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I get images of Pink Floyd "The Wall." Children marching in mindless rows, all dressed alike in colorless, tastless clothing.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100527/us_time/08599199179700
"We try not to limit their freedom of expression and what they wear..." OH? I say you do.
If they were going to ban something how about cell phones, that's a distraction. Especially when students use texting to bully others. Or say those insidious school lunches that taste like crap. Chocolate cake, candy and sodas in vending machines...that's where the problem starts. Wake up teachers, your students are only learning bad habits in school.
And when they start paying attention to silly bracelets more than the lessons I don't blame the bracelets. Yes, let's take away all the joy of childhood and they'll all be singing: "We don't need no education..."
[Updated on: Thu, 27 May 2010 21:46]
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
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ray2x
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Really getting into it |
Location: USA
Registered: April 2009
Messages: 429
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My daughter enters kindergarten in August of this year. My liberalism will be sorely tested.
Raymundo
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It must be difficult to teach in the face of such utter nonsense, but the Christians are at it again (did they ever stop?)
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/if-you-must-debate-religion-in-class-say-713458.html
I believe this only shows the ignorance some Christians embrace...the devil indeed LOL. I really ought to get a divinity degree from some backwoods mail order school and sell swampland to these idiots. Heavens, if God told me to do it would they really believe that? Probably. Look at the mindset they have:
Quoting the article: "Danita Kilcullen, a member of (Reverend) Dozier's church and the founder of Tea Party Fort Lauderdale, told the reassigned teachers that she and her group were paying attention.
"We have a First Amendment right of free speech," Kilcullen told me (the journalist), "but there is no right for an atheist to preach to our kids. In my opinion, teaching kids without God is a dangerous direction."
OK, the First Ammendment, I suppose she believes that it only applies to Christians and not atheists. Get outta here!
[Updated on: Fri, 28 May 2010 16:26]
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
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My daughter and I wrote this:
What’s wrong with school? [UK version of exams and 'year' instead of 'grade']
1 The whole education system is arranged to suit children who can pass exams.
2 Exam passing ability is much over-rated and is far from satisfactory as a way of judging people’s usefulness.
3 Education is being replaced by cramming for exams.
4 Examinations are taking over teaching time; there are now exams in Nov, Jan, Mar, May, and June.
5 Examinations in class (called controlled assessments) are just coming into mainstream education and will prevent any visits or trips out in years ten and eleven.
6 What children remember best isn’t taught in class.
7 ‘Education’ at present omits life skills almost entirely.
8 There are no school exams in: money management, first aid, swimming, life saving, car maintenance, animal husbandry, plumbing, hairdressing, juggling, writing iPod apps &c.
9 The most valuable part of school is: school plays, engineering challenges, charity fund-raising, presentation of work at assemblies, field trips, foreign visits, sporting competitions with ‘away’ fixtures.
10 Examinations seem about to take over year nine, where we have only just won the battle to get rid of SATS.
11 Putting examinations under the control of profit-making companies ensures that they are not designed or modified to suit the best interests of the school, the children or of their eventual employers. There is a strong incentive to expand the exams and increase their costs – the cost of GCSEs alone is probably over £120,000,000 pa!
12 Exams should be organised by institutions that have an interest to shorten, simplify and cheapen them while maximising their value as an indicator of the ability of the children to potential employers, organisations or people that might ask them to do work or where they might volunteer.
13 The examination system is an obstruction in the way of cross-curricular work.
14 Neither schools nor teachers should be judged by the ability of their pupils to pass examinations.
15 Significant abilities not recognised by the examinations system include: ability to care for younger children, ability to support their peers when in trouble, extra-curricular activities, hobby competence in things not examined such as astronomy, chess, video making and editing, music (not just passing instrumental grade examinations), buying goods and services, the skills of working in a team, negotiation of compromises with strangers, dexterity and hand-eye co-ordination leading, for example, to juggling, unicycle riding and ping-pong.
16 Unless the child is academically inclined the examination system is prejudiced against her.
17 There are many detailed stupidities in the exam system. For example the first exams in year twelve are after just one term of sixth form, but if a teacher chooses that pupils do not take that exam the consequence is that the subject is, in effect, dropped for two months.
18 The national curriculum has done some good if it has ensured that every child has a firm foundation in core subjects such as Maths, English and Science, but it is too prescriptive and there is too much in it that is not a necessary part of the core.
