Here are my thoughts and observations about what is wrong with our public education system today:
1. Too much is spent on school administrators and not enough is spent on teachers
2. Too much is spent on extracurricular activies, particularly sports, and not enough is spent on arts, music, home economics, and trade (auto shop, mechanics, wood shop, etc.) classes
3. Too much time is spent on preparing students for standardized testing and not enough time is spent on teaching students how to learn independently
4. Too much is spent on fighting expensive legal battles and not enough is spent on providing special education and related services
5. Too much is spent on changing curriculum (for example, common core, Pearson) and not enough is spent on allowing teachers to apply their ‘on the ground’ knowledge of their students and subject matter expertise
And here is a bonus one:
BONUS: Too much is spent on internal fortress building and not enough is spent on involving the community in our education system, such as involving parents and local businesses in the process
Just my opinion.
I agree with all of those. Another one is we are not teaching kids how to think. There is still an emphasis on rote memorization. And the biggest one for me, is that schools are still clinging to teaching reading through whole language. It has been well-established (National Reading Panel, 1997) that whole language doesn’t work and we are seeing so many kids who can’t read and they just get passed on from grade to grade.
Agree with you entirely. I thought I covered the “how to think” in #3 “learn independently”, but otherwise your comment is spot on. We have kids graduating high school who can’t even read at the 4th grade level.