We are already spending too much money on education, we just aren't spending the money wisely. Go down to you local DOE building at look at all the bureaucrats! 6 figure salaried employees that do absolutely NOTHING to educate children. Buying new books that aren't needed every year. Why in the world would you buy new basic math books every year? Why can the archdioceses education children for 1/3 of the cost and do a better job? Reason, they have far, far, far fewer administrators.
@christo930 Spending money on things that don't educate kids is NOT giving money to education. I have never seen a public school that buys new text books on any subject matter on an annual basis. I've never even heard of such a thing.
@GrapplingIgnorance The every year thing is a little hyperbole, but basic books who's content hasn't changed in decades have been replaced quite often and in some cases (albeit isolated) yearly. This is also very common in higher education where the professor writes a book and puts out a new edition every year, over prices it and destroys the used value. But still, why can the archdioceses educate children for 1/3 of the cost? Take a look at your local BOE and look at the waste.
@christo930 Don't think for 1 minute that there aren't kickbacks going on in the purchasing departments. Public schools often overpay for many things. Private schools do it cheaper because it's all the parents can afford and they make it work. Everyone knows that particularly the catholic school system is better than the public school systems in all of the major cities and cost about 1/3 of the horror that is the public school system.
Haha, Funny how I was talking to my friend in 5th Grade about this stuff... Long ago. The exact things in fact, because I found it stunted me more. Also, being afraid to mess up in classes based on the terrible education system promotes passing a class more than learning. Personally, I find mathematics, logic, philosophy, and some other studies important to a society even somewhat democratic, but draining the desire? Not good. School comes from the Greek word for leisure, so why?
@ACANOFSODA Replying to myself.. It should be "The exact thing, in fact." Although.. Not like it really matters. Think of it like a standardized test in grammar. Haha
G.I. I hope you are in contact with local, state, and federal officials, and getting this message to those who have the power to make the necessary changes. Telling US is great, but most of us can't do anything about it. I would love to see these changes you speak of, but I don't have the gift you have, and could never get across in words (verbally or on paper) what you so eloquently describe. I wouldn't even know how to begin. I wish I were persuasive and had connections, but I'm not I don't.
I was a professor for colleges in both America and England and agree full heartily with G.I. Most of the students I had the honor to teach were deterred by the standardized tests which never truly made them learned students. In the 180 days of teaching English I'm sure the student who wanted to become a chemist didn't much care for my lessons, for example on rhetoric. So instead of testing my mettle with the school system in my spare time I now go to treat potential PTSD soldiers in Afghanistan.
This sounds like you just described the South African School curriculum. I have asked those questions to myself many times before and I'm glad you as an educator are bringing them up. I think that people in the education profession don't really care what they teach any more. They only see it as job they get paid for.
Seriously... you don't get that Shakespear sort of revolutionized both the English language, narrative progress and tackled general issues of human conflict and resolution in ways that Hollywood generally wouldn't have the balls to and that there really isn't ANY future profession save for one in which a person would simply not deal with other human beings that would not benefit from some basic knowledge and understanding of Shakespear's work.
@TheHobgoblyn You know, if you're going to bitch about people not respecting Shakespeare for his contributions to the English Language, you should probably make YOUR English reasonably easy to read.
Regardless, that isn't even what he said, Troll. He said that Shakespeare wasn't relevant to EVERYONE, and it ISN'T. Does a Plumber, Doctor, Mechanic, Office Worker, or Soldier need to know Shakespeare? Of course not!
@SwordofKnowledge YES. It IS relevant to them. Unless you are going to deny the right of them to vote or to serve on a jury then it is important for them to be familiar with the literature that shaped our language and culture, the history of our nation and civilization in the world, the fundamentals of science and mathematics, basic philosophy (logic) and to be relatively healthy and fit.
I can't think of a single required subject in high school that is not relevant to a citizen of a democracy.
@TheHobgoblyn One does not need to have read Shakespeare to serve on a jury or vote; English and Grammar can be taught without forcing people to read one particular work.
And, yes, some required classes are necessary, but GI isn't suggesting otherwise; he's not saying "there should be no required classes," he is saying "We should have a looser framework so that students can choose their own path."
To suggest that Shakespeare is somehow integral to a democracy is utterly ridiculous.
@SwordofKnowledge If one doesn't have an awareness and at least a mild appreciation of Shakespear, Newton, Socrates and Jefferson's works, I frankly wouldn't trust them with guiding public policy nor on their ability to analyze arguements.
The revolutionaries in the basic humanities and sciences that have gotten us to where we are today should most DEFINATELY be studied. I can't help it if you are an ignorant dolt who was either taught Shakespear incorrectly or don't realize his impact on you.
@TheHobgoblyn How are difficult to understand old-english stories about love and death, an example of philosophies that all people should have an understanding of? Shakespear was a dramatic dolt, and nobody should be -required- to read ANYTHING he has to offer. Politicians should need it least of all, maybe they would be a little less crazy. Sorry, but not everybody thinks he really had that much to offer. If anything he used to have some meaning, but is now completely outdated.
@TheOJDrinker Yeah. You were told it in the wrong way and thus totally lack proper understanding. A person who has a proper grasp of the English language has NO problem understanding Shakespear. Moreover, his work informs and underlines nearly all drama in movies and TV today-- none of which have managed to live up to his level or standards.
Yet, even if you are a complete failure as a human being doesn't mean there shouldn't be some attempt to teach his work properly thus others may not be.
@TheHobgoblyn I wasn't told anything about it, I was given it and told to read, then asked what it meant that it didn't say. Someone having to 'teach' the meaning of it could just invent anything, if the meaning isn't clear on its own, it isn't there. I understand you're a Shakey fanboy, but that doesn't mean his work is so superior to everything today and totally important for everyone. Clearly it isn't to me, and there's no reason to think it'll be important for every budding politician.
@TheOJDrinker But you see, it IS vastly superior to everything today.
Oh, wait, no... I get it. You are so deeply enraptured by the entirity of the human experience and totally genuine emotions and humanity captured by Michael Bay. c_c;
Because Transformers 3 and Green Lantern are all so much more informative and important pieces of work than MacBeth and Henry the IV.
@TheHobgoblyn I haven't seen them. Taking the worst examples does not show if something is better than "everything" that exists, I don't see that at all. Trying to make others look bad doesn't make shakes look any better, and I won't defend those that are actually bad. How about this, give me an example of his 'revolutionary' work that helps us understand the humanities that we simply could not get without him. Not a reference to a whole story, be specific.
My god these are such good suggestions. Across the board, just just for America but other countries. In Asian countries children are being denied childhood to get the perfect grades to get into the perfect school to get into the perfect job. Not because they themselves want it but because its 'right'.
I hate the 'one size fits all' method we have adopted. It punishes too many people and rewards too few. I'm a smart woman but I floundered in school so much. Half the time I was ignored...
Case and Point: In high school, I was loaded down with extra science and math courses, when I could have been taking honors chorus, which eventually caused me to loose almost all my vocal abilities from simple neglect.
Now I'm 21; by now, I could have been an operatic heldentenor, singing Siegfried at the Metropolitan Opera; but instead I'm slogging through an engineering degree for no adequately described reason.
Real problem is that kids have no rights to chose. Their life is totally managed by their parents. so even if some kid wants to be a plumber his parents will force him to be a doctor or lawyer even if he hates that job with all his guts.
so if school will allow kids to chose low lever options parents usually will protest demanding to teach their kids ant maximum level available for high paying jobs.
This especially happens when some idiot child is offered simplified program but parents refuse
@deltaxcd That problem does happen today with parents whose children have special needs but refuse to let them be "identified" as such. That could happen to some degree when kids/parents are given choices, but at least those choices to come from the kid/parent, which puts the pressure on them to resolve, not on the states for forcing them to learn something they don't need or care about. Also, teachers and counselors can confer with parents for struggling kids to decide better programs.
If parents do not object there is no real problem, because if they accept that their kid wont go to college and will be limited by low level job they can just skip classes of not interesting subjects.
Nobody forces anyone to take music or art classes you can even skip mathematics or literature, but once you do that you automatically lose all perspective to get some diploma.
I want to say that problems is mostly not with educational system but with expectations of parents and children.
Nobody forces anyone to learn everything, but if you want to be a doctor then you need to learn all crap for highest marks if you are fine being plumber you may even skip everything.
I am SO SICK of being forced to take German Lit classes in my German high school. Why? Because I will NEVER give a shit about why Faust matters or what its contents are, and if I am in a position where it's my job to do so, then I will probably jump off of a bridge. And then I STILL can't take more than 3 periods of computer programming a week? FML.
As a musician, it was so frustrating to take core curriculum that would not apply to me as a musician. But instead of being stuck in the system, I tested out of a ton of classes and did a large load of AP classes. I graduated as valedictorian and got some free college credit! But I totally understand where you are coming from here. I couldn't take classes like music theory or private lessons, which has caused me to fall a semester behind my peers at university.
I like this. I know that coming out of high school I knew JACK about what I wanted to do and was forced into manual labor, which whiles it paid well, I hated with all my being.
Now, If I could, I would become a biology teacher because I have a passion and a knack for teaching just random people what evolution actually entails. And if I could keep my damn opinions to myself, I could actually teach biology 101 And maybe even get students thinking about it.
Please don't forget a way to easily retrain in a new field if the demand for skilled people shifts. I am trying to retrain as an electrician after over 20 years in I.T. However as things stand now I need to do a 6 month pre-apprenticeship course, unpaid, before I can start training, makes it hard to do with the bills still coming in and a house to pay off :-(
Speaking of "Goals & Structure" literally, a local college built a few new state-of-the-art structures for class rooms. Sounds good right? Well, since they spent so much on the buildings, they "had to" reduce funds for programs, & cut some altogether. They claimed lack of interest, which I found odd, b/c one program (which I was in) was full & wait-listed. They put "looks" ahead of edu, once again. A common problem. Reducing the pay of admin (6 figs) would be a good 1st step in a new edu model.
