Thread: What should children be taught?

You know what is so sickening, our education system is constantly being blamed but our parenting is never looked at. I do not say the schools/curriculum/administrators are blameless, but consider this:

Children from other countries are coached from early childhood in academics, responsibility, citizenship. They are expected to do several hours of home work every night. In some countries the schools have no cleaning staff, but the childen are responsible to sweep, wash, wipe up and keep the school clean.

American parents expect that their TV watching, sleep when you want to, eat what you want, bring your cell phone to school children learn every thing at school.

Impossible task.

I believe our federal and State Constitutions and the federalist papers should be required reading.

Originally Posted by danielpalos

I believe our federal and State Constitutions and the federalist papers should be required reading.

Without question.My special education students learned the meaning behind the Pledge of Allegiance, all about the Constitution, acted out court cases, practiced what it meant to be a good citizen, knew who all the elected officials were, along with other things every American kid should know.

I am appalled at adults who do not even know how our government works. Many of them post here.

Originally Posted by Gaymom

You know what is so sickening, our education system is constantly being blamed but our parenting is never looked at. I do not say the schools/curriculum/administrators are blameless, but consider this:

Children from other countries are coached from early childhood in academics, responsibility, citizenship. They are expected to do several hours of home work every night. In some countries the schools have no cleaning staff, but the childen are responsible to sweep, wash, wipe up and keep the school clean.

American parents expect that their TV watching, sleep when you want to, eat what you want, bring your cell phone to school children learn every thing at school.

Impossible task.

Although I agree that parents/guardians 'can' play a role in supporting public education, I don't believe we should design a public education system which requires the involvement of parents/guardians. Obviously the reason is too many parents simply are not programmed to have this responsibility, and it really does not make any difference the reasons since they are pervasive in society.

Likewise, I also don't believe a public education system should require home work. This is because of similar reasons to above in which too many students do not have conducive environments at home for study. How many have no parents, or working parents, or absentee parents, or live in crime-ridden neighborhoods with bullets flying everywhere, or drug/alcohol habits, etc.? IMO those municipalities who cannot provide safe neighborhoods and schools are a huge part of the education problems...

Originally Posted by Gaymom

Without question.My special education students learned the meaning behind the Pledge of Allegiance, all about the Constitution, acted out court cases, practiced what it meant to be a good citizen, knew who all the elected officials were, along with other things every American kid should know.

I am appalled at adults who do not even know how our government works. Many of them post here.

I would not be so judgmental about others regarding what people know and don't know. People are diverse in their interests, capabilities, limitations, environments, etc. and although I also prefer Americans to be a lot smarter, I also know this can't change except over a long period of time...like generations/decades and this is only if we focus on this as a goal.

How can we expect smarter adults when our current public education system is basically failing 50% of our kids?

How can we expect smarter adults when few of them can afford continuing education?

We can acknowledge that we have a broken school system, a broken parental system, a broken government system, in many areas a questionable societal system, and at all levels it appears we never have adequate funding. So where do we start...

Originally Posted by OldManOnFire

Although I agree that parents/guardians 'can' play a role in supporting public education, I don't believe we should design a public education system which requires the involvement of parents/guardians. Obviously the reason is too many parents simply are not programmed to have this responsibility, and it really does not make any difference the reasons since they are pervasive in society.

Likewise, I also don't believe a public education system should require home work. This is because of similar reasons to above in which too many students do not have conducive environments at home for study. How many have no parents, or working parents, or absentee parents, or live in crime-ridden neighborhoods with bullets flying everywhere, or drug/alcohol habits, etc.? IMO those municipalities who cannot provide safe neighborhoods and schools are a huge part of the education problems...

Then you would have to have the govenment/schools practically raising these children. School during the day/supervised homework at night/nutritional programs/citizenship programs...is this what you want??? Is this what you are willing to pay for???

Originally Posted by OldManOnFire

I would not be so judgmental about others regarding what people know and don't know. People are diverse in their interests, capabilities, limitations, environments, etc. and although I also prefer Americans to be a lot smarter, I also know this can't change except over a long period of time...like generations/decades and this is only if we focus on this as a goal.

How can we expect smarter adults when our current public education system is basically failing 50% of our kids?

How can we expect smarter adults when few of them can afford continuing education?

We can acknowledge that we have a broken school system, a broken parental system, a broken government system, in many areas a questionable societal system, and at all levels it appears we never have adequate funding. So where do we start...

We have to change the whole mindset that parents can raise a child for 5 years, do nothing but feed and cloth them, push them out the door, and expect that the school will do the rest. It is an impossible job. Schools can be eductors and parents.
US parents have very low expectations when it comes to education. I ran into parents who said, "Well, my kid can milk the cows, that was good enough for me and that's good enough for her." Or others who just blamed me when their child just slept all day. Teachers can only work with what is sent to us each day. Hungry, sleepy, ignored, cold, dirty, sick kids start way behind. Kids who spend all their time out of school in organized activities or on the computer have very little left to bring to studying. I've seen both sides off the spectrum and neither is ready to learn, no matter how much I want to teach them.

Originally Posted by Gaymom

Then you would have to have the govenment/schools practically raising these children. School during the day/supervised homework at night/nutritional programs/citizenship programs...is this what you want??? Is this what you are willing to pay for???

I you read what I said, all I implied was if you design a public education system requiring parental involvement and/or homework, you are starting with a failed program! It will fail, just as it fails today, because of everything I mentioned about parents and home-study environments. Why create or sustain a program with built in failure??

Originally Posted by Gaymom

We have to change the whole mindset that parents can raise a child for 5 years, do nothing but feed and cloth them, push them out the door, and expect that the school will do the rest. It is an impossible job. Schools can be eductors and parents.
US parents have very low expectations when it comes to education. I ran into parents who said, "Well, my kid can milk the cows, that was good enough for me and that's good enough for her." Or others who just blamed me when their child just slept all day. Teachers can only work with what is sent to us each day. Hungry, sleepy, ignored, cold, dirty, sick kids start way behind. Kids who spend all their time out of school in organized activities or on the computer have very little left to bring to studying. I've seen both sides off the spectrum and neither is ready to learn, no matter how much I want to teach them.

YOUR problem is YOU are not going to force others to do something in their 'personal' lives that YOU want! You are ignoring the random and diverse behavior of humans. And don't say 'it's an impossible job' when in fact many kids live in non-parent involved lives and excel in school and onto college.

If teachers and education administrators are so smart, then figure out how to educate without parental involvement and without home-study? If you cannot do this, or refuse to do this, then you are ignoring a huge percentage of our kids today who live in these exact situations...

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