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Sun 9 Oct, 2005 01:26 pm
This is the second part to an earlier writing about education in the United States. As you may recall, I advocated for the privatization of all schools from kindergarten to graduate studies. This piece will focus on the curriculum that needs to be followed.
Everytime I encounter someone in the workplace, I am reminded of just how much we have failed to properly educate United States citizens in the fundamentals of communication: reading, writing and speaking. Few would argue that the time is long overdue for the United States to "get back to the basics" of a fully functional education system. We need to exclusively focus on the development of communication skills from kindergarten to eighth grade along with annual testing that measures apptitude and interest. Training in mathematics should be limited to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Unless communication skills are fully mastered, there is no need to advance to high school.
For those who graduate to high school, the emphasis could evolve into a curriculum of philosophy, sociology, economics, psychology, science and religious studies. Books such as "For Dummies" and "The Complete Idiot's Guide" could be used to foster an understanding of different religions. Athletic activity would be strictly confined to cardio vascular exercises and all sports would be eliminated. While there would still be an emphasis on communication skills, the focus would now be on developing a foundation of basic knowledge so as to be able to graduate to college. Testing for apptitude and interest would continue through high school increasing the chances of picking the right field of study . Those not continuing on to college would enter some type of apprenticeship training for the purpose of learning a trade. For those who do graduate to college, the student would continue to study an advanced version of the same curriculum as high school but only for the first two years then they would complete their education by strictly focusing on coursework designed to train them in their field of study. Nearing graduation, internships would be required to begin the transition to the working world. Think of how different our society would be if our education system could just teach the fundamentals of reading, writing and speaking.
We must first undo the damage done by No Child Left Behind.
JOEBIALEK wrote: We need to exclusively focus on the development of communication skills from kindergarten to eighth grade.....Training in mathematics should be limited to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Just curious, what is your objection to the teaching of geometry, algebra and trigonometry in junior high school? I learned those in junior high school.
Why shouldn't our 14 year olds know that A² + B² = C² ?
JOEBIALEK wrote:For those who graduate to high school, the emphasis could evolve into a curriculum of philosophy, sociology, economics, psychology, science and religious studies.....While there would still be an emphasis on communication skills, the focus would now be on developing a foundation of basic knowledge so as to be able to graduate to college.....For those who do graduate to college, the student would continue to study an advanced version of the same curriculum as high school but only for the first two years then they would complete their education by strictly focusing on coursework designed to train them in their field of study.
Looks to me that your missing a lot there. You seem to have left out history, whether world or national. Under your plan, a student who wishes to study languages would seem to have to wait to the last two years of college to concentrate on that. I am sure many could point out other omissions.
Re: Education Part ll
JOEBIALEK wrote:Books such as "For Dummies" and "The Complete Idiot's Guide" could be used to foster an understanding of different religions.
Truer words have rarely been spoken.
There should be a "The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Presidency" for the GWB wannabees.
Privatisation is a bad idea, because those running the schools will then become more concerned about profits than service.
This was seen with the privatisation of Government-owned British Rail. It was touted as a solution to rising ticket costs and was said to provide better service for customers.
It provided none of these things. Services became worse. Infrastructure became worse, leading to the Hatfield crash, and improvements to the rail network were delayed and so forth.
If I remember correctly, the companies found it more profitable to keep ticket sales high, whilst cutting corners on repairwork.
That is why the public is so against full privatisation of the London Underground Network and parts of the National Health Service over here in the UK.
Of course, with schools, this is not always the case. Over here, private schools are very good, but only because of league tables. It is not the fact that they are private that makes them good. It is that they are private and that they compete on a league table.
However, even this can be bad for the children. It forces children to learn for tests, rather than to learn how to think.
Privatisation alone will not do the trick and full privatisation is wrong. Not all people can afford to go to private schools, hence the existence of state-run schools.
What should be done is to ensure that the receivement of funds is directly linked to performance of pupils. However, even this is not a full solution.
Anyone who thinks that an education system can be solved overnight should go back to school themselves.
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