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I like being in classes with students that can think for themselves. Being able to figure things out on your own is something that can't really be taught in school because they have to teach to the standardized tests that expect a year of growth in 2/3's of a school year. Good thinking on that one.
Anyway, I fully feel that arts and vocational education go a long way to help kids to think for themselves. These are both things that are cut whenever they run into funding issues.
Wait I really don't understand the arguement against homework. I don't understand how you learn without it.
You do your work at school, but you don't get to go to the playground anymore.
96DXCivic wrote:Wait I really don't understand the arguement against homework. I don't understand how you learn without it.
I actually have a large problem with homework being given to kids at younger ages. Kids are kids. When I was in elementary school, sure, I had books to read and math to do, but never more than ~45 minutes. My parents tell me they don't know what they would have done with my sister and I if we had the homework kids have nowadays. We were smart and well behaved, but that doesn't stop us from doing naturally what comes to young kids; screwing around, playing, and in general trying to have fun. Once you get into middle school though, its time to truly learn about real-world discipline and life is not all fun and games.
My parents also pointed out that since I didn't screw around in class in high school and chat with the other kids all of the time, or skipping class, or whatever (doing my assigned work while at school), I greatly lessened my after-school work load. Huh, funny how that works...
Disclaimer: I don't have kids. Don't plan on it. But I do have a lot of teachers in the family and damn near went that way myself. So I've paid a bit of attention over the years. I went to public school and I've never seen any signs that I suffered because of it. But it was in a different country. And I don't believe teaching is an easy way to make a living, far from it.
A friend of mine who's put in a long time in the classroom has pointed out a big change over the years. It used to be that the biggest threat a teacher had over a student was "I'll call your parents". Now, it's exactly the opposite - the kids threaten to sic the parents on their teachers. I'm not sure exactly how that happened.
I do strongly believe that smart kids should get extra opportunities to learn. I'm told this makes me elitist, but I don't want to see the cream of the crop held back to the level of the slowest kid in the class. My school board had different levels of classes depending on the aptitude of the students, ranging from General, Advanced, Enriched and Gifted if memory serves. It makes life easier on the teachers as they have a more consistent ability range in the class. The quick learners get the pace they need and the General kids get the help they need.
Something I did notice in my Education classes in university (like I said, I almost went into the teaching business myself) is that there's a 30 year cycle in teaching philosophies. The stuff that was tried and didn't work 30 years ago comes back, to replace the stuff that was tried and didn't work yesterday. Like politics, the real answer is the stuff in the middle...
96DXCivic wrote:Wait I really don't understand the arguement against homework. I don't understand how you learn without it.
Same here. It gets me involved in what she's doing, I can see where she is in her various classes.
There have been a few nights of killer homework, but for the most part it's very reasonable. The one thing that bugs me: she told me once she didn't think she had to get it all correct because they weren't graded on homework. 
Whaa? I was graded on it when I was in school, what's up with that?
It turns out that it wasn't a blanket thing, but in a couple of her classes that was true. Luckily it wasn't math or science, I would have had a fit. But even in English (they call it Language Arts) I insisted that she get it right. I'm glad I did because I swear she talks better than some of the other kids in the 'hood.
EricM wrote:Our school has it simple, you can "opt out" of all fund raising by donating $200, which they say is WAY more than they get if your kid sells even $2,000 of product.
My kids do the fund raising, they sell about $50 in product, I am sure that equates to about $3 for the school....
I wish I knew the answer to school funding, but I dont't
this exactly was one of the topics on a radio show i was listening to today. a local schoolsystem stopped asking parents to whore out their kids selling wrapping paper and the like. apparently they took in something like $23k in the first week alone in donations which was DOUBLE the total net of any previous product selling endeavor.
96DXCivic wrote:Wait I really don't understand the arguement against homework. I don't understand how you learn without it.
i often argued against the homework while in high school (and my grades with homework averaged in showed how i stood behind my principles
), but i've found myself to be a fairly good test taker and i learned very well in the classroom, maybe i just had excellent teachers?
years later i see it a bit differently... seems to me that homework is the foundation of self-disciplined study skills (which i found out the hard way i had precious few). and the teaching process in high school is, at least mine, mostly teaching new material during class and reinforcing it with homework... meanwhile college is very much the opposite, you are expected to learn new material through reading and homework, then it's reinforced in class.
now that i'm thinking of going back to school for engineering i'm definitely lamenting my highschool attitude...
Excellent point (speaking as a person who could stand some improvements in the self-discipline area).
Breezed through High School on my smarts, barely made it through college, then spent 20+ more years trying to figure out what I was missing. You nailed it.
UPDATE: The play was to be Peter Pan, and the kids were excited about it. Yesterday, the school got a call from London informing them that since Peter Pan was going to be on Broadway, they could not have a competing performance. How many of you were planning on attending my daughter's 6th grade production instead of heading to Broadway? They really dodged a bullet on that one!
pinchvalve wrote:UPDATE: The play was to be Peter Pan, and the kids were excited about it. Yesterday, the school got a call from London informing them that since Peter Pan was going to be on Broadway, they could not have a competing performance. How many of you were planning on attending my daughter's 6th grade production instead of heading to Broadway? They really dodged a bullet on that one!
Strizzo wrote:In reply to SVreX:
My mom is in her last year before she retires and she doesn't even make 67k. In fact, I made more than she topped out at my second year out of college. This is, however, in Texas, which ranks 48th in teacher salaries. I don't have a pension plan, though.
Can you please provide statistics for this claim?
I know for a fact that TX teachers make noticeably more than OK teachers, which is why we have a problem keeping good teachers here.
According to this, when standard of living is taken into account, Texas is number 7 on the list.
pinchvalve wrote:UPDATE: The play was to be Peter Pan, and the kids were excited about it. Yesterday, the school got a call from London informing them that since Peter Pan was going to be on Broadway, they could not have a competing performance. How many of you were planning on attending my daughter's 6th grade production instead of heading to Broadway? They really dodged a bullet on that one!
Jeez....
