Education

[VicUser]

Part of the problems we are having in this country, I believe, stems from the formal education we have, or don't have. Basically the public education system we have has not changed over the last century, so what changes would you make if you could and if added cost is involved how would you pay for it.

[specialmom]

Anyone that has recently had any plumbing work done KNOWS that one can make a good living after technical school!!  My husband are both on the same page regarding our children.  We want to give them the tools to be self sufficient one day---------  there is no shame in having a marketable trade.

But, sadly I am in the minority.  I would  not vote for year round school.  I think kids need adequate time to decompress.  Sure worked for me when I was a kid.  I'm a little old school-------- some responsibility has to lay with parents for their children's learning.  I wish more could be done at area community centers to help kids that are not able to have an enviroment that promotes education at home.  Helping kids be self motivated is invaluable.  When you have a child that WANTS to learn and knows that their future depends on it, success is more likely.  Just my thoughts.

[margypops]

Its strange ,well not so strange I guess that this same kind of attitude exists in England  the community college kids get derided  about what they there called  'red bricks Uni's; I had 2 kids went to them and 2 went to London and Oxford, to this day I hear putting down of the community colleges as not being on a par ..

[VicUser]

I am totally with you about changing attitudes, from vocational school I went to a community college for a AS and then to a "real" University for my BS and MS, sort of worked my way up. The guy that hired be while I was at the vocational school was impressed and hired others in the following years.

[ILADVOCATE]

Yes but students should not feel in anyway looked down upon if they go to vocational or community colleges. Any form of education that leads to employment should be respected. I first started going to a college that was quite elitist and I was unable to do well there and I could not respect the people there because they spent all their time talking about "multiculturalism" and ideas like that when they were all from the same background and had gone to prep schools and really had no idea what life was like outside of that clique. I ended up dropping out and going to a city college. I got quite a good education there and I believe it was better than the first college I went to and the school was more diverse than the other one culturally but people didn't waste their time talking about the idea because they didn't feel defensive or have to act condescending because they came from all backgrounds. When I was in high school other students made fun of the very idea of going to that college and I asked my mother why at the time (most of the family had gone there) and she said it was because the college was inexpensive tuition wise. I believe that mentality has brought many students down and detracted from our education system in general.

[VicUser]

I think most schools and communities have vocational schools now and there is always the communty college

[flmagi]

Even with the bad economy, people always need service people (plumbers, electricians etc.). There's also so many jobs in the Medical field that don't require a college degree in, that these kids could be ready for as soon as they graduate High School. So why not have kids that aren't gonna go to college, at least come out of high school ready to be licensed in some kind of career. In the long run it could keep some people off welfare.

[VicUser]

I agree with vocational schools, I went to one my last two years of high school. They are a great way to get into a good paying job and career

[twehner5]

Vocational school is actually a good idea (although my son is in a civil engineering program in a UW school).  If the economy ever takes the ultimate plunge, we will always need mechanics and plumbers.  Managers are always dispensable....

[flmagi]

I agree that school should be year round with little breaks in between (oh, the kids won't like that).  If they could keep the schedules for at least elementary and middle school the same, it would be easier for the parents.
Some of the teachers I've talked with, feel over the years they have become so over loaded with paper work and time restraints etc, that it's getting hard to teach and cover things the way they would like. By the time the kids get homework or tests back from the teacher, they've long passed by the subject they may not have gotten a good grasp on. I also think in families where both parents are working, some kids lack the home attention to school work.
I think patterning high school more like college is a good idea, along with steering some of the kids in a direction where their interests and talents lie. If a family absolutly can't send their kid to college, the kid refuses to go or doesn't have the aptitude for it, vocational type training could be done in high school.
I don't have the answers to the problems. A lot of kids just don't seem excited about school anymore. Glad my son is long past the school days.

[ILADVOCATE]

There should be more support (in the way of teaching, I dont' mean economically) for students who are having trouble with schoolwork but are trying to acheive. I do remember when I was in high school there was a resource room for each subject. I had some form of a learning disability so I went to all of them and with some of the help and information I recieved I was able to achieve although at the beginning of junior high (one semester only) I was getting poor grades. Also although I think that extracurricular activities are important the focus should be on education in general and doing well in school. Also there should be more activities where students work with each other. I remember that students that were doing well and were older were often asked to tutor kids that were not doing well in lower grades. And I would also stop obsessively pressuring kids with placement tests at each level of school. The S.A.T. is of course neccessary but having placement tests that have now gone down to kindergarten level and the like just stresses kids out and doesn't really promote a healthy education environment. Also I would emphasize that the basics that were always taught are not forgotten and are required such as learning how our government works and many other fundamental aspects of school that seem to have been forgotten over the past decades.

[twehner5]

Economics...bussing...parents working/childcare....the almighty dollar.  Change is a terrible/wonderful thing!

[VicUser]

I agree with you on losing so much over the summer. Once I finally became serious about learning, I was a late bloomer, I went to classes year around. Partially to get done, working full time and going to school part time is the wrong way to do it, but I also found that continuous learning is better.

I am not sure why it couldn't be done like colleges with a week or two break between quarters or semesters.

[twehner5]

I lived in Orange County, Orlando, FL, several years ago when the year-round school calendar was attempted.  It did  not work, because they made it too complicated and no one could keep up with the schedule!  People have gotten it into their heads that 180 +/- days is the "ideal" school year, so the year-long model was still patterned this way.

The children would go to school for say, 5 weeks, and then be off for 1.  I don't know what was the actual schedule because I had no children in government school at the time.  I was home schooling my only school-age child at the time.

The other complication was child-care.  Can you imagine a parent's frustration?  Some of their children would be in school while OTHERS were on an "off" week.  

Unless we get 180 or 190 school days out of our heads, I cannot see year-round school getting off the ground.  BUT....school districts have not budgeted for keeping on the lights LONGER than the current school year in their respective districts.

The list of complications goes on and on...

I wish there was a longer school year.  Children lose SO MUCH over the summer hiatus.

[VicUser]

There are two separate issues I think. One has to do with why kids in urban schools do so poorly and the second is the way kids are taught.

I am not sure how to address the first because no matter how much money you through at the urban school problem, you first have to have kids that want to learn and parents that realize the value of an education and are there to support that concept.

For the second, I think schools should be year around, I cannot find why there are the 3 months off during the summer but it would stand to reason that it was so that farm kids could help with the crops and livestock during the time when they were needed most. It could also be because of the heat during the summer and lack of air-conditioning prior to today.

I think high schools should be patterned after the college format as far as classes go, being a quarter or semester long. For example Algebra I would be the first 9 week period with Algebra II being the second. If a student receives a D or F then they could repeat it the second 9 weeks. This would allow for accelerated learning and have the students through Calculus, if they were on the Math and Science track, well before college. I think kids today are bored in school.