Question du jour
Apr. 4th, 2012 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vanillafluffyWhat subject(s) do you think kids should be taught more about in school? What do you feel gets too much emphasis already?
Let's start in preschool, and teach them consideration for others. I know, this is the sort of thing parents ought to be dealing with, but apparently, THEY DON'T. Teach them that their actions can affect themselves and others in ways that can change their lives for better---or worse. Think of all the bullies who never got this message, all the messed up kids who never learned how to make friends or how to BE friends. Introduce the Golden Rule: Treat other people the way you would like them to treat you.
Expand that. As they reach grade school, broaden the concept from the playground to the community. Teach the importance of responsibility, stress that the world is NOT all about them. Encourage social activism and helping others. Can you imagine how much better the world would be if this was what the next generation accepted as normal behavior? That would give us older folks a lot to live up to!
Discover and develop an individual's natural gifts. Reward creativity, the fine intellect, the natural athlete, talented performer, the born nurturer. Find a way to make the passion the profession. Similarly, instead of teaching "The Test", and harping on degrees and higher education, institute vocational training so that no child will be left behind in the career arena. Not everyone has the inclination for college, and the world needs people in medical, technical and service industries. At the very least, everyone should graduate with a trade that's in demand and will earn them a living.
Today's educational criteria seems to be more geared toward test-taking and less toward preparing young people for the world after school. While it's agreed that students should be able to demonstrate proficiency with basic math and language, the trend has been to dumb things down to the point where most grads are communicating at what would've been considered a 5th grade level two decades ago. We need to expect more, not less. Academic ability is one way to determine whether a student would be best suited to a vocational program. If they disagree, then they should be prepared to work for higher education.
TL; DR: Let's concentrate on life skills, not test results.
.
Let's start in preschool, and teach them consideration for others. I know, this is the sort of thing parents ought to be dealing with, but apparently, THEY DON'T. Teach them that their actions can affect themselves and others in ways that can change their lives for better---or worse. Think of all the bullies who never got this message, all the messed up kids who never learned how to make friends or how to BE friends. Introduce the Golden Rule: Treat other people the way you would like them to treat you.
Expand that. As they reach grade school, broaden the concept from the playground to the community. Teach the importance of responsibility, stress that the world is NOT all about them. Encourage social activism and helping others. Can you imagine how much better the world would be if this was what the next generation accepted as normal behavior? That would give us older folks a lot to live up to!
Discover and develop an individual's natural gifts. Reward creativity, the fine intellect, the natural athlete, talented performer, the born nurturer. Find a way to make the passion the profession. Similarly, instead of teaching "The Test", and harping on degrees and higher education, institute vocational training so that no child will be left behind in the career arena. Not everyone has the inclination for college, and the world needs people in medical, technical and service industries. At the very least, everyone should graduate with a trade that's in demand and will earn them a living.
Today's educational criteria seems to be more geared toward test-taking and less toward preparing young people for the world after school. While it's agreed that students should be able to demonstrate proficiency with basic math and language, the trend has been to dumb things down to the point where most grads are communicating at what would've been considered a 5th grade level two decades ago. We need to expect more, not less. Academic ability is one way to determine whether a student would be best suited to a vocational program. If they disagree, then they should be prepared to work for higher education.
TL; DR: Let's concentrate on life skills, not test results.
.