It's a shame that we spend more on the military than on education. We need to pay teachers more, give kids better textbooks and better facilities.
It's a shame that we spend more on the military than on education. We need to pay teachers more, give kids better textbooks and better facilities.
Then go ahead & pump some money into this program.
"I'm asking for donations of any size to help my kids. For the next four days, any donation you make to my project will be doubled (up to $100). If you know anyone who is passionate about education, please pass this along. Your donation will brighten my students' school year, and you'll get photos and thank yous from our class."
we need better education here in the US but any money should be spent on a longer school day. More learning, more supervised time doing school work and less time sitting at home playing video games. Cutting back summer vacations to somewhere between 30 and 60 days. The first month of the school year for most kids is relearning from previous year. The US has the shortest school year in developed world. One hour of mandatory physical education where real exercise takes place. Think the need for this is self evident.
Lastly far more vocational skills training. Not everyone needs to go to college but real work skills are in demand and in our current corporate world future employees have to come with the skills. Corporations are not going to teach anyone anything.
we need better education here in the US but any money should be spent on a longer school day. More learning, more supervised time doing school work and less time sitting at home playing video games. Cutting back summer vacations to somewhere between 30 and 60 days. The first month of the school year for most kids is relearning from previous year. The US has the shortest school year in developed world. One hour of mandatory physical education where real exercise takes place. Think the need for this is self evident.
Lastly far more vocational skills training. Not everyone needs to go to college but real work skills are in demand and in our current corporate world future employees have to come with the skills. Corporations are not going to teach anyone anything.
I have 30 years of teaching experience and I absolutely agree with you
I hope that laying a foundation of skills for students to take advantage of all the excellent open source education available will be the future.
This is by far the most flexible and efficient approach for motivated individuals. Unfortunately it took an undergrad engineering degree before I had the skills, interest and drive to enhance my education personally.
How can we as a society enable this transition to personal responsibility sooner?
You forgot to use the word, 'libtard'. As a result it is impossible to take your post seriously and this entire thread is thereby invalidated.
Get rid of summer vacation, start school days later, and make it easier for top students to skip grades.
TAA wrote:
Get rid of summer vacation, start school days later, and make it easier for top students to skip grades.
Agreed.
Agreed.
Agreed.
Also, make it easier to get rid of bad teachers and reward excellent ones.
TAA wrote:
Get rid of summer vacation, start school days later, and make it easier for top students to skip grades.
How will starting school days later change anything for the better? It's not like that automatically means more sleep time.
Parents are the most important factor in education. Since our parents have failed in this country, the best option is to essentially hire more parents to educate all the neglected children. So, increase the teacher pool by about 10x, and let them "parent" for a living.
Hingle McCringleberry wrote:
TAA wrote:Get rid of summer vacation, start school days later, and make it easier for top students to skip grades.
How will starting school days later change anything for the better? It's not like that automatically means more sleep time.
Actually, it pretty much does. It has been pretty well documented that start times around 9 result in superior performance for high school kids when compared to start times around 7.
Recognizer of Brilliance wrote:
Also, make it easier to get rid of bad teachers and reward excellent ones.
Raise starting teaching salaries significantly and you'll see a significant increase in good teachers off the bat. If teaching were a desirable profession financially, more people with the strong necessary skill set would gravitate towards teaching. Not saying all teachers now are not good (I like to think I'm good), just that I think a lot of teaching talent is left untapped because strong teaching candidates pursue more lucrative careers.
And I agree with everyone. No summer vacation would be a great first step, as well as longer school days. I guess those two things would also lead to a natural increase in teacher salaries. But keep in mind that good teachers are almost always already working more than 40 hours a week.
Also, move towards co-teaching for all classes, not just ICT classrooms where many students have IEPs. Every student can benefit from being in a cohesive co-teaching environment.
In case you have not noticed it, we have continually spent more and more money on education. I would say the money is poorly spent. Too much federal control or influence.
Get rid of teachers' unions and pay based on merit and I would be okay with teachers making more money (although it is not like they are poor either).
Agreed on all counts.
who's going to pay for co-teaching, higher salaries for all, longer days and summer school cost money in gas, oil, and extra pay for custodians, school aides and other support staff?
coach wrote:
who's going to pay for co-teaching, higher salaries for all, longer days and summer school cost money in gas, oil, and extra pay for custodians, school aides and other support staff?
Cut the asinine military budget, fueled by Reagan era fear and the military industrial complex (which Eisenhower warned about), in half and you have more than enough money to fix education.
I don't agree with the idea of getting rid of summer vacation completely. Summer break provides motivated students with the opportunity to engage in enriching activities outside of the classroom. Volunteering, working, attending summer camps at universities, and traveling can all be just as meaningful as formal education. I wouldn't want to eliminate those opportunities.
If you're in school all year, your mind is formed according to one single institution's ideas. I think it's necessary to get out of the classroom and get some other perspectives.
coach wrote:
who's going to pay for co-teaching, higher salaries for all, longer days and summer school cost money in gas, oil, and extra pay for custodians, school aides and other support staff?
Who is paying for a poorly educated citizenry today?
Well Now That You Mention It wrote:
Hingle McCringleberry wrote:How will starting school days later change anything for the better? It's not like that automatically means more sleep time.
Actually, it pretty much does. It has been pretty well documented that start times around 9 result in superior performance for high school kids when compared to start times around 7.
I'd love to see some of your documentation. Starting school later just bumps everything back an hour or two. It doesn't magically add hours to the day.
Keep summer break wrote:
I don't agree with the idea of getting rid of summer vacation completely. Summer break provides motivated students with the opportunity to engage in enriching activities outside of the classroom. Volunteering, working, attending summer camps at universities, and traveling can all be just as meaningful as formal education. I wouldn't want to eliminate those opportunities.
And while our kids are focusing on what's "meaningful", the Asians and Indians will be taking all the good-paying jobs because they were studying logic puzzles while our kids were reading Sally Has Two Mommies and playing flashlight tag.