Interesting article about adding more time to the school day.

everpress

bobman1235 wrote: »

Well said. I think the tide is turning SLOWLY with regards to societal attitudes towards smart kids. Nerds are needed more and more in modern society and aren't looked down on QUITE as much as they used to. It would be nice if the smartest kid in school was the one to make millions rather than the jock but I don't see that happening.

The hing is that other countries have taken pace on the math and science that we helped usher into the past century. I mean, India, China, Japan, and most of Europe can all beat the hell out of a math or science problem, while we seem to scoot by. But who has more money per household? Why?

America has always been a country of imagination and adventure. We look to untested frontiers. You cannot teach that, true, but you can teach the basics of art, science, and math. Add in a little history and current events. We as a country will excel at solving problems in every aspect of economy and social strife. We, with all of our bickering and problems, are still in the forefront for problem solving on most every level.

Other countries call us 'cowboys', but that's becoming the last marketable skill we can offer. Why stifle that by trying to mimic another country in any way? I say teach the basics. Allow kids to excel in the areas they are interested in. Let them remain children for as long as they can. Teach on a level that is fun and interesting. Let them learn, don't force them to memorize.

You can tell by my views that I work in the creative field, I'm sure.

sucks2beme

everpress wrote: »

The hing is that other countries have taken pace on the math and science that we helped usher into the past century. I mean, India, China, Japan, and most of Europe can all beat the hell out of a math or science problem, while we seem to scoot by. But who has more money per household? Why?

.

That's about to change. Big time. A nation of consumers can't survive.
The service economy was a big lie. So is the "jobless recovery".
We have been cruising for 60 years on the fact we came out of WWII
with a huge manufacturing base intact. That advantage is no longer there.
We need to become more technical NOW. If India or China can come up
with the smarts and free-thinking to whip up their own PC software
and networking gear, we will see the end of us as a superpower.
The hardware is already gone. We couldn't design a pc motherboard to
save our *ss. The big chipmakers' plants are now offshore.
Design surely will follow.

everpress

sucks2beme wrote: »

That's about to change. Big time. A nation of consumers can't survive.
The service economy was a big lie. So is the "jobless recovery".
We have been cruising for 60 years on the fact we came out of WWII
with a huge manufacturing base intact. That advantage is no longer there.
We need to become more technical NOW. If India or China can come up
with the smarts and free-thinking to whip up their own PC software
and networking gear, we will see the end of us as a superpower.
The hardware is already gone. We couldn't design a pc motherboard to
save our *ss. The big chipmakers' plants are now offshore.
Design surely will follow.

Oooooh! Design has always been innovated elsewhere. As an Art Director, you've come to the right person for that little lesson. European design has been the biggest innovator, the last twenty years Asian design has made a huge impact on high design. But America, somehow, commercializes it better than anyone. We, as consumers, can speak to consumers better. We've turned every service aspect into a consumer-based activity. We didn't campaign for a president, we marketed one.

That said, because we are the inventor of blue jeans, and a way to market them outside the coal mines, even into today- from work uniform to luxury item, we will continue to rule the creative... As long as we recognize it.

markmarc

Back to the original point.

What I see is President Obama trying to get this country to start talking/discussing education issues. What the health care debate proved is that the American people want to be heard.

As a parochial school teacher for over 15 years, my experience as an educator is slightly different. Schools can and do succeed even when the economic condition of students is less than ideal. Here are ways that any school public or private can turn out better students.

1. Parental Involvement: Schools where parents are required to volunteer their time in turn makes parents buy into the school's learning program. They are far more likely to make sure that their children do their homework and emphasize school first.

I believe that employers must be required to let their workers off to do the volunteer work, but that the employee make up the missing time.

2. All Kindergartners pass a "learning readiness" test before entering school. One of the big problems now is that too many five year olds are pushed into Kindergarten before they have the maturity to learn all because of the desire to avoid day care expenses for another year. If I had my druthers, I would make Kindergarten start at age 6. The readiness and capacity to learn is much greater. Ask any Kindergarten teacher and I'll bet that 90% of their top students are the oldest ones.

