I kept thinking about Obama's calls to make the school day longer, the school year longer, start school at an earlier age, and pay for more and more post high school education.
Why? What on earth for? What do other successful nations do?
In the olden days, I recall foreign exchange students that came to high school and breezed to through all the advanced classes, nothing was a challenge. They learned it all, many years before their American counterparts. It seemed like an 8th grade foreign education was better than a high school diploma.
I also recall that their education didn't include the extras like sports, clubs, or music - these had to be paid for by the parents.
Germany is quite successful. What are the elements of their school system? From the Wiki -
The responsibility for the German education system lies primarily with the states (Länder) while the federal government plays only a minor role. Optional Kindergarten (nursery school) education is provided for all children between three and six years of age, after which school attendance is compulsory, in most cases for 11 to 12 years.[1] The system varies throughout Germany because each state (Land) decides its own educational policies. Most children, however, first attend Grundschule from the age of six to ten or 12.
German secondary education includes four types of school. The Gymnasium is designed to prepare pupils for university education and finishes with the final examination Abitur, after grade 12 or 13. The Realschule has a broader range of emphasis for intermediate pupils and finishes with the final examination Mittlere Reife, after grade 10; the Hauptschule prepares pupils for vocational education and finishes with the final examination Hauptschulabschluss, after grade 9 or 10 and the Realschulabschluss after grade 10.
Longer days in the US? Longer school year? What for? Why not start the career track earlier? Why does any student need to spend more time in school? Does this make them smarter than foreign students?
There is no provision for serving lunch. There is a lot more homework, heavy emphasis on the "three R's" and very few extracurricular activities.
A very low-cost or free higher education could lie beyond a German Abitur. Many of Germany's hundred or so institutions charge little or no tuition. But, students must prove through examinations that they are qualified.
Obama? Liberals? THREE meals a day in SCHOOL. What happened to parental responsibility?
Why not eliminate extracurricular activities, allow more time for homework, and keep the same school day and year? Maybe there are to many 'fluff' activities? Not enough time in the day for real homework? Not enough homework?
How many universities and colleges in the US have so much in endowments they don't need to charge tuition?
If we better educated out children in the lower grades, how many remedial courses could we eliminate in college?
If we better educated our children in the lower grades, maybe they could START college earlier? Age 14-16?
No multiple choice questions in Germany? What would American education or testing do without multiple choice guessing?Some German teachers' representatives and a number of scientists disputed the PISA findings.[12] Claiming among other things that the questions have been ill-translated, that the samples drawn in some countries were not representative, that Germans (most of whom had never done a multiple choice tests in their lives before) were discriminated against by the multiple choice questions, that the PISA-questions had no curricular validity and that the PISA was "in fact an IQ-test", which according to them showed that dysgenic fertility was taking place in Germany.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19]
A 2008 statistic from Nordrhein-Westfalen shows that 6.4 percent of all students did not earn even the Hauptschulabschluss, however not all of them were high school dropouts, as many of them were children with special needs, who received special school leaving certificates. Only 3.3 percent dropped out of school without earning any kind of diploma.[20]
more here -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_GermanyHow many in Obama's 25% are special needs? Move away never to return? What is the 6th grade graduation rate? 8th grade?
There is a lot of interesting stuff at these links -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment and
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/54/12/46643496.pdfSpend less, get similar or better results.
Does the input justify the test results?
Maybe the nation needs to press the 'reset' button and apply 'less is more'?
