The School system

[Chickenlittle]

This is true, though they could make it a bit more enticing to the kids themselves.

Even in high school, I personally didn't have much reason to get up and go there, other than the fact that "I was supposed to". The youth needs motivation, which they don't have right now, and motivation to actually do the work.

It depends. I had plenty of motivation because I wanted to get a good ENTER score (score received upon completing your final year of school and is used for tertiary placement) so I had to study hard. But yes, I'm kind of the exception. I can understand why most people don't find school stimulating or enjoyable, but I'm at a loss as to ideas of how to fix such a problem.

Well, for one, they could make the classes start a few hours later. Typically, teenagers need more sleep, and stay up late at night. Early mornings are a ticket to disaster, at least in high school. I understand this will disrupt the lives of teachers, but I don't see any other way to keep them alert.

 

[Inverse Skies]

Well, for one, they could make the classes start a few hours later. Typically, teenagers need more sleep, and stay up late at night. Early mornings are a ticket to disaster, at least in high school. I understand this will disrupt the lives of teachers, but I don't see any other way to keep them alert.

That's fair enough. Getting up at seven everyday (and that wasn't early, some people were up at six) to go to school was a killer at the best of times.

Uni occasionally throws in the random eight am lecture in the mix... thankfully I haven't suffered through too many of those...

 

[Sion_Barzahd]

Also which school system are you referring to?
I mean first of all different countries operate differently, then different stages of school e.g. primary, secondary, high school, college, university... also act differently.

The idea that they start early is a good thing though. I mean i hate hauling my ass out of bed at 7:30am to make it to my class on time, but it gets me into the routine of waking earlier than i would, if left to my own devices.
This way when i leave college and get a job, i'll be in the routine of waking early, so i might actually not be late for work.
Though knowing me i would still be late.

Parents don't want to discipline their kids.
Parents don't want anyone else to discipline their kids.
The government, as you said, is retarded.

Throw all that together, and you have a bunch of entitled little pricks who have run of their public facilities.

I actually think the correct term is self-entitled. Nobody ever told these little gits that they're some kind of 'superior race' but they assumed it anyway.
But i totally agree, there should be some sort of discipline system put back into the schools.

As for school being fun, as far as i've seen some teachers generally try to make their classes as engaging as they can, without deviating from the thing they're trying to teach.
Though the best idea i've heard of for making school fun was adding Nintendo DS' into the cirriculum, like they will/have in Osaka, Japan.

 

[GenHellspawn]

One of the problems with school's these days is that pretty much all teachers have lost their passion for the job. Teachers are no longer a guiding light for youth, but rather a dispensing device for projects and stress. School is no longer about education, but merely getting kids used to the idea of working to make somebody else rich. Granted, it does succeed in providing a more effective social environment, but other than making kids talk to each other, the current education system is definitely a great big failure.

 

[Zersy]

change the timing of school because 6 1/2 hours a day IS WAY TOO F$%KING much

I hope your joking when you say this but looking at the rest of your post I fear not. You realise that when you entre the real world, and by that I mean when you graduate from school, you will have to work around 8 hours a day, if not more. I'm currently working around 60 hours a week, that’s almost 10 of your "WAY TOO F$%KING" long school days in one week.

However looking at what you have written and the manner with which you have done it I would say that doing a full days work is a hardship that is never going to trouble you.

However to answer your thread the problem with education is the lack of control a teacher has over his/her pupils, bring back the cane/slipper/whatever and you'll see a drastic increase in standards

I agree with you

 

[Zersy]

My gripe with schooling is it doesn't actually teach you anything relevant for your future career/life in general.

I get maths and science is the stuff we should all know, but would it kill them to have some lessons on cooking and cleaning? A bit about setting up bank accounts or at least a MENTION of tax returns and the like?

I've got friends who work full time that are in their early 20's who still don't know what interest rates are, or how voting works, or how to use a washing machine (among many other simple things like that). I get that it's boring, and parents should teach you that stuff, but there should be some of it mentioned if school is really meant to get you prepared for the real world.

i seriously agree with you

 

[D_987]

There are many things i can say about it

but one thing that keeps coming up on EVERY website i go to

is that it needs to be changed, now i fully support the fact that we have a shit school system and that the goverment are retards now and will go with any method necssary to make them listen for once

but i want to go in a litte more detail

we all know it needs changing

(Do yourself a favour and go onto UrbanDictionary.com right now and look up School then look up Homework then continue you read this)

,
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now first off all no kids care about their education and i support them for that because naturally it's human nature to want to learn and have interest in new things if you don't believe me go back in time and look how intrested people were in maths and Science

and if human nature is not going accordingly then something is REALLY WRONG !

so i want to know what should be done ?

in detail as well ...

here's my personal idea's

my idea would be make learning fun again ,,this is not hard at all really ,How many of you like learning facts that you didn't know about ?,,,,,,,,, see what i mean.

change the timing of school because 6 1/2 hours a day IS WAY TOO F$%KING much

increase social interaction between students (reason is too obvious)

and the rest i'll leave up to you to decide how we should fix our education system

(there is a 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000023 % chance this will make a differance to soceity)

The grammar, language used and the way you put your ideas foreword in this post show the REAL reason the school system is failing - kids don't want to learn.

