tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2228571564400591061.post7627834630482657744..comments2013-12-31T22:54:52.430-06:00Comments on Cogito, Ergo Sum Iratus: Education BluesJeremy Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16906567303577988024noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2228571564400591061.post-23713601138638776952012-08-18T03:53:41.404-05:002012-08-18T03:53:41.404-05:00Having started in the school system in Kindergarte...Having started in the school system in Kindergarten I got to experience all the riches the public schools have to offer. When I was in school, the push down curriculum had really not hit yet and while we were expected to learn more it wasn't extreme as it is now. <br /><br />The first hellish experience came in first grade when AR points were implemented. This idea was supposed to help encourage reading by forcing children to read books then take a comprehension test for points. If you did not pass the test you had to pick a new book and start over. You had to receive a set number of points to pass to the next grade for that area.<br /><br />At various points in the year each grade was brought together and those with the most points got prizes. This involved announcing everyone’s points in front of all the other children. This led to untold amounts of bullying by the children who were more inclined to reading. The only thing the AR system did successfully was keep me from reading for pleasure till late middle school. <br /><br />In spite of several single incidents, all the teachers in Elementary and Middle school at least seemed devoted. They loved their jobs and seemed to genuinely enjoy teaching, even in a flawed system working for their daily pennies.<br />It was not until high school that the shit hit the fan. By that time the "No Child Left Behind" system was in full swing causing the curriculum to slow to a snail’s pace. Curriculum originally designed to last a few days took weeks to cover meaning that by the end of the year, much of the curriculum went untaught. <br /><br />The classes themselves were unnervingly basic. All history, government, etc classes were taught by coaches. Coaches were required to teach SOMETHING to stay a coach. This resulted in the worst excuses for teaching that the public school system had to offer. As soon as game season started the curriculum became focused on such historical classics as Titanic, Remember the Titans, Pearl Harbor, and the September 11th Remembrance Film. I will never forget my junior year in high school when my history teacher told the class "Look I have play books to do, just keep it down to a dull roar ok?" For the next two weeks we had free time that class period. Any time a ‘jock’ was in the coach’s class they alone received individual attention, though rarely about the class. It was not uncommon for a coach to pull the team members aside to talk plays while the rest of the class was left to their own devices.<br /><br />Math was the other subject in high school that was considered to be a complete joke. All assignments were graded on completion credit. As long as you wrote out how you solved the problem, even if it was wrong, you received complete credit for the problem. This led to a complete lack of all interest in the actual assignments. It was not uncommon for someone to ‘complete’ a homework assignment in about 30 to 40 seconds. As an attempt to even out this obscene amount of disinterest, the tests were graded based normally. The crux came from the fact that if you got a zero on every test but did all the home work, you could still pass with a “C” in the class. <br /><br />The final push of insanity came when children began to realize if they simply quit doing assignments they could be moved into the ‘special education’ classes. These classes included an even slower less complicated version of the curriculum. Suddenly the classes started to fill, as children who had excelled in earlier years suddenly developed a wide variety of learning disabilities to avoid having to exert any real effort. <br /><br />Something needs done. The current mode of ‘punishment’ needs removed. The assumption that a misbehaving child would be upset about having to stay home for a week is insanity, as well as the assumption that the parents will give a damn either. The steps you listed above are steps that should have been taken years ago and maybe eventually someone will put two and two together but until then, America’s youth can continue to fall through the cracks in our broken school system.RobertsKittyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06416673711021899487noreply@blogger.com