Top 100 Education Suggestions Continued...
These are mostly clips of suggestions I have read as a response to my Top Ten. Thanks for all the help!
- Returning to the question of how we would make the public schools better, I would like to see more emphasis on teaching young people to THINK. When we got the products of our public schools into our university, analytical thinking is almost non-existent among the students, and we had to try to teach it. A very hard thing to teach once the young ones are entering adulthood.
- Thank God for the work that all you who teach do. I agree that we need to do a lot to improve public education, and there have been some great ideas on this thread. In the interim I want to share something that a dynamic woman and colleagues that she recruited did in our town. We live in the typical suburban community where folks are affluent but aging and getting tighter and tigher with school budgets. While fighting to increase school funding, this group recognized that the need is NOW, and so they formed a foundation that funds special projects in the public schools from elementary through high school. Single teachers or groups of teachers create the ideas and submit grant applications. Projects have received anywhere from $1000 to $10,000 to implement their projects. Some of the programs have included robotics, special audio-visual equipment, field trips of various kinds, a jazz project, digital photography, a radio studio, and so forth and so on. In five years the foundation has raised and given out over 1/4 million dollars from donations and fund raisers (and, by the way, only a few of these donations have come from the very wealthy).
- At age 14, every kid should be given a standardized test measuring math, science, reading and language abilities. The children can then be separated into tracks. The traditional tracks are vocational and professional, but I would probably add creative arts as a third track.
- It is important that we realize that college is not right for every student and try to erase social stigma added to vocational courses, as well, but we can only pray for so much...
- Dress codes and the dreaded school uniforms are severe, but necessary. I used to hate dress codes, and saw them as a free speech issue. That's why I prefer school uniforms, as they are equal opportunity opressors.
- Seeing as I'm recommending uniforms, why not go all the way nazi and say, separate the boys from the girls starting with middle school. This should especially be used with "at risk" students and in academic classes, and could be slowly reversed through the high school years.
- Offer more courses in foreign languages, cultures, affairs, and history at a younger age. The US has absolutely awful ties with the international community coughinvolvingourselvesinaregionthatwedon'tknowanythingaboutregardingtheircultureorhistory*cough* and since we've decided to stick our noses in everyone else's affairs, it would help if we knew what we were doing.
- Congressionally mandate businesses that recieve federal and state funds (ie Clear Channel, which got started by a Texas state grant) must actively sponsor, fund, or provide volunteer hours with local public school systems.
- Give our teachers back their ability to discipline and make it mean something.
- Mandate parental involvement and provide fines for parents that do not attend parent teacher conferences. I like this idea, but would change charging fines to providing discounts for parents who do get involved.
- P.S. Here are some more education thought-experiments to add to the Top 100 list of ways to improve...etc. Pls keep sending comments and suggestions.
#99 Hang, behead, and otherwise defenestrate any and all lawyers, accountants, marketing execs, and politicians involved with the Lottery.
#76 Throw standardized state tests out the window; that will save about 30 million per year at least in Florida alone.
#53 Give teachers yearly bonuses and raises based on their ability to show up every day, remain sane, and think and walk at the same time.
Peace, and keep those suggestions flowing...100, here we come! Bob