In the LA Times this morning there was an article about the LA School District going to an even shorter school year next year. They are cutting five more academic days per year. The year gets progressively shorter and, surprise, the children suffer.
I'm beginning to wonder if one of the main proponents of public education is to make children suffer more anyway. With the pace that our society is evolving, and the types of jobs that are being created, maybe we need to take a look at the system as a whole and request a do over.
What do people need to know in order to be a viable part of a democracy? They need to know how to read. There is no way that it takes a normal human being 12 years to learn to read. (Also they are cutting adult education, a place where no one thinks it takes 12 years to teach reading.) They need to know how to do basic math. (We do live in a society where calculators are ubiquitous, so that doesn't seem like it needs to be dragged out forever either.) And they need an understanding of our political system so that they can be informed voters. I admit that that does take forever, but that most of it doesn't happen in school anyway.
In the America of the future we need innovators. We like to think that we're smart enough to somehow stay near the top of the food chain. Yet we are dumb enough to cut art, music and recess out of our basic educational system. Locking kids up for 12 years and making them memorize stuff so they can pass reading and math tests sucks the innovation right out of them.
Maybe we should think of school in an entirely different light. Yeah, teach them the alphabet and their numbers but then let them major in building forts, or planting gardens, or cooking (which is where I came to understand fractions), or painting, putting on shows. Make sure the libraries are open and stocked with whatever the current version of Harry Potter is. If kids are reading for fun, you can bet that it won't take them 12 years to catch on. Teach them to learn from everything instead of boxing them into a system.
This will probably be one of my least popular posts, so I hope that it doesn't take my three loyal readers too long to get over it. I'd defend myself further, but I need to go outside to play.
As one of your three loyal readers, I'm a fan of this post. Then again...I majored in Theatre Arts with a minor in Music. And by my senior year in High School, over 70% of my classes were fine arts classes.
ReplyDeleteI also go to opera, and stay wide awake.
...so maybe since this lady is a tramp, my opinion was already a little biased in this direction...