@Grapplingingnorance@MegaVolcano parents, poor included, might save money if their kids spent less years getting a higher quality education and make more money when they enter the workforce sooner utilizing useful skills they learned from educators more intuned to their needs than a bureaucracy could ever be. Yall dont trust ppl, fine i cant convince u otherwise but i said my piece.
@anoldcrow You've shown me that you really, REALLY don't understand the position of people in poverty. We're talking about people who don't expect their children to go to college without full scholarships because they can barely afford to feed them once a day. Kids who often only eat when they get that free lunch from school. You're saying that they'll be able to pay to send their kids to school because they won't have to pay for college? I'm sorry but you're utterly lost on this issue.
@GrapplingIgnorance Very true. I did some calculations. If I were to work 7 days a week making minimum wage for ten years without a single day off, I just might have enough money for med school.
@Grapplingingnorance@MegaVolcano its been real, i think its sad ppl as smart as u 2 who see the problems wont take it on urselves but want the gov handle it. Gov has never done better than the private sector in anything: mail, computers, weapons, medicine, etc. It is the source of change and improvement, gov=status quo.
I have to agree with you to a large degree. The area I don't agree with out is that students should only be educated in the job/area they are interested in. I think that a basic/broad knowledge is one of the important things that makes a) informed citizens b) maybe interested in a topic they were not interested in before. Not saying that it is important to be able to recite all gods from Greek mythology, I would also say that I'm not sure that it would be a good idea to let students/parents
choose the subjects they learn about. For advanced topics maybe, but not a baseline in a variety of topics. I can often see that when the opportunity is there students do not choose the thing they would really be interested in, but the topic where the exam is easy or the subject matter is simple. Many parents could bias the education of their children in ways to force them to paths the children themselves do not want/are not interested in.
When we are educating only for the job someone wants
@thargor2k we may run into the problem that we are educating "idiot experts" who only know their field, and not any other. You might also pass on some chances to get someone thinking on things they were not interested in before. I think it is essential to do three things in schools: a) awake an interest for knowing/finding out things b) providing students with a wide variety of techniques/view, even if they won't need all of them later on c) train students to learn, because they should never
OTOH I have to say that we also face some of the problems you talked about in Austria. We currently have a big/long discussion on how to change the educational system to make it effective/working nowadays (where not much is coming out...)
@thargor2k listen to what the video said more carefully. I think you'll find that you misunderstood that I said. I specifically addressed the issue of tracking, and explained why it should be a system of options, not a set of only job related classes. I also explained rudimentary classes should still be required for the core subjects, just not advanced ones that the students aren't cut out, for, don't need, and don't care about.
@GrapplingIgnorance Sry, I then overrated what you said @1:25, maybe because in many of my discussions in Austria people speak of advanced topics when you talk about, e.g. calculus in the sense of simple equation solving, I should have looked up "precalculus" before... I was also surprised about your comment on world history, which -for me- is a very important subject (depending on depth, timespan, etc).
Write up a model that will work for students, teachers, institutions and with current funding as well as how to trasition from the current system to the proposed one. Then push for it.
You know it's broken, you know what the ideal is, someone needs to do the work in the middle, and who else is going to step up?
@Lloyath The specifics of such a model need to be drafted by bureaucratic committees and ordered by politicians. They are the ones who have the power to make changes. They don't care what disgruntled teachers have to say about their entire educational technique any more than what most Generals cares about the opinions of hid disgruntled soldiers regarding an entire war strategy.
@GrapplingIgnorance For sure, they don't care about people sitting around complaining. If you think no one's going to listen and everything is going to stay the same... are you just ranting? Are you just telling other people that they should be pissed off at this and also do nothing to fix it?
You'd be surprised at how far you can get when you put the work in.
@Lloyath My effort here is to inform the voting populace who DOES have an impact on what their local and eventually state and federal politicians consider a priority, along with what changes need to be made. If some teacher writes up a massive and detailed proposal promoting radical changes of governmental priorities and submits it to Washington, it will be instantly disintegrated. If people start talking with their votes, they will pay attention.
@GrapplingIgnorance Why would you submit it to Washington? I said push for it, not post it off and forget about it. You would be writing something solid that people could refer back to when they say "we want changes to be made" which is a hell of a lot more constructive than telling voters that they don't want the current education system and giving them no solid alternative.
Voting for any kind of change is not a solution. You don't have to step up, but don't pretend it's because you can't.
@Lloyath Who said I was pretending I can't? I'm stating that the government has no interest in listening to an individual. You're saying to do their job of completely redesigning the education system, then advertising it (somehow) as a solution as if they'd be interested? I wish it worked that way, but it would be a huge waste of time & effort. Not to mention my efforts wouldn't be nearly as effective as the government's, if their priorities were correct. ONE person can't change their minds.
"Their job"? No one has the job of redesigning the education system completely. The government could throw money at the education system and it won't help. It could be redesigned, but would it be something that would work to your standards?
I agree that they're not going to listen to one guy whining, which is you right now, but if you have real solutions to the problem then people are going to listen.
@Lloyath Actually, there is a sector in our government whose job it is to assure that our education system is run the best way that it possibly can be, which includes an allocation of funds and reformation of policies- it's called the department of education. What' you're proposing I do would be like telling a single private who's in the military to develop and entire strategy for getting the troops out of Afghanistan, and he needs to step up, because if he has answers the military will listen.
@GrapplingIgnorance u notice the symtoms but rather than adress the heart of the issue u want to reform a system that has sucked for some 200ish years. it got to be the way it is bc we trusted gov to implement reform. now if we lived under a philosopher king sure, he could take apart the system and put it back together but your plan cannot happen here, too many ppl w/ too many interests. the end result will be no different than NCLB act. you shouldnt fear freedom, it works
@anoldcrow You shouldn't fear information coming from people who are actually immersed in this profession and happen to know what they're talking about. You've refused to do that here, so that's the last I'm going to say on the matter.
I completely agree w/ u. I spent most of my time in school bored or frustrated. I was forced to take all these classes I neither needed nor wanted. I also learn best by doing things hands on so I wasn't even being taught the way I learned best & then everyone wondered why I wasn't thriving. :(
What are you smoking? Art, Phy Ed, and Music are course either being cut or being considered to be cut. There isn't money for what you're suggesting. If students don't want to learn to read or write or use basic math skills, they can learn on the job after high school. It's the different types of problem solving that are introduced in school that everyone should have for the 21 century. People need to be flexible.
I think there is something to be said for cultural literacy, but I agree with many of the points you put forward in this video. I never received a satisfactory answer from any of my teachers, parents, or other mentors as to why I had to study advanced mathematics when I was certain my passions lied in English, the arts, and the social sciences. It bothered me then, and three years after my high school graduation it still bothers me. Have you heard of Sudbury schools, by any chance?
"What is the real goal of hight school?" It's call the "hidden curriculum": to Endure boredom, to preform menial tasks and submission to arbitrary authority. There are the life skills. Naming all 50 states doesn't mean anything, but learning them teaches these skills.
Oh.. and Shakespeare is the greatest writer in english and likely one of the best writers ever to exists.... If we teach english, we need to teach Shakespeare, period.
@no2religions Those things may be the result of many tasks given in typical American classrooms, but it's not some "hidden curriculum." Also, your comments on Shakespeare are 100% subjective, as would be the case for any number of well known authors. Just beware of an appeal to absolutes based on personal opinion.
The "hidden curriculum" is a well developed concept in social science. It is not particular to any subset of public school.
wikipedia(dot)org/wiki/Hidden_curriculum
As for Shakespeare, there is a very objective case for its teaching. Works such as Hamlet or Romeo & Juliet have impacted the formation of Lit., History and The English Language. Plus popular culture, generation after generation, for centuries. Where would I find something in Eng. without his influence?:)
@no2religions I'm familiar with the concept, but ummm thanks for the Wikipedia article, I guess. It's still nothing more than a vague concept that people have fabricated to explain the status of poor education. It's not some hidden conspiracy to cripple the populace and turn them into subservient workers. As for Shakespeare, his quality remains entirely subjective. That fact that he was influential doesn't mean he needs to be taught to all English students, an more than the Bayeux Tapestry.
@GrapplingIgnorance That would be your opinion of the validity of the concept of the a hidden curriculum. Where did I proposed it as a conspiracy. There are a lot of works on sociology of education draw on this concept. "Vague concept" is not a accurate representation of the field.
Leaving WW2 out of history? Mozart out of music? I admit that "best" was a terrible way to phrase my first post. "Influence" is more appropriate, but why don't you support studying influential works?
@no2religions I didn't say that you said it was, I just said what it wasn't. Of course I'm giving my opinion on the validity of the concept.
I'm NOT opposed to studying influential works, for students who want to learn them. I'm proposing that students have choices for upper level courses like influential works in writing, but it would be impractical to require it of all students. Especially Shakespeare, because explaining its non-standard English is counter productive to rudimentary lessons.
@GrapplingIgnorance " but it would be impractical to require it... Especially Shakespeare," We have that exact requirement for high school graduation here. From Grade 7 or 8 onwards all students learn a Shakespeare play in english class. English is taken right till grade 12, graduation. Grade 12 has at least one of these works. It's not impractical, it's the norm here.
