Posted on 03/08/2010 1:53:12 PM PST by reaganaut1
BOISE, Idaho – Every high school has at least a handful of them, gifted students who blow through Faulkner as if it were a comic book, teenagers who catch on to calculus as if it were checkers.
These students are often just marking time in high school and typically become bored and withdrawn as they long for a bigger academic challenge.
States are responding to the problem by making it easier for gifted students to head off to college sooner.
Idaho lawmakers have proposed giving scholarships to high school students who enroll in college early. Eight other states are participating in a program that would allow high school sophomores to pass a series of tests and graduate early. A Utah lawmaker earlier went so far this year as to propose letting students skip the senior year.
"There's a fair amount of wasted time," said Rep. Steve Thayn, a Republican from the small Idaho farming town of Emmett. "I think there's a way to keep them engaged and to keep them learning."
Idaho's plan goes further than other programs around the country because it would allow students to graduate from high school up to three years early, and then receive taxpayer money to enroll at a state university or community college. Students would receive approximately $1,600 in scholarship money for each year they graduate early.
About half the states encourage juniors and seniors to take community college courses, with some of them picking up the tab, said Mike Griffith, a policy analyst at the Education Commission on the States in Denver. But those students stay high school while taking college credit, not moving onto a university campus like the Idaho plan.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Isn't that an understatement. When I was in High School 25 years ago it seemed that half of it was just a waste. I can only imagine what it is like now.
CONSTITUTIONAL RESTORATION EFFORT, A FREE REPUBLIC ALLAINCE EFFORT
We have dozens of such constitutional candidates identified on that site at all levels of government.
If this plan is properly overseen and nurtured, I’d expect an exceedingly high percentage of Idahoans to be future leaders in the Northwest and the US as a whole.
Our oldest attended 4 days of high school before we took her out for homeschooling. Then we decided to let her take some classes at the local university. About 3 weeks into her first course, she took the GED and became a real, admitted to university student. Best decision we ever made for her. She was always bored in school and seldom put forth her best effort because there were always more exciting things for her to learn outside of the classroom. She’s an exception though. Our second child is also exceptional, but she’s stuck with regular high school and benefited tremendously from the opportunities that had not been available previously. She is a junior and is ready to move on to college, but she’s stuck in a financial dilemma because she should earn some hefty scholarships if she stays in high school for another year. Her teachers are working on getting her college credits during the summer though.
Texas has done this for years.
There are drawbacks, however, primarily that of maturity.
Many 16-17 year-olds just aren’t ready to leave home and to make career decisions. I’ve seen several early HS grads who enroll in college prior to 18 and still not graduate until after classmates who stayed in HS for four years.
Better to slow them down, let thim use any extra time to work part-time minimum wage jobs, volunteer in the community, get a feel for the real world.
After all, hurrying kids into the workforce won’t help much when there aren’t jobs for them.
Not a homeschooling issue specifically, but a good idea for those trapped in the public school system.
FYI ping
My guess is that there’s a lot more than a few kids like that. If they’d just get a decent education, they’d find them.
Just because they can do the work, doesn’t mean they ready maturity-wise. Junior will have nearly two years of college credit under his belt by the time he officially starts college. Sadly, not even half can be used toward his major. But he has them so all’s good I suppose.
The future of mass education is likely to be both interactive multimedia and personalized. Background software will determine what is being taught, the tempo of instruction, the combination of subjects, while at the same time emphasizing, evaluating, and reviewing instructional matter.
Because each individual is separately tracked, a minimum of time is wasted, which is a major emphasis, and students can either spend extra time on difficult subjects, or expand and digress in subjects they have a burst of enthusiasm about.
Entire school curricula will be available through an intranet, and parents will be able to pick and choose from multimedia packages done by several top teachers for each class of each subject.
Teachers will still be required for a group of students, not for the lower levels of instruction such as memorization, which is most of what they do now, but for higher levels of instruction that are beyond the capability of the system.
Importantly, students can move from school to school with no loss of momentum in their studies, since their individualized program maintains continuity.
The system also diagnoses problems, such as learning difficulties, reading and hearing problems, notifying adults so that problems can be taken care of quickly, before they inhibit a student’s education.
Compared to wasteful mass education today, students will likely be performing in such a superior manner that it will be intolerable for any but severely disabled students to be educated in the traditional way in the future.
My kids all spent the full 4 years in high school and graduated with more than a year of college credits through Advanced Placement courses. No, they didn’t use all those credits toward their majors, but the demands of the courses helped prepare them for college, and the AP credits were great on our pocketbook, cheap compared to college costs.
I say keep them home, love them, enjoy them, let them be kids till they’re 18. Let them participate in sports, enjoy the senior year and student activities. Cheer them on, enjoy the teen years. Make them work, teach them well, expose them to the world and its possibilities while under your care. Then give them wings and let them fly.
Ours all had one or two college degrees by the time they were mid-20s, as well as high-paying jobs. And they’re great adults.
The problem with public schools is parental absence.
Why do they need to leave home? It is completely possible ( for all but the most rurally outback students) to live at home and attend a local college or community college.
And....Why make career decisions at this young age? The solution is to major in a basic degree with emphasis in the liberal arts and sciences for science majors. They can always get a second degree when they are older or a masters degree in the area of their interest.
All of my children started college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. The two younger earned B.S. degrees in math. The older of these two went on for a masters in math ( emphasis statistics). The younger is now taking the courses she needs for nursing school. The background that she brings to her nursing courses ( having a B.S. in math already) is excellent.
All three children took basic college generals and by age 15 had finished these and Calculus III.
The oldest decided on a much different course of action. He concentrate full time on his sport and studied accounting at a local college in the evening. He travel world wide representing the U.S. and every year competed on a national level. As an older teen he took off a few years and worked for our church in Eastern Europe. He studied Russian and is completely fluent in that language. In his early twenties he returned to competition full-time and again studied accounting in the evening. He will finish his masters next spring at an age typical for young adults who have taken the usual government school path of high school, college, and graduate school.
As for hurrying kids into the workforce, what better place to be than school when there are no jobs ( either high paying or minimum wage)?
Fundamentally, it is the parents and children who together who should be making these decisions. Government bureaucrats simply can not know the child as well the parents and the child himself. High school, college, apprenticeships, minimum wage jobs, or trade schools...it is the **families** should be making these decisions!
I say keep them home, love them, enjoy them, let them be kids till they’re 18.
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If this was the best course of action for your children then I absolutely congratulate you on your decision.
Other children would chaff under these restrictions.
And....Children can be kids; have kid interests, friends, and hobbies; stay home; and still be taking courses at a real college.
I spent the last two years of “high school” getting my diploma by double-dipping- going to community college and getting dual credit. I received my AAS and high school diploma the same week. I could never have sat through high school. I was bored with school that I didn’t start to thrive with school until college. It was the best thing ever for me.
Standing ovation.
Yes, ours is going the dual credit route (more $ than AP but it's guaranteed credit rather than depending on the AP test) and it's much less expensive while still in hs as opposed to the cost of college. Plus it boosts their GPA and colleges want to see the extra effort. He's planning on getting a couple more of the basics done in the summer. I can't tell you how many students and parents I've tried to explain this to but they remain oblivious.
Like Bill Gates says, High School is a waste of time.
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Here’s my modest proposal for education reform.
We have been discussing ways to fast track kids through high school to avoid the liberal agenda and other idiocies:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315730/posts?page=84#84
Proposal for the Free Republic High School Diploma.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1316882/posts
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