So, recently, it has been announced that Betsy DeVos is going to be Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education. Depending on who you ask, this could either be a great change for our youth, or just another part of Trump’s presidency that will absolutely ruin our nation. She is extremely pro-school choice and will likely make that her main focus as Secretary.
Now, people will tell you that if we improve school choice, by giving money to families so they can afford expensive schools, or by means, it will allow for more competition between public and private schools, improving the quality of them all. But studies have shown that the increased competition has had little to no effect, and definitely not enough to warrant the amount of money we will be spending on it. While I do believe school choice is important, and that a one-size-fits-all solution is impossible, we shouldn’t be spending billions on this. Competition won’t solve the problem if no one knows that there is a problem.
And I believe that while her intentions are very good, she is focusing on the completely wrong thing. Instead of giving kids more choices for schools that are either complete shit or privately-owned complete shit, we should be focusing on improving our “shit”. But it can’t be that bad. There’s no way. I’m just a retarded 15-year-old who doesn’t even know what he’s talking about. Well, I’m in the education system right now. And let me tell you, it’s pretty terrible.
Every day, I go to school, sit in honors classes for 45 minutes doing jack shit except for playing flash games or talking with friends, and then go home knowing that I have straight A’s even though I barely touched a pencil. Sounds like a pretty good setup, doesn’t it? I mean, my teachers sometimes just kinda get up and leave in the middle of class. Most kids would love being able to fuck around every day for hours on end with no consequences, even I do. But the issue is that I didn’t learn anything. Nothing. I’m in my second year of high school, getting good grades in honor classes, yet I am nowhere near ready to face the real world. And that shit is scary.
And you may say, “But that’s just one school. There are plenty of good schools out there.” And sure, there are lots of great schools. But there are also lots of shit ones. And that’s unacceptable. Sixty-Six percent of U.S. fourth graders scored “below proficient” on a NAEP reading test. And the U.S ranked 17th in educational performance out of 40 countries ranked. How come we are number one in GDP and Military Power, but not something as basic as education? Because our education system is shit. Oh, but we rank first in prisoners, so that balances it out.
But how do we fix it? I mean, I’m a just a pissed off 15 year old so I’m probably not the best person to ask. But I believe the solution is to give the power to the people closer to our students. Power should be close to the teachers, and principals, than it is to the board higher-ups and elites, because those people are the people who had bright ideas like giving the students iPads, which turned out absolutely horribly.
(This is off-topic but, why would you give kids iPads? Did anyone actually think kids would learn with these instead of playing fucking Flappy Bird and watching Netflix?)
But like I was saying, Education Reform should be led by people who truly know what the system is like. They are going to be the ones who know what to do. First, of course, we would have to have higher standards for who we hire for our teachers. We should have higher requirements for teaching than “Have a degree”. Teachers may not get recognized for it, but they have one of the most important jobs in the country. And if we hire people who don’t care and just want the paycheck, then that’s a problem.
Also, schools should cut useless programs and classes that almost always get terrible teachers and simply eat up the budget, such as classical films or liberal studies. Then, once the budget is freed up, use that money to increase the pay for the teachers of the core classes, so that more will apply, who are better qualified. Then, give the people closer to the students, such as teachers, the ability to decide how the budget is spent, and how the system should be reformed.
Then of course, there’s common core. While it is controversial, common core is a good idea. Math and English, at least until middle school, need to be standardized. While schools shouldn’t be completely controlled by the government, it should be at least regulated. But common core in its current state is broken. Standardized testing and grades are considered more important than actually understanding the material. I believe that the reason kids in my class cheat on their tests is because schools value their scores and their GPA more than their learning. Common Core needs to be revamped to focus on actually teaching the student, instead of making sure they get a 30 on the ACT or some other bullshit.
Now, obviously, it is more complicated than that, and my idea could be completely flawed, but it seems like a solid plan. Then again, I’m just an edgy 15-year-old kid on the internet. But I believe that once we have teachers that care and have the power to actually teach, then maybe our students can learn again.
tl;dr edgy kid on internet tries to fix his shitty school
Submitted December 18, 2016 at 12:27AM by TrevWithAFez http://ift.tt/2hM3XGN
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