Link: American public education a Prussian hand-me-down?
- Thread starter TIDE-HSV
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I can honestly say beyond maybe spelling, nothing I've applied in my life came from formal education. The Swiss are pretty sharp, always have been. Ruthless, diabolical at times but sharp.
I need to look back at it. The Swedes were mentioned a number of times, but I don't remember the Swiss...
In such a world people who read too well or too early are dangerous because they become privately empowered, they know too much, and know how to find out what they don't know by themselves, without consulting experts.
My Pop used to say an "Expert" Ex is a has been and a spurt is a drip under pressure.
Teach to the lowest dominator. Stop reading whole novels because it takes too much away from preparing for standardized tests. Etc.
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What a fantastic article. I never knew the origins of what our public school system has become. More and more, due to these factors, I want to home school our son. I saw all of this in the public school I attended, yet we had a few brilliant teachers that didn't adhere to the model and even openly protested it in classroom discussions that they would have with us. But those teachers have long since moved on to other endeavors, and my son wouldn't attend that school anyway. So, I escaped all of this, in a way, but I'm not so confident that my son would be so lucky.
I remove my youngest son from public school when He was going to the fifth grade and put him in private school. He was so far behind that it took him half the year to catch up. Best move we have made for his future. My niece finished school at the public school and said that you could sleep the day away and still make a B. I remember when SAT test were coming up they would spend a whole week preparing the students for it.
No surprise here. They no longer teach our children how to think. The emphasis now is more what to think. With the socialist direction of our public schools, it's no wonder we're so far behind all the other civilized countries of the world..
The ironic thing is that most of us teachers (and I say most because there are some horrible ones out there) got into education because we enjoy helping others learn, seeing them grasp concepts for the first time, watching them achieve, etc., but find that we are able to do that less and less. We want to be left alone to teach our curriculum - not lose multiple weeks of instruction due to testing, not have to kowtow to parents who simply want to complain and not teach their child life lessons, not feel unsafe in the halls ... you get the point. If we were allowed to do that, and allowed to put some discipline back in schools, a lot of these problems wouldn't exist.
I saw a lot of ax-grinding in that article. Having dealt with the products of American secondary schools in several post-secondary institutions, one thing I can say is that American students are not too constrained in their thinking. Most cannot form coherent arguments on topics, even when they are very familiar with the topics. It seems that, in English composition, they are told, just write whatever comes into your mind. Do not color within the lines, scribble all over the place. That is the way to compose English.
I have seen student's papers in which the student sat down at the keyboard (the night before the paper was due normally) and just vomited the contents of his brain onto the keyboard exactly as it appears in his minds. Spell check (if I'm lucky), print. Done. Now, back to Facebook...
They are not being placed in mental straightjackets, they are having all restraints placed on their minds.
Abolishing all traffic laws would not make MacFarland Boulevard freer, faster, or better. It was make it incredibly dangerous for anyone who uses it. I believe American youth suffer horribly from not too much structure, but not enough.
I have seen student's papers in which the student sat down at the keyboard (the night before the paper was due normally) and just vomited the contents of his brain onto the keyboard exactly as it appears in his minds. Spell check (if I'm lucky), print. Done. Now, back to Facebook...
They are not being placed in mental straightjackets, they are having all restraints placed on their minds.
Abolishing all traffic laws would not make MacFarland Boulevard freer, faster, or better. It was make it incredibly dangerous for anyone who uses it. I believe American youth suffer horribly from not too much structure, but not enough.
I took it that the article was saying this in a roundabout way. Yes, I understand he argues for more choice and freedom in schooling. But at the same time, the "order" that was brought to American public schools was such that students learn to not think at all. Which leads to exactly the behavior you describe. Time isn't spent studying, learning, forming critical thinking skills. It's spent on useless drivel and then when it is time to produce, nonsense is "vomited" out on the paper, so to speak. But whether I've misunderstood the article or not, I do agree with your point.
i used to have a lot of fun grading the first essay of the semester (with grad students). amazingly enough, the second essays were always much improved.
i once had a student actually use the word non-infinite
As a principal of an elementary school, K-5 of 800+ students and 29 years in the filed, here is what I would do:
1. Make June 1st the cutoff date for entering K. In other words a student would have to be 5 by June 1st or they wait until the next school year.
2. Only teach Reading and Math in grades 1 & 2.
3. Once a student finishes 5th grade, maybe 6th, there would be some sort of alternative education schools set up. This would be similar to vocational schools.
4. Students would attend school Tuesday- Friday. By law, a student in K-5 has to attend school 5 hours a day excluding a 30 minute lunch/recess time. 6-12 has to 5 1/2 hours a day excluding a 30 minute lunch period.
5. Allow the local county/community to determine the guidelines for their school(s).
6. Do away with grade levels and put students in classes based on their skill level in a particular subject area.
Another thing that many parents do not realize is that students do not have to enter 1st grade until the year they turn 7. These are just some really quick thoughts that I put down after reading the article and my experience in education. I may have to come back and edit or add other things later but I have work to do.
1. Make June 1st the cutoff date for entering K. In other words a student would have to be 5 by June 1st or they wait until the next school year.
2. Only teach Reading and Math in grades 1 & 2.
3. Once a student finishes 5th grade, maybe 6th, there would be some sort of alternative education schools set up. This would be similar to vocational schools.
4. Students would attend school Tuesday- Friday. By law, a student in K-5 has to attend school 5 hours a day excluding a 30 minute lunch/recess time. 6-12 has to 5 1/2 hours a day excluding a 30 minute lunch period.
5. Allow the local county/community to determine the guidelines for their school(s).
6. Do away with grade levels and put students in classes based on their skill level in a particular subject area.
Another thing that many parents do not realize is that students do not have to enter 1st grade until the year they turn 7. These are just some really quick thoughts that I put down after reading the article and my experience in education. I may have to come back and edit or add other things later but I have work to do.
I would argue that, as students' mastery of the subject matter increases, the training wheels come off. A little in high school, more in undergrad, and really come off for those in grad school. Still, a history grad student visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and wrote in the visitors' book, "No wonder the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, after we had nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki." (She had entered the World War II exhibit backwards; until you have mastered things as mundane as chronology, deeper insights will have to wait.)
Yeah, I mean, like, is there another English word for, like, "non-infinite?"
You missed an opportunity for another "like" before "English", at least if you use my daughter's roommate's cadence.
Bugs me to no end that the 80's influenced our vernacular.
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