Posted on 01/26/2009 4:27:32 AM PST by Zakeet
“The worst sin that can be committed in education is to waste a student’s time.” — me
For all intents and purposes, public education as practiced today, is dead. Based in a Renaissance-era concept, that was modified during the Industrial Revolution to produce standardized “workers”, it has degenerated into a self-parody. Fortunately, today we have existing technology to change it to become suitable for modern needs.
Fully interactive, multimedia curricula can be created that efficiently train students in the lower levels of the educational pyramid, memorization and the organization of knowledge. This is what it will be best at—dissemination, practice, review and evaluation all at the same time.
Dozens of versions of this multimedia curricula, all regularly updated and improved, could be provided through educational intranets, so parents could select the character of education they want their children to be taught.
This does not dispense with teachers! Certainly not. Teachers become more important, because they work with the students on higher levels of learning, which are far more challenging than the basic levels of instruction.
An essential part of the computer instruction is individual instruction, based on individual students needs, evolving interests, intellectual growth spurts and slumps, and while assuring that they neither miss essential learning, or engage in unnecessary review.
Another benefit is that multi-discipline learning can happen simultaneously. For example, as a child is learning a history lesson, the lesson may be in both English and German, include vocabulary building exercises, written composition and grammar, and importantly, permit an interested student digression into sub-topics they find interesting. This is a much more comprehensive and expanded curriculum than is available now.
Even in the earliest years of learning, students would need special instruction on how to memorize and organize information. The techniques are well known, for example, Benjamin Franklin’s memory game.
As well, the computer could in the background test for educational inhibitors like dyslexia, vision and hearing problems, which can be treated, while also training students to extend their attention span.
Learning information at such an accelerated tempo not only expands the curriculum students learn, but also gives them more time for things like directed social interaction.
Unfortunately, institutional organizations today equate socialization with either just turning children out like dogs in a dog park, or organized team sports. And while some amount of these is good, it is far from socializing students. Everything from table manners to etiquette, interacting with the opposite sex, writing thank you notes, leadership and teamwork, and importantly what *not* to do, needs to be taught, no just expected to be learned spontaneously.
Schools today systemically teach to mediocrity. Failure is acceptable far more than is individual accomplishment, and vast amounts of critical student learning time is frittered away on crap.
The creation of this new paradigm of education should produce graduates so more capable than current public schooling as to leave no room for competition. Nothing succeeds like success.
Don’t bother with logic, it will interfere with all the “it’s always the school’s fault” crowd. They all were born reading.
The two main reasons many schools don’t have recess is (1)lawyers, they are afraid of playground lawsuits and (2) government mandated programs that take away time from reading, writing and arithmetic. Gosh who would have thought lawyerw would be two for two.
“kids had more recess time in the 60’s, and were more physically active.”
And man still made it to the moon.
perfect!
“Gosh who would have thought lawyerw would be two for two.”
And who hired the lawyers?
1. parents
2. Most legislatures are packed with the species and most government agencies are overloaded with them.
I don’t know what or who a Bill Gatherd is.
Abolition of government schools IS a panacea—not in the sense that it would solve every educational problem, but in the sense that it would have no negative consequences, and many positive consequences.
I am not absolutely opposed to the use of school, but it ought to be the exception rather than the rule to send children to be educated in litters.
If poor children were not imprisoned in government indoctrination warehouses and government slum housing, they would be able to go outside and play without risk of being shot or raped.
It IS Bush’s fault, because he and Laura refused to deviate from the dogma that Public Schools are the Backbone of American Duhmocracy.
When he was about 10, news came out that the local school district wanted to cut recess. Thinking of other kids his age he wrote to the paper about why kids need recess.
Strangely, not far off from Montessori or Charlotte Mason (a 19th century educator). Both successful methods that involved a lot of play and exercise as well.
I think one more valuable thing taught on the playground, how to deal with a bully.
Kids are being denied that valuable lesson that they will need when the bullies are grown.
Sounds like just another excuse to me.
These kids need to learn personal responsibility and that lesson starts at home.
I didn’t learn that lesson at school. It really just made me more jaded. Especially since I haven’t run across any bullies since high school.
Practicing their social skills equals beating the white kids to a pulp.
I agree somewhat with this article. My kids have virtually no social interaction in school. They have five minutes between class, which gives them barely enough time to get their books from their locker and run to the next class. They have 20 minutes for lunch - fifteen minutes of which are spent getting to and from the lunch room and standing in line. I don’t know what all of this rushing around is supposed to benefit. My guess is the teachers - less “baby sitting” time.
When I went to school in the 70s, we had ten minutes between periods (a much smaller school made most of that time social), and 50 minutes for lunch. Most of the friendships I had were developed between periods or during lunch. Meeting after school was the benefit we gained by socializing and getting to know each other during school hours.
Because 7 hours a day, 9 months a year for 12 years, isn’t enough to teach children to read.
Highschool bullies are a different ballgame than playground bullies.
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