3. Make time for reading every day both at school and home. Reading slows down the brain by focusing on a single task. Most multi-tasking students fail to grasp the deeper concepts as their brain is stretched too thin. Reading also encourages the brain to strengthen it's imaginative capabilities.

4. Limit TV, Video Games, and Computer usage. All three of these things are pure sugar for the brain. All three cut off the need for the imagination to work. Plus, they speed up the brain's craving for fresh stimulation, a key component of ADD and ADHD children.

5. Only one sport/team, and one activity/job at a time. One of my biggest frustrations is seeing worn out children drag themselves into class in the morning with unfinished homework all because they are on two basketball teams. Then to get an email from the parent telling us teachers that we give out too much homework.

6. Increase the school day by one period but make it a graded "Study Hall". The high school's I've visited that have this program show greater levels of academic success. As one teacher put it "Giving kids time to do their homework has allowed classes to study more in the same amount of time. There is less remediation time.".

7. Bring Back Shop Classes. One of the biggest disasters in education over the past 20 years has been the gutting of industrial arts classes. 33% of students go on to have a vocational career. Yet we removed these important life skill courses in order to hire japanese language teachers, that will have a career impact on all of 1% of students.

Kids who had difficulty in regular classrooms thrived in shop. Administrators used shop as a carrot for better behavior in regular classes, and it worked. Nowadays those same type of kids end up **** around in academic classes thus lowering the learning.

More later....

ryanjoachim

I work for the school district here, as a "classified" employee. As such, I don't make as much as teachers (obviously), and I'm still below the poverty line when it comes to net wages.

From my experience in school (less than a decade ago), and from watching kids here...a BIG problem with our ability to teach kids is their attention spans. It's ridiculous. You can NOT go into an american class room and see kids giving their teacher undivided attention. They are always talking/doodling/spacing out.

If you get a few minutes of attention during a lesson, you're lucky. If you get 5 minutes of silence a period, you count your blessings. Some of this has to do with the teacher and their style of dealing with students, but it mostly falls on the kids' inability to focus.

A big problem with classes, in my opinion, is how short the periods are. At the middle school I work at classes are around 46 minutes each, for a total of 7 per day.

Figure in 5-10 minutes at the beginning of class for attendance and to shut everyone up, and you're down to 30 minutes of learning time. Figure in another 5 minutes at the end of time to pick everything up and get ready to go to the next class, and you effectively get less than 30 minutes per period to teach your kids.

I think that's the big issue.

Pycroft

Markmarc...

I think it's funny that many of the things you listed cannot be fixed by education. More reading at home, parent involvement, etc. Perhaps it's both an education problem and a country problem.

George Grand

I'm all for anything that makes our children more competitive worldwide.

I also think if we hook small generators to each one during their waking hours we can get some decent electricity out of them too. So if we're going to keep them awake a couple more hours a day I'm all for that.

kosta

we are behind in terms of education though if you look abroad kids are smarter and more balanced in terms of language, arts, music

everpress

kosta wrote: »

we are behind in terms of education though if you look abroad kids are smarter and more balanced in terms of language, arts, music

Funny, you can't make an effective standardized testing system for those subjects. Might as well not even bother with those. I think I want my son doing his second class in Algebra around 4PM, three times a week in his fourth grade year more than i want him to be creative.

:rolleyes:

Pycroft

There's a lot of thought now that what our kids need is more creativity. A calculator can solve math problems, but it's creative thinkers that can solve word problems. A dictionary can define words, and a thesaurus can help find synonyms for words, but only a creative thinker can write a good story. I think it's a troubled system that focuses too much on technical results (90% of our 8th graders passed the math assessment, etc.) and not on whether they truly learned what they needed to.

