We saw this with my children’s non-homeschooled friends. Most of the work was meaningless. The same was true when my kids were in college. That was a bit of a culture shock for them. They were so used to having clearly defined learning objectives and a teacher, me, that showed them the shortest path to meet the objectives. There were no multiple week group projects that taught a lesson that would otherwise take 20 minutes.
Government indoctrination centers are simply full of waste. They waste time, money and minds.
Every child learns differently, and different forms of education are appropriate for some percentage of them. A really efficient school system would be able to test kids and determine how they learn, then put them into the appropriate learning environment.
The one size fits all, being inclusive is what matters most process in place now is making idiots of our greatest resource.
Pacing will always be an issue, and the easy way to fix it is to stratify class cohorts by IQ. When I was in public school the pace was so slow that I was bored to death.
Tests cause students to review material in a way that they can digest and remember, analyze questions, organize their thoughts, write coherent paragraphs and short essays quickly, etc.
Homework assignments can serve useful purposes and greatly extend what students are exposed to — especially with highly relevant internet based lessons and projects available. Should never be simple-minded busywork.
“Teacher” is correct that public school wastes a lot of time on garbage (I’d guess 50%+). But teachers at home and in schools can make the situation work, at least a lot better.
The text is quite contrary to the article title.
Guess it’s one of those articles where the author just depended on people reading the title and walking away.. so, I’ll simply ask, WTF is this!??