People who actually want their children to get an education.
while I DO believe that, I really said it just to yank your chain ... a little fun here.
Fine, then let me rephrase the question.
Hellgate, defend the virtues of homeschooling in the very best way: by demonstrating that, having been homeschooled, you can respond intelligibly to the musical questions I asked you above.
Hellgate, defend the virtues of homeschooling in the very best way: by demonstrating that, having been homeschooled, you can respond intelligibly to the musical questions I asked you above.
I've sent you a PM answering all your questions. Get back to me.
I started playing piano when I was 3, when I began playing pieces by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Purcell on the piano by ear. I'll be uploading videos of that shortly. I began composing at age 7, and had written a few orchestral pieces including 2 classical style symphonies, by age 12. I now do alot of improvising on the piano. I can go on for hours in a new-age/classical style that people have universally seemed to love. I can also of course write out full scores of orchestral pieces, or record new multi-layer music directly on the computer as improvisation or semi-improvisation (improvisation based on a theme I composed).
Epic thread. Infinite angst of the first post, fine, multi-page replies,
Public school as I experienced it was not a nazi factory, but for me it certainly was a horrible waste of time and demotivating. A private primary school could have taught the useful stuff in third of the time, without turning so many students against education in general. They handed me top grades for doing nothing. Later in a private high school we went into university level courses, did part-time programming work for the whole duration of the school and still finished in about 60% of the average time the public high schools take.
I used to be just as jaded about high school or "Hell Screw-all" as I called it...but a few years removed and a college degree under my belt, I have a different take: there really is no way for an operation the size and scope of the moddern school to run smoothly without a degree of standards and conformity.you can not stop 100 kids from continuing just because one does not follow the concept...
The real deficiencies in public schools are three fold:
1: not enough attention being paid to the kids who have a slight mis-understanding, a slight mis understanding of a basic consept can be corrected in a few minutes if caught early enough, but it usually isnt caught till a few years on when the concepts build a lopsided structure on the crooked foundation. This leads to students getting low scores, and even dropping out, and also leads into my second point:
2: just as society as a whole, schools do not have a strong enough focus on mental health... I do not mean students in straight jackets here, I mean in stead of trying to band-aid problems like gangs, bullying, and even rudeness in class, the only tools in the arsonal are detention, suspension, expulsion and "special schools" never once did I hear of or witness a bully get counceling for underlying fear and anger issues, a lot of the time fear is what makes bullys bully, and everyone else lives in fear of them:
3: too god damnd much artificial pressure: standardized tests...odd state requirements written by lobbiests for either tree hugging hippies or bible thumpers and not educators, and just the general social stress of high school which is magnified because home is nolonger a safe haven, where the cat fights stop in the school yard they pick back up on myspace, IM SMS etc... in that respect kids today have it even worse than wwe did in 2000-2004
High school is a cluster fuck of hormones with no one to talk to outside of parents (which is awkward for all, and illadvisable or impossible for far too many)
I believe that a focus on mental health durring puberty would revolutionize high school.
DISCLAIMER I AM JUST A COMPUTER NERD, these were my observations and reflecions upon my sentence in High school...
I used to be just as jaded about high school or "Hell Screw-all" as I called it...but a few years removed and a college degree under my belt, I have a different take: there really is no way for an operation the size and scope of the moddern school to run smoothly without a degree of standards and conformity.you can not stop 100 kids from continuing just because one does not follow the concept...
The real deficiencies in public schools are three fold:
1: not enough attention being paid to the kids who have a slight mis-understanding, a slight mis understanding of a basic consept can be corrected in a few minutes if caught early enough, but it usually isnt caught till a few years on when the concepts build a lopsided structure on the crooked foundation. This leads to students getting low scores, and even dropping out, and also leads into my second point:
Early intervention is HUGE where I work. So I disagree with that. EVERY damn kid as an IEP or 504 plan or some other damn thing. It's not about individual attention....it's about kids not being taught that THEY must adapt to the SYSTEM...not the other way around. That's how life works. It's just not how Public Ed works.