A suggestion
a Replace the system with a much smaller National Curriculum that does not attempt to specify a full year’s work in any year.
b While retaining the formal exam system for the most academically incline, put it under the control of an institution whose interest is to simply and reduce the variety and prescriptiveness of exams.
c Empower teachers to design courses which get pupils to prepare work that demonstrates their ability to do useful things and supplies clear evidence. For example a video, a computer program, a story or article, a project that produced a working remote controlled model, a campaign that raised money for a charity, a spreadsheet to manage a mortgage, evidence of the pupil’s ability to organise a team of volunteers or to take responsibility or display initiative in solving real-life problems. By the end of a school career every child should be able to produce several such sets of material. Both the academically inclined and the others should be allowed to do this: such material could be better than formal exams at indicating some sorts of academic ability.
d Planning such work, selecting what is most suitable for each child and solving problems of timetabling and dovetailing the academic work too will be very demanding on teachers, but when well done the pupils will be more enthusiastic and will learn more because they will try harder on interesting projects and because they will see what evidence they are preparing to show an employer.
e Such material should be valuable to potential employers in judging the usefulness of those school leavers that have no formal CGSEs, ‘A’-Levels or NVQs.
First draft on 29 May 2010 [examcurse.rtf
Love,
Anthony
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Can't argue with a single point, Anthony. Kudos to you and your daughter for such a comprehensive list.
When I was in high school (10th grade, age 16) teachers didn't even do their own lesson planning, it was dictated from above. I recall spending a class day discussing literature, Dickens as I recall, and the conversation was intense until the bell rang.
Next day I went to class expecting to finish up our analysis only to be told we had to move on to something else. My protest earned me a seat in the principal's office and two weeks later I was in a different school. (I switched to private school, not publicly funded)
To my amazement we spent a week on one author and exhausted the discussion with a greater understanding of the subject at hand. Now that's learning the right way.
I had a history teacher there tell us that learning the dates in history where something occured was unimportant. He wanted us to have a sense of chronology, the rest we could look up if needed. So who cares if Columbus sailed the ocean in 1492, it was more important to learn that he was a fool who exploited the natives and didn't deserve credit for discovering the Americas, the Vikings had been here first.
You don't get knowledge from textbooks, you get it from the desire to read and learn and I think the schools have forgotten that. If you have an excellent teacher you won't need exams. I would bet any teacher who knows their business can tell which students in their classes knows the material well enough to deserve a passing grade.
[Updated on: Sat, 29 May 2010 19:43]
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
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Anthony, I agree with a lot that you have written, but not everything, and I am sure we would have a fruitful discussion when we next meet.
A school only has time to do a certain amount and there will always be disagreement over priorities. Schools should teach what other organisations can't, and there should be different types of school teaching different things. The prescribed national curriculum was a disaster, but in many schools it was needed.
A number of things you suggest could/should be taught outside school - family, organisations such as cadets, scouts, youth & sports clubs etc - but a lot of children aren't motivated to better themselves.
The Germans are more successful educators with morning only school and final examinations. Think about why.
Chris James wrote:
>I had a history teacher there tell us that learning the dates in history where something occured was unimportant. He wanted us to have a sense of chronology<
That is self-contradictory. How do you have a sense of chronology without dates?
Hugs
Nigel
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
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It's interesting to note, we are creatures with a finite amount of room in our brain. Intellectual knowledge must be tempered with common sense. Otherwise you have a brilliant scholar who starves to death because he doesn't know how to cook an egg.
I can tell you that the Soviet Sputnick satellite came before astronauts landed on the moon. If I want to know the dates of such things I have the internet, encylopedias and a phone number for NASA.
Filling the mind with dates does nothing to encourage a student to learn anything but...well, more dates. Having them discuss events which follow in a logical and historical sequence creates the timeline for life. A chronology if you will, but the events are far more important than the actual dates which will not be carried twenty years into the future.
Just my opinion. 
[Updated on: Sat, 29 May 2010 22:19]
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
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Nor can I find a thing wrong with what you wrote ChrisJames.
Love,
Anthony
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Nigel, you wrote "Think about why." and I can't because I don't know enough about Germany.
Please tell me what I ought to have thought (& I'll consider it!)
Love,
Anthony
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Yes, Nigel, I don't understand the Germany comment either.
I know educational systems are different throughout the world. From what I gather the English system runs like a trimester, periods of study followed by short breaks.
Here in the US I can only say we have several systems. The trimester as mentioned above, and the two semester school year which is most common. That allows a two and a half month summer vacation period (June, July, and 1/2 of August).
But there is also a Christmas vacation of about ten days and a week long Spring break. Add in 3 days of teacher's meetings when school is closed and you begin to wonder when the kids have time to learn anything.
But in the upper grades we also have 1/2 day schools where the kids take academics in the morning and work a job afternoons. Balance that with some programs where gifted high school students spend half the day taking college level classes.