Now, WHY it's taught all the way to Gr12 to everyone would be training in "menial tasks" as per the Hidden curriculum ;)
so i thought about that whole "poor people cant afford it" argument. What if in order to become an educator in school where teachers have higher salaries i taught at schools for lower income families after i got my teacher degree and helped raised their test scores and got good recommendations over a few years? if they had this system there'd be more teachers and competition and dedication to the job and the poor would DIRECTLY benefit, this isnt trickle down theory
@anoldcrow No, a system like that would mean that the poor schools got all of the inexperienced teachers, and as soon as they became good at their jobs they would move on to schools that paid better. Seriously- have you thought this through?
@GrapplingIgnorance in my system their would be no room for any bad teachers, take a look at some of the teachers in schools now who really don't care, now think of one who won't get tenure and who wants more and who knows with effort he can get more who knows if he doesn't do well there are plenty of others who would love to take his job from them because unlike your system, mine gives teachers opportunities. A world of difference, no? Seriously- have you thought this through?
@anoldcrow No! You realize that the private sector has bad works too right? Like the ones who are just starting and have no experience in the field. You're proposing that all of those teachers go to the poor schools, and if they're good enough they leave... if they don't perform well, then what? They get fired mid semester and get replaced without a chance to grow? This is one of the many complications of comparing educating children with building weapons or roads.
I love your points (and videos) man. You are very well versed and structured in your arguments. I wish these videos could be played on our mainstream media programs just to put some ACTUAL logic into peoples minds. Excellent video....yet again!
look sorry i used you channel to promote my political view, ill let you have the last word and we can continue this through private messages if you prefer
it is a business, the difference is you want it to be a monopoly. in 30 years ron paul has only ever appealed to the constitution, his entire record is widely available on the net. Anyway every service the government did has been done better by the free market, for example: mail. Here in Taiwan Bushibans (after-school-schools) are everywhere and offer a wide variety of classes and teaching methods and prices, it works. need more proof? /watch?v=_2CR31MHUok and /watch?v=6Iiuq6gJCok
@anoldcrow By that logic, let's cut the entire US military then just hire personal mercenaries whenever we need to pillage a third world country for flex our muscle to the world. That'll save us a shit ton of money! Otherwise there's a "monopoly" on the business of the military. Competition among mercenaries will improve efficiency that the product they produce and the invisible hand of the free market will just take care of all the details. I don't mind you bringing up politics when relative.
@GrapplingIgnorance the difference is the constitution does put the government in charge of the military but mentions nothing of the governments role in the classroom. i'm no fan of the military industrial complex, of policing the world, of preemptive war and neither is RP.
i agree we need goals. i think children should be taught a wide variety of subjects, though, even 'useless' ones, as they broaden their horizons and character. teaching a kid only about mechanics, for example, is sure to leave him in religious stupor. teaching him biology, history, geology, however has a chance of giving him the knowledge to free himself and become an atheist. the problem is, however, HOW they are taught
@doutonight As this video states, I'm not promoting tracking, I'm promoting options. A quality system would provide kids a far wider variety of choices than what they have now, and they would still be required to be well versed in the current basic subjects. They just wouldn't have to study all of them to levels of depth that they will never need to know or don't see a reason to care about.
and think of this, suppose a large enough segment of the population of kansas wanted creationism to be taught in school because they thought thats what their children really needed to know to function in the real world, so ray comfort became a teacher, would you want your tax dollars to fund that or should those people pay for private school? at some point kids are just gonna have to be home schooled or perhaps use the internet to its full potential
@anoldcrow What on earth are you talking about? The department/boards of education make(s) curriculum choices. It's not based on appeals to local popularity. Teaching religion in school is unconstitutional and would not happen just because you give kids more choices. If parents want their kids to learn creationism, they send them to Sunday school. If Ray wants to be a teacher, he needs a degree. If he wants to teach creationism to his class, he then deserves get a pink slip.
@GrapplingIgnorance but the Board of education in Kansas DID rule creationism be taught in schools, remember the flying spaghetti monster thing? I come from new orleans where public schools generally suck and private (catholic) schools are good, if the government gives families a "free" ride under the guise of public schooling then there is no improvement or change and the only alternative isn't an enthusiastic entrepreneur but the Catholic church.
I like your ideas here. I hated so many courses in high school that were mandatory and 20 years later proven to be irrelevant to my life and career. I would rather see a basic course in some subjects like science and math offered to students who are not pursuing careers that require more knowledge in this area, so students can focus on the education that matters to them and their goals. Chefs don't need advanced calculus and trig for example.
@savageecho No, diverting already abysmal public resources to private sectors is completely different than what I'm proposing. I'm proposing that the public education system be restructured in a way that's practical and efficient.
@GrapplingIgnorance Just because it can be run more like a business doesn't mena it has to be for profit or even in the private sector. A voucher system would restructure how students are allocated to schools, something students and parents have little or no control over. Lumping all the inner city kids into inner city schools won't work. Allow different schools to carry specializations while keeping a mandatory core curriculum and then allow students to choose their school.
@GrapplingIgnorance The funding itself is not the issue. some of the highset per stundent funding in this nation also see the lowest grad rates while some of the lowest funding sees good grad rates. Now, one could argue that rates for grad are not a perfect measure of what or how the students are taught. We need to have a system that is not based on the idea, "Go where we tell you, when we tell you and while you're there learn what you're told without question."
if you take gov out of it then schools would be started by individuals or businesses spurred by the desire to fill a need in a community. the need for customer satisfaction would promote quality, that doesnt work when the govs involved. Kids would be taught as effectively as possible in all the most relevant ways. variety would be achieved by a steady demand by a group for a different curriculum. Schools would cost money but if people aren't taxed then they'd have money and options.
@anoldcrow Absolutely not. Privatizing education would only further polarize the rich from the poor in this country, and rob children of currently available opportunities based on the socioeconomic conditions they were born into. It fosters the concept of buying your education, and businesses trying to sell you an education like a commodity rather than give it to you as a citizen's essential knowledge is the exact opposite of what we need to improve. I also don't want a creationist president.
@GrapplingIgnorance 1. a free market would provide opportunities for education for all segments of society due to the potential to profit, that would encourage quality from teachers who's pay check is on the line as well as a relevant curriculum from the company who's target consumers are on the line. 2. RP keeps religion out of politics and probably knows more quotes from Jefferson than Jeremiah, I thought us atheists were beyond such petty discrimination.
@anoldcrow There is zero evidence to state that a "free market" would do any such thing. You're treating education & quality of teachers like tangible commodities, & education does NOT work like that. Ron Paul has shown me that he doesn't understand the separation of church & state. It's not discrimination to not want a president who denies evolution anymore than it would be to not want a president who denies gravity. I don't mind if he's religious but I do care when faith blinds his judgement.
@GrapplingIgnorance just want to clarify, the reason i dont want government run education is because governments have a bad habit of institutionalizing bad ideas and making them status quo like say Mao's China. The free market lets bad ideas die in due time. That is why i like freedom and RP, if it wasn't for freedom of expression then there would be less of us atheists. So let education be by of and for the people and lets get our money's worth, is it so bad an idea? just look into it more plz.
@anoldcrow In America evolution is considered a 'bad idea'. If we let the Free Market decide on our education essentially by feelings, then the free market will produce a dumbed down fascist country faster than it currently is doing now. What we need is a national standard for all public schools. Plus if all schools are privatized, than the majority of Americans won't be able to afford to pay to send their children to school. Only the rich will be educated.
@MegaVolcano well i think if a school in my city was too pricy and i could offer students at an education at a more affordable price, id be in business then, no? as for that evolution thing, in america we call people out for BS, businesses would never hire bible thumpers and since schools themselves would be businesses why would they teach crap? the problem is too many private schools are christian because only a world body like the church who isnt taxed can compete with the government
@anoldcrow If schools were a business, and christians weren't buying what the business was selling, then trust me, the business would stop teaching evolution in order to maintain a profit. Plus there are people with no income, homeless people, who's children would not get to go to school, thus increasing the problem. School should be free...or paid with taxes, in a first world country. Everybody deserves an education, not just those who can pay for it.
@MegaVolcano valid concerns all, but u shouldnt worry about church in schools because 1. christians want their kids educated the same way rationalists do so they wouldnt buy into that system 2. no business can sell a christian education when sunday school does it free 3. businesses would be educating their own work force or receive funding from large corporations that want a capable future workforce. 4. if they can pay taxes they can pay for school, gov shouldnt tell the poor...
@MegaVolcano ...they can bring children into this world because we'll take care of them. finally i think the result of my system would be the closing down of many christian schools in an attempt by the church to compete with those who can offer great education more affordably. your right, everyone needs to get educated and while you cant put a price on an education you still at least want the best money can buy right? as grapplingignorance points out, we dont get that with our taxes
@anoldcrow That means we need to SOLVE the problem, not throw the baby out with the bathwater and privatize education. Don't insult me by assuming I haven't "looked into it." I'm deeply familiar with the concepts of voucher systems and charter schools. The Stossel documentary you linked is asinine. Comparing public school to prison is remarkably false- hyperbole at best. The solution is to improve quality of public schools to give all kids choices, not abolish them to give rich people choices.
@GrapplingIgnorance as false a hyperbole as saying people like me would privatize the military? schools would be opened for lower income families and everyone would have a chance to get educated. also you shouldn't underestimate charity. I don't mean to insult u but for someone who doesn't believe in a god you sure do put a lot of emphasis on false gods. I just trust the people, parents, educators to promote a vibrant array of options for everyones kids. government will never be as in-tuned.
Nah, cut all funding and eliminate the department of education entirely. Otherwise there would be large dispute over what defines success or failure. Things could become muddled, bureaucratic, as governments and parents seek out a uniform system for many different types of educational fields. Then consider that only a few students would go to any one school and there wouldn't be enough teachers. Also people's tax dollars would go to fund school programs they may be against.
