scrubbedexpat091

My partner who is a wealth of information spent most of her childhood and teen years travelling and didn't attend traditional schools, and I have to say she likely learned more about this world and history then I did in 12 years of proper traditional schooling, she is also an English and math wizzard.

I have no faith in public schools, my experience with them as a child and teen was very negative, I'd have been happy if a teacher even attempted to try and teach in high school, but none did, too busy worrying about striking and complaining to us about how they were so mistreated.

On the flip side, learned a lot about the teachers union in high school...lol

History was only required for 1 year in high school, and only in 12th grade, my entire high school history education was hollywood based, that is right, all the teacher did was show us movies based on historical events.

In the unlikely event my girlfriend and I have kids (not planning to ever have any but never know) we already decided they will be home schooled, I am more confident we can teach them far better then any school could, I'd not risk my kids having such a poor education such as mine, and I went to what was considered one of the "top" high schools in the district.

AmerLisa

While I think it's fantastic that your girlfriend got to travel and I would agree there is a lot to be learned that way, the average kid probably isn't going to have that advantage. So how do you educate them?

Forcing kids to stay in school sounds and probably is harsh, but what about the kids that aren't made to go to school (parents don't care, etc)? The problem is one rule for all and perhaps it should be more on a case to case basis.

scrubbedexpat099

In Colorado the Unions would hand draw and quarter you for such comments.

scrubbedexpat091

I am and always have been against the one size fits all method of education, it just doesn't work, it assumes all people are equal in learning and abilities.

I think elementary school is fairly okay since it basically just teaches the basics you need in life, reading, basic math, writing etc.

Where I think the biggest failure is at the high school and middle school level where so much emphasis is on pure academics, and plain and simply not everyone including myself excel in academics.

At the middle and high school level there needs to be more options and trades training as well, if someone isn't college bound like I was, what was the point of all the academics focused on preparing one for college when they are not going to go to college but will enter the workforce?

What would be a better option for someone not going to college, leaving high school with no useful real world skill, or having spent that time in high school teaching and having these students learn a trade or other useful skills for the work force?

I am not sure why we settled on this one size fits all, but it doesn't work at all in my opinion.

The aptitude tests my high school had us do every year as part of the standardized testing very clearly showed where my aptitudes were, and it certainly wasn't academics.

I was one of those students who brought the overall score down for the school, not because I lack ability in everything, I just don't have strong academic abilities.

I stayed in high school for 2 reasons.

1. I had nothing better to do, and my parents would have made life hell if I dropped out.

2. I knew I had to have atleast the diploma to get a job as an adult.

I can't honestly say I learned much if anything from grade 9-12.

AmerLisa

Really? Why?

scrubbedexpat099

Because they are heavily invested in the current system

AmerLisa

What current system?

Yorkieabroad

Whilst I agree that some holidays can be educational, I see them as a supplement to the formal classroom instruction, not a replacement, which is why we do them outside term time. The summer vacation is plenty long enough to fit a whole load of learning in! Given the length of the holiday, if you don't keep some sort of brainwork going, they have too much time to wither before the Fall semester starts. Seems to me that a lot of the time folk are playing the "it's educational" card to justify going for the cheaper deal

If parents really think the kids learn more outside the classroom, then instead of just pulling them out for a week or so here and there, why not remove them from the school system and homeschool them, as my friend did that I mentioned earlier. That way they don't cause classroom disruption, extra work for the teachers and the kids, and they are not sending a mixed message about whether rules are to be followed or broken at the whim of the adult.

Later this week I'm going to be working in a rental property replacing the pipe work and waste disposal under a kitchen sink, installing a new light/fan unit in a bathroom, and rehanging a door with a broken hinge. Great learning experience in life skills for my kids, but I'm not about to pull them out of school for the day to come learn with me....

I'd like to homeschool, and take advantage of all the hands on learning opportunities outside the formal classroom, but my problem is that I'm too easily distracted into "fun" educational stuff, and I'm not disciplined enough to teach them to a curriculum that will produce a necessary piece of paper at the end of their school careers.

scrubbedexpat099

Here is an article about the recent elections in Douglas County courtesy of the Daily Kos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/1...OU-Should-Care

scrubbedexpat091

I think all schools should dump the long summer vacation like many schools have already, no reason for kids to have the entire summer off anymore.

I like how my sisters kids school operates, they still get the same amount of days off per year, but its spread out over a year, and they still get part of the summer off, end of June to early/mid August, but also get smaller breaks during the school year as well.

Seems to work, and the kids have never experienced having an entire summer off, so to them its normal since its all they have known.

Yorkieabroad

Absolutely...11 or 12 weeks off in the summer is ridiculous. I think about the only people who seem to support it are the ones running summer camps!

When we were away a couple of years ago we came across some folk who had year round school and it sounded great. Can't remember the precise mechanics, but it was something like 4 weeks on, 1 week off, 6 weeks on, 2 weeks off or something like that right .... a series of short and long breaks spread right through the year. It has to be better all round, although I suspect someone will come up and say it's too expensive round here as it means blasting the school a/c right thru summer....

AmerLisa

I agree!

When my older daughter went to school in California, the district had several elementary schools that were overcrowded. To solve the situation they didn't bring in scores of trailers to throw on the back fields, they went to a year round calendar. There were different tracks: A - D. Each track had three (basically) months off in the year. My daughter's track, had March, August and November (they all shared the common holidays, Christmas, Easter, etc.) We enjoyed having the freedom of being off in different times of the year.

Bob

Speaking of school holidays...I just realised we missed a massive summer camp fair that's held in Boston, was on last week.

It has seemingly hundreds of camps represented...not to bothered about the camps, but there's usually a lot of cool free stuff for the kids to do, shows to see and what not.

Oh well....still can't believe how expensive most of these camps are. Scarily, the ballet dance camp that's in our town, one week costs more than the whole summer at the place near where the in-laws live which is very depressing, especially as that's most of the day, all week v just a couple hours down our way.

Anian

My daughter handed me a thing for a summer camping trip. $250 for three days! It's camping, not yachting!

steveq

The camp I worked at when I was a student charges $10,000 for 6 weeks. They have 340 campers - and 250 staff.