Something for everyone it seems, and yet many students here are not highly rated, or the schools noted for their educational ability. It's all changed from my childhood and I don't know why. If anyone has an idea I'd like to know.
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
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The German school system concentrates on teaching and learning. That is what for them schools are about. Teaching and learning the things that will make the pupils useful members of society with the skills they need for work, at what ever level. You go to a school that suits your abilities and interests. They are not handicapped by a social engineering remit.
Naturally there are tests and assessments. There have to be, but they are a means means of assessing whther the pupil has done what he is supposed to have done. They are not judgements on the school. If insufficient progress has been made the pupil repeats the year - and he does repeat the year with all the consequences for himself and his family.
The exam which counts is the final one before leaving. Yes, that does put pressure on the pupils and they know the result is going to affect their welfare later in life. We're too namby pamby in Britain and kid our pupils they are working hard by lumbering them with loads of course work. The teachers in Germany are sufficiently professional to be trusted to set the final exams for their own pupils.
If you want to play competitive sport or learn a musical instrument and play in an orchestra, you do so in your own time in the afternoon or evenings.
I am not saying that this system is perfect, but it is worth considering that Germany is the powerhouse of Europe, Switzerland an important financial centre, and the German speaking people are in general highly cultured. Their young people leave school with worthwhile qualifications, whatever their abilities, and a work ethic.
Although there are private schools in the German speaking world, they are by and large superfluous because the state system produces the goods. At the other end of the scale there are of course drop-outs. There always will be.
I hope, Anthony and Chris, I have answered your question sufficiently. I am not condemining our system. The basic system is good, though different. The problem has been its implementation, and misuse and interference by politicians (of all hues).
When I did my teachers' training we were the first tranche to be taught dumbing down. Two generations of children have been robbed of their education in this country and I hope one day they will become angry about it. I trust I fought a rearguard action against it.
Hugs
Nigel
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
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Thank you, Nigel. That's clear as far as it goes.
You wrote:
Two generations of children have been robbed of their education in this country and I hope one day they will become angry about it. I trust I fought a rearguard action against it.
How long is a generation of children? Is it the length of time a child spends in secondary school? (ie 7 or 8 years) Or is it a 'normal' generation - eg about thirty years - which would make two generations sixty years?
BTW, Nigel, are you seriously saying that dumbing down only began 45 or 50 years ago!?
Love,
Anthony
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Hi Anthony!
A generation is a subjective thing, but for my argument it would be approximately the time it takes to go through school - say 13 years in this country - and so my teaching career would have just encroached on a third generation.
In my experience dumbing down started in the mid-sixties. If pushed, I am tempted to date it from the implementation of the Plowden report.
Hugs
Nigel
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
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Dumbing down in US schools began when parents bought the concept that child molesters lurked in every bush. That had to be the truth, the government and church leaders told us so.
But parents began to engage their children in supervised activity and all sense of childhood independence went out the window. So mom was always around and when little Susie or Johnny bitched about all the homework they had to do and how there was no time to do it... Mom reacted.
Mom gave no thought to the idea that kids who played sports after school or took ballet lessons were eating into their homework time. That wouldn't matter to the top level students who always did well, but it was a killer on all the others. The result, Moms across the USA bitched that their kids were given too much homework, it had to stop, and schools listened.
The other major brainless advance in education was the advent of the multiple choice test. I was exposed to them in my middle school years, and decided it was the dumbest method of testing I ever saw. Give me an essay question any day, any author will tell you that. A question is asked, and four answers provided. Here's an example:
George Washington lived at Mount Vernon, his plantation estate in Northern Virginia. When he died he was buried at:
A: The Washington Monument
B: The Jefferson Memorial
C: Mount Vernon
D: The White House
Any US citizen who doesn't get this right will also believe Michael Jackson is buried in Grant's Tomb. ;-D
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
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One advantage of the multiple choice system was economic. In public examinations before the introduction of OCR, if the answers were written with a graphite pencil, the papers could be marked electronically.
Anyone who has read George Orwell's '1984' will see the advantage of multiple choice - it restricts thought, therefore more control.
I have given up on tick-box questionnaires. They are designed to provide the answers the researchers want.
From a teacher's point of view the problem with parents is that they all went to school and so they think they know all about them.
Hugs
Nigel
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
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Nigel wrote:
From a teacher's point of view the problem with parents is that they all went to school and so they think they know all about them.
In the good old days, when I was in the heddikayshun business myself, I always used to claim that I could run a perfect school if it were not for three factors: teachers, parents and students. Nowadays I'd throw in a fourth factor: inspectors.
J F R
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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