@anoldcrow You've just stated several problems that are already happening. A lack of resources, and good teachers is one of the things crippling education today. Removing the department of education is asinine for the reasons I've explained in my other comment to you.
When I attended secondary school I had no idea what I wanted to do in later life. I am therefore very grateful that my school offered a wide array of subjects I HAD to study. Forcing kids into one specific curriculum at a young age is exactly what you shouldn't do because it actually limits their opportunities once they leave school.
Whatever you do in later life, you'll always be confronted with things that you won't find interesting. So it's best to learn to deal with this at a young age.
@Embler9 As my video explained, I propose that core subjects be required at a rudimentary level. I also said that students should be forced into a single career path, but they should be able to take one if they are consistently compelled by it as they study it. If not, they should be free to explore other areas of study. I'm proposing a system of choices, not tracking, and the choices available should be far more diverse than the current so called "array" of math, English, history, & science.
Oh and as an intern when I was 13, I dissected a guinneapig to see what it was that killed it (pneumonia) and helped during operations on pets (yup, was at a vet)
And now I'm a .NET programmer. How the hell did that happen :-P?
In the netherlands we have 'high school' based on individual strengths. We have a branch more specified for manual labor, one for average learners, one more than average and one if you're bound to study science after. You get tested, get inserted in the branch that's most suited for you and you get the possibility to switch mid-way to stay on the best 'road to success'.
It's not perfect, but it does try to make the best of the strengths that people have
@GrapplingIgnorance That wasn't the point of my comment tho. Just saying that there are countries out there that have a different system that might be suitable to look at.
In any case, keep fighting the good fight. Education IS the doorway to a better future and I'm glad you are putting so much effort into it
Hell, I'd say college does a lot of the same things. I'm going into my Senior year at college and in order to get a degree in psych...I've had to take like...4 or 5 classes about psychology and a couple dozen in completely unrelated topics. I've actually run out of useful courses to take but still need 8 more classes.
artists ftw. Tooltime had a good video on college and almost having to "buy your way to credibility." School is really important to me and I LOVE learning. I'm going to college to gain knowledge to challenge myself...but sometimes I get disappointed and realize that if you "do this and do this, here is your A and here is your piece of paper that says your smart" instead of actually teaching me shit. I can learn all that on my own and not be broke. XD
@fruitikay As much as I love to bitch about the cost of college, even the "useless" courses have rendered me more open-minded and academically advanced than I used to be! I LIKE IT! I got a B in MATH 1010, and I was more than pleased. I'm and English major...you do the math! ;-) What were your useless courses?
@MyGrammarRules I didn't really use the word useless, and I did in fact mention that regardless of my "bitching" about college, it is still the most important thing to me. I did also mention that I love college, too, and that I would have to agree that I am more open-minded. However, there are some classes that I would be really excited about (for example, World Religions was one) but the teacher sucked and didn't challenge us...I could have just done it on my own. It was full of busy work.
@fruitikay GAH! Now we can talk about the sickness of higher education in which the majority of the professors only got their job to promote their selfish research instead of teaching their students the information those students came to learn! I HATE classes like that! Thankfully, I've had very few, and tried to make the most of the busy work we were assigned in the few I've had. Still, I wouldn't have read half that shit if someone else hadn't told me to do it!
@BibleRefuter I had to thumbs up this comment quickly. Then, I noticed it was made by one of my faves. Hey man, what's up...I thought you were dead or something!
@MyGrammarRules OH HAI! Well, one of your faves, I am honored. No, I haven't been dead, just spending more time in the far reaches of the internet. Infact, right now I am having a very interesting conversation with one of my friends who was a very outspoken and well defended atheist who has recently converted to a Christian. I am testing his reasoning his conversion, and who knows, maybe I'm the one who is missing something. Well, talk to you later ^͜ ^
GI, in my Sophomore year of HS, my Biology teacher assigned us this massive billboard project. I got a C- on it. But it was so massive on my grade that no matter what I got on homework, quizes and tests, it hardly affected my grade at all. Do you believe that this type of grading is unfair not just for the student but for the students' parents?
when I am supreme dictator of the earth I'm appointing you as education overlord :)
on a more serious note, I couldn't agree more. schools need to allow students to advance when they are ready to, and not just to keep them as part of some artificially cohesive group. if I can finish my english homework in half the time and get an A but I'm struggling in math, then let me have the extra time for the math; maybe then I won't hate it. still mulling this over, possible video response . . . . .
THIS is why will be continuing home school through high school. People dont understand why I home school when they find out I am a "left wing, atheist, liberal". Public Schools are failing and its not the fault of the teachers.
what do you think about introducing more exercise into school programs? not just for elementary, but all grades. i'm reading this book right now called "Brain Rules" which really stresses that exercise improves problem solving, testing, mood, attention (with the science to back it up of course) --all that jazz.
any thoughts on doing a video covering something like that?
@jeaumiew As a teacher, coach, and general advocate of healthy living, I consider physical fitness programs are fantastic, & the benefits of personal wellness are obvious. Health classes about basic exercise, nutrition, and hygiene, sex ed. etc. should be required. However, I think physical education (gym classes) should be optional. Many students are anxious about exercising in front of their peers, but that doesn't mean we can't reach them how to do it in the privacy of their homes.
Surely there is a minimum that all kids should aspire to in all general topics, in your opinion, how far does one go with math? To algebra? English? History? Science?
I always thought of high school as the accepted minimums, and college as the specialization (even though college required general courses too, much to my dismay). I agree specialization should start earlier, but what minimums were you picturing, and at what age/grade?
@JoesephKatana Those minimums would be specifically decided at a state level, but math, for example, I would consider algebra 1 to be a minimum requirement. Most math beyond that until reaching a college level is just formulas and functions for things with little practical purpose in most people's everyday lives. For example, I spent years learning logarithms, polynomials, scatter plots etc. on graphing calculators, and haven't applied a single bit of it beyond those tests.
You know I was going to say that I agree, but and then you went and addressed it.
Sir you may just be my hero.
PestoPosta 1 month ago
G.I., pack your bags and get your ass to Virginia. I need you as my governor.
AdonTimasu 7 months ago
@AdonTimasu I'm sorry, but I'm too honest to be a politician. I'd never survive in that line of work.
GrapplingIgnorance 7 months ago 4
We are already spending too much money on education, we just aren't spending the money wisely. Go down to you local DOE building at look at all the bureaucrats! 6 figure salaried employees that do absolutely NOTHING to educate children. Buying new books that aren't needed every year. Why in the world would you buy new basic math books every year? Why can the archdioceses education children for 1/3 of the cost and do a better job? Reason, they have far, far, far fewer administrators.
christo930 8 months ago
@christo930 Spending money on things that don't educate kids is NOT giving money to education. I have never seen a public school that buys new text books on any subject matter on an annual basis. I've never even heard of such a thing.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance The every year thing is a little hyperbole, but basic books who's content hasn't changed in decades have been replaced quite often and in some cases (albeit isolated) yearly. This is also very common in higher education where the professor writes a book and puts out a new edition every year, over prices it and destroys the used value. But still, why can the archdioceses educate children for 1/3 of the cost? Take a look at your local BOE and look at the waste.
christo930 7 months ago
@christo930 Don't think for 1 minute that there aren't kickbacks going on in the purchasing departments. Public schools often overpay for many things. Private schools do it cheaper because it's all the parents can afford and they make it work. Everyone knows that particularly the catholic school system is better than the public school systems in all of the major cities and cost about 1/3 of the horror that is the public school system.
christo930 7 months ago
Haha, Funny how I was talking to my friend in 5th Grade about this stuff... Long ago. The exact things in fact, because I found it stunted me more. Also, being afraid to mess up in classes based on the terrible education system promotes passing a class more than learning. Personally, I find mathematics, logic, philosophy, and some other studies important to a society even somewhat democratic, but draining the desire? Not good. School comes from the Greek word for leisure, so why?
ACANOFSODA 8 months ago
@ACANOFSODA Replying to myself.. It should be "The exact thing, in fact." Although.. Not like it really matters. Think of it like a standardized test in grammar. Haha
ACANOFSODA 8 months ago
G.I. I hope you are in contact with local, state, and federal officials, and getting this message to those who have the power to make the necessary changes. Telling US is great, but most of us can't do anything about it. I would love to see these changes you speak of, but I don't have the gift you have, and could never get across in words (verbally or on paper) what you so eloquently describe. I wouldn't even know how to begin. I wish I were persuasive and had connections, but I'm not I don't.
AnnaMayEyes 8 months ago
@AnnaMayEyes Your votes still speak just as loudly as everyone else's- so keep that in mind if you want to see change!
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
I was a professor for colleges in both America and England and agree full heartily with G.I. Most of the students I had the honor to teach were deterred by the standardized tests which never truly made them learned students. In the 180 days of teaching English I'm sure the student who wanted to become a chemist didn't much care for my lessons, for example on rhetoric. So instead of testing my mettle with the school system in my spare time I now go to treat potential PTSD soldiers in Afghanistan.
lorthin123 8 months ago
Comment removed
JynxsBox 8 months ago
This sounds like you just described the South African School curriculum. I have asked those questions to myself many times before and I'm glad you as an educator are bringing them up. I think that people in the education profession don't really care what they teach any more. They only see it as job they get paid for.
SeriousPlastiek 8 months ago
Seriously... you don't get that Shakespear sort of revolutionized both the English language, narrative progress and tackled general issues of human conflict and resolution in ways that Hollywood generally wouldn't have the balls to and that there really isn't ANY future profession save for one in which a person would simply not deal with other human beings that would not benefit from some basic knowledge and understanding of Shakespear's work.