Quote:
2: just as society as a whole, schools do not have a strong enough focus on mental health... I do not mean students in straight jackets here, I mean in stead of trying to band-aid problems like gangs, bullying, and even rudeness in class, the only tools in the arsonal are detention, suspension, expulsion and "special schools" never once did I hear of or witness a bully get counceling for underlying fear and anger issues, a lot of the time fear is what makes bullys bully, and everyone else lives in fear of them:
Anti-bullying programs and self-esteem/emotional health are also huge where I work. There are entire anti-bullying systems/curriculums in place, as well as a full time guidance counselor in each elem. school. Many schools are like this. So I disagree.
Quote:
3: too god damnd much artificial pressure: standardized tests...odd state requirements written by lobbiests for either tree hugging hippies or bible thumpers and not educators, and just the general social stress of high school which is magnified because home is nolonger a safe haven, where the cat fights stop in the school yard they pick back up on myspace, IM SMS etc... in that respect kids today have it even worse than wwe did in 2000-2004
I suppose I can't disagree with all of that, though the tests ARE written by educators and never by bible thumpers. I'm just saying.
Quote:
High school is a cluster fuck of hormones with no one to talk to outside of parents (which is awkward for all, and illadvisable or impossible for far too many)
I don't know why you think that. Maybe there is something you'd like to tell us.
Quote:
I believe that a focus on mental health durring puberty would revolutionize high school.
DISCLAIMER I AM JUST A COMPUTER NERD, these were my observations and reflecions upon my sentence in High school...
Gotcha. See my points...I really think you're perceptions are off base. No offense. Just take it from someone that has taught at the elem. and HS level for nine years in two states and three districts. I just haven't seen what you have.....not in rich districts, not in less well off ones.
I don't know why you think that. Maybe there is something you'd like to tell us.
Gotcha. See my points...I really think you're perceptions are off base. No offense. Just take it from someone that has taught at the elem. and HS level for nine years in two states and three districts. I just haven't seen what you have.....not in rich districts, not in less well off ones.
Like I said, I was only one student in one school, in a medium size town, with a wide mix of kids, but being the target of bullies and punks relentlessly probably jades my view of things:
sample 1: kid behind me (who happened to be on the tennise track and some other sports team) wouldn't stop talking during the lecture, I asked him to and he went off, I am talking punching kicking and such...he teacher froze like a dear in headlights...
Example 2: in a typing class I reported a malfunctioning system to a teacher...the system was malfunctioning because someone was running Napster or Kazza or something: I knew a lot about PCs and they knew it and I didn't want to take the blame for it. A kid on the other side of the room called me a "RAT" and took a large nut (roughly the size of a car lugnut) out of his pocket and chucked it at me...direct shoulder hit...the teacher did NOTHING!! I HAD TO LEAVE THE CLASS WHILST THE TEACHER WAS THREATENING ME WITH INSUBORDINATION CHARGES...I didnt feel safe...so I barged into the principals office set the bolt on his desk and said "DEAL WITH THE VIOLENCE PROBLEM" that actually got some results, don't know what happened but the kid apologized a week later and we were pleasant acquaintances the rest of HS...
Sure the kids who tortured me in high school are as far as I know, a lot worse off than me now, but I cant help but wonder if all of those trouble makers could have been turned around into industrious members of society: they were usually pretty smart, they just applied themselves to the wrong things...
Also, the comment about Hippies and bible thumpers, I phrased that wrong: what I meant was that yea, educators write the tests, but they also spend the year teaching you how to pass the test, not how to use and apply the material of the class -- this was a key difference that I loved about college. and as a separate thought, the curriculum in so far as what school kids can and can't read, and what sciences will be taught in what fashion, and even education about how, when, with whom, were etc. they should have sex, appears to me to be WAY too heavily influenced by the fringe groups on the right and left political movements, and not by scientists researchers and educators as it should be.
Like I said, I was only one student in one school, in a medium size town, with a wide mix of kids, but being the target of bullies and punks relentlessly probably jades my view of things:
sample 1: kid behind me (who happened to be on the tennise track and some other sports team) wouldn't stop talking during the lecture, I asked him to and he went off, I am talking punching kicking and such...he teacher froze like a dear in headlights...
