American Educational Reform
William P. Baird
process here in the States. At one point - from 1992 through
1997 - I was actively involved as a volunteer at the local high school
teaching computer programming, science, and some technical writing.
It struck me then - and it still doesn't seem to be a lot better now!
-
that the educational system needed a very serious overhaul. Now,
i came out of a school system that was considered a much better than
average one: Los Alamos (New Mexico) Public Schools. Yes, /that/
Los Alamos and not every school system can be as good, but I think
that there was even serious room for improvement there: a lot of the
quality of the education had to do with the almost unique culture of
the
place[1].
Often times when we Americans start discussing education we start
talking about either raising salaries of teachers[2] or
accountability.
Another talking point that gets raised is that of student teacher
ratios.
Also the suggestion that we provide vouchers so that kids can be
moved from bad schools to good ones is another that keeps coming
up: introduce a market structure basically. The first is desirable,
but
must be done carefully. The second has produced a case where they
don't teach generally, but rather they teach The Test here in
California
even in the good schools. The last often gets tripped up in budgets
and the perception that its a jobs program for teachers without
really
improving the quality of the education. The last is...very
politically
charged and will end up leaving a lot of students behind, IMO, simply
because schools can only accept so many students.
I get the impression though from being exposed to other cultures and
their methods of teaching - and performance from it - that there must
be others ways that we can attack this problem than just the above
few ways. Some real reform seems like its necessary. I guess what
I am seeking here is from you all are a some ideas as to what the
possible changes might be. I have a few and I'll share them and
I am hoping that you all will critique them and add some of your own.
The first idea is that we need to push students more, sooner. One
experience I had when I was attending school that I originally was
falling behind at the California public schools. My folks as a
desperation measure enrolled me in a private school for a year to
try to help me: I was headed to special education unless they did
something and they did. Even though they really couldn't afford it.
It helped. Not only did it help, but I accelerated up to and past
my cohorts in public school. if my folks could have kept me there,
I'd have been much further along. Possibly even doing algebra by
the time I was 10 based on the progress I was making in math and
reading. The keys here were low student teacher ratios: 10 kids to
one
teacher with assistant /and/ the fact that we were pushed big time
and not in a boot camp sort of way. This requires more one on one
time and lower teacher ratios as well as the willingness to make
individualized study plans.
Second way is a deeper linking between universities and the high
schools through project related teaching. I was involved in the
New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge (now Adventures in
Supercomputing Challenge, iirc) where students would learn to
code and make science projects through access to Crays and
whatnot. Often times this REALLY helped kids when they
found mentors that were really interested in teaching. They
would pick the project - it'd be rescoped by the mentor if it
was too ambitious - and then the mentor would teach the
necessary math, programming, and science to get them
able to do the project. This worked wonderfully even after
the kids stopped participating because they GOT why they
needed to know x, y, or z subjects and made the process
of learning interesting. If this was the rule much earlier
like say in the 6th grade rather than the voluntary or
semivoluntary exception this might make a big impact.
However it requires very knowledgeable and broad-based
individuals to teach to this style.
Finally, not because its my last idea, but because I have to run,
perhaps we need to consider that since the volume of knowledge
we are expected to absorb between the ages of 6 and 18 has
greatly increased - or should have - perhaps school hours ought
to be from 8 until 5 rather than at least around here 8:30 to 3ish.
This always daily teaching in all courses as well as nontrivial
block based classes for ones that need that time (like Chem Labs).
An honorable mention is to Carlos' everyone with a 3 year premed
degree as I cram this in as I run off to an appointment.
Any other thoughts?
Will
1. When something like 40% of adults have PhDs...
2. Something that does need to be done there, but I have met so
many frakkin useless teachers: "I don't understand war, so I am
not going to teach about [the First World War]. Read your book.
Test on Friday."
--
William P Baird Do you know why the road less traveled by
Home: anzhalyu@gmail. has so few sightseers? Normally, there
Work: wba...@nersc.go is something big, mean, with very sharp
Blog: thedragonstales teeth - and quite the appetite! - waiting
+ com/v/.blogspot.com somewhere along its dark and twisty bends.
William P. Baird
*sighs*
Will
ZerkonX
> That one flew like a ton of bricks. :S
>
> *sighs*
>
> Will
Hello. I am new here and this is a topic of interest to me. Would you
please repost this?
William P. Baird
Hola!
> Hello. I am new here and this is a topic of interest to me. Would you
> please repost this?
May I suggest:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.history.future/msg/2260ffac8acb3f49
That is the original post, FWIW.
ZerkonX
> That is the original post, FWIW.
Ok, thanks
Let's start at the beginning ....
"the educational system needed a very serious overhaul."
What is this? What is the "educational system". The mistake, the profound
mistake, is to consider it as being "THE SCHOOLS". A child goes to school
goes through the doors of it's building and now, suddenly, is in a
educational system, leaving it just as neatly at the final bell.
Let us stop here. Do you see any error in this?
It is unrealistic and, in view of this topic, impractical to believe that
a child, or anyone else, only learns - a concept that can not be removed
from education - inside this school box/building.
You see where I am going so I will wait for your response because
anything from here is built upon this point so we might as well get this
talked out first.
Since we are in alt.future I am taking for granted that anything 'that is'
does not mean 'it will be'.
ZerkonX
> You see where I am going so I will wait for your response because
> anything from here is built upon this point so we might as well get this
> talked out first...
Ok, I guess that went over like a lead balloon also. So I will practice my
typing a little here...
The short version goes like this:
The younger we are the more impressionable we are meaning the more
we are effected, or changed, by experiences in our daily environment,
'good' or 'bad'. Most young school age children are most effected by
things they see at home and most come to school on the first day as a near
total social product of their life at home.
It then follows that what happens to a child at home will, to a
large degree, determine what happens to a child at school. So, if a kids
parents do not read, the young student will have little or no
encouragement to read outside of the classroom. They will be motivated
only by grades and the punishments/rewards that these might bring. This is
very different than making reading an integral part of life.
So the child's home life has an important, if not the most important, role
in the child's early education and as the child grows and become more
social their peers also comes into the mix.
This does not cancel out the child's individual character or
responsibilities. However, it is a mistake to cancel out the
deep effect that non-school life has in education. It is as much a part,
or more a part, of the 'educational system' as grades and teachers and I
think the future of educational betterment depends on the broad based
social recognition of this fact of life.
William P. Baird
> Ok, I guess that went over like a lead balloon also. So I will practice my
> typing a little here...
My apologies but it was a perfect storm of work overwhelming me -
rotation can and will do that - and, honestly, your writing style
smacked a bit of wanting to do a written joust, I didn't have time
for
such, soooo...I didn't reply.
[munch home life as important, if not more so than, the educational
system]
I many, many ways I agree with what you are saying. This is very
important, to be sure. It's a large scale social engineering
challenge.
There are ways to make that happen, and if you'd like to discuss it,
by
all means, let's do so.
I also happen to believe that there is more that we can, and should,
do
wrt how we teach, what we teach, and what we expect of the kids and
the teachers via the system itself. That was the original scope of
the
original post.