Polk user

A long time ago, I went to school and learned how to read, write and do arithmetic. I had a lunch period, a study hall period and a gym period. That left a few hours for actual learning. I came away with a pretty good education for someone who did minimal homework.

Now if they would just spend less time in school teaching how to put on condoms, how Billy has 2 dads and Bonnie has 2 moms, they would have PLENTY of time to educate the kids.

zombie boy 2000

Yes... last I checked, Homosexuality 101 and Advanced Condom Usage accounted for 3/4th's of the day's curriculum.

tommyboy

Polk user wrote: »

Now if they would just spend less time in school teaching how to put on condoms, how Billy has 2 dads and Bonnie has 2 moms, they would have PLENTY of time to educate the kids.

What schools are you refering to cause I wish I would of went there

tonyb

tommyboy wrote: »

What schools are you refering to cause I wish I would of went there

They do sell "condoms for dummies", check it out,sorry you missed out in your school.:)

Maybe you went to a catholic school ? Just guessin'.

Polk user

zombie boy 2000 wrote: »

Yes... last I checked, Homosexuality 101 and Advanced Condom Usage accounted for 3/4th's of the day's curriculum.

Don't forget cross dressing 101.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfhdHDLcs6g

everpress

tonyb wrote: »

Maybe you went to a catholic school ? Just guessin'.

Doubt it; he definitely would have seen "Homosexuality 101" and maybe a few advanced classes like "Advanced Pedophilia: How to Convince Yourself and Others That a Funny Collar Means You Can Touch Whatever You Want"

4406bbl

One of my neighbors is a teacher, I am self employed, last year she worked 181 days, I 320 and was there more just not working. She told my kids I have more than her because I own a business, I told the dumb batch she is over paid and underworked and does not deserve as much as I have. Teachers are WAY overpaid per hour worked.

ryanjoachim

4406bbl wrote: »

One of my neighbors is a teacher, I am self employed, last year she worked 181 days, I 320 and was there more just not working. She told my kids I have more than her because I own a business, I told the dumb batch she is over paid and underworked and does not deserve as much as I have. Teachers are WAY overpaid per hour worked.

You obviously have no idea how much stress and work goes into a normal day of teaching, especially at the middle-high school level.

For one, most teachers I know (and I work at a school) get there at 6:30am, and leave at around 5 or 6pm. In that time they've had to deal with a couple hundred different kids EACH, along with having to deal with those kids who are going through the "rebellious" stage. These teachers have to spend more time with those kids than their actual parents do.

Also, teachers spend a ****-load of money on education. Education that they are contractually obligated to continue throughout their carreer, sometimes out of their own pocket. I know teachers who have been working for 10-15 years and still have some student loans.

No doubt there are teachers that are "over-paid" for what they have to do. But to spread that assumption to the entire workforce is short-sighted and ignorant.

You think being a parent is hard? Try being a parent to 200+ kids a day.

Barefoot

4406bbl wrote: »

One of my neighbors is a teacher, I am self employed, last year she worked 181 days, I 320 and was there more just not working. She told my kids I have more than her because I own a business, I told the dumb batch she is over paid and underworked and does not deserve as much as I have. Teachers are WAY overpaid per hour worked.

Where to begin..:rolleyes:

Pycroft

Barefoot -

I say don't...I just chalk it up to some people just won't understand.

everpress

4406bbl wrote: »

One of my neighbors is a teacher, I am a ****, last year she worked 181 days, I was just not working. She told my kids I have more than her because I own a business, I am a dumb batch who is over paid and underworked and do not deserve as much as I have. Teachers are WAY underpaid per hour worked with kids whose parents should've never procreated and let them get away with everything and have no respect for themselves or others, just like me.

FIX'D. Nothing to see here; move along.

everpress

Barefoot wrote: »

Where to begin..:rolleyes:

Western NC, represent!
(I don't live there now, but I spent sometime in my youth 'round there!)

wutadumsn23

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