Tennessee Student Speaks Out About Common Core
Very good points. Educational standards in the United States have been falling for a long time (studies have consistently shown that American students generally preform at a lower level than other developed nations), and we definitely need some kind of reform to fix that problem, but Common Core doesn't appear to be an effective solution. We need to try something different.
SOURCE URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PprP5TCZBRI
Yeah, agreed....we need to go backwards in time about 100 years.
Wait a minute... 100 years ago would be 1913, the year the Federal Reserve was established. So nope, that won't work.
Okay...maybe a time machine is more likely. (Involved parents... what the hell am I saying?)
The real answer is to home school.
What answers do you have?
I know most of us were not home schooled... but more should be. Kids gets lost in large classrooms...something else I watch daily, up close. It's really sad.
The answers I have include:
Burning every teacher's union rep, officer or proponent at the stake on international television.
Severe penalties for teachers who use their classes as indoctrination centers. I mean jail time.
Segregate children according to their learning ability.
But, most importantly, turn learning back into a *job*. Rote memorization. Repetition. Punishment for failure to progress. To hell with the children's feelings.
Throw out every single textbook and replace them all with McGuffy and other textbooks from the turn of the 20th century. No child touches a computer in relation to school until they are in 7th or 8th grade.
Unfortunately, this contradicts the other big change; get rid of DoE and turn schooling back over to local communities.
There are tons of data that show that smaller class size OR higher "investment per student" is not "the solution."
You need to start with a society that puts a high VALUE on education... where the proverbial "note to the parents from the teacher" brings the parents to SUPPORT, rather than attack the teacher for their message.
... just one or two of MANY "starting points" to look at. Yes, this IS a very complex problem. CORE is one of many simplistic solutions, and not a good one. Easy, maybe, but not good.
The ones who do value education, are informed voters and understand how things are working (or not working) are currently outnumbered. I work at a school with a hundred others and I'm pretty darn sure I'm the only one with a clue to the truth. It's extremely disappointing and frustrating beyond words.
I wonder if the "recovery" wasn't more the result of lowering the standards than improving the education process.
Sacremento, Seattle, Des Moines, Oklahoma City, Austin, Albany, Minneapolis (could be St. Paul?), Cheyenne, Denver, Bismark, Omaha, Springfield, Indianapolis, Columbus, Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Tallahassee, Charleston, Portland, Salt Lake City, Jefferson City, Topeka, Jackson, Little Rock, Helena, Phoenix... I think that's 25+, and of course the country associated with those national capitols is the U.S.
(They're all capitols, and they're all associated with the U.S....)
or SacrAmento?
Or NATIONAL "Capitals"? There's only one in the US, and it's affectionately called D.C....
What year did YOU graduate high school?
per Wiktionary.org, http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/capitol
The Capitol comprises the buildings that are the seat of government; the Capital is the city they're in.
Strike 2....
Now, as you were saying???........... :)
1. Schools are a social educational platform, with materials designed to be inoffensive to all, so when you take the offensiveness out of truth and facts, you end up with an empty sack.
2. The administrators are there for themselves. They cater to the deciders who can threaten their secure jobs. No administrator should be paid more than the maximum teacher salary.
3. There is a stranglehold on who is "admitted" to the club of educators. I don't care if my kids teacher is a phd or a BS, I care if they actually know what they are doing and can actually encourage the curiosity needed to learn.
4. Money rules all. I took my kid out of school when another kid hit him in the head with a rock, and the superintendent told me that my kid was to be suspended and the other kid could not be punished because he was "special ed" (i.e. took too much paperwork and kid as worth 2X in funding).
5. Parent now need to work multiple jobs to survive and provide all the things society tells them they need to (form food, 'things"(like playstations, netflix, cell phones, etc) to make their kids "happy". Our town has a lot of low income people , some good , some not so good. Lots of drugs/alcohol issues. Most get Oregon Trail (food stamps). A lot of kids go home to empty houses, and mom/dad (sometimes just one) come home at 7pm. Between 2:30-7 they are on their own and "hang out". Gone are the days of PTA and after school things like sports etc.
