This may spark a polital conversation, but the most outstanding part of this article was that Math and Reading tutors were hired to tutor teachers. Yes. Teachers! And I'M not qualified to teach my children?! http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/04/millions-doled-questionable-jobs/
In my humble personal opinion, I think there are a few things that could improve the quality of public education in this country: a) Require IQ tests of all candidates entering the College of Education. If they don't top 110, they can't get in. (Average used to be 100, but I think it's a few points higher in actuality.) b) First, require that all public school teachers major in what they want to teach, not Education. Math teachers should be degreed in math, science teachers in science, English teachers in English, and so on. They can minor in Education (crowd control, making bulletin boards, etc.) I realize this makes it difficult for elementary ed teachers, who pretty much have to teach everything, but it's what other countries do. c) Have a reading list of classic and children's classic literature that ALL teacher-candidates must read through and at least have a nodding acquaintance with. It's a cultural imperative. They cannot share what they do not have. d) Pay public school teachers what they would then actually be worth instead of making them eligible for food stamps. They should not have to go get second jobs just to make ends meet. e) Forget K3, K4, and K5, and start K at 6, which would then be called Grade 1. Lengthen the school year to 200 days. At high school, include back into the program some vocational courses that would actually prepare kids for real-world jobs, like we used to have: people who took all the business courses were able to type and do bookkeeping, maybe light accounting, write business letters and run some office machines. People who took industrial arts courses could do mechanical drawing, weld, do woodworking and carpentry. People who took Home Ec courses could actually cook and sew and run a household. People who took agricultural courses knew how to farm and run farm machinery. Nowadays they have everybody doing college prep, so when they leave school they can flip burgers at MickeyD's. This last area is, I think, especially where homeschooling has it all over public school -- focus on the future that is practical and attainable and turns out a well-rounded person.
personally I think there is a social agenda in the works that the gov does not want to turn out well rounded persons with values and morals, and who can work so as to not be dependent on the gov. Turning out burger flippers is actually the goal... Ok, now go on and tell me how far off my rocker I am lol
Of course, I have zero hard evidence to back this up, but the current system seems designed to fail our children. And every "improvement" only leads to greater failure. So I can completely see where one might think that failure is the goal.
My children attended NC public schools for a brief time. I know this would have benefitted the 2 teachers my kids had.
I agree completely! My son is being taught 8th English right now by someone working on a Emergency Permit ( she went to college for a general elementary license). She has recently sent me an email telling me she couldn't meet with me on a certain day because she was not ALOUD to miss a meeting. Makes one wonder???
LOL...my son went to PS in second grade because I was in grad school. His teacher kept sending home homework with subtraction problems that required borrowing, my son insisted that she never taught him how to do it. So I just showed him and never thought about it again until parent-teacher conferences. I asked her why she was sending homework home when he wasn't taught how to do it. I expected her to say - "Well, of course I taught him how to do it!" And chalk it up to my son wanting to get out of homework. But she admitted, with a straight face mind you, that No they did not teach borrowing because the answer was not important. They wanted them to estimate and that I should just "ignore that homework". I flipped my lid (use your imagination).
My child currently is in the 2nd grade in a NC ps. There is at least 30% of the students who don't know their alphabet that are about to go into the 3rd grade. It is very sad to me that they will not hold these kids back no matter what kind of grade they get (I have heard this directly from the teachers). It makes the kids who are advanced (like my daughter) not get the education they need because of the extra "help" these kids need. Which is fine the kids need the help, but they should challenge the advanced kids not sweep them under the rug because they are on target. I don't think it is that the teachers need to be taught how to teach it, they just need to be allowed to hold the children back if they need to be. It is not fair to the kids or the teachers. This is ridiculous how they are spending this money! Maybe if they used the money to hire more teachers and reduce the class sizes instead so there wasn't such a problem in the first place. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!! The government aggravates me!!!
