Posted on 08/03/2006 11:38:51 AM PDT by neverdem
And they become prime candidatres for Ritalin to make them conformist vegetables.
You know, I'm not sure I believe any of this. With arts programs on the outs, and sometimes even athletics, and not enough activity for all that young energy, I don't think demasculization is an issue.
Very interesting, and a different perspective on what, with this topic, is usually the same old thing.
I know that as I have progressed with homeschooling, I've grown to consider the question, "What's the point of this assignment?" much more important, as well as, "What's the point of learning this material at all?"
Sometimes the answer will be, "Because you're going to be tested on it at the end of the year," or "Because this is an important skill that you'll use on the SAT," but we try to minimize that sort of instruction.
Public schools shortchange all their students, as well as good teachers. The answer is to not use them if at all possible.
Boy I'd be so screwed in school today
All schools should be private, K-12, colleges, grad schools. There should be no federal or state involvement in education. This would cut state and local taxes by about 50% and put the money in the hands of education consumers to spend as they see fit. A whole new private education industry would take over, giving real choice, competition and high quality. Consumers always demand those things in a capitalist, non-socialist system. If XYZ School has a bad product, just switch to ABC School, etc.
I agree 100%. Private pay for those who can pay, private charity for those who need help.
I'm wandering around freerepublic.com rather than preparing the lesson plans for the upcoming year in my English and history classes. Thanks for posting this article. Boys are screwed in the modern school. I try my best to mitigate the damage, as do some of the other teachers that I work with, but in general the anti-male bias is intense. Phallophobic might be a good word to invent for the bias; the word might produce a few nervous laughs, and laughter is a good method to get other teachers to remember the concept.
In any case, I'll have this article in the back of my mind as I plan out the year. Thanks.
We ... uh ... have a lot of threads about that aspect of public education, too.
ping
Two years ago we moved to another state and the schools are like night and day. My son has had many male teachers, and even his female teachers do not treat him like a problem. The school principals are men. He has thrived and is now a straight-A student for the first time.
Property taxes = "free and public" education. What's wrong with this picture?
ping
My whole high school experience seemed pointless to me.
My college experience wasn't any better. It was rehashing the stuff I was supposed to have learned in high school, with just a little more detail.
As the article says, perhaps this is just what guys do. Maybe we should be taught things that have more immediate paybacks, or at least frame subjects in a way that kids can relate to.
Why not teach kids skills they really want to learn, and could get genuine use out of?
I've never understood why we should waste time on Shakespeare, for instance, when reading him requires that we acquire an entirely new vocabulary we will never use again for as long as we live.
I definitely think I would have gotten a lot more out of school if I'd been able to learn more creative writing and less reviews of books I wasn't terribly interested in in the first place. Creative writing, after all, is something you can do as a career. Nobody's interested in your review of 'Henderson, the Rain King' save your teacher. And maybe, not even her.
So why make assignments like that the center of education, when people could be taught how to be creative and how to stretch their imaginations?
D
I wouldn't think of discounting what you say! It's true that my only child is a daughter, but my best friend had the identical experience as you! And her son is now an internationally renowned musician with a PhD!
BUT, while the thing about the ADHD may well be about teachers who shouldn't teach, it is also VERY much about enhanced state funding. They get money for those kids from the federal govt. That's why the label them and they did it to my daughter too. The meds were discountinued pronto and she's now a successful medical claims collector.
Ping
Well, as you know it isn't free, and parents are not really in a position to fire/replace the educators, who the politicians dare not criticize. "Spend more (tax) money on education!", the pols repeat over and over again, like robots.
Most people have been brain-washed into thinking that parents would fail to educate their children if we didn't have a socialist education system. They forget that the founders of our country were mostly home-schooled, self-taught, or educated in private schools.
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