You must really be one ignorant crappy teacher.
TheHobgoblyn 8 months ago
@TheHobgoblyn You know, if you're going to bitch about people not respecting Shakespeare for his contributions to the English Language, you should probably make YOUR English reasonably easy to read.
Regardless, that isn't even what he said, Troll. He said that Shakespeare wasn't relevant to EVERYONE, and it ISN'T. Does a Plumber, Doctor, Mechanic, Office Worker, or Soldier need to know Shakespeare? Of course not!
SwordofKnowledge 8 months ago
@SwordofKnowledge YES. It IS relevant to them. Unless you are going to deny the right of them to vote or to serve on a jury then it is important for them to be familiar with the literature that shaped our language and culture, the history of our nation and civilization in the world, the fundamentals of science and mathematics, basic philosophy (logic) and to be relatively healthy and fit.
I can't think of a single required subject in high school that is not relevant to a citizen of a democracy.
TheHobgoblyn 8 months ago
@TheHobgoblyn One does not need to have read Shakespeare to serve on a jury or vote; English and Grammar can be taught without forcing people to read one particular work.
And, yes, some required classes are necessary, but GI isn't suggesting otherwise; he's not saying "there should be no required classes," he is saying "We should have a looser framework so that students can choose their own path."
To suggest that Shakespeare is somehow integral to a democracy is utterly ridiculous.
SwordofKnowledge 8 months ago
@SwordofKnowledge If one doesn't have an awareness and at least a mild appreciation of Shakespear, Newton, Socrates and Jefferson's works, I frankly wouldn't trust them with guiding public policy nor on their ability to analyze arguements.
The revolutionaries in the basic humanities and sciences that have gotten us to where we are today should most DEFINATELY be studied. I can't help it if you are an ignorant dolt who was either taught Shakespear incorrectly or don't realize his impact on you.
TheHobgoblyn 8 months ago
@TheHobgoblyn How are difficult to understand old-english stories about love and death, an example of philosophies that all people should have an understanding of? Shakespear was a dramatic dolt, and nobody should be -required- to read ANYTHING he has to offer. Politicians should need it least of all, maybe they would be a little less crazy. Sorry, but not everybody thinks he really had that much to offer. If anything he used to have some meaning, but is now completely outdated.
TheOJDrinker 8 months ago
@TheOJDrinker Yeah. You were told it in the wrong way and thus totally lack proper understanding. A person who has a proper grasp of the English language has NO problem understanding Shakespear. Moreover, his work informs and underlines nearly all drama in movies and TV today-- none of which have managed to live up to his level or standards.
Yet, even if you are a complete failure as a human being doesn't mean there shouldn't be some attempt to teach his work properly thus others may not be.
TheHobgoblyn 8 months ago
@TheHobgoblyn I wasn't told anything about it, I was given it and told to read, then asked what it meant that it didn't say. Someone having to 'teach' the meaning of it could just invent anything, if the meaning isn't clear on its own, it isn't there. I understand you're a Shakey fanboy, but that doesn't mean his work is so superior to everything today and totally important for everyone. Clearly it isn't to me, and there's no reason to think it'll be important for every budding politician.
TheOJDrinker 8 months ago
@TheOJDrinker But you see, it IS vastly superior to everything today.
Oh, wait, no... I get it. You are so deeply enraptured by the entirity of the human experience and totally genuine emotions and humanity captured by Michael Bay. c_c;
Because Transformers 3 and Green Lantern are all so much more informative and important pieces of work than MacBeth and Henry the IV.
TheHobgoblyn 8 months ago
@TheHobgoblyn I haven't seen them. Taking the worst examples does not show if something is better than "everything" that exists, I don't see that at all. Trying to make others look bad doesn't make shakes look any better, and I won't defend those that are actually bad. How about this, give me an example of his 'revolutionary' work that helps us understand the humanities that we simply could not get without him. Not a reference to a whole story, be specific.
TheOJDrinker 8 months ago
I needed a teacher like you when I was in school. I really did. You are well suited for your position, Grap.
paddy6832 8 months ago
Wow. I was wondering why my "Ramblings" video was getting so many views lately. Thank you, GI.
TheBarkingAtheist 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance Ever think about leaving the US and being a teacher else where?
ScientistAtheist 8 months ago
This is something I've been saying for a while. Europe makes trains you for a career, America trains you for a degree.
anubis2814 8 months ago
My god these are such good suggestions. Across the board, just just for America but other countries. In Asian countries children are being denied childhood to get the perfect grades to get into the perfect school to get into the perfect job. Not because they themselves want it but because its 'right'.
I hate the 'one size fits all' method we have adopted. It punishes too many people and rewards too few. I'm a smart woman but I floundered in school so much. Half the time I was ignored...
Otokogoroshi 8 months ago
Case and Point: In high school, I was loaded down with extra science and math courses, when I could have been taking honors chorus, which eventually caused me to loose almost all my vocal abilities from simple neglect.
Now I'm 21; by now, I could have been an operatic heldentenor, singing Siegfried at the Metropolitan Opera; but instead I'm slogging through an engineering degree for no adequately described reason.
CUNTS!!!
ZachValkyrie 8 months ago 3
Real problem is that kids have no rights to chose. Their life is totally managed by their parents. so even if some kid wants to be a plumber his parents will force him to be a doctor or lawyer even if he hates that job with all his guts.
so if school will allow kids to chose low lever options parents usually will protest demanding to teach their kids ant maximum level available for high paying jobs.
This especially happens when some idiot child is offered simplified program but parents refuse
deltaxcd 8 months ago
@deltaxcd That problem does happen today with parents whose children have special needs but refuse to let them be "identified" as such. That could happen to some degree when kids/parents are given choices, but at least those choices to come from the kid/parent, which puts the pressure on them to resolve, not on the states for forcing them to learn something they don't need or care about. Also, teachers and counselors can confer with parents for struggling kids to decide better programs.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance
If parents do not object there is no real problem, because if they accept that their kid wont go to college and will be limited by low level job they can just skip classes of not interesting subjects.
Nobody forces anyone to take music or art classes you can even skip mathematics or literature, but once you do that you automatically lose all perspective to get some diploma.
deltaxcd 8 months ago
@deltaxcd You totally lost me with that comment. I'm honestly not sure what you're trying to say at this point.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance
I want to say that problems is mostly not with educational system but with expectations of parents and children.
Nobody forces anyone to learn everything, but if you want to be a doctor then you need to learn all crap for highest marks if you are fine being plumber you may even skip everything.
So you have choice, just use it..
deltaxcd 8 months ago
In reference to shakespeare/etc.: They don't.
I am SO SICK of being forced to take German Lit classes in my German high school. Why? Because I will NEVER give a shit about why Faust matters or what its contents are, and if I am in a position where it's my job to do so, then I will probably jump off of a bridge. And then I STILL can't take more than 3 periods of computer programming a week? FML.
ThinkingReality 8 months ago
As a musician, it was so frustrating to take core curriculum that would not apply to me as a musician. But instead of being stuck in the system, I tested out of a ton of classes and did a large load of AP classes. I graduated as valedictorian and got some free college credit! But I totally understand where you are coming from here. I couldn't take classes like music theory or private lessons, which has caused me to fall a semester behind my peers at university.
kville105125 8 months ago 2
I like this. I know that coming out of high school I knew JACK about what I wanted to do and was forced into manual labor, which whiles it paid well, I hated with all my being.
Now, If I could, I would become a biology teacher because I have a passion and a knack for teaching just random people what evolution actually entails. And if I could keep my damn opinions to myself, I could actually teach biology 101 And maybe even get students thinking about it.
sabertooth1980 8 months ago
Please don't forget a way to easily retrain in a new field if the demand for skilled people shifts. I am trying to retrain as an electrician after over 20 years in I.T. However as things stand now I need to do a 6 month pre-apprenticeship course, unpaid, before I can start training, makes it hard to do with the bills still coming in and a house to pay off :-(
0riole11 8 months ago
Speaking of "Goals & Structure" literally, a local college built a few new state-of-the-art structures for class rooms. Sounds good right? Well, since they spent so much on the buildings, they "had to" reduce funds for programs, & cut some altogether. They claimed lack of interest, which I found odd, b/c one program (which I was in) was full & wait-listed. They put "looks" ahead of edu, once again. A common problem. Reducing the pay of admin (6 figs) would be a good 1st step in a new edu model.
NiccoHel 8 months ago
@Grapplingingnorance @MegaVolcano parents, poor included, might save money if their kids spent less years getting a higher quality education and make more money when they enter the workforce sooner utilizing useful skills they learned from educators more intuned to their needs than a bureaucracy could ever be. Yall dont trust ppl, fine i cant convince u otherwise but i said my piece.
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@anoldcrow You've shown me that you really, REALLY don't understand the position of people in poverty. We're talking about people who don't expect their children to go to college without full scholarships because they can barely afford to feed them once a day. Kids who often only eat when they get that free lunch from school. You're saying that they'll be able to pay to send their kids to school because they won't have to pay for college? I'm sorry but you're utterly lost on this issue.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago 2
@GrapplingIgnorance no i meant they wouldnt have to pay high taxes.
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance Very true. I did some calculations. If I were to work 7 days a week making minimum wage for ten years without a single day off, I just might have enough money for med school.
MrStillmans 8 months ago
@Grapplingingnorance @MegaVolcano its been real, i think its sad ppl as smart as u 2 who see the problems wont take it on urselves but want the gov handle it. Gov has never done better than the private sector in anything: mail, computers, weapons, medicine, etc. It is the source of change and improvement, gov=status quo.
