Those of you who contend that the system is flawed are correct. The current educational system is a product of the industrial revolution and was designed to produce workers for the industrial revolution. We still try to educate children like we used to produce ships, cars, and washing machines. That's why SML had such a poor experience in school. The model for the current testing system began to be developed over 30 years ago. Since then, we have sent the industrial revolution to the archives of history. A new system needs to be developed for the age of technology. The continued success of the U.S.A. may depend upon it.
CM, in this case it was one class... state-required ratio... 20 kids. If you instill in kids that spelling and grammar are important, they will remember that lesson. If you let them slide, they'll always figure they can let it slide. Eventually, they will run into someone who won't.
Teachers are no better or no worse than they have been since the education system last "worked". Technology is, by and large, still not proven to improve education. Computer skills are certainly important these days, but the technology that is being bought and paid for these days is well in excess of this. The "downfall" of education is simply the byproduct of parents not being involved in their children's education and creating appropriate expectations. Any teacher will tell you the same thing. Dual-income and single family homes have increased exponentially along the same time frame as the so-called demise of the education system. I expect this a more appropriate place to look for opportunities to improve than simply spending more money on routers, databases, and network software..
I'm a teacher. Interesting thread. I'll make a couple comments: 1. Our system is over-administered. I receive an average of 30 emails a day, probably half of them from various administrators, each requiring varying degrees of attention or action, and almost none of them have anything to do with me teaching my class. You wouldn't believe the amount of pointless bureaucratic crap we have to wade through during the school year. 2. Bozo Casanova, yes, you are right, curriculum is one component of a school's success. It does not, however, play the dominant role that you pretend to be so certain about. Curriculum is in there with the related components of instruction and assessment. And all 3 of those lag behind the two most important variables in a child's education: (1)parent involvement, and (2)teacher/student relationship. Most students will work on and listen to the curriculum if they believe the teacher actually cares about them. Not all, but most. 3. We desperately need an expanded work/apprenticeship program beginning at 16 for kids who are certain they're not college bound. There's no need for them to suffer through Macbeth, and no need for Shakespeare to suffer the injustice of being mindlessly and heartlessly mumbled out Ms. McGillicutti's last period English IV class. One, we're cheapening the experience for motivated and capable students, and two, we're dismissing the value of honest labor when we suggest to non-college bound students that getting a job is a sort of failure in life.
I'm interested to hear people who view our education system as a failure's opinion on what constitutes a successful education system? Any specific country we can point to and say "That's what we should be doing"?