 

[Meta Like That]

Yea. School. I go there 8 hours a day so I can 'Make something of myself' by learning things as important as what a synthesis reaction yields. First off, in the real world that's not going to do jack shit for me. Then, think about this: Most classes require you do homework. What is homework? Homework is worked designed to be done 'out of school' for 'extra help'. But what if this extra help isn't needed? What if by some strange fluke or some crazy coincidence I actually understand what I am being taught at school AT SCHOOL? Then why the HELL should I have to waste more of my time at home doing unnecessary work? In more than 2 of my classes my test average is a high A, but my homework average is a failing grade. No failing because I don't do well on the homework, failing because I don't do the homework at all. Now think about that: My overall average is being brought down due to the fact that teachers are trying to force work on me that is arbitrary in the system's attempt to "make something out of me". I, for one, don't buy it. I think that the only reason I goto school and work so damn hard is because of the lies the system tells my parents, who are just ignorant enough to believe them. They try to show me what I 'can have' if I go to college and make a lot of money. They, on the other hand, don't show what they do with half of the money I make that they are going to take away from me. Now, give this some thought: They want me to work at least 40 hours a week. After all of this work, they claim half of it as their own. Now, logically speaking, why do they need half of everyone's money? Here's the beauty of it: They don't. BUT it doesn't stop there. After already taking away half of my money, they want me to give another 7% of every dollar I spend to them. Now how in the HELL can they justify all of this? Income tax is a remnant from WWI when they needed to fund the military, but after that it became unneeded. Yet, true to its corrupt form, the system never decided to take it away. Making to much money, they were/are. And, AGAIN making it better, even though the charter on which their entire govt. is based says I have freedom of expression (ie freedom to express my opinions) they will still lock me up and throw away the key if I try to change things. Give that a good thinking.

 

[Randomologist]

Just want to point out, I've been through most of the UK education system, just doing my A- levels.

We teach to the test. It's all too specialised, and thus it is no use for practical everyday life. By the time I'd got through GCSE English, most of my class still had problems spelling words over 10 letters long. Instead of being taught spelling, grammar and punctuation, we were taught how to analyse poetry for rhetorical devices. Thus, when it came to learning second languages, we were by and large ill- equipped for the grammatical bombardment we faced.
Another example is my cooking class- we were taught how to use a food probe to check if a chicken breast fillet was cooked, when all you need to do is check and see if the meat is white, not pink. We could all count up fats, carbohydrates etc to check if our meal was healthy, but few were proficient at basic tasks like peeling potatoes.

Looking at your posts, poor grammar and chaotic usage of the Enter key, I say 6 and 1/2 hours a day is too little.

Also, using capitalized letters in the middle of a sentence... Hmm. Erratic.


Fun learning? You can either learn fun, or learn well. You can't combine them. If you think you can, you are delirious.

While I agree with the earlier part of your post, I must disagree with the latter. My AS chemistry teacher was both a good teacher, and a bit of a comedian. While we did get on with the work, the class was so animated, no-one was bored, and everyone put their best foot forward. Only one girl received lower than a B. By contrast, my maths teacher, who had the emotional range of a teaspoon, was interrogated by the headmaster for his classes disappointing grades. He later resigned.

 

[CapnGod]

Looking at your posts, poor grammar and chaotic usage of the Enter key, I say 6 and 1/2 hours a day is too little.

Also, using capitalized letters in the middle of a sentence... Hmm. Erratic.


Fun learning? You can either learn fun, or learn well. You can't combine them. If you think you can, you are delirious.

I disagree. I am also not delirious. You just have to be lucky enough to find a good teacher (few and far between). My high school german teacher was great. You learned (as evidenced by the fact that she was the best in the nation based on AP exam scores), and you had fun. We made commercials, did fairy tales, wrote stories, and had fun doing it. We learned us some german, too.

 

[Abedeus]

Okay, I agree some teachers might be fun. My Spanish and History teachers are never boring (for example, tomorrow we are singing "Dia De Los Muertos" by Voltaire with my teacher), but the truth is - most of the school staff is boring as hell. Or even more, because Hell can hardly be boring. Unless that's what someone might find horrible - boredom.

It's just that most of the teachers can't do either thing well.

 

[Baby Tea]

The problem with the education system is the lack of control and authority of the teachers. How are they expected to run a class room of 25 to 35 (Or more) kids when even the kids know they have no real power? They can't even fail them anymore!
Bring back teacher authority! Do these kids want to be treated like adults? Then lets treat them like adults! With actual consequences! The more we pander to the 'fragile psyche' of the youth, the more they think they know everything when they step out of high school, and then suddenly realize they are barely fit for Burger King.

