There is a lot of talk about the state of education in America. Most of the coverage has been negative with the media saying how America is behind China in education and students need to be proficient in math and science. President Obama even stated that this country needs a "sputnik" moment to vitalize the low grades in math and science.There are tons of debates about how to fix the education system in this country, but nothing seems to be in place to fix the problems. The politicians, instead of putting more effort into education are placing solutions that are closing down schools and increasing the price of education in this country, so I've decided in this blog to discuss my thoughts on how to fix the education system.
1.) End the System of Forcing Students to go to Schools That Are Only in Their Districts: This systems has never worked and continues not to work, students are getting a poor education because they are forced to go to bad schools because of where they live. Students and parents should have a choice of where they want to go to school, as should the teachers have a choice in which school they want to teach.
2.) All Year Around School: I know future students would hate this, but it needs to be done. Students need more time to learn the vast amount of subjects that are taught. All year around education would allow teachers to plan their lessons in a spacious manner instead of having to cram lessons because the school semester is only 8 months long. It would also allow more time for students to get help learning the subjects. All year around education would help parents because they could keep a solid work schedule and not worry about a 3 month long summer vacation, on the teacher side it would allow the teacher to stay employed all year.
3.) Broader Subject Matter: One of the great things about getting an university education is that I've had the opportunity to learn about different subjects I've never learned before and to learn more about the subjects that I enjoy. An adjustment in the school system could have students not just learning about American history, but also East Asian History, European History etc.. Also allow students to learn about more ideals in Science, Politics, Literature etc.. and in addition allow students to learn more languages such as Chinese, Korean, Russian, German, instead of just having the one option of Spanish.
4.) Bridging the Government with the Private: All government operated education is not working. There has to be a way that allows for the government to help it's citizens afford and get an education, but at the same time allow public schools to be more privatized so the schools can give future students an up to date education.
5.) Grades Are Not The Only Way To Judge: This country is obsessed with grades. It is the only standard on which to judge a student's merit, but grades don't tell the whole story. I've passed classes with an A or B and could care less about the subject matter or have not found it interesting, all I've had to do was just pay attention, do the homework and I would pass. There needs to be a system created to follow student progression. I'm not saying schools should scrap tests, but schools should give tests to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the students not as a system of pass and fail. Understand better a student's strengths and weaknesses would give teachers the tools to help each student move forward without having to worry about statistical grade value.
6.) Allow Creativity: A big problem with public education is that it doesn't teach students to become creative. When learning a subject matter, it just teaches the students facts and this is how to get to point A and B, but by going through the college system, you need to learn how to complete assignments using methods not taught, no one taught me how to write history papers, I was assigned papers to write and I needed to figure out how to write the subject matter and what to write about. This aspect could be used with other subjects to broaden the student's mind to think outside the box.
7.) Give Teachers More Freedom to Teach: Teachers have to follow a strict protocol when teaching a classroom. Teachers have to accomplish XYZ by this date or XYZ by this month. Teachers should be able to use the vast amount of mediums to help their students learn and to teach in ways that students can understand not only one thing about a subject, but many things.
8.) Math and Science Are Not the Only Subjects that Matter: As in my opening statement I mentioned that math and science seems to be a focal point with politics regarding education but a school's criteria should encompass not just math and science, but the liberal arts and language. At the university I took an acting class, I'm not going to become an actor, or am good at acting, but I learned a lot from this class, not only about the art of acting but about having more confidence to do something that is not comfortable, I also learned about how to have fun.
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