Being someone who’s one year away from being shot into the real world at high speed, I have a pretty good memory in regards to my schooling. And let me know if you noticed the same thing about education in America once you got older and learned what was actually required of you. Doesn’t it seem more like social training than education?
Remember the plays they would force you to do for Thanksgiving? Pilgrims and Indians having a grand ole time around a big picnic table. Nobody is scalped or shot with a bow and arrow; and there is certainly no Trail of Tears. Remember the teachers who at the drop of a pen or a sound of a sneeze would stop in the middle of teaching to you let know it was disrupting class and preventing other students from learning? The authoritative and mindlessly punitive side of American education was, and I imagine still is, a major turnoff to the whole process. It stifles enthusiasm and creates either adversarial or submissive and obedient students. But what it does that is far worse than any of that is focus on what students should learn rather than how to learn.
It is a more valuable form of knowledge when you can figure something out on your own than it is to merely remember something you were forced to read and sit through lectures on. Besides, who actually remembers half the stuff that was pushed on them for 12 years straight? Obviously, there are the basics that need to be covered early on, but by high school (or perhaps even middle school/junior high) the approach should be tweaked.
Yet the programming isn’t always the problem. Sometimes administrative negligence, near-sightedness, and mismanagement lead to a school’s inability to have the proper resources to introduce programming that is stimulating and geared to give kids some drive and direction as they move towards college and then into that dreaded place, The Real World. Below you’ll find a few ways to improve education both on the programming and budgetary levels.
Stimulate Students’ Interests:
Not every student is the same, just like not every person is the same. Society understands the latter, but fails to recognize that students are actually people with varying interests and preferences. If the overall goal of primary education is to motivate kids to continue it then it only makes sense for high school to be a place that doesn’t rehash the same content that has been drilled into kids’ heads since they began their schooling. Even if the goal is to prepare them for a life of work, the current approach is a failed experiment as it doesn’t guide them towards areas of interest.
High school should serve as a place that helps kids find the thing they are passionate about so they can pursue jobs in such fields. After all, if we as a society can more effectively place people in careers they actually care about the general level of happiness will go up as well as the level of productivity. The way schools can do this is by allowing students more freedom when it comes to assignments; let them pick the specific topic of their paper as it relates to the broader subject, be it biology or history. Far too often teachers assign a universal topic for a paper that everyone must do. Chances are good that a large portion of the class might not give a damn about the Civil War or the biology of a frog.
And if people don’t give a damn about the assignment the likelihood that they rush it, don’t do it, or pay someone to write it goes up drastically. I know because I was paid to get people As while I rushed mine and got Cs. I didn’t care about a lot of the assignments I was given in high school and neither did many of my classmates. They wanted the grade and I wanted money because I saw lower education as the sham that it was. But now, in hindsight, I realize the sham needs to end because it has crippled far too many generations and prevented them from truly being the best and happiest people they could be. Instead, the American educational process builds up the ego while enforcing obedience to the system. The focus on standardized testing does nothing to instill the ability to learn in students. What it does is force them to cram, regurgitate, pass, and forget.
That is why giving students a broad subject and having them submit topics in that subject, which interest them, will be a more effective way of educating students. It will require them to do their own research rather than borrow or buy the work of others. Additionally, if it’s a topic that they are interested in they are more likely to be actively engaged in the project, which will ensure that they retain the information. Granted, this requires teachers to be more diligent in their work as they will have to help the student refine their choice, but teachers should be there in a mentoring capacity not as an educational dictator.
Get Rid of the Tyrants:
Ah, smooth transitions are beautiful things. As mentioned above, teachers should be mentors not tyrants. Rather than focusing on obedience in the classroom, teachers should focus on engaging their students in the subject. They should do their best to figure out how to relate the material to each student’s own interests. One way of doing this is treat students as equals. Yea, I said it. Sure, they might be subservient to the teacher, but everyone knows a boss who doesn’t let the boss role get to their head usually has better, more productive workers. After all, the easiest way to alienate people and get them to the point where they have zero desire to work with you is to power trip. Power trippers, be it a boss, cop, or teacher, get no respect. And when kids don’t respect you, you might as well not even bother. Just put on a film and sit in the corner.
Down With the Tricky Trays:
Most people agree that events are a great way to not only build school spirit but foster unity among the students. Events work to stimulate interest in a variety of different subjects, and if they are something other than tricky trays students might actually go. Concerts, food festivals, art shows, and so on will work to give kids something to do. Discussion panels and workshops will be an interactive way of getting students to take interest in education even when school is out.
Many schools have the facilities to put on quality events year round, but rarely take advantage of those opportunities. Sure, they have some—mostly sports or fundraising related—but they don’t have enough regular events to ensure kids always have something to do on the weekends. Not only is this good for the children, but it is a solid way of raising money by providing a valuable service to the community.
Food For Teachers:
In the town of Hopatcong, New Jersey (the place I was schooled for 12 years) the old superintendent of the schools was making $200,000 a year plus benefits. He retired and the new guy is making $170,000 plus benefits. Meanwhile, teachers are being let go and not replaced while programming is being cut. While being superintendent of a school system is probably a fair amount of work, if the school is struggling monetarily and that is affecting children negatively, sacrifices need to be made at the administrative level. After all, they’re not doing something right.
Sure, it’s easy to blame voters who don’t want to increase their taxes to pay for a larger school budget, but as mentioned in the event section, there are ways to be proactive in regards to raising money. Many schools ignore such opportunities and suffer as a consequence. However, the people in the position to capitalize on those opportunities continue to make beefy salaries with plenty of complimentary benefits.
Now, we must be realistic: very few superintendents will take a pay cut—even though some should. Yet, there is one way to retain teachers while paying them less, and that is to approach local grocery stores and ask them to donate a certain amount of food on a weekly basis to each teacher based on their familial situation. Grocery stores can write it off as a charitable donation while teachers need not worry about paying for one of the basic necessities of life: FOOD.
If you have any ideas for how to reform education in America, post them in the comments below.