Example 2: in a typing class I reported a malfunctioning system to a teacher...the system was malfunctioning because someone was running Napster or Kazza or something: I knew a lot about PCs and they knew it and I didn't want to take the blame for it. A kid on the other side of the room called me a "RAT" and took a large nut (roughly the size of a car lugnut) out of his pocket and chucked it at me...direct shoulder hit...the teacher did NOTHING!! I HAD TO LEAVE THE CLASS WHILST THE TEACHER WAS THREATENING ME WITH INSUBORDINATION CHARGES...I didnt feel safe...so I barged into the principals office set the bolt on his desk and said "DEAL WITH THE VIOLENCE PROBLEM" that actually got some results, don't know what happened but the kid apologized a week later and we were pleasant acquaintances the rest of HS...
Sure the kids who tortured me in high school are as far as I know, a lot worse off than me now, but I cant help but wonder if all of those trouble makers could have been turned around into industrious members of society: they were usually pretty smart, they just applied themselves to the wrong things...
Sorry you were bullied, but I don't think that's the fault of the system. What you have to understand is that the teacher is really powerless because of the way things are with lawsuits, etc. Back in the day, the teacher would smack a kid like that....pick him up by his hair....and then the kid would get in trouble at home. Now the teacher would be fired and charged with child abuse.
Quote:
Also, the comment about Hippies and bible thumpers, I phrased that wrong: what I meant was that yea, educators write the tests, but they also spend the year teaching you how to pass the test, not how to use and apply the material of the class
That's a bit generalized, but it's true to an extent. The reason is they have to, because they are under pressure to get test scores up not just overall, but across all the disaggregate groups (blacks, hispanics, low income, etc). If any ONE of those groups doesn't make the AYP targets (Adequate Yearly Progress), the school goes into the warning/corrective action phase. And the targets get higher every year. It means that even districts with 90% proficiency on their tests sometimes have "failing" schools. So the teachers are kind of in the middle. I agree it's not right.
Quote:
-- this was a key difference that I loved about college. and as a separate thought, the curriculum in so far as what school kids can and can't read, and what sciences will be taught in what fashion, and even education about how, when, with whom, were etc. they should have sex, appears to me to be WAY too heavily influenced by the fringe groups on the right and left political movements, and not by scientists researchers and educators as it should be.
Well, some of that is to be expected because college is not mandatory. It does seem to me that we've gotten far too much into "edubabble, edumacation" concepts though. We have $30 million football stadiums, olympic sized swimming pools, TV studios, Family and Consumer Sciences with fully stocked professional kitchens, etc.
What we need is a system where students get a solid foundation for their first two years in Math, Science, Reading/Writing/Literature, Art and Music, etc. I am very critical of forced physical education in high school because the reason it was put into the curriculum was so we could be More Fit Than The Russians™. In any case, after two years, student should be able to choose a major of sorts: Math and Science, Arts and Humanities or Vocational-Technical.....IF they get the grades in the basics. If not, they get remedial help first.
I really REALLY wanted to respond to your post in the same civilized manner that you responded to mind, but your idea that I might become a school teacher really cracked me up.
I'm heading into the music/film industry as fast as I can. I'm already writing music for an independent film, submitting music to licensing firms, producing my own piano CD's, and editing my first live action short, (that I wrote and directed). I'm planning on making $100,000 a year by the time i'm 25, and $100,000,000 a year by the time i'm 40.
If I become a school teacher, it'll be in a different body, on a different planet, at a different time.
But not this life. Sorry.
Other than that, everything you said had a very valid point, and I admit to the vagueness of many of my statements.
How can you argue that public education is bad if you are a product of it... seeing as you are one of the most awesome people in the world?
But in all seriousness, I don't know how you expect to make it in a cut throat industry like the music/film industry. You are extremely disillusioned. But I must say, you are an excellent argument for your case that public education sucks.
I'm sorry I'm being so spiteful, it's just that your combination of negativity and pomposity is a fairly lethal combination. I leave you some suggested reading: Good to Great.
Most of the problems of public school would be remedied by a significant amount by more segregation. When the school has hundreds of students, why not sort them according to how much they have already mastered and how rapidly and deeply they are able to absorb a given subject, rather than class?
A school succeeds when its students learn as much as they can, whether that is a lot or a little. If the school stops teaching after a student reaches a certain level of knowledge, it fails. If the school teaches only facts and not the significance and relationships of those facts, it fails.
