Lets talk education. How do we "fix" our schools?

Your thoughts?

one teacher to 18 students It's class size!

Pay teachers more, so that high turnover in the profession is reduced.

Give school principals real executive power to run their schools, rather than just making them clerks of the bureaucracy in the school district.

Reduce standardized testing.

Emphasize diverse curriculum. Yes, I'm all for math and science, but also English, social studies, art, performing arts, PE, shop, and foreign languages.

better teacher salery so we can actually get some good people in on the job, get rid of the teacher union. mandatory music, art and debate classes. Must teach critical thinking and make students understand that they must think for themselves. Get rid of corporate greed (ie vending machines, lunch subsidies). probably some more things i can't think well right now.

so that both parents don't have to have two or three jobs to make ends meet. Allow parents to have time to spend with their kids.

Increase funding for Head Start, and make sure that at-risk preschoolers and their parents are given services-parents on how to teach their children to value education.

Make sure that schools have a variety of materials from which students can learn, and a variety of teachers who are willing to teach children as individuals rather than teaching to tests.

What needs to be "fixed" is not always the schools--it is society in general. Schools are merely reflections of what is wrong in a society.

"What needs to be "fixed" is not always the schools--it is society in general. Schools are merely reflections of what is wrong in a society."

I don't believe the root of the problem is with the schools it's with the family and society. If the problem were the fault of the schools how do you explain that schools still produce some exceptional students? You know the old saying you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. I'm not saying schools can't be improved but like so many other things people today refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. People complain about things like outsourcing and the trade deficit yet they still shop at Walmart and spend money buying kids video games and cheap plastic junk made in china. Want you kid to get a good paying job stop supporting companies who outsource. Let them know why you stopped buying their products. If you ask me the lack of education isn't limited to children.

Best book on education I've read in a long time. http://books.google.com/books?id=5gUAAwAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:Jonathan+inauthor:Kozol

"In these affectionate letters to Francesca, a first grade teacher at an inner-city school in Boston, Jonathan Kozol vividly describes his repeated visits to her classroom while, under Francesca’s likably irreverent questioning, he also reveals his own most personal stories of the years that he has spent in public schools. Letters to a Young Teacher reignites a numberof the controversial issues Jonathan has powerfully addressed in recent years: the mania of high-stakes testing that turns many classrooms into test-prep factories where spontaneity and critical intelligence are no longer valued, the invasion of our public schools by predatory private corporations, and the inequalities of urban schools that are once again almost as segregated as they were a century ago.But most of all, these letters are rich with the happiness of teaching children, the curiosity and jubilant excitement children bring into the classroom at an early age, and their ability to overcome their insecurities when they are in the hands of an adoring and hard-working teacher."

My ideas:

*smaller class sizes

*recruit and pay teachers who excel in Math and Science

*offer incentives for teaching in inner city schools (e.g. student loan paybacks, bonuses) and ask for a commitment of a minimum of three years

*offer seminars in early education for parents who are considering having children - this can be done through the school district

*scrap the standardized testing requirement for all students - stick with achieving goals of the curriculum and go with the standards of the individual school district

*elect a President that truly values education!

end. Russia has long educated their youth but their society suffered from corruption and tyranny by the few elite (Communist Party leadership).

"Elect a President who truly values education!" but also looks after his/her own country and it's future.

:hi:

for no child left behind. I'd have to dig for the article but I read it awhile back. Think Congress would investigate that? I agree get rid of it.

I agree with x-Senator Bradley to have national testing standards. See how the private schools measure up then.

I went to unversity with some of the elite brats. They weren't that smart and used other student's material to get through. You see, they feel they are "special". Many are not meant to rule since they lack the skills, intelligence, and work ethic. That's why every person should be educated so they can complete and the product is better for our country.

Money being diverted to private schools has left the public ones wanting.

The Mayor of Chicago is trying to get rid of public schools for private ones. The charter schools, etc. are his pride. He's turned out to be a second generation politican's son thinking his religion should rule. His brother, Bill Daley, helped write NAFTA and he was Gore's campaign manager in 2000. As the elite (politicans son)they make their own rules.

and it would be too expensive to build smaller schools, the next best thing is smaller class sizes.
I went to a smaller school and the teachers know all the students by name and also know them well enough to discern when something is wrong. All the kids knew each other, even the principal knew all the students. There is much to be said for the smaller school. They started to consolidate everyplace in the 1960's and with the consolidations, more problems with students.

Yes class sizes should be reduced. Yes smaller schools have advantages. Yes good teachers who make a differenec in student achievement are underpaid. But let's not be afraid to mention other factors:

Comprehensive education dilutes focus. Students at all levels will perform better if advanced students and those with difficulties are given specific instruction not put in the same class with the middle. Mashing them together demotivates all levels as less capable students realize they can't keep up with the better ones and the better ones become bored waiting for them to try. Some teachers can surely cope with this better than others but even with 20 kids how do you teach any academic subject to classes ranging from the barely grade level to the genius?

Cliques and social groups are distractions. Hormones are even worse distractions. School uniforms and single sex education are at least partial distraction remedies.

Teachers are not a special class of people blessed by the gods. There are idiot teachers not worth their weight in desks and brilliant teachers who should make corporate executive pay - same as for any other profession. Pretending that this is not the case and refusing to contemplate any method of differentiating between the two beyond how long they've been at it (or how long they are willing to spend in their free time sitting through further education that is at times of limited application and rigor) is a major obstacle to recruiting great new teachers, who see nothing but being the thin end of the pay, benefits and choice wedge for decades.

It's not the school's fault if your kid is a thug, or a dope fiend, or can't pay attention and get the work done. It's a combination of mostly your kid's fault and partly yours. Until we get separation of responsibility and realistic expectation that schools are there to teach, not babysit, not do mental counseling, not be police, not be social workers, we're hosed. If all our taxes went to education and NECESSARY administration we'd have class sizes in a realistic level.

Some things ARE worth more than others. PE and art history are great things. I enjoy and value aspects of both. But if we have kids for only a few hours let's make sure they are literate, numerate and rational first and then do the life enriching stuff.

Have academic-track and vocational-track high schools, and reduce the academic expectations of vocational students appropriately. Make the the academic students' curriculum more rigorous.

Fail students and have no problem kicking them out after they're kept behind twice. But first sit them down and say even if they think they have no future because of their race and how everything in society is out to get them, point out that many of the people "kept back" haven't done much to go forward.

Make sure they know that not everything has to be relevant to them. If their entire motivation is reading about how other people like themselves have it as bad, all they do is continue to know themselves. Presumably most people know themselves. It's getting past yourself that is part of a good education.

Make explicit the cultural and educational assumptions necessary for success, and teach them as required skills, putting them in the proper context.

And, most importantly, place the blame for a student's failure where it probably belongs. If a teacher has successfully taught 30% or more of any class, the teacher is almost certainly competent. Failure is then probably the fault of the student or the student's family. It may be that his father beats his mother, that her mother is perpetually drunk, that the kid runs with a gang; the teacher is not a social worker or the kid's parents, and the parents should be assigned the responsibility for their kids, or lose them.

Empower school principles to expel disruptive students
Replace standardize testing with school based achievement standards that promote a student from one grade to another based on achievement not age.
Reduce class size
Raise teacher pay
Eliminate organized athletics
Promote home schooling
Promote magnet or charter schools giving families more choice
Increase art, drama dance and drawing classes (promote creativity)
Require 4 high school years of Foreign Language classes
Require 4 high school years of Philosophy classes
Require 4 high school years of Economics classes