The public education system is broken. We need to give back to teachers the ability to discipline the unruly kids or remove them from classes to keep order. Current trends are to require more years of English, science, and math. This is the wrong emphasis. We must restructure the system to provide more vocational training in high school and not insist that all students be readied for college.In elementary and middle school, we must concentrate on the basics and make sure students really grasp the material before passing them to the next grade. We must go back to providing “real recess”—an unstructured play time at least twice a day to let kids work off their energy. This will significantly reduce the behavior problems in the classroom—especially from young boys. We must also quit forcing males to act like females in the classroom, expecting them to do "cutesy" busy-work projects that really have no bearing on the subject at hand.
Above all, we need to encourage competition in the school system. Vouchers for students in underperforming schools will provide this, as well as raises for administrators and teachers in higher-performing schools. However, supplying vouchers for all is not the way to go. It will only cause chaos, raise the cost of private education, and hurt the good public schools. No more than 10% of the students in a state should be supplied with vouchers.
Generally, a pay raise for teachers will attract experienced people who have proven themselves in industry and business to the educational arena. Control of public education must be returned to state and local government, abolishing the U.S. Department of Education. We must reduce the cost of bureaucracy in order to allow more of the money to be used to pay teachers.
Where charitable organizations cannot keep up, local and state government should provide training in new areas to people who are affected by industry downsizings, but only if no other jobs are available in that industry. Workers should be encouraged (through tax relief) to update their education when downsizing is foreseen.
You say: "In elementary and middle school, we must concentrate on the basics and make sure students really grasp the material before passing them to the next grade."
ReplyDeleteI ask: What happens if a student cannot grasp the concept that way it is being taught? How many years would you hold back a 5th grader? Three? More? Will a student be held back if he fais a grade due to neglectful parents or prolonged illness?
You say: "We must go back to providing “real recess”—an unstructured play time at least twice a day to let kids work off their energy. This will significantly reduce the behavior problems in the classroom—especially from young boys."
I ask: Where is your evidence that two "real recesses" every day will significantly reduce behavior problems in boys? Seems like I've asked for evidence before...
You say: "We must also quit forcing males to act like females in the classroom, expecting them to do "cutesy" busy-work projects that really have no bearing on the subject at hand."
I say: By your inference, doing "'cutesy' busy-work projects" must be the realm of females. So shouldn't we also stop forcing them to act like males by learning reading and math? Are you sure you want to say this?
Once again, thanks for your comments and questions. They serve to keep me from oversimplifying and you've even helped me evolve my views better.
ReplyDeleteEvidently what I'm considering public domain knowledge isn't. In Texas, the subject of "real recess" is a matter of common, open debate, so I didn't include any references. I guess this may not be so in the rest of the country.
The "cutesy busy-work projects" detract from the object of the education, which IS the reading and math.