I haven’t seen this movie yet, but I plan to get a copy of it and watch it. This is a demonstration of why I homeschool my son and allow him to determine how he learns and what he learns most of the time. This is how school is, and it is tearing our kids apart:
This is how school should be:
It’s okay to learn by playing when we’re little, but not when we get older? Bull-pucky! One-third of our teens drop out of high school today. The kids aren’t broken, the schools are. If we plan to fix education in this country, we’ve got to do some radical rethinking of what schools should be, make changes and implement those changes.
One change that would make the biggest difference in kids lives right now is to split academics from vocational/technical interests starting in 9th grade. Kids know enough about reading, writing and math to stop studying it in school if their interests are aligned with a vocational or technical career that they would learn by being an apprentice. In other words, learning by doing.
Leave the academic high school stuff to the those who want be immersed in academic life. There should be multiple ladders of academics as well: one for math and science types, another for business, another for social and political sciences and the like, and another for liberal arts.
Stop forcing kids to learn physics when they want to teach kindergarten! Allow non-science kids to take science appreciation for what they need to know to get along in the modern world and leave it at that. Don’t make them learn how to work free body diagram kinematics problems or balance chemical equations! They need to know those subjects exist and are useful, but they shouldn’t have to become proficient in them.
I would prefer they were proficient at reading, comprehending and keeping up with their personal finances and staying out of debt. Advanced math does not teach anyone how to balance a checkbook, a far more useful skill than matrices and synthetic division. Unless you need advanced math skills for your career, you shouldn’t have to take advanced math.
Everyone should have to take a life skills class (or classes) where they learn how to manage a household, live within their means, understand credit and know who to ask for help when considering borrowing money, and how to manage intimate relationships (especially listening skills and that movies are the exact opposite of real life; love and peaceful co-existence require compassion, communication, compromise and hard work to maintain). Cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry, and lawn care would also be good lessons.
What would you suggest to improve our schools? What do you think is wrong with them? Please leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments.
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:45 pm
You’re argument sounds great in theory, but I would worry about pigeonholing children so early. At 14 years old, most kids don’t know what they want to do with their lives. I’d hate to see kids limit their options at such a young age.
January 3rd, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Sandra,
I don’t see it as any more pigeon-holing than the current curriculum. It’s almost strictly for college prep and doesn’t help students who may want to pursue anything else after high school, including military service. When they finish high school now (if they manage to finish) they are not prepared to work if they decide not to go on and study more, whether it be trade school, vocational school or college.
They are also not prepared to be independent and think critically on their own. Most of my students can regurgitate information but they can’t analyze it or take the next step and draw a new conclusion from it. I find this very disturbing. They cram more into their heads but don’t teach them how to use it, at least not locally.
The other thing to do would be to go back to the high school curricula they had when we were in high school. There were three academic ladders: advanced placement/honors, college prep, and regular. If we did that it would help and a lot more kids would graduate again. Regular study helped prepare students for a career after high school by offering different shop classes, home economics, art and practical business courses, to name a few areas. Where you wanted to go after high school was decided after 10th grade at about age 16. Age 16 is when a lot of students drop out today.
Maybe the vo/tech path should be offered after 10th grade. There is a big difference between ages 14 and 16.
What I find with so many of my tutoring students is they are required to take subjects that will have nothing to do with what they plan to study in college and just beat their heads against a wall unnecessarily to pass extremely difficult advanced math and science courses in high school. All they learn from it seems to be that they are dumb because they can’t pass physics, chemistry or precalculus.
Everything you need to know to pass the GED exam and most of the ACT and SAT you learn by the end of 8th grade. If you want a really high score on the ACT or SAT, you will study honors and AP courses and be prepared to answer the difficult questions that separate the brilliant from the average. Otherwise, most students are able to get a 23-25 on the ACT if they study for the exam and can read and comprehend well. A study course and then taking the exam qualifies anyone to attend college later in life when they may be far better motivated to succeed.
I find adult students tend to be more focused in college and get better grades even though they may be working full-time or part-time while attending. They also have a much higher college graduation rate than those who enter college directly after high school, especially if parents are footing the bill.
We need to find something that works better than what we have today.
February 13th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I cant wait to see this movie. I’ve been homeschooling my three children and I am moving more and more every year towards unschooling. Why? Because I have grown up and learned that I my very expensive private education does not compare to what I’ve learned as an adult allowed to decide what and when I want to learn things. My knowledge is deeper, I retain it, and I own it. You cant get that kind of eduction by being told how and when to learn something when your not at all interested. This leads to memorizing, forgetting. The lighting of a fire, not the filling of a bucket.
I hope to help spread the word to families willing to take the time out to take responsibility for raising their children.
http://www.londonunschoolingconference.blogspot.com/
There are over a million homeschoolers in the USA, now we hope to help those in the UK understand they have a choice also
February 13th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Cant find this movie on netflix or our local store. Was it an art house movie with limited release?
http://www.londonunschoolingconference.blogspot.com/
June 11th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
I wish the curriculum had been this way when I was in school
December 1st, 2010 at 4:18 pm
makes me want to drink alchoholic beverages