Can we also bring some reality into the class room? Like: "Hey Jimmy! When you barely get out of high school because I'm not allowed to fail you, I want you to know that your lack of understanding of even the most basic math and phonic knowledge will not only mean you won't get into college or university, but that you also will probably not get into trades either! That, in turn, means you'll be flipping burgers and probably be a burden of the state! Don't want to be a loser? Work harder! Get a tutor!"

EDIT: And for those saying 'make education fun!', well go ahead and try if it'll help. But, really, education isn't about 'fun', it's about learning the basics to function in society. You need this stuff to get a job, to get a good career. Even trades work, which is often look down upon (Which is bullcrap, since it's a totally viable career choice), needs to you have some basic understanding that you get, guess where, in school.

Don't be a dumbass, stay in school and work hard.

 

[mike1921]

change the timing of school because 6 1/2 hours a day IS WAY TOO F$%KING much

That's not why school is too much, it's 9 hours a day for some people because of homework.

They should make homework a punishment, something you don't expect. If you're not expected to work 9 hours a day as an adult than fuck no am I gonna do it.

How are they expected to run a class room of 25 to 35 (Or more) kids when even the kids know they have no real power? They can't even fail them anymore!
Bring back teacher authority! Do these kids want to be treated like adults? Then lets treat them like adults! With actual consequences! The more we pander to the 'fragile psyche' of the youth, the more they think they know everything when they step out of high school, and then suddenly realize they are barely fit for Burger King.

Yes, yes, yes,yes, and no. Not everyone without an education is stuck with that sorta shit.
In my school the teachers are allowed to fail you. Is that an odd thing now?

By the way, fuck all these mandatory peer pressure,art, and music classes.

 

[Chickenlittle]

Well, for one, they could make the classes start a few hours later. Typically, teenagers need more sleep, and stay up late at night. Early mornings are a ticket to disaster, at least in high school. I understand this will disrupt the lives of teachers, but I don't see any other way to keep them alert.

That's fair enough. Getting up at seven everyday (and that wasn't early, some people were up at six) to go to school was a killer at the best of times.

Uni occasionally throws in the random eight am lecture in the mix... thankfully I haven't suffered through too many of those...

Lucky you. I have 2 days at 8:00 AM this semester, and where I'm currently living, it takes nearly an hour and a half by bus.

And the work itself is thankless. None of it gave me any experience with what I want to do for a career. None of it taught me to be more motivated or independent. In my own opinion, the work solely exists to tell you where you can't get a post-secondary education.

 

[Drachknouir]

I left school at 16 and got on with my life.

 

[skib132]

i know some people over xbox live that still go to school and they say that school in Englands schools have gone very bad and they have aded an extra hour to school ha ha unlucky good thing im out of school then

 

[JohnSmith]

One of the biggest problems I can see with schooling systems is the complete disassociation between why children are learning things and what they are learning. An interesting example is Calculus it is rarely explained to school children just how frequently its used or what for. An easy solution at least with math would be to start primary school children with vedic mathematics, which would give them the confidence to work on more advanced aspects. As for literacy, well maybe if schools invested in some interesting reading material and if parents understood the need to read to their children.. Without those two aspects of schooling sorted out though everything else is just going to ride the fail boat.

 

[Inverse Skies]

Lucky you. I have 2 days at 8:00 AM this semester, and where I'm currently living, it takes nearly an hour and a half by bus.

And the work itself is thankless. None of it gave me any experience with what I want to do for a career. None of it taught me to be more motivated or independent. In my own opinion, the work solely exists to tell you where you can't get a post-secondary education.

Ouch. I used to live 2 hours from uni, then I changed uni's and moved out of home, so now I'm five minutes from uni... which helps a lot.

School I guess is more about giving you the groundwork which uni builds upon. All the stuff you learn at uni in first semester of first year is built upon school stuff. And by tha stage, depending on what you're doing at uni, you can start to see the relevance. It is true though that the work and/or score associated with it only really tells you how good you are at that work - it doesn't set you up for life or anything.

 

[Danny Ocean]

I vote they make it start at 10AM rather than 9AM. End it an hour later to make up the deficit. So it becomes 10-6. 6 hours is nothing, pf. Our day is 7 including lunch hour. I don't think it's that long.

Also, it is possible to have fun learning and good learning. Those teachers are just very hard to find. I've only had one really in my entire education.

 

[mike1921]

I vote they make it start at 10AM rather than 9AM. End it an hour later to make up the deficit. So it becomes 10-6. 6 hours is nothing, pf. Our day is 7 including lunch hour. I don't think it's that long.

They actually count the lunch hour as seperate from the school day where you live? you unlucky bastard. 6 hours is nothing??? That sounds like something someone would say if they had a fascist government that forces them to work 18 hours a day starting at age 14. How much do you think you'll have to work when you grow up? Also, I'm against your vote. Where I live it's 8 if you're in elementary school and 7 if you're in mid or high. I prefer it that way, I get one longer time home and awake instead of just getting home for dinner and having however many hours in the morning.

I have a proposal though, no more weekends and we get that time off during the end of the month, the weekend isn't long enough to be considered a break.