Posted on 12/21/2006 1:58:44 PM PST by globalwhiplash
"Did I mention that I'm a high school dropout?
Not that it has been much of a problem: I do have a bachelor's and some other degrees. After 10th-grade, I entered Simon's Rock Early College, affiliated with Bard, where students start college work at age 15 or 16. I missed the prom, thank God, and learned to drive a little late, but otherwise I'm doing pretty well.
The report on reforming our school system just released by the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce urges that my experience be less unusual for American students. One of its main ideas is that mandatory schooling begin at age 3 and end after 10th-grade..."
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
Don'tcha just hate these inconvenient laws and rules and stuff? With an IQ of 92, the world will beat a path to your stoop!
Whoo-boy.
Average IQ is by design 100. That doesn't mean much until you have to think.
Say what you will about France, but they determine pretty early on which track(s) students should take, and students who are not academically inclined aren't given a bill of goods about how important a college education is. They are sent to schools where they learn skills that they are suited for.
I'm leery of the psychologists and teachers unions getting their paws into younger kids. I can understand the underpriveleged (higher chance of bad parenting) going to school earlier, but not everyone.
As an educator I totally agree. As to the argument that students are not mature or smart enough to choose a path, I say so we will choose one for them. Most of these students have unrealistic goals of being rappers or music producers anyway. In my opinion, it wouldn't hurt to force them into a vocation just in case they do not become the next famous whatever. May reduce the future welfare rolls.
I think it's a great idea. I'd love to see more option for 15-16 year olds. A lot of them want the education, but they don't want to deal with the slow, dumbed-down pace of today's classrooms. I was so bored in high school because I could master a lot of the information quickly, but we couldn't move on until the majority of the class got the concept. I really think the whole concept of schooling needs to radically change in our country.
Would you agree that 75% of kids that do poorly in school simply DON'T CARE and nothing will make them learn?
75% is probably a low estimate.
To admire France because they force fit pegs into holes as Socialist parts of some grand government-run economic model is, well, A STEAMING COW PATTY!!!
Start school at three? What the heck are they going to do with those toddlers, drug them? Three is a great age for teaching kids one-on-one. It's not a good age for teaching them collectively.
Yet another reason to homeschool! We can be done at 16, too, and with less brainwashing.
I did a fair amount of that myself.
My son is like that too.
I assume you turned out OK?
;-)
It all seems to have worked out OK. Eventually I learned to do the things that bore me in life, though I still spend a lot more time learning whatever stuff I'm finding interesting today, I just do what I'm paid for first.
Sounds good.
The main reform: ending compulsory government schooling and funding for same.
I'm thinking that the longer kids stay in some public schools, the less educable they become.
I'm with you! I experienced the same thing in my school years and now I have a son who's in the same boat. He aces the tests but is soooo bored with doing the same classroom excersizes day after day, therefore doesn't do them. But by God those lamebrains in the school system know my child better than I do and think that he should be held back... wah????
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