Leave it up to locals. If every curriculum is different that is only a strength.
What makes you believe that to be a strength? Having different forms of education just based on local areas could result in misinformation and division in any form of work if they make it that far without a standard to live up to. Do you think these things would disappear, not occur, or do you have a solution?
It supports freedom of choice. Education options are offered via format in all states due to COVID-19 but parents of young students want different things for their kids. As a parent (and teacher for the record) I liked having an option for my child for preschool. It was nice comparing the open classroom concept to regular preschool, and even looked into Catholic versus Protestant preschools. We ended up going with a Protestant preschool (best around regarding feedback from other parents), Catholic kindergarten (best option locally at the time academically), and then the best public school that was out-of-district but worth the drive.
In talking with many parents, they had different reasons for selecting different formats as well. The open concept schools (imo) are better suited for kids with a lot of self-confidence, and I can guarantee that many other parents should disagree. We all have different perceptions about what looks like the best fit for our kiddos, and that's something that will be greatly missed if the US ever does move toward some across-the-board uniform modeling concept. I shudder just thinking of that actually.
As a student (not a parent or teacher) I see things differently but that being said you have very valid points. Things I don't have much experience with and you perspective is greatly appreciated and will be considered in any further discussion. Thank you I appreciate that.
Sorry for the short diversion here. Had to support my assertions.. So WHEN are you gonna commit to offering YOUR opinions on all these questions?? I realize you're a Socratic method fan, but feel like maybe you should stake out some ground here.. LOL... You'll get flamed whether you commit to a personal opinion or not at USMB -- might as well tell us what YOU think...
In my personal opinion and experience (Indiana and Oklahoma) I believe education has fallen short in many different areas. In English courses, I have been told you learn to write an essay but as someone who wrote before then, I couldn't understand why I took 3 classes telling me the same thing and another on forming a paper on my analysis. I always saw the repetitive nature to be a waste of time. (those were all AP) English is very important but the repetitive nature is not needed. Students in 8th grade and freshman year have the ability to understand how to write. We were introduced to a 5 paragraph format which I openly disregarded because I knew beforehand you write with points and evidence to fit a solution to a question. It was not as ruler smacking and teachers used to tell kids to get them worried. I think 8-12 in terms of writing has to be progressed. teaching the basics and then the next 4 years using them completely not a watered-down version. English needs to be more about understanding complex works and effectively writing papers on opinion and analysis. Most students in my experience as a first-year couldn't do this effectively and it was quite sad.
I took all of the advanced history courses I could and that is where I mainly learned how to write comprehensively and analyze properly. I think history is one of the most important classes to take and not in the cases I saw which was more we have a test and you need to be able to bs a paper but that it should be writings, lectures, and discussions. A lot of the instruction was about memorizing dates and trying to use certain things in rhetoric. Personally, I found history to be beautiful in a way. When using it in papers or discussions it wasn't as cold as the teachers let on. When in a discussion it inspired reference which would lead down a segment on interpretation. I think 8-12 history should not be repetitive either. There are classes that were used as (what I call) a herded class. It's where they sent students to waste time. I think because the poor administrative usage of those courses caused pupils to be dull. I know this because talking to some people who went through those courses as they were instructed could open their mouth and make you want to slit your wrists. History as a goal should not just be how to write a paper but how to take a source of historical value and write about it alongside research. This should be expected and students should be doing this without refresher classes in semester 1 of college.
Science class would be seemingly difficult due to my complications in mathematics but I grasped the theories quite well and started exploring them on my own. When I had discovered the things I wasn't being taught I was more offended than anything. My school refused to promote physics and did not open the idea until my junior year. I believe science holds priorities over other subjects. Our school system has used these classes to create little workers to join the force and follow the instruction to the letter to make some money and live pretty okay. This is shown very much in the classroom. Bio was drawing pictures every day, physical science was math but with an application. Science should not have to pick up after other courses but they do. I have a lot of respect for them because for that reason I cannot imagine how difficult that is. Personally, I believe that the United States as a whole needs to lean away from this industrialized worker attitude and move more to promote science in schools so that students do research in college. Not just so they can learn about science in college but so they have to tools to freshman year start in university research.
Math is a very logical, "to the point area", or so I thought. When you study basics in mathematics it should be about effectively finding a solution but it has in my experience transitioned to learn every different way possible memorize the formulas and use them for these problems. Einstein said, “
Never memorize
something that you can look up.” and that makes sense to me. In my experience, we waste so much time on memorization. In Japan, they have a method of multiplication that I never knew existed when I was very young but learning it in that way would have been amazing. Instead, I was met with memorization of this, that, and the other which is the biggest problem in my beginning. Mathematics should be taught as a subject like any other, not a script to be memorized. I wish and want mathematics one day to be second nature to as many students as possible. I hope math students can go into college and start experimenting with spherical geometry and the usage of the tesseract in theories. Math is breathtaking I just wish I was better at understanding it.
In terms of education on the national level. I want the United States to have a united curriculum that is advanced to the degrees I specified earlier. I understand the constitutional issues that are seen but I am not saying states cannot have direct control and townships shall disintegrate. If we need to test it needs to be over the same information for us to compare. If we want to be more successful as a nation we need to take steps even the founders did not foresee. I do not believe the federal government needs to control everything but we need to advance the information given to students and why we give it to them or else we will fall further from where we are now. I understand there is a lot of fear associated with nationalization but the same way we secure our interests locally is how we do it nationally. States, of course, will always have a say but we as a nation cannot leave our system fractured while we try running sooner or later we will never even walk. If the states, teachers, scientists, feds, and philosophers of our time could get together and try to create a system that operates efficiently to progress our society with more of what I previously stated I believe the U.S.A will have another Freeman Dyson and Oliver Sacks.
I believe extracurriculars are very important. Offering additional education by choice helps students get through school. I did several political clubs, mock trials, robotics, theatre, debate, and National Forensics. These are great ways for students to get involved. I also like internships. I ran out of advanced courses to take my senior year so the school tested a program on me and several others in a similar predicament to give people experience in different fields. In my time I worked with the city government and a private legal office. In that time I learned a great deal about local government. I learned specifically how corrupt mine was. I saw a private company control taxes and water for businesses. Nevertheless, I learned a great deal and believe every school should have similar options. It was after the success of this test that I learned they were going to force students from freshman to senior year to do an internship in businesses around our city in order to choose a job. To get them ready for the workforce. It as at this I started having a problem. It was giving a kid 3 trees to sit under in the Garden of Eden and not telling him where the is.
These are my stances I hope it satisfied any curiosities. If you have any inquiries please ask away.