6. Whats important has changed. Now it is the moment that is the priority, not the future. tell a kid they have to study hard, to go to school and get a good job, they look at you and say "why?"
Common Core is just another set of smoke and mirrors.....
Thank you feminists!!
I said back in the 70s that when wives got into the workplace, the economy would adjust until they *had* to work to get by. Now we can add the single parent to the mix. It's also why the school day and school year keep growing. Not for the sake of the kids; so the school can act as babysitter while mom pursues her career in the food service industry while dad pursues his female co-workers.
The time the kids spend in school is not nearly as important as the *quality* of that time.
Half days for half the year of the kind of intensive study they did a century ago would be an improvement over what we have now.
School's not about fun; it's about learning.
Could use more "speak=outs" by students
like yourself....
I suggest that MOST families today do not have the resources, training, education or inclination to do what you're asking.
Home schooling is a great solution for some families, but not all.
Saying "Home schooling is the answer" just reinforces my Second Law... "Never Trust Generalizations."
[ http://www.plusaf.com/falklaws.htm#2nd ]
I agree that it can be done better, but I don't think it has to be at home. There are some excellent teachers out there. You're comments above are right - smaller class size is a good place to start.
I'm 25, and yes, I see many people my age having problems with basic skills. I actually know people who can't read analog clocks! I have a personal vendetta against improper use of apostrophes, which is part of the bigger issue of kids, now adults, not knowing how to write properly, but that's a topic for another day.
There ARE great teachers...I work with many, but they are a cog in a wheel and don't even realize it.
How many people your age can count back proper change without a machine telling them how much?
Why are you okay with the Gov dictating curriculum and mandating INSANE amounts of testing?
Actually, I never mentioned being okay with common core. The current schooling system is messed up. The standardized tests we had to take in 6-10th grades were a joke, and everyone knew it. Some of the best teachers in my school had their own (awesome) lesson plans for the year, but then would deviate for a week or two to teach us "test taking techniques". Not any of the english or math that would actually be on the standardized tests, but tactics for eliminating multiple choice answers or deciding not to waste too much time on a question so as to maximize the student's overall score. It was ridiculous, but it was also common practice as far as I could tell. Students were also threatened with punishment for intentionally failing these tests (filling in "C" for every answer, for example)
No the system doesn't work now, but I don't believe we need to throw everything out and start from scratch. Or do you think the US school system is too far gone and there is no way it can be salvaged?
Also- I learned proper change counting in second grade, and started Calculus in high school. Not all of us young ones are hopeless. ;)
Ability to mingle socially is not the schools job to teach either. Just because that's how it's been for so long does not make it so.
And I wasn't saying it's the school's job to teach social skills, but it's easier to get kids involved in activities like sports or after school programs when they're regularly together.
I would be in favor of private schools (if the class sizes were small) and I think a wide variety of them should crop up offering different than typical daily schedules, different types of security (I for one would only send my kids to a private school that had armed employees, but that's another discussion), different types of teaching techniques geared toward getting each student to their highest levels, honing in on strengths and areas of creativity. So many kids get lost in the shuffle of one sized fits all teaching. Also..something needs to be done about disruptive behaviors. A problem child can suck the teaching right out of a room....but putting all of them in one room turns into an insane asylum where virtually nothing gets taught and it's all day behavior management instead. Typically these parents are a complete wreck. Scary actually. Parents would HAVE to be involved, like they used to be.
I keep thinking about tutors too. Back in the day when families would hire tutors to teach their kids, they grew up to be brilliant (okay, brilliant compared to today's standards)... Well versed in history and languages and reading and writing and math. They were in their homes so the parents were on hand.... that is probably the best solution if we get right down to it, but I know of no one who would get on board with that idea...then again they haven't given much thought to alternate schooling. They just accept what is and figure the powers that be must know better than they do. (IF they've even thought about it at all) People slay me. Mooooo
I remember a few problem kids in my classes. Some of them were actually very intelligent, but would skip class because they didn't see the value in education. Others were just a disaster, like you say wasting everyone's time and energy. And you probably see that daily. :(