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@anoldcrow I find it sad that you refuse to acknowledge the diffidence between education and things like delivering mail.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
I have to agree with you to a large degree. The area I don't agree with out is that students should only be educated in the job/area they are interested in. I think that a basic/broad knowledge is one of the important things that makes a) informed citizens b) maybe interested in a topic they were not interested in before. Not saying that it is important to be able to recite all gods from Greek mythology, I would also say that I'm not sure that it would be a good idea to let students/parents
thargor2k 8 months ago
choose the subjects they learn about. For advanced topics maybe, but not a baseline in a variety of topics. I can often see that when the opportunity is there students do not choose the thing they would really be interested in, but the topic where the exam is easy or the subject matter is simple. Many parents could bias the education of their children in ways to force them to paths the children themselves do not want/are not interested in.
When we are educating only for the job someone wants
thargor2k 8 months ago
@thargor2k we may run into the problem that we are educating "idiot experts" who only know their field, and not any other. You might also pass on some chances to get someone thinking on things they were not interested in before. I think it is essential to do three things in schools: a) awake an interest for knowing/finding out things b) providing students with a wide variety of techniques/view, even if they won't need all of them later on c) train students to learn, because they should never
thargor2k 8 months ago
@thargor2k stop doing that.
OTOH I have to say that we also face some of the problems you talked about in Austria. We currently have a big/long discussion on how to change the educational system to make it effective/working nowadays (where not much is coming out...)
thargor2k 8 months ago
@thargor2k listen to what the video said more carefully. I think you'll find that you misunderstood that I said. I specifically addressed the issue of tracking, and explained why it should be a system of options, not a set of only job related classes. I also explained rudimentary classes should still be required for the core subjects, just not advanced ones that the students aren't cut out, for, don't need, and don't care about.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance Sry, I then overrated what you said @1:25, maybe because in many of my discussions in Austria people speak of advanced topics when you talk about, e.g. calculus in the sense of simple equation solving, I should have looked up "precalculus" before... I was also surprised about your comment on world history, which -for me- is a very important subject (depending on depth, timespan, etc).
thargor2k 8 months ago
Write up a model that will work for students, teachers, institutions and with current funding as well as how to trasition from the current system to the proposed one. Then push for it.
You know it's broken, you know what the ideal is, someone needs to do the work in the middle, and who else is going to step up?
Lloyath 8 months ago
@Lloyath The specifics of such a model need to be drafted by bureaucratic committees and ordered by politicians. They are the ones who have the power to make changes. They don't care what disgruntled teachers have to say about their entire educational technique any more than what most Generals cares about the opinions of hid disgruntled soldiers regarding an entire war strategy.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance For sure, they don't care about people sitting around complaining. If you think no one's going to listen and everything is going to stay the same... are you just ranting? Are you just telling other people that they should be pissed off at this and also do nothing to fix it?
You'd be surprised at how far you can get when you put the work in.
Lloyath 8 months ago
@Lloyath My effort here is to inform the voting populace who DOES have an impact on what their local and eventually state and federal politicians consider a priority, along with what changes need to be made. If some teacher writes up a massive and detailed proposal promoting radical changes of governmental priorities and submits it to Washington, it will be instantly disintegrated. If people start talking with their votes, they will pay attention.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance Why would you submit it to Washington? I said push for it, not post it off and forget about it. You would be writing something solid that people could refer back to when they say "we want changes to be made" which is a hell of a lot more constructive than telling voters that they don't want the current education system and giving them no solid alternative.
Voting for any kind of change is not a solution. You don't have to step up, but don't pretend it's because you can't.
Lloyath 8 months ago
@Lloyath Who said I was pretending I can't? I'm stating that the government has no interest in listening to an individual. You're saying to do their job of completely redesigning the education system, then advertising it (somehow) as a solution as if they'd be interested? I wish it worked that way, but it would be a huge waste of time & effort. Not to mention my efforts wouldn't be nearly as effective as the government's, if their priorities were correct. ONE person can't change their minds.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance You -are- pretending you can't.
"Their job"? No one has the job of redesigning the education system completely. The government could throw money at the education system and it won't help. It could be redesigned, but would it be something that would work to your standards?
I agree that they're not going to listen to one guy whining, which is you right now, but if you have real solutions to the problem then people are going to listen.
Lloyath 8 months ago
@Lloyath Actually, there is a sector in our government whose job it is to assure that our education system is run the best way that it possibly can be, which includes an allocation of funds and reformation of policies- it's called the department of education. What' you're proposing I do would be like telling a single private who's in the military to develop and entire strategy for getting the troops out of Afghanistan, and he needs to step up, because if he has answers the military will listen.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance u notice the symtoms but rather than adress the heart of the issue u want to reform a system that has sucked for some 200ish years. it got to be the way it is bc we trusted gov to implement reform. now if we lived under a philosopher king sure, he could take apart the system and put it back together but your plan cannot happen here, too many ppl w/ too many interests. the end result will be no different than NCLB act. you shouldnt fear freedom, it works
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@anoldcrow You shouldn't fear information coming from people who are actually immersed in this profession and happen to know what they're talking about. You've refused to do that here, so that's the last I'm going to say on the matter.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
I completely agree w/ u. I spent most of my time in school bored or frustrated. I was forced to take all these classes I neither needed nor wanted. I also learn best by doing things hands on so I wasn't even being taught the way I learned best & then everyone wondered why I wasn't thriving. :(
Gahuki44 8 months ago
What are you smoking? Art, Phy Ed, and Music are course either being cut or being considered to be cut. There isn't money for what you're suggesting. If students don't want to learn to read or write or use basic math skills, they can learn on the job after high school. It's the different types of problem solving that are introduced in school that everyone should have for the 21 century. People need to be flexible.
charlesfloyb 8 months ago
@charlesfloyb I address the funding issue in volume 3 of this series here: /watch?v=7hRGFuiqQ-c
The videos I make on this subject explain what I think we need to do if education is to be successful, not cheap.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
I think there is something to be said for cultural literacy, but I agree with many of the points you put forward in this video. I never received a satisfactory answer from any of my teachers, parents, or other mentors as to why I had to study advanced mathematics when I was certain my passions lied in English, the arts, and the social sciences. It bothered me then, and three years after my high school graduation it still bothers me. Have you heard of Sudbury schools, by any chance?
megjett 8 months ago
@megjett I have not- is that something I should look into?
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
"What is the real goal of hight school?" It's call the "hidden curriculum": to Endure boredom, to preform menial tasks and submission to arbitrary authority. There are the life skills. Naming all 50 states doesn't mean anything, but learning them teaches these skills.
Oh.. and Shakespeare is the greatest writer in english and likely one of the best writers ever to exists.... If we teach english, we need to teach Shakespeare, period.
no2religions 8 months ago
@no2religions Those things may be the result of many tasks given in typical American classrooms, but it's not some "hidden curriculum." Also, your comments on Shakespeare are 100% subjective, as would be the case for any number of well known authors. Just beware of an appeal to absolutes based on personal opinion.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance
The "hidden curriculum" is a well developed concept in social science. It is not particular to any subset of public school.
wikipedia(dot)org/wiki/Hidden_curriculum
As for Shakespeare, there is a very objective case for its teaching. Works such as Hamlet or Romeo & Juliet have impacted the formation of Lit., History and The English Language. Plus popular culture, generation after generation, for centuries. Where would I find something in Eng. without his influence?:)
no2religions 8 months ago
@no2religions I'm familiar with the concept, but ummm thanks for the Wikipedia article, I guess. It's still nothing more than a vague concept that people have fabricated to explain the status of poor education. It's not some hidden conspiracy to cripple the populace and turn them into subservient workers. As for Shakespeare, his quality remains entirely subjective. That fact that he was influential doesn't mean he needs to be taught to all English students, an more than the Bayeux Tapestry.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance That would be your opinion of the validity of the concept of the a hidden curriculum. Where did I proposed it as a conspiracy. There are a lot of works on sociology of education draw on this concept. "Vague concept" is not a accurate representation of the field.
Leaving WW2 out of history? Mozart out of music? I admit that "best" was a terrible way to phrase my first post. "Influence" is more appropriate, but why don't you support studying influential works?
no2religions 8 months ago
@no2religions I didn't say that you said it was, I just said what it wasn't. Of course I'm giving my opinion on the validity of the concept.
I'm NOT opposed to studying influential works, for students who want to learn them. I'm proposing that students have choices for upper level courses like influential works in writing, but it would be impractical to require it of all students. Especially Shakespeare, because explaining its non-standard English is counter productive to rudimentary lessons.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance " but it would be impractical to require it... Especially Shakespeare," We have that exact requirement for high school graduation here. From Grade 7 or 8 onwards all students learn a Shakespeare play in english class. English is taken right till grade 12, graduation. Grade 12 has at least one of these works. It's not impractical, it's the norm here.
Now, WHY it's taught all the way to Gr12 to everyone would be training in "menial tasks" as per the Hidden curriculum ;)
no2religions 8 months ago
so i thought about that whole "poor people cant afford it" argument. What if in order to become an educator in school where teachers have higher salaries i taught at schools for lower income families after i got my teacher degree and helped raised their test scores and got good recommendations over a few years? if they had this system there'd be more teachers and competition and dedication to the job and the poor would DIRECTLY benefit, this isnt trickle down theory
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@anoldcrow No, a system like that would mean that the poor schools got all of the inexperienced teachers, and as soon as they became good at their jobs they would move on to schools that paid better. Seriously- have you thought this through?
