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All school...all the time.
I feel sorry for these kids if this does come to pass.
definitely FULL OF SHIT.
It's not the time in school that's the problem. It's what school
is being pushed for. It's the EDUCATION = MONEY equation.
And the kids know this is a crock of crap.
And they know they are being constantly force fed a load of lies,
and propaganda disguised as education.
And how we can even say getting a good education will get
you a good job when the market for jobs is in the tank.
And new graduates will see things even worse.
I am all for education and believe that we need to do a better
job of it. But unless the parents, educators and government
back it for the right reasons and encourage children to learn
for knowledge and enlightenment - even 24 hour school will
not help.
C
Obama says American kids spend too little time inI can only say one thing. Mr President this time you are
school, putting them at a disadvantage with other
students around the globe.
"Now, I know longer school days and school years are
not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier
this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family,
and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new
century demand more time in the classroom."
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a
third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to
stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they
have a safe place to go.
definitely FULL OF SHIT.
It's not the time in school that's the problem. It's what school
is being pushed for. It's the EDUCATION = MONEY equation.
And the kids know this is a crock of crap.
And they know they are being constantly force fed a load of lies,
and propaganda disguised as education.
And how we can even say getting a good education will get
you a good job when the market for jobs is in the tank.
And new graduates will see things even worse.
I am all for education and believe that we need to do a better
job of it. But unless the parents, educators and government
back it for the right reasons and encourage children to learn
for knowledge and enlightenment - even 24 hour school will
not help.
C
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Parents, educators and gov must provide for the ed of our children.
And tech is soooooooooooooo very important.
EVERY KID should have access to the internet for more than tweeeting or whatever.
September 27, 2009 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
What they need - and I should have pointed it out in the blog - is the freedom to learn and explore and question all that is around them. To be encouraged to be creative and imaginative rather than having some crap crammed down their throats.
C
September 27, 2009 8:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
quality not quantity.
they already have them doing homework 24/7
September 27, 2009 8:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
And we know how well that's been working.
C
September 27, 2009 8:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
There is no reason to believe that the US education system can make the above 120 IQ students in the US more competitive on average than the above 120 IQ students from other countries.
Education cannot sustain a US competitive advantage, since other countries can provide excellent teachers and learning materials for less and have a cultural focus on education which generally exceeds that of US families.
September 27, 2009 9:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
No Child Left Behind should have been called No Child Gets Ahead. The old system bored me to tears, I can only marvel that today's kids manage to put up with today's teach to the test mentality.
September 28, 2009 10:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am reminded of back in the old industrial age in England, when only the gentry got edumacated (socrates and le francais) and the rest of the world worked.
Since we can't get work in factories anymore, we gotta go to college to get professional degrees (what I think of as vo-tech for desk jockies).
I think education is a wonderful thing, and it creates social mobility better than anything else I can think of other than winning the lotto. But edumation doesn't mean squat when you can't feed yourself.
Perhaps we should focus on changing our culture, so that reading books and appreciating art becomes just as popular as NFL football. And just reconcile ourselves to the fact that the working class will always be working...except now we have to go to training first. We just don't have enough time in the day to get ourselves enlightened.
September 28, 2009 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well we always had to get training. Now we need more head/desk training rather than hand/machine training.
C
September 28, 2009 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just my two cents worth as someone who went through the public school system, sent three children through it and am now lobbying for my grandchildren to go through private school...
Year 'round school is an excellent idea. Kids go for so many weeks, then have one off and back again. It makes better use of the school facilities and makes it so that kids lose less of their study habits and information learned during the 2 1/2 month "summer vacation." Let's don't forget that summer vacation existed because families needed the kids home to work the farm during the harvest season...that is no longer the case. We need to update the ways we do things, not cling to the old ways just because we always did it that way. There is a reason why the U.S. is no longer the educational leader in the world. Wouldn't it be nice if we figured out why?
Second, part of the reason why our public school system is falling apart is because teachers are having to teach things that should be taught at home...manners, respect, etc. and having to teach children who are malnourished, abused, born chemically addicted, homeless and stressed out due to precarious home life. The fabric of our society is disintegrating, and we are asking teachers to fix our inadequacies as parents.
Additionally, teachers have to teach to the middle. There are programs for the learning challenged, but few for those who are intellectually inquiring and thirsty to learn.
As with many of the problems this country is facing, there are no easy answers, but if we don't start addressing the problem, it isn't going to just go away on its own, but rather get worse. It is time to wake up and understand that Johnny and Jane are not just competing with other American children, but with the children in India, Japan and every other country that is doing a better job of educating their children than we are...
September 28, 2009 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
This echoes much of my sentiment. Going to school all year long does not necessarily mean going to school more days out of the year. Children would learn more with shorter, more frequent breaks in their learning schedule.
Also, smaller class sizes wouldn't hurt either. (That's another thing private schools have going for them.)
FWIW, I used to be a public high school science teacher.
September 28, 2009 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
All I can say is that for me public school was a boor and a bore and a profound waist of time.
I had only one class that I got anything out of and that was social studies in 11th grade. I was give a book to read and report on. I got a B because even though he liked what I said, I did not use enough verbiage to say it. I could not understand why this was a problem.
At any rate for anyone with intelligence, public school is a crashing bore at best. And if you have any creativity or imagination, they do their level best to crush it completely.
C
September 28, 2009 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
The world is full of crashing bores.
September 28, 2009 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
So why send kids to school at all? I mean we don't want them to be bored, now do we? We Americans are spoiled...rotten. If things don't move at the speed of video games, who needs it?
I myself, loved school. I liked to learn. I was ahead of my class and got to help the teacher grade papers when I got too far ahead in elementary school. I did a lot of independent study in high school. School was more flexible then. But, we didn't need to know as much, either.
Now we NEED to turn out a better educated workforce or our children/grandchildren are going to be the servants for the rest of the educated world. And that's the truth...like it or not. Improve teaching, home school your children, send them to private school, do whatever you need to do, but the status quo is NOT alright.
September 28, 2009 6:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I loved to learn. New most of my basic electricity and electronics by the age of 14. had read many, many books.
What I did not like was sitting in class doing basically "busy work" just to pass some silly ass test. And this was in the 1960s.
C
September 28, 2009 7:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
... wants schools to add time to classes, to
stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
This is only partly about international competitiveness and education. It sounds like Obama is addressing the utter inability or many parents to care adequately for their own children, and wants to turn schools into more comprehensive community centers that can pick up the slack for dysfunctional or challenged families, with all-hours, year-round services.
I once visited the old Moravian village in Salem, North Carolina. If I recall correctly, the village contained two school/dormitories right near the center, one for girls and one for boys. At the age of seven, children moved out of their parents' home and moved into the school buildings, where they stayed until the age of 15 16, when they were then apprenticed to an employer. Single men moved into the Single Brothers House, and lived there until they were married.
Of course, it was a village, so their parents lived just a short walk away. But clearly, people have practiced different models in balancing community and parental responsibility toward the rearing and education of children.
September 28, 2009 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink