This is the second part to an earlier writing about education in the United States. As you may recall, I advocated for the privatization of all schools from kindergarten to graduate studies. This piece will focus on the curriculum that needs to be followed. [/align][/align]Everytime I encounter someone in the workplace, I am reminded of just how much we have failed to properly educate United States citizens in the fundamentals of communication: reading, writing and speaking. Few would argue that the time is long overdue for the United States to "get back to the basics" of a fully functional education system. We need to exclusively focus on the development of communication skills from kindergarten to eighth grade along with annual testing that measures apptitude and interest. Training in mathematics should be limited to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Unless communication skills are fully mastered, there is no need to advance to high school. [/align][/align]For those who graduate to high school, the emphasis could evolve into a curriculum of philosophy, sociology, economics, psychology, science and religious studies. Books such as "For Dummies" and "The Complete Idiot's Guide" could be used to foster an understanding of different religions. Athletic activity would be strictly confined to cardio vascular exercises and all sports would be eliminated. While there would still be an emphasis on communication skills, the focus would now be on developing a foundation of basic knowledge so as to be able to graduate to college. Testing for apptitude and interest would continue through high school increasing the chances of picking the right field of study . Those not continuing on to college would enter some type of apprenticeship training for the purpose of learning a trade. For those who do graduate to college, the student would continue to study an advanced version of the same curriculum as high school but only for the first two years then they would complete their education by strictly focusing on coursework designed to train them in their field of study. Nearing graduation, internships would be required to begin the transition to the working world. Think of how different our society would be if our education system could just teach the fundamentals of reading, writing and speaking.[/align][/align]
While I agree that communication skills should certainly be upgraded and that private schools often do provide a better education, I don't think abolishing public schools, eliminating upper math education or most other subjects (such as computers) is the best way to improve education.
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I'm surprised that a man with such a keen interest in education and so critical of his co-workers' communication skills hasn't discovered the paragraph.
Why eliminate sports?It is good to have competition.If somebody can't handle it,they learn how to lose.A few years ago,HBO did a piece on eliminating dodgeball because it was bad for the "geeks" to lose so bad to better athletes.I stated that if they did that,they would have to eliminate a grading system so the kids that weren't as smart wouldn't have hurt feelings too.
No, I don't know: how different would our society be ifour education systemcould just teach the fundamentals of reading, writing, and speaking?
Let me start by saying I have a degree in English, worked for four years in the past as a technical writer, worked some 13 years as a software engineer, have worked the last 2 years writing patents, and have a degree in electrical engineering. In the past I wrote and had poetry published. I believe I am a good writer and a good speaker and I appreciate the value of communication skills.
I find that there are manyother skills and aptitudes that contribute to success in work life, family life, and community life. I don't find, generally, that my superior writing and communicating skills provide a great advantage over others. Others may make up the ground by being better at political behavior (meant in a good not a pujorative sense) or quicker to learn new technologies or more empathetic than I am.
I haven't read your prior thread -- I assume there wasan "Education Part I" -- but I would NEVER push off into space with an educational program that was composed of a high content of new curriculum. It sounds like what you are talking about in your post here is not borrowed from an existing, proven educational system. I think I would be reluctant to try more than a 20% change. It is like buying the first year's model of a new car -- you end up being the guinea pig for the car manufacturer to workout all their bugs and design faults. By new I mean not successfully implemented elsewhere. Rather than think that I had the answers, my first course would be to study the methods of other public education systems in other countries to cherry pick what worked in their systems. In doing this I would be looking not only for how these other public education systems beat the US public education system in specific areas, for example in mathematical learning, but where those education systems produced poor results, for example if their students lack theability to innovate creative solutions or to adopt rapidly to change.
The thing that strikes me most about the public education system is the range of results among students in the same school house. It seems to me that the value and importance that parents place on their children's education has a lot to do with what they learn. This applies not only to school house learning, but learning elsewhere. If the parents use an extensive vocabulary, the kids develop an extensive vocabulary. If the parents restrict their vocabulary to the 2,000 most commonly used words in their area, their kids generally do not develop an extensive vocabulary.
I think sports are over emphasized. I think general participation in sports has benefits for learning important non-academic lessons. At the same time, in many schools sports becomes almost professional -- only the upper 5% of boys "making the team" for example. In such a "professional" environment few benefit from this experience and the experience itself may be different or have negative effects -- for example teaching the "lesson" that success in sports is more important than academic learning.
But to return to your theme of communication, I think communication skills are valuable. I wonder if there isn't much more involved in improving the communication skills of our youth than changing our schools. For example, I am often struck when watching movies from the late 50's and early 60's how the actorsspeak well and clearly are depicted as being well educated. What I read into this -- maybe wrongly -- is that education was valued by American society at that time and polished speech was deemed a concommitant of an education. People, I think, aspired to such an education and command of speaking. I think this is missing today. It is almost that people abhore the marks of an education. They want the money that comes from a college education but not the character shaping or cultural shaping. Under these conditions how much effect can the school have on childrens communication?
If you care about the education of you own children, it pays to get involved. Pick up your own game -- engage yourself in learning, expand your own vocabulary, read history books -- and share this with your children. Be mindful of who your children hang around with (very difficult to influence, I don't have the answer for this). If your kids hang around with other kids who can't utter a complete sentence, speak only in slang or "street talk," guess how your kids are going to talk? Again, I don't have the answer to this and feel anxious about this relative to my own kids. I don't like the music they listen to, for example, but I have no idea how to influence their tastes. I just hope since I'm doing other things right that the music -- which appears to be shot through with anti-social messages and bankrupt thinking -- will not corrupt and debase them.
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RE: Education Part ll
Would this be advocating a voucher system? If not, then we will lose a large part of or society that will depend on us to support them through welfare. If we do a voucher system, then it is really not privatized education. I feel it is a catch 22. I feel public school has been ruined by the P.C. attitude as well as misguided values, along with thelossof a nuclear family (or even a caring family, every wrong is someone else's fault.) I wish I knew the answer.
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kaafir mushrik
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Location: land of the Lilliputians, In the state of insanity
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RE: Education Part ll
Quote:
ORIGINAL: Alsatian
If you care about the education of you own children, it pays to get involved. Pick up your own game -- engage yourself in learning, expand your own vocabulary, read history books -- and share this with your children.
As an educator, that is one of the major reasons my job is a pain in the butt. When I tell parents they need to be involved, they tell me, "Thats your job to teach my kids, not mine". Very sad, but true.
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kaafir mushrik
Unintended consequences and God have one thing in common: Liberals don’t believe in either of them.
It would be ill advised to have ONLY a private education system in the United States. One important flaw of democracies is that political power resides in the ignorant masses. However much our system leans towards artistocracy (senate, supreme court can be viewed as aristocratic government institutions as against more democratic institutions such as the house of representatives and referendum votes alla California), there is still a strong democratic structure involved. If only private education existed, many people who possessed the vote would not be even modestly educated. Not a recipe for a stable democracy. We need public education.
I'm surprised that a man with such a keen interest in education and so critical of his co-workers' communication skills hasn't discovered the paragraph.
ok, UD, I've taken issue with this intellectually elitist approach of yours before, but...
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you really need to get...
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Education Part ll
