I tend to think that pushing education issues to the Federal level is the wrong thing to do all around. No doubt some funding is nice, but just about anything done works to take away the ability to make decisions on a local level. And *all* education problems are local.
I'd say all solutions are local as well.
What I'd like most is to see is the promotion of choice, alternatives, and local control.
As for those who don't graduate. I tend to think that most people have a reasonably good grasp on the facts of their own lives. Making it *much* easier for people to *both* leave school and return to school and the school environment (the equivalent of Students Older Than Average in colleges, who participate in campus life as much as anyone else) and the availability of technical education in a *non* high school type environment for students who think school is lame and just want to start working, would be a good idea.
But we've decided that all young people must endure (and I use the word "endure" on purpose) the same education in the same sequence with the same overall goal.
Can you *really* say that the students who feel that they are wasting their time in high school are wrong about that? We can be sad that their time is wasted and wish that they were motivated and getting something out of it, but they *aren't*.
I'd say all solutions are local as well.
What I'd like most is to see is the promotion of choice, alternatives, and local control.
As for those who don't graduate. I tend to think that most people have a reasonably good grasp on the facts of their own lives. Making it *much* easier for people to *both* leave school and return to school and the school environment (the equivalent of Students Older Than Average in colleges, who participate in campus life as much as anyone else) and the availability of technical education in a *non* high school type environment for students who think school is lame and just want to start working, would be a good idea.
But we've decided that all young people must endure (and I use the word "endure" on purpose) the same education in the same sequence with the same overall goal.
Can you *really* say that the students who feel that they are wasting their time in high school are wrong about that? We can be sad that their time is wasted and wish that they were motivated and getting something out of it, but they *aren't*.
Comments
No one can be educated against their will.
All education should be readily available to those who want it, at whatever age.
In the meantime we need to get past the idea that we can lead a horse to water and make him drink.
The lack of wisdom which comes from enclosed spaces and parochial viewpoints, is a bad thing. yet it is propagated by a generation that viewed themselves as Eternal Children, all wise, and all multi culti knowing.
When I returned to school, I was mentally old enough to be a better student. Both the school and I were better off for my time spent away. The final result was a B.S. at ENMU and a Master of Architecture at UNM, plus many much more satisfied instructors who actually got to instruct (where I was concerned).
Thanks for sharing your blog.
Oran Woody