nations(maybe??).
Our fed. gov. education department should coordinate learning efforts between states, that should be their purpose.
 
There are lots of proposals for education reform in the US, not all of which can work together. What do you think are the most important things that can be done to improve education?

Nothing will change for the better if they lie, falsify reports and fudge the truth to make themselves look like they're doing good when they're not.

They need to hold students accountable.
They need to hold parents accountable.
They need to hold teachers accountable.

If we can take care of some of these serious flaws then perhaps we can get a better picture of what's wrong with the system.

Oh - and schools should stop receiving financial perks based on the % of poor-children attend. And teachers need to go back to the basics - you don't need expensive equipment and fancy nik naks to do a better job at teaching.
 
The option for REALLY making a difference wasn't listed, namely, improving the raw material going in to the schools. Ever since Paul Erlich/the Zpg movement/ the women's rights movement and voluntarily reduced fertility levels, the very people who tend to have the highest educational level, themselves, tend to produce the fewest children, and those with the lowest educational levels the most. Reversing this trend, while not a realistic expectation, would do the most toward improving schooling.

When children come from situations where education isn't valued, they don't value it, and when so many of the more intelligent potential parents take themselves out of the gene pool, then the school systems are limited to those who have more children.
But how in the world are you going to do that?
Talk the poor and the ignorant into having fewer children....
And convince the selfish and greedy into having more.....
This is something to cause both the Republican and Democrats "think tanks" to work overtime...
 
But how in the world are you going to do that?
Talk the poor and the ignorant into having fewer children....
And convince the selfish and greedy into having more.....
This is something to cause both the Republican and Democrats "think tanks" to work overtime...

Yeah, the moment you figure that out, mate, let India know, they've been struggling with it for about two thousand years.
 
The option for REALLY making a difference wasn't listed, namely, improving the raw material going in to the schools. Ever since Paul Erlich/the Zpg movement/ the women's rights movement and voluntarily reduced fertility levels, the very people who tend to have the highest educational level, themselves, tend to produce the fewest children, and those with the lowest educational levels the most. Reversing this trend, while not a realistic expectation, would do the most towards improving schooling.

When children come from situations where education isn't valued, they don't value it, and when so many of the more intelligent potential parents take themselves out of the gene pool, then the school systems are limited to those who have more children.

You've watched Idiocracy recently, haven't you.

Don't worry - we won't fall apart that far.
 
*Better discipline, possibly corporal punishment
*Expansion of online learning
*Teaching incentives
 
I have a few reforms not listed.

1) Student Rewards
Cut 5% from each aspect of the public school budget nationwide. Then use that money to set up a fund to pay school kids for getting good grades. That will give kids the initiative to earn good grades.

2) Reform School Districts
Instead of having school policy decided by district school boards, have laws done on a county level and policies done by individual schools. Each school will have a Board of Directors. Each board will be made up of equal parts A) juniors or seniors from that school, B) parents of children who go to that school, C) teachers employed at that school, D) administrators. That way, individual schools will be better able to make policies that suit their needs, and therefore the needs of their own students and teachers, rather than every school in a district be dictated to by politicians who may not even have a student currently enrolled or had never been an educator.

3) Have Teacher Guilds
Instead of having teacher unions instead form teacher guilds that provide basic minimum standards for public school teachers for their contracts and working conditions, and let teacher unions be done on a local basis. This way, school teachers can have reasonable minimum standards but won't be forced into being unionized. The guild can demand basic contract minimums, but the schools can provide it's own incentives to bring in teachers.

4) Educate Students To Their Strengths
Schools expect students to be the best at every subject. However, most children, and even better, are better at certain subjects than others. Because of that, we should have some kind of grading system that reflects that. For instance, one child may get Bs and Cs in all subjects, and so is average all around; however, a different child may get As in math and sciences but Cs and Ds in social sciences and literature. Such a child may get criticized for making poorer grades in the latter subjects; however, he makes excellent grades in the former subjects. And if you average the two groups, then he's an average student. So instead of expecting children to be good at everything, which may be too much, we should forgive children who are bad at certain subjects as long as they excel at other subjects.

5) Have Students Do Things
Not every student learns by sitting in a desk and listening to a teacher talk. So schools should have more exercises in which they actually do things. Instead of talking about geometry, let them carve out geometric shapes. Instead of talking about the science of plant life, let them also grow a small garden. Get kids involved and actually do stuff. They will then find those subjects much more interesting if they are, and it also gives them practical experience with regards to those subjects.
 
You should see the performance of home school coops in Texas. Few of the parents have teaching certificates, yet their kids out perform all other schools. Why? Parents are heavily involved, the classes are small and everyone is accountable. That's why I would trend away from the large, prison like schools, and towards very small schools with less than 20 students per grade. It works. It works very well.
 
Public schools are very successful in their primary objective which is to provide secure and well paying jobs for adults. Hooray for the adults.

Public schools have failed huge numbers of students by graduating them without basic survival skills. Not to mention the dropouts. Too bad for the kids.
 
But how in the world are you going to do that?
Talk the poor and the ignorant into having fewer children....
And convince the selfish and greedy into having more.....
This is something to cause both the Republican and Democrats "think tanks" to work overtime...

You might have missed the words "while not a realistic expectation".
 
You've watched Idiocracy recently, haven't you.

Don't worry - we won't fall apart that far.


No, I have never seen it. Your mentioning it reminds me that I have heard the name, but I know nothing about it.

My own opinions have more to do with observation and reading metahistorians like Spengler and Toynbee than anything else.
 
Public schools are very successful in their primary objective which is to provide secure and well paying jobs for adults. Hooray for the adults.

Public schools have failed huge numbers of students by graduating them without basic survival skills. Not to mention the dropouts. Too bad for the kids.


From what I can tell graduation rates for high school students is 70.06 % nation wide. Now in my book that would be a passing grade. Just barely but it still passes.

http://www.higheredinfo.org/dbrowse...=36&year=2008&level=nation&mode=graph&state=0
 
No, I have never seen it. Your mentioning it reminds me that I have heard the name, but I know nothing about it.

My own opinions have more to do with observation and reading metahistorians like Spengler and Toynbee than anything else.

It's a comedy - but it's centered around your point.
 
Make them all eat at least 10 ounces of this every day.
fiscalini-purple-moon.jpg
 
I'm a teacher. The number one reason that kids are failing is because their homelife STINKS on ice. It's SO frustrating to see a kid who has GREAT potential, but ZERO assistance or positive reinforcement at home. Many kids have to deal with abuse of themselves or family members, neglect, hunger, fear, drugs....whatever it is. How the hell am I supposed to bring a 5th grader who reads on a 1st grade level up to par when he spends the majority of his life worrying about his next meal or if he'll need to defend his mom from some abuser?

I know it sounds cliche, but the breakdown of the home is THE reason our students are failing. All the other reasons pale in comparison.
 
I know it sounds cliche, but the breakdown of the home is THE reason our students are failing. All the other reasons pale in comparison.

I don't think it's cliché at all to suggest that moral decline is the primary cause for declines in other, more measurable, qualities of life. It's an anvil that needs to be dropped.
 
When Winston pointed out a graduation rate of 70% , Albert said this

That's a recipe for a second rate America.

I would be most interested in knowing when you feel we had a first class America and what the graduation rate was at that time?
 
When Winston pointed out a graduation rate of 70% , Albert said this



I would be most interested in knowing when you feel we had a first class America and what the graduation rate was at that time?

We will have a first class America when most of the engineering students at the University of California at Berkeley's School of Engineering aren't citizens of the People's Republic of China.
 
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