BERENGARIA:
The "some" I refer to is a mixed bag of people of different ages I have met in recent years who feel this way.
Hopefully, they are a small minority.
Scary Stuff
by Farkel 93 Replies latest jw friends
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Berengaria
The problem is that ignorance, and its parochial view, is a breeding ground for bigotry, racism, mysogyny and many more of societies ills. Education is what combats such evils.
A poorly educated society is easily led by any charismatic charlatan, or would be Dictator. Ignorance is the road to Totalitarianism, we should not make light of the the younger generations lack of education.
No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in its effect towards supporting free and good government.~Thomas Jefferson
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JeffT
My granddaughter attends a home school support school that has a lot in common with what they're doing in Finland. The students are split into age groups of about three years, rather than one year grades. If needed they move back and forth between age groups so that they recieve instruction appropriate to their level of need. The school does not give grades (in the sense of ratings) at all. Students work on something until they have it mastered. They learn priciples and techniques, not factoids.
In the three years we've been there every one of their graduates has been accepted at their college of choice (plus almost everywhere else they appplied). They've averaged about 100k in merit scholarships.
Best quote from a former student "The Attic taught me to love learning and to be responsible for my own learning."
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VM44
"Three out of four cannot name the first US President."
I would say "four out of four" cannot name the first US President correctly.
George Washington was actually the Eighth President of the United States.
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smiddy
I would agree this is just not an american problem , but mainly a western ? problem ? Here in australia I too find literacy and numeracy at an all time low amongst the youth of today , let alone other subjects that youths need to broaden their education especially in this 21st century where co-operation between other countries is paramount to survival for us "all "not only in trade of goods and services but also in security.Their seems to be a dumbing down of the three R`s that I learned as a school kid in the 40`s & 50`s Reading , Righting , and Rithmatic that were/are the basics of education .Nowadys with the advent of social media , the internet ,skype ,smart phones etc.what happens in one part of the world can be seen in another part of the world almost instantaneously .Children need a far broader education from an earlier age to cope with the changes taking place.
Schools need to lift their game for the 21st century
smiddy
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Julia Orwell
If it's like Australia, teaching is such a crap job no one wants to do it, so you don't have to be that bright to get into some B. Education courses. All the really really smart people don't go into it because it pays crap for what you have to do and deal with.
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Farkel
Someone said, and quite correctly ( but it is more than that)
:It is not the kids' fault. It's the parents'.
Home-schooled children do MUCH better in all areas of education. That is a fact.
It's the teachers. Nay, it is the unions who protect crappy teachers and won't let them get weeded out. Anyone who knows academia knows that those who graduate from the Universities and go into teaching are are the bottom-of-the-barrel of the college graduates.
Some of them are crappy, some of them are so-so and some of them are awesome. I can name 3 of them who were awesome and those three changed my life, and I will bet that most honest readers on this thread can name no more than that. I can also name the rest of them as totally forgettable.
Today, most students cannot name even three of them.
The teachers unions protect the losers and they hate the winners who rock the boat for the losers.
I blame them, and I blame the NEA for sticking their Federal fingers into the State's education system by plying them with stolen taxpayer money in order to promote their dumb-down agenda. I blame George Bush. Hell, I blame ALL he Feds. And I especially blame the whores in the States who take that stolen money and become beholden to the Federal government because they won't let the communities and parents decide what kind of education is best for their children.
Our screwed up educational system is due to several things: Teachers Unions which protect shitty teachers who are not educating our children, Federal Government intervention and local communities rolling over and not fighting all that evil.
So in response to that poster I quoted above, the last bastion for a good education for our children, provided the parents have one, is home-schooling or private schooling.
Our public schooling system has failed them.
Farkel
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darthfader
Education has always been what you make of it. Regardless of the "quality" of the teacher, motivated students will learn and grow well even in today's educational system (in fact in spite of it). The problem is that we have a "manufacturing mentality" to education -- in a world where hyper-interactive software flows with the user where it accomodates and rewards them in very dynamic ways, one can't expect a "lock step" factory method to work anymore.
Also... cursive should die... plain and simple:
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Farkel
darth,
You said:
: Education has always been what you make of it. Regardless of the "quality" of the teacher, motivated students will learn and grow well even in today's educational system (in fact in spite of it).
How can one "grow well" in an educational sytem which provides little or NO education? Explain that. If they are teaching shit, how can one make roses out of that?
Farkel
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LongHairGal
DARTH FADER:
Why should it die? Can you write cursive?
If somebody never learns it, then they CAN'T read anybody else's...That might pose a problem in the world, such as in an office where I often deal with people's handwriting.
Ah, what the hell, let's take another step backwards. Let's start burnin' books!