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance in my system their would be no room for any bad teachers, take a look at some of the teachers in schools now who really don't care, now think of one who won't get tenure and who wants more and who knows with effort he can get more who knows if he doesn't do well there are plenty of others who would love to take his job from them because unlike your system, mine gives teachers opportunities. A world of difference, no? Seriously- have you thought this through?
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@anoldcrow No! You realize that the private sector has bad works too right? Like the ones who are just starting and have no experience in the field. You're proposing that all of those teachers go to the poor schools, and if they're good enough they leave... if they don't perform well, then what? They get fired mid semester and get replaced without a chance to grow? This is one of the many complications of comparing educating children with building weapons or roads.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
what is wrong whit simple, i used occam's razor for that
dragonmaster613 8 months ago
I love your points (and videos) man. You are very well versed and structured in your arguments. I wish these videos could be played on our mainstream media programs just to put some ACTUAL logic into peoples minds. Excellent video....yet again!
aaron2414 8 months ago
@aaron2414 Thank you kindly.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
somehow our education needs to be fixed.
a kid could be a journeyman carpenter or electrician by the time he is 18 if given the chance, but they dont have that chance.
of course they would have to be able to drive to work while theyre learning so who knows, its not an easy solution.
i just know that kids in america are stupid, other countries destroy us in education, this russian guy i knew said he was doing calculus in 8th grade
oneadamtwelve86 8 months ago
look sorry i used you channel to promote my political view, ill let you have the last word and we can continue this through private messages if you prefer
anoldcrow 8 months ago
it is a business, the difference is you want it to be a monopoly. in 30 years ron paul has only ever appealed to the constitution, his entire record is widely available on the net. Anyway every service the government did has been done better by the free market, for example: mail. Here in Taiwan Bushibans (after-school-schools) are everywhere and offer a wide variety of classes and teaching methods and prices, it works. need more proof? /watch?v=_2CR31MHUok and /watch?v=6Iiuq6gJCok
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@anoldcrow By that logic, let's cut the entire US military then just hire personal mercenaries whenever we need to pillage a third world country for flex our muscle to the world. That'll save us a shit ton of money! Otherwise there's a "monopoly" on the business of the military. Competition among mercenaries will improve efficiency that the product they produce and the invisible hand of the free market will just take care of all the details. I don't mind you bringing up politics when relative.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance the difference is the constitution does put the government in charge of the military but mentions nothing of the governments role in the classroom. i'm no fan of the military industrial complex, of policing the world, of preemptive war and neither is RP.
anoldcrow 8 months ago
This is a very good idea is is much like the system that Germany employs.
mcrd2001 8 months ago
i agree we need goals. i think children should be taught a wide variety of subjects, though, even 'useless' ones, as they broaden their horizons and character. teaching a kid only about mechanics, for example, is sure to leave him in religious stupor. teaching him biology, history, geology, however has a chance of giving him the knowledge to free himself and become an atheist. the problem is, however, HOW they are taught
doutonight 8 months ago
@doutonight As this video states, I'm not promoting tracking, I'm promoting options. A quality system would provide kids a far wider variety of choices than what they have now, and they would still be required to be well versed in the current basic subjects. They just wouldn't have to study all of them to levels of depth that they will never need to know or don't see a reason to care about.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
and think of this, suppose a large enough segment of the population of kansas wanted creationism to be taught in school because they thought thats what their children really needed to know to function in the real world, so ray comfort became a teacher, would you want your tax dollars to fund that or should those people pay for private school? at some point kids are just gonna have to be home schooled or perhaps use the internet to its full potential
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@anoldcrow What on earth are you talking about? The department/boards of education make(s) curriculum choices. It's not based on appeals to local popularity. Teaching religion in school is unconstitutional and would not happen just because you give kids more choices. If parents want their kids to learn creationism, they send them to Sunday school. If Ray wants to be a teacher, he needs a degree. If he wants to teach creationism to his class, he then deserves get a pink slip.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance but the Board of education in Kansas DID rule creationism be taught in schools, remember the flying spaghetti monster thing? I come from new orleans where public schools generally suck and private (catholic) schools are good, if the government gives families a "free" ride under the guise of public schooling then there is no improvement or change and the only alternative isn't an enthusiastic entrepreneur but the Catholic church.
anoldcrow 8 months ago
I'm a teacher, too. We really should know each other!
HumanistDad 8 months ago
I like your ideas here. I hated so many courses in high school that were mandatory and 20 years later proven to be irrelevant to my life and career. I would rather see a basic course in some subjects like science and math offered to students who are not pursuing careers that require more knowledge in this area, so students can focus on the education that matters to them and their goals. Chefs don't need advanced calculus and trig for example.
Kindertautenleider 8 months ago
This proposal sounds almost exactly like what Eastern European nations are doing.
Killur10 8 months ago
@Killur10 Andy they kick our ass in terms of education.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
Wait...
Education could be run like a business, with a good plan and goal in mind?
Education could be run in a way that different schools could offer different focus subjects?
HELLO! Thats what a voucher system is!!!
Lets do it.
savageecho 8 months ago
@savageecho No, diverting already abysmal public resources to private sectors is completely different than what I'm proposing. I'm proposing that the public education system be restructured in a way that's practical and efficient.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance Just because it can be run more like a business doesn't mena it has to be for profit or even in the private sector. A voucher system would restructure how students are allocated to schools, something students and parents have little or no control over. Lumping all the inner city kids into inner city schools won't work. Allow different schools to carry specializations while keeping a mandatory core curriculum and then allow students to choose their school.
savageecho 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance The funding itself is not the issue. some of the highset per stundent funding in this nation also see the lowest grad rates while some of the lowest funding sees good grad rates. Now, one could argue that rates for grad are not a perfect measure of what or how the students are taught. We need to have a system that is not based on the idea, "Go where we tell you, when we tell you and while you're there learn what you're told without question."
savageecho 8 months ago
I do Chemistry - I have no idea why, when I am studying into Multimedia industry.
Doomedlight 8 months ago
if you agree with me then please. Ron Paul 2012
anoldcrow 8 months ago
if you take gov out of it then schools would be started by individuals or businesses spurred by the desire to fill a need in a community. the need for customer satisfaction would promote quality, that doesnt work when the govs involved. Kids would be taught as effectively as possible in all the most relevant ways. variety would be achieved by a steady demand by a group for a different curriculum. Schools would cost money but if people aren't taxed then they'd have money and options.
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@anoldcrow Absolutely not. Privatizing education would only further polarize the rich from the poor in this country, and rob children of currently available opportunities based on the socioeconomic conditions they were born into. It fosters the concept of buying your education, and businesses trying to sell you an education like a commodity rather than give it to you as a citizen's essential knowledge is the exact opposite of what we need to improve. I also don't want a creationist president.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance 1. a free market would provide opportunities for education for all segments of society due to the potential to profit, that would encourage quality from teachers who's pay check is on the line as well as a relevant curriculum from the company who's target consumers are on the line. 2. RP keeps religion out of politics and probably knows more quotes from Jefferson than Jeremiah, I thought us atheists were beyond such petty discrimination.
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@anoldcrow There is zero evidence to state that a "free market" would do any such thing. You're treating education & quality of teachers like tangible commodities, & education does NOT work like that. Ron Paul has shown me that he doesn't understand the separation of church & state. It's not discrimination to not want a president who denies evolution anymore than it would be to not want a president who denies gravity. I don't mind if he's religious but I do care when faith blinds his judgement.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance just want to clarify, the reason i dont want government run education is because governments have a bad habit of institutionalizing bad ideas and making them status quo like say Mao's China. The free market lets bad ideas die in due time. That is why i like freedom and RP, if it wasn't for freedom of expression then there would be less of us atheists. So let education be by of and for the people and lets get our money's worth, is it so bad an idea? just look into it more plz.
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@anoldcrow In America evolution is considered a 'bad idea'. If we let the Free Market decide on our education essentially by feelings, then the free market will produce a dumbed down fascist country faster than it currently is doing now. What we need is a national standard for all public schools. Plus if all schools are privatized, than the majority of Americans won't be able to afford to pay to send their children to school. Only the rich will be educated.
MegaVolcano 8 months ago
@MegaVolcano Exactly!
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@MegaVolcano well i think if a school in my city was too pricy and i could offer students at an education at a more affordable price, id be in business then, no? as for that evolution thing, in america we call people out for BS, businesses would never hire bible thumpers and since schools themselves would be businesses why would they teach crap? the problem is too many private schools are christian because only a world body like the church who isnt taxed can compete with the government
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@anoldcrow If schools were a business, and christians weren't buying what the business was selling, then trust me, the business would stop teaching evolution in order to maintain a profit. Plus there are people with no income, homeless people, who's children would not get to go to school, thus increasing the problem. School should be free...or paid with taxes, in a first world country. Everybody deserves an education, not just those who can pay for it.
MegaVolcano 8 months ago
@MegaVolcano valid concerns all, but u shouldnt worry about church in schools because 1. christians want their kids educated the same way rationalists do so they wouldnt buy into that system 2. no business can sell a christian education when sunday school does it free 3. businesses would be educating their own work force or receive funding from large corporations that want a capable future workforce. 4. if they can pay taxes they can pay for school, gov shouldnt tell the poor...
