Do you feel we are teaching the wrong things in our public schools?

Question

I think we should be teaching our kids:

Constitutional Law
Money management
Science
Basic Math
Child developement
Medicine
Wood and Metal working
Farming

Basically everything we adults do, and not all that other mindless drivel.

Answer 1

Sadly, our children are learning how to pass tests and not much else.
This is not the teachers fault, rather the administration above.
It does not serve the school principal well if his school fails the No Child Left Behind program.
Teachers are told not to teach "subjects" anymore, just make sure they pass that damn test OR ELSE!

Answer 2

Well I am not sure you want a bunch of die hard leftist teaching your kid about the Constitution and how it means whatever they want it to mean but I understand where you are coming from.
I think at the elementary level we are pushing TOO MANY different things onto the kids; we need to go back to the basics (most of my elementary teacher friends agree)
In high school we need to be more practical and teach things that they will actually use and for God's sake stop inventing ways to teach how to arrive at an answer to 20 x 2.5. By the eleventh grade we should probably allow for two tracks- college and vocational.
The more pressing issue is the overall lack of respect and discipline in our society which has a massive negative effect on education.

PS: I get tired of the loons that have to throw in the NCLB attacks. NEWSFLASH: the problem with our educational system started well before NCLB. I wont say it is the greatest thing on earth but it was implemented to address the failures- it isnt the cause of the failures. Again, it isnt the greatest and may not achieve its desired results (mostly because the NEA teachers will ensure that it doesnt) but it takes one ignorant person not to know that the problems came first. It really is a society problem if anyone wants to be honest about it.

Answer 3

A public college is largely the "State" or the government. So your question might properly be rephrased as: How do you sense a pair of government coaching your toddlers ethical character? From my attitude, that's frightening, reprehensible and has been carried out in the past in different countries (and perhaps is being carried out in this one) with below honorable (one might desire to declare evil) reason. Many might say, good now, that public colleges must be coaching ethical character because of the fact the dad and mom are actually not... yet how approximately while / if the political climate shifts to some thing which you disagree with? Is it nevertheless ok then? California merely handed a regulation (signed by ability of the Guv'na) that bans the words "mom and pa" in any college cloth or communicate. that's supposedly to coach tolerance of non-classic families... and often, while somebody claims widely that oldsters are actually not coaching ethical character to their toddlers, this quite interprets into: dad and mom are actually not coaching ethical character to their toddlers THAT I consider. permit the forms (inspite of social gathering in can charge or winning ideology) define and prepare ethical character? i do no longer think of so and that i can not comprehend why any sane individual (without political time table) might choose this.

Answer 4

As you can see from the answers, everyone has a different opionion as to what should be included and excluded. That is exactly why we have local school boards. If you are that concerned, run for school board. Get involved. Stop ranting on Y/A as if that would make a difference. I would suggest you educate yourself first though. All that other "mindless drivel" not only helps our children to understand our society, it hopefully teaches them to think critically and to analyze problems.

I notice you include algebra, trig, calculus and computer science among the mindless drivel.

Answer 5

Absolutely NOT. That kind of supposedly "practical" teaching is precisely what has ruined our pubulic schools.

Most of wat you mentioned (other than science, math, and civics (constitutional law)--is vocational in nature and should be taught at a later time.

If our children don't get a solid grounding in literacy (English, reading, and writing), history, etc. they will NOT be educated. They certainly won't be able to do science and other technical work. Believe me-I have taught at a major technical university, and the communication and reasoning skills are at least as important as the ability to solve an equation.

Even more important--to be a good citizen, it takes more than learning the letter of the law (Constitution). For that to be of use, the ability to communicate and to rread and listen critically--and a solid understanding of the context of the law (history) you might as well not bother teaching the Constitution at all--it would be merely a set of rules with no meaning.

As to money--guess what the MOST common undergraduate degrees among successful Fortune 500 eexecutives are? The answer is its that "drivel"you think we shouldn't bother with: #1 ishistory, ##2 is sociology. Think about that while you are advocating further degrading our schools and short-changing our children for the sake of some vocational school courses.

Answer 6

Right now all school are really teaching are how to pass the Standardized Testing systems the governement says each child has to pass to move onto the next grade, and if enough kids fail these tests the government will pull funding for the school because they are not "doing their jobs".

The original concept of a school, born in the ancient times and adjusted to fit the various cultures in which it took root, was to educate young children in things they could not easily learn at home. At home you learned respect for others, how to clean and cook, how to count, basic ethics and morals, and right and wrong. At school you were taught reading, writing, oratory and rhetoric (speaking well and argueing points intelligantly), math and politics.

After this basic level of learning for both boys AND girls, older males were allowed to continue their studies in what would be our version of highschool, where they improved their speaking skills, learned "honorable" forms or art (poetry, playing music on the lute or harp), studied history, foreign affairs, philosophy, Greek and other popular languages, higher levels of math and law.

Most boys at this point joined the army or took up an apprenticeship. But, if they wished to continue their studies, they were sent abroad to universities and academies in Greece and Egypt where they could learn astronomy, architecture, more advanced philosophy, biology, geography, and medicine.

The Renissance re-established this schooling system after the Fall of Rome and Dark Ages pretty much abolished the educations of the masses, a concept the Ancient World held most dear because a nation can not run off of ignorance. To the list of classes they added the arts as we know them (sculpting, painting, music, etc.) as well as many theology classes.

Eventually an "education" became part of being a civilized person, apprenticeships fell by the way-side, and people started took education for granted. Today, it has become something that HAS to be done and so it looses the impact on our lives that it really deserves. Also, since kids are going to be taught these things "anyway", many parents are abandoning their responciblities of teaching and re-inforcing the lessons taught at school at home.

But, to answer your question (I appologize for rambling), classes in elementary should be reading, writing, math, oratory and rhetoric. Middle school and high school should teach history, science, philosophy (where Intelligant Design SHOULD be taught so long as it does not limit the Designer to Yaweh), music, art, foreign languages, law, politcs, medicine and more math. Colleges are fine right now, though they need to get ride of the "Graduate in four years" stigma, it causes unnecessary stress.

~~ Abe

Answer 7

After reading all the answers above me, I want to mention one fact that has been omitted from all of them: Since the 60s, both parents have had to work outside the home to provide a minimum standard of living for their children. That often make them unavailable to teach all the social success skills and values that our grandparents obtained early in life. As a working parent, I was often too tired to help with homework when I got home from my 3 jobs. Unfortunately, the outcome of both parents being gone for most of the daytime results in many children raising themselves and internalizing negative attitudes and actions when not being directly supervised, either in school or at home. "Wild children" running the streets like feral dogs has gotten out of hand, and needs to be addressed. Great if you can afford after-school programs like soccer or music or dance lessons. The choices are: Either subsidize constructive after-school activities for poor children, or build more prisons to warehouse them later. You choose, every time you enter a voting booth.

Answer 8

My school had science and Math (even advanced courses), child development, wood and metal shop, and everyday law. I went to a public school for my whole life and it was set in an urban area. It wasn't violent and there were some students who went to ivy league schools. I don't know why you're suggesting that all public schools have a sub par education but is not true. We were taught math, science, and Engliish.

Answer 9

Add:

Citizenship
Dealing with Credit and Finances
Common Sense
Internet searching and typing
How to be a great employee
Manners and conflict resolution

The list goes on and on, we should be focusing on base skills that make you a contributing member of society.

But alas, we teach to a test so the teachers can get better contracts next year.

Answer 10

I don't know what they are teaching but I do know a man about 20 shoot and killed a person and wounded to others over a parking space, what an education he must have had.