Note from a former Student

I’d like to start off by saying no one has all of the answers, and I understand people aren’t idiots. That is to say I realize that if these problems were easy to fix they would’ve been fixed already. However, these days people have a lot on their plate. It’s easy to lose sight of issues with all of the things that demand a person's attention these days. Again I would like to reiterate that this list comes from a place of love for this world and country and not from a place of hate. My hope is to get people thinking about these things. Maybe someday someone has an epiphany on how to solve one or more of these issues and that snowballs into the United States becoming a better country. I also understand that these changes would take a lot of work. To that I say: Nothing worth doing is ever easy.

The School System This is the most important and time intensive fix because the sooner improvements are made the sooner the effects of those improvements can be felt on a massive scale. Every American goes through the school system aside from those who are home schooled obviously. So improving the education provided would make for a smarter America. That means more voters, doctors, inventors, everything.

The Issue(s):

Funding. Public school teachers do not get paid nearly enough, i’m pretty sure everyone can agree on that as a fact. The problem is the money comes out of the taxpayers wallet. Meaning in order for schools to get better taxes need to increase.

Standardized Testing. Teachers spend the entire school year preparing kids for a state made test rather than actually teaching them the material. In other words drilling what will probably be the answers into the kids heads rather than actually giving them a strong foundation to grow from going forward into college, the work force, or the military.

Possible Solution(s):

Technology. I can’t speak for every school in America. However, based on what I've seen and heard a lot of the cost comes from textbooks. Obviously the various companies that produce these textbooks make a profit off of the public school system. Meaning there are people who make their livelihoods off of the production and distribution of these books. Whether something is done or not to cut down on book costs eventually smartphones, tablets, computers, and other devices will inevitably render physical textbooks mostly irrelevant. Meaning school costs on books will be greatly reduced with time.

For a more immediate fix I've got a few ideas. Utilizing the projectors that are standard in every classroom the teacher could just project the pages from the textbook onto the screen. Perhaps the school could purchase a sort of yearly package from the book selling company. This package would order enough textbooks for all of the teachers to have a hard copy. Basically ensuring classes will still be taught regardless of what could go wrong with technology. Such as internet problems, and web page or computer issues. Now if a student needs to get access to their book outside of class the yearly package that the school rent from the book selling company would provide all of the students with online access to the book, which can also be installed on their device via internet while at school if they lack internet at home. If again the student has no electronic device with internet compatibility they need only access a computer from their school library or a public library. If again the student needs access to textbook pages or web pages while not at any sort of library and without internet then they need only print the pages out while at the school library or again a public library.

Spreading Out the Test. Standardized Testing gives students loads of stress, forcing them to work for around three or more hours straight on a single subject at a time at the end of the year. Should the student fail the test they will be held back and be required to again take the test at the end of the next school year. I have a couple of issues with this system. For starters the students don’t usually work on assignments for that length of time. Meaning the results are unpredictable at best, and at worst are flat out completely different from what the student in question would be able to produce under more traditional circumstances. Secondly building up the test to some looming threat at the end of the year is really dumb, but because of how important standardized testing is it’s like the students, parents, teachers, and even the administration are afraid of it. This fearful environment causes some students to freeze up like a deer in headlights and end up rushing to catch up later during the test. Effectively making the end results pretty useless for someone who is actually interested in learning what a group of students is really capable of. To remove the absurd length and fear associated with standardized testing I suggest we make more of it. Not the answer you were expecting, but hear me out on this. Despite all of the issues standardized testing has it is still fundamentally important. So instead of trying to destroy it entirely and make something else why not turn it into something less rare and more commonplace. Having a small standardized test at the end of every unit ensures that the test is less intimidating, takes less time to take, less time to grade, and is more polished from a test creation standpoint. This allows the test making company to keep their jobs, the government to get it’s scores, and the actual students, teachers and others who make up the school to give out more frequent and accurate results. At the end of the school year if necessary the huge all encompassing standardized test could still be administered if considered necessary, and because there were so many smaller standardized tests earlier on the students would be far better prepared and less afraid of the big one at the end.

Thank you for reading, I understand this post won't solve all of the education systems problems. I'm hoping enough people see this to show it to someone who can actually make a difference. At the very least I'd like to get people talking about improving education.

Submitted August 05, 2020 at 01:35PM by DougMoreOrLess https://ift.tt/33ulY6x