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@MegaVolcano ...they can bring children into this world because we'll take care of them. finally i think the result of my system would be the closing down of many christian schools in an attempt by the church to compete with those who can offer great education more affordably. your right, everyone needs to get educated and while you cant put a price on an education you still at least want the best money can buy right? as grapplingignorance points out, we dont get that with our taxes
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@anoldcrow That means we need to SOLVE the problem, not throw the baby out with the bathwater and privatize education. Don't insult me by assuming I haven't "looked into it." I'm deeply familiar with the concepts of voucher systems and charter schools. The Stossel documentary you linked is asinine. Comparing public school to prison is remarkably false- hyperbole at best. The solution is to improve quality of public schools to give all kids choices, not abolish them to give rich people choices.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance as false a hyperbole as saying people like me would privatize the military? schools would be opened for lower income families and everyone would have a chance to get educated. also you shouldn't underestimate charity. I don't mean to insult u but for someone who doesn't believe in a god you sure do put a lot of emphasis on false gods. I just trust the people, parents, educators to promote a vibrant array of options for everyones kids. government will never be as in-tuned.
anoldcrow 8 months ago
Nah, cut all funding and eliminate the department of education entirely. Otherwise there would be large dispute over what defines success or failure. Things could become muddled, bureaucratic, as governments and parents seek out a uniform system for many different types of educational fields. Then consider that only a few students would go to any one school and there wouldn't be enough teachers. Also people's tax dollars would go to fund school programs they may be against.
anoldcrow 8 months ago
@anoldcrow You've just stated several problems that are already happening. A lack of resources, and good teachers is one of the things crippling education today. Removing the department of education is asinine for the reasons I've explained in my other comment to you.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
When I attended secondary school I had no idea what I wanted to do in later life. I am therefore very grateful that my school offered a wide array of subjects I HAD to study. Forcing kids into one specific curriculum at a young age is exactly what you shouldn't do because it actually limits their opportunities once they leave school.
Whatever you do in later life, you'll always be confronted with things that you won't find interesting. So it's best to learn to deal with this at a young age.
Embler9 8 months ago
@Embler9 As my video explained, I propose that core subjects be required at a rudimentary level. I also said that students should be forced into a single career path, but they should be able to take one if they are consistently compelled by it as they study it. If not, they should be free to explore other areas of study. I'm proposing a system of choices, not tracking, and the choices available should be far more diverse than the current so called "array" of math, English, history, & science.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
Oh and as an intern when I was 13, I dissected a guinneapig to see what it was that killed it (pneumonia) and helped during operations on pets (yup, was at a vet)
And now I'm a .NET programmer. How the hell did that happen :-P?
Shangori 8 months ago
In the netherlands we have 'high school' based on individual strengths. We have a branch more specified for manual labor, one for average learners, one more than average and one if you're bound to study science after. You get tested, get inserted in the branch that's most suited for you and you get the possibility to switch mid-way to stay on the best 'road to success'.
It's not perfect, but it does try to make the best of the strengths that people have
Shangori 8 months ago
@Shangori No system is perfect, but that doesn't mean we should reform the obsolete ones for much better ones suited to modern needs.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance That wasn't the point of my comment tho. Just saying that there are countries out there that have a different system that might be suitable to look at.
In any case, keep fighting the good fight. Education IS the doorway to a better future and I'm glad you are putting so much effort into it
Shangori 8 months ago
If I am not mistaken(probably I am) public school was set up in such a way to prepare the masses for factory work.
maborong 8 months ago
I do not get college :S
In Denmark we go to public school (folkeskolen),high school (gymnasiet) and then university.
even after public school we can choose to specialize in a lot of different kind of jobs by picking a high school that teaches different things.
Our entire school system is paid by taxes, so education can be achived by everyone =)
KaptajnKaffe 8 months ago
Hell, I'd say college does a lot of the same things. I'm going into my Senior year at college and in order to get a degree in psych...I've had to take like...4 or 5 classes about psychology and a couple dozen in completely unrelated topics. I've actually run out of useful courses to take but still need 8 more classes.
TheGreatOldOnes 8 months ago
artists ftw. Tooltime had a good video on college and almost having to "buy your way to credibility." School is really important to me and I LOVE learning. I'm going to college to gain knowledge to challenge myself...but sometimes I get disappointed and realize that if you "do this and do this, here is your A and here is your piece of paper that says your smart" instead of actually teaching me shit. I can learn all that on my own and not be broke. XD
fruitikay 8 months ago
@fruitikay As much as I love to bitch about the cost of college, even the "useless" courses have rendered me more open-minded and academically advanced than I used to be! I LIKE IT! I got a B in MATH 1010, and I was more than pleased. I'm and English major...you do the math! ;-) What were your useless courses?
MyGrammarRules 8 months ago
@MyGrammarRules I didn't really use the word useless, and I did in fact mention that regardless of my "bitching" about college, it is still the most important thing to me. I did also mention that I love college, too, and that I would have to agree that I am more open-minded. However, there are some classes that I would be really excited about (for example, World Religions was one) but the teacher sucked and didn't challenge us...I could have just done it on my own. It was full of busy work.
fruitikay 8 months ago
@fruitikay GAH! Now we can talk about the sickness of higher education in which the majority of the professors only got their job to promote their selfish research instead of teaching their students the information those students came to learn! I HATE classes like that! Thankfully, I've had very few, and tried to make the most of the busy work we were assigned in the few I've had. Still, I wouldn't have read half that shit if someone else hadn't told me to do it!
MyGrammarRules 8 months ago
@fruitikay I completely understand and lament the issues you present here, and those that Tooltime references in his videos.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
As usual, I say hear hear good sir :) Clearly your extensive experience within the teaching system has made you think of how to make it better :)
XenogeneGray 8 months ago
Common sense and level-headedness. Freshing.
tonystark106422 8 months ago
DONT LOOK NOW...but it looks like someones got a shotgun to your head bro.
zapo147 8 months ago
@zapo147 BWAK! I see what you did there!
MyGrammarRules 8 months ago
You have no idea how much I am in agreement with you right now
BibleRefuter 8 months ago 2
@BibleRefuter I had to thumbs up this comment quickly. Then, I noticed it was made by one of my faves. Hey man, what's up...I thought you were dead or something!
MyGrammarRules 8 months ago
@MyGrammarRules OH HAI! Well, one of your faves, I am honored. No, I haven't been dead, just spending more time in the far reaches of the internet. Infact, right now I am having a very interesting conversation with one of my friends who was a very outspoken and well defended atheist who has recently converted to a Christian. I am testing his reasoning his conversion, and who knows, maybe I'm the one who is missing something. Well, talk to you later ^͜ ^
BibleRefuter 8 months ago
GI, in my Sophomore year of HS, my Biology teacher assigned us this massive billboard project. I got a C- on it. But it was so massive on my grade that no matter what I got on homework, quizes and tests, it hardly affected my grade at all. Do you believe that this type of grading is unfair not just for the student but for the students' parents?
Whisper95Productions 8 months ago
@Whisper95Productions Yes, something of that weight certainly sounds unfair to me.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
ohh, I forgot you were doing this series. :p
bicsc7 8 months ago
@bicsc7 It's ongoing.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance
I realize that, I jooooking. :)
bicsc7 8 months ago
when I am supreme dictator of the earth I'm appointing you as education overlord :)
on a more serious note, I couldn't agree more. schools need to allow students to advance when they are ready to, and not just to keep them as part of some artificially cohesive group. if I can finish my english homework in half the time and get an A but I'm struggling in math, then let me have the extra time for the math; maybe then I won't hate it. still mulling this over, possible video response . . . . .
TheLizardLass 8 months ago
@TheLizardLass Do iiit!!!
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
Thank you
deadman12078 8 months ago
r u sayin schools r not individualistic enough?
dragonmaster613 8 months ago
@dragonmaster613 That's an over simplistic synopsis, but moreover yes.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago 2
I like what you do. I showed this video to my sister who teaches High School English and she say's you are just making blanket statements.
whitelighter27club 8 months ago
Oh my God, I think I love you.
ImpendingDay 8 months ago
@ImpendingDay Sweet- hopefully you're an attractive, wealthy, sophisticated female who lives in the rural south... doubt it though. :p
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
@GrapplingIgnorance Ha ha, thanks. :p I'm a decent enough female, but I unfortunately live in the urban South.
ImpendingDay 8 months ago
@ImpendingDay hmm close enough!
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
THIS is why will be continuing home school through high school. People dont understand why I home school when they find out I am a "left wing, atheist, liberal". Public Schools are failing and its not the fault of the teachers.
AlphaBrenda1 8 months ago
This makes too much sense, so obviously it will never be considered.
OneMadBastard 8 months ago
yep,
Nhurm 8 months ago
what do you think about introducing more exercise into school programs? not just for elementary, but all grades. i'm reading this book right now called "Brain Rules" which really stresses that exercise improves problem solving, testing, mood, attention (with the science to back it up of course) --all that jazz.
any thoughts on doing a video covering something like that?
jeaumiew 8 months ago
@jeaumiew As a teacher, coach, and general advocate of healthy living, I consider physical fitness programs are fantastic, & the benefits of personal wellness are obvious. Health classes about basic exercise, nutrition, and hygiene, sex ed. etc. should be required. However, I think physical education (gym classes) should be optional. Many students are anxious about exercising in front of their peers, but that doesn't mean we can't reach them how to do it in the privacy of their homes.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
Surely there is a minimum that all kids should aspire to in all general topics, in your opinion, how far does one go with math? To algebra? English? History? Science?
I always thought of high school as the accepted minimums, and college as the specialization (even though college required general courses too, much to my dismay). I agree specialization should start earlier, but what minimums were you picturing, and at what age/grade?
JoesephKatana 8 months ago
@JoesephKatana Those minimums would be specifically decided at a state level, but math, for example, I would consider algebra 1 to be a minimum requirement. Most math beyond that until reaching a college level is just formulas and functions for things with little practical purpose in most people's everyday lives. For example, I spent years learning logarithms, polynomials, scatter plots etc. on graphing calculators, and haven't applied a single bit of it beyond those tests.
GrapplingIgnorance 8 months ago
i agree completely, brilliantly thought out and well executed, thank you for your time