Thoughts on Education
Education.
Our education system is a mess. Standards vary from city to city, and state to state. We teach to the lowest common denominator. How do we simultaneously raise the bar while making sure that children with special needs don't fall behind? How do we ensure our children are making the grade, but not teach to the test? How do we attract new professionals into teaching without pushing the cost of attendance beyond the reach of everyone?
Standardized tests have advantages. They are a good measuring stick for progress. But school budgets and teacher salaries should not be dependant upon the performance of students on a single multi-part test. Too many factors can be involved. Special needs children won't necessarily perform as well as a gifted child. Some students like my younger brother just aren't good test takers. We should keep standardized tests like the FCAT, but they shouldn't be used to measure progress, not be a basis for budgets and whether someone is ready to graduate especially when they take the test two years before graduation. Educators are concerned about their job security, so instead of teaching students freely, they teach to the standardized test. In my opinion, by removing standardized test performance stipulations, teachers will actually be able to teach more to their students.
By changing the way we use standardized tests, we can better tailor classes to the students themselves. While not making our public school systems like the private Montessori schools, each teacher should be able to meet the needs of each child and spend quality time with them. This means lowering class sizes, which means hiring more qualified individuals. But this is nearly impossible to do without making teacher salaries more competitive. While it will always be hard to attract people from the private sector, the government should create more programs to direct undecided individuals entering college towards education. This can be done through grants and scholarships and forgivable loans.
These are just a few thoughts that hopefully lead to further discussion about our education system and how we just might make a difference and the future of our nation greater.
Education reform.
No kidding James. It really makes me sick how little students from the US can compete internationally. And about this... okay, maybe I should feel differently:
When compared with students in the world's most industrialized countries, U.S. students were on par with the others in every subject (and outperformed everyone in civics). And every Western country, not just the United States, lagged behind Japan in math and science, suggesting that the "achievement gap" in these subjects is an East-West phenomenon rather than an American one. . . [but] Yes, we're a nation of strivers and self-improvers; the American drive to be the biggest and the best in everything seems part of our national character. But if being No. 1 in education is our goal, shouldn't we also want to be No. 1 in all the things closely linked to academic achievement, such as quality of childhood health care and reduction of childhood poverty? - Washington Post
You hit the nail on the head Farhi...
I think the problem is, when people don't know what to do with their lives, they decide to be teachers... Why? Because they can be - teachers are necessary... "those who can't do, teach." This is bull shit. I have had great teachers, from elementary through high school. Now finally, when I am in college, I feel that I am getting a worse education than ever before and I am paying for it. The funny thing is, teachers in Montana start out LESS than everyone else in the nation (but we have some good stuff to compensate - beautiful mountains). So, the teachers who come here must really want to teach. Lucky us :0)
Funny fact: I am in college, right? And in my geography class, we are coloring maps. No joke. I did this in seventh grade... maps. My 7th grade class was harder than my college class (my teacher was amazing) and he made us fill in a blank map as our test; we had to memorize ALL the countires and ALL the capitals and i felt pretty damn smart. I knew more about geography in seventh grade than I do now.
Education reform is necessary. I want the minds of students to be challeneged, and expanded; I want them to know chemistry, physics, biology, calculus, literature English, Spanish, another language, geography, government... all the things I wish I had learned, and still plan on studying.
Standardized tests... meh. I think each subject should have its own test. If a person ranks high on one test and average on another, it's perfectly normal right? Different strengths. But overall testing is ridiculous. And people who are bad test takers (my self included) would have to find SOME subject in which they were strong. But I think that we should make our standards national, so that students from say, Connecticut can compete with students from North Dakota... which seems outrageous to me right now. Better funding means better supplies and more capable students. I don't know if better funding will attract better people though. I think the opposite. But teachers should be paid and respected a hell of a lot more.
salaam, shalom, paz, pais, pace, pax, fred, friede, eiphnh, mir, peace - liz
good post
How do we simultaneously raise the bar while making sure that children with special needs don't fall behind?
I think this is where we're losing it. To do both requires a lot more funding so we can have things like AP classes but also special ed, and make each higher quality... gotta lower class sizes to do that, and to do that, you need more money. It's all interconnected.
In terms of government, education has to be seen as a PRIORITY not an expense. In California, everything's been messed up for a long time because of our education funding is tied to property taxes and the idiot conservatives passed a law awhile back creating a massive loophole allowing people to pay an amount in line with the property value when they bought, not what it is now. So everything's underfunded. I hear everyone bitching about the quality of our schools, complaining that the kids are stupid, but the truth is the old people are too greedy to fund education.
The question becomes, who is stupider, the son who can't pass the tests or his parents who block funding increases?
===========
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." ~Bob Dylan
exactly
it's a difficult battle but a necessary one. nothing is more important than education.. its our future. so why are we sitting back and not allowing it to blossom to its full potential? our education system could be the best education system in the world - but it's definitely not.
i was lucky enough to go to a great high school with great programs for AP and also for special ed. Everyone had their needs attended too. But I've also seen high schools where neither program is great and that's just sad. THe students who truely want to learn and strive to be the best by taking AP classes get screwed over because their school's program sucks.
Jake's right. Education should be a priority rather than an expense.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us."
-Tricia **
Post new comment