What are we teaching our kids in school these days?

Question

I believe the following speaks for itself. Shouldn't a sophomore in high school have better composition and grammar skills than this? I'm not being insulting and I could care less about her political views but is there something seriously wrong with our public education system?

"ok heres what i think about the republicans i might be 16 years old but i keep up with whats happening to my country and if our president keeps up what hes doing we are all in the long run screwed but i am a sophmore in high school and whell if it affecting me then how is it affecting my parents and grtand parents then how will it effect my children and me in the futrure ?? I think that if we pull out of iraq now then we might get some where ,but if we stay over there then we are like i said were SCREWED ."

I totally agree with you Justagrandma. I believe kids should feel free to express their ideas and their ideas are important. However, their ideas won't get very far when they make themselves look like idiots in the process. Why should I take anyone's ideas seriously if they can't project them clearly in both written and spoken format?

Answer 1

The problem does not stand in the public education system, the problem stands with parents who do not verify their children are learning. The public education system is a mere tool for parental use in the education of their children. There are other tools, private school, homeschool, private tutors that can be used as well. If one tool does not work well, put it down and pick up another. School systems do not bare children ...parents do. Each teacher is there for a brief moment in a child's life, parents are the conductors, leaders, guiders that oversee the whole picture. Most parents would not drop their child off at the mall with a credit card and say, "Let the sales clerk pick out your clothes", so why drop them off with the government and say, "Let the teacher determine your future." Parents who turn their heads and make excuses for not exercising parental responsibility are paying for that sin with every parent's parental rights to conducted their child's education. Jesus Christ stated, “parents are responsible for the training of a child…” “a student is never above his teacher, but when fully trained, he will be like his teacher…”

Answer 2

I only have a high school education and they're not teaching as much as when I went to school, that's for sure! My two children have been through the public school system and graduated from college but they didn't learn half the stuff that I learned going to public schools. They didn't learn Geography (Social Science) at all, very little History, Spelling and Grammar just the basics, no Science, Math is taught a new way that doesn't make sense to me, etc. When I went to school kids were separated by how intelligent they were so the most intelligent classes were taught more. Nowadays they are all together in one class and the smartest kids are bored and held back from learning more because the class only progresses by the least intelligent kids. Also when I went to school kids weren't allowed to disrupt a class or they would be gone and we used to receive corporal punishment by the teachers and principal! Bring back the old way of teaching that achieved better results than now! My kids always wonder how I seem to know most of the answers on Jeopardy, when they don't, and I tell them I learned most of that stuff in the public schools which they find hard to believe.
Education compared to 40 years ago is just a joke these days.

Answer 3

I think the school that this 16 year old went to should have caught by now that they arent doing well with at least grammar and composition. I don't think that some schools want to bother to pay attention. I know mine didn't. Unfortunately my 5th grader has better grammar and composition than this sophomore does but I agree that schools today are lacking in different areas.

Take for instance that my 5th grader cannot tell time on a regular clock. They spent all of 1 day (doubt it was a full day) teaching them to tell time and their reasoning was that everything is turning digital in this day and age. Whereas my nephew who is also in the 5th grade but in a school only 10 minutes away can tell time perfectly but doesnt know as much about science and social studies as my daughter.

It's very screwed up if you ask me.

Answer 4

That sounds like the expressions that someone would use as if they were speaking instead of writing. Kids are often told that their ideas are more important that spelling and grammar.
As to what they are taught... that would be to take tests.
There is a swing to passing the No Child Left Behind test and leaving everything else in the dust.
At least shes thinking, that's a blessing, too many of todays kids seem to be too accepting, far too placid.

I agree with you that grammar and spelling should be emphasized so that clarity is achieved. I found this can be done at home with little effort as I always acted like I couldn't understand what my daughters were writing if they 'made up' their own spelling. They complained of course, but got tired of having to explain things to me, it was easier to use the dictionary.
One of them went on to edit a sci-fi fanzine for four years.
So I still didn't understand what the writing was about.
The other one works for the government, she still writes incomprehensibly, but for a reason.

Answer 5

That was certainly an example of poor and almost unintelligible writing

There are many people in school today who would not have been in school years ago.

They are in school because we propagandize that school is good for everyone and that a person should work up to his abilities no matter how low they may be. About 10% of our students are classified as Special education. Many of them are there because of physical or emotional problems. Many are in school because of learning problems.

For all that we know that type of student twenty or thirty years ago might not have been able to even read or write at all.

The problems exist when we tell this type of student that he is doing well (and forget the phrase "for him") , give him unreasonable expectations, do not teach him how to work by himself and very often he becomes the lowest common denominator.

I can give you examples of students who at the age of ten or even younger can write and speak like mature literate adults.