Didn't we invent the idea of universal education? Kids in England were working in factories 30 years after the US wrote the Northwest Ordinance.
In America 25% of students don't graduate. In urban settings it's normal for less than 60% of freshmen to graduate. How many graduate without the ability to read?
I've subbed at some rough and tough schools and the expectations aren't high. I've seen really good teachers create a fun and engaging atmosphere. The students fought engagement. The students couldn't be bothered to learn. The students had reviews. The students were coaxed and cajoled and pleaded with. The students failed the very easy tests.
I've seen students disrespect their peers and their guides. I've heard the "N" word more in one day than years outside. Their leaders and school professionals do not get their attention or their interest. They muddle through. They are defined by apathy. Apathy is their superpower and they are great at utilizing
Teachers don't always use the best pedagogy. Teachers are fighting this apathy and guess what, sometimes it's easier to fight apathy with a stick than it is to fight with the carrot. The carrot takes a long time to prepare. The stick doesn't. They both take a lot of emotional energy.
Teachers don't always teach to all the modalities of learning and all of the seven different types of intelligence because they have to cover a large amount of content in their best modality and intelligence. Guess what the students don't respond to any of them anyway.
Students sometimes couldn't be bothered to copy what the teacher writes on the board. Look I did this. And I analyzed their refusal based on certain premises. First, maybe they thought that they wouldn't be graded on it. Wrong. I told them they would be. Maybe they thought that that which was given freely was of little value. Maybe, but 30% copied incorrectly. Maybe they thought that succeeding in math was unnecessary because of social promotion that they had been experiencing several years of their school careers.
Students don't read their textbooks. School textbooks are big business. 14 Billion dollars a year on school textbooks that aren't even read. The teachers don't assign the students to read them. Maybe they'll assign sections of the social studies and/or English Composition books. A lot of schools have paid $10,000+ for class sets that are never assigned, books that aren't read cover to cover, and students who don't use technology to supplement their education.
Students have access to all the classes almost any college can offer. They can read Wikipedia and other online materials all day everyday. Students now have the ability to create, learn, experience, engage with, more sources of information, more teachers of skills, more experienced mentors than ever.
Students could go to school and learn four languages and three instruments and more information in one year than we used to learn in a decade before the internet, but they just don't. They could watch teachers teach every section of knowledge imaginable from several different teachers and they can do all that without leaving bed.
Schools in America are terrible. I know English, Aussies, South Africans, Korean, Russians, Ukrainians, Czechs, Pakistanis, and Thai. Maybe a couple of other countries and they're not really much better than ours when you strip our incongruous disabled population. But even if this is just about us. American schools are bad. Ask anyone.
But how good do they have to be? What if the main thing we need to concentrate on is primary school? Okay, lets say the the goal should be to learn and I mean MASTER a content test for all the information you should learn when you're in the 5th grade. Now, spread the content of 5 years + Kinder out to say 8 years of schooling.
So if we concentrate on reading, writing, and arithmetic then you never let anyone graduate without getting that content. Anyone doesn't want to pay attention and get that content. They can go home. Self-induced expulsion I call it.
What about High school? I am well aware that there is a need for some students of every ethnicity, socioeconomic level, and gender to have the opportunity to try computer science, higher level math, chemistry, biology etc. We must offer to find those who would make their careers in those fields, not to mention, those who would truly revolutionize those fields. But need we offer it to everyone or just anyone? Huge difference. I posit that universal education is follows the proverb, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Education is on offer if you will but take it. Teachers in a school with these expectations don't need to be as engaging, but still interesting and entertaining. These educators are the people who are taking our best and brightest students and finding out if they are so. The work should be challenging enough to see if they are passionate about the content and capable enough to succeed in the pursuit of a higher education. Send all kids to school. Kids get 5th grade educations by 8th grade. Kids graduate or drop out. Kids who graduate can attend these high schools. High school is like college in this reality, demanding and difficult. Maybe high school becomes collegiate, but you dabble in everything. College becomes a place where you take 101 classes. You take introductions. You survey.
Students who do not graduate the 8th grade go to remedial high school. This is a second chance to learn the content of the first 8 years. This place has teachers that specialize in being engaging. These teachers always follow best practices. These teachers have small class sizes and may work with an aid for instructional. These students are special needs(lower capabilities not severe disabilities), but aren't behavior issues. Behavior issues don't go to school.
People who don't want preparatory college high school and didn't need remedial can begin to learn trades. They can start working as bus boys, dishwashers, lawn mowers. Start teaching them about compound interest in middle school and find them a job at 15 they can save $100/month doing.
Students who don't want to work or go to either kind of high school do not get welfare. Now, here in lies a crux. I think the welfare culture and the failing schools are connected. I could be wrong. I believe there are some in both industries fudging the numbers to change the perception, but this is my belief. If the flow of benefits runs dry then I believe people, not all but most (95% is a guess), will go back to school or the work force. Social security and SSI disability were supposed to be about 5% but now it's way higher. I know Romney got destroyed for saying it was 47% on some sort of assistance; that seems legitimate if not precise.
Two reasons we NEED kids to graduate. 75% of crime in the US is committed by high school dropouts. And a high school dropout will make $200,000 less over a working career than a graduate. And a dropout is three times more likely to fall below the poverty line and be subsidized by the government. It's in our economic interest to make them graduate. And it's in out penal interest to make sure they earn it.
So there is my plan for a revolutionary education overhaul. Be amazed. It really was a lot of
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