Most of the problems of public school would be remedied by a significant amount by more segregation. When the school has hundreds of students, why not sort them according to how much they have already mastered and how rapidly and deeply they are able to absorb a given subject, rather than class?
A school succeeds when its students learn as much as they can, whether that is a lot or a little. If the school stops teaching after a student reaches a certain level of knowledge, it fails. If the school teaches only facts and not the significance and relationships of those facts, it fails.
Well...they basically do that now. Leveling has been used for years. The criticism is that it creates lower expectations for certain groups.
As for school's "stopping" their teaching when students reach a certain level, I really don't know what that could possibly mean. Students can go pretty much as far as they want...right through AP classes. What is your point?
You know, the last time I was writing in this thread, I was on a computer in the lobby of a community college, taking classes that were really boring and pointless, and being accused of being stupid, retarded, or gay, by fellow classmates. Oddly resembling Einstien's experience in school.
I recently quit going there, because as a homeschooler I was never taught to drastically diminish my life goals in my mind in the name of "being realistic." That's why school was implemented in this country you know. How many of you knew that? It was implemented so that the average American would be content with a very modest life, and not want anything more. The owners of this country don't want too many little people rising up out of the swamp of 9 to 5 jobs and slavery.
But anyways, in the three months since I've quit going to the college, i've been steadily earning more and more money each month, and i'm currently earning an income that will amount to about $15,000 a year. I'm not 18 yet. I've also been lined up to compose the score to a couple films, including a feature length film. My website is up, I got my business card printed, my first debut CD of Solo Piano is going to be released within the next month, and things are gonna take off from here.
I know it's a little early to point fingers at the guys who laughed at me when I declared my goals, but I have no doubt that my career will continue to take off in the manner that it has so far. I set goals, and I will achieve them.
I made that post mostly for the sake of those of you that were envisioning me as some failing lunatic who can't interact with people.
Knowing the truth about who I am, what i'm doing, and how successful I am, is beneficial to those who would have automatically thought the opposite if I had not clarified this, because believing a lie just decreases a persons own awareness and intelligence.
Comments
People who actually want their children to get an education.
Fine, then let me rephrase the question.
Hellgate, defend the virtues of homeschooling in the very best way: by demonstrating that, having been homeschooled, you can respond intelligibly to the musical questions I asked you above.
Fine, then let me rephrase the question.
Hellgate, defend the virtues of homeschooling in the very best way: by demonstrating that, having been homeschooled, you can respond intelligibly to the musical questions I asked you above.
I've sent you a PM answering all your questions. Get back to me.
I started playing piano when I was 3, when I began playing pieces by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Purcell on the piano by ear. I'll be uploading videos of that shortly. I began composing at age 7, and had written a few orchestral pieces including 2 classical style symphonies, by age 12. I now do alot of improvising on the piano. I can go on for hours in a new-age/classical style that people have universally seemed to love. I can also of course write out full scores of orchestral pieces, or record new multi-layer music directly on the computer as improvisation or semi-improvisation (improvisation based on a theme I composed).
Everyone is good at something.
Public school as I experienced it was not a nazi factory, but for me it certainly was a horrible waste of time and demotivating. A private primary school could have taught the useful stuff in third of the time, without turning so many students against education in general. They handed me top grades for doing nothing. Later in a private high school we went into university level courses, did part-time programming work for the whole duration of the school and still finished in about 60% of the average time the public high schools take.
I've sent you a PM answering all your questions. Get back to me.
Thanks, got it! Will get back in extremely near future.
snipe
I used to be just as jaded about high school or "Hell Screw-all" as I called it...but a few years removed and a college degree under my belt, I have a different take: there really is no way for an operation the size and scope of the moddern school to run smoothly without a degree of standards and conformity.you can not stop 100 kids from continuing just because one does not follow the concept...
The real deficiencies in public schools are three fold:
1: not enough attention being paid to the kids who have a slight mis-understanding, a slight mis understanding of a basic consept can be corrected in a few minutes if caught early enough, but it usually isnt caught till a few years on when the concepts build a lopsided structure on the crooked foundation. This leads to students getting low scores, and even dropping out, and also leads into my second point:
2: just as society as a whole, schools do not have a strong enough focus on mental health... I do not mean students in straight jackets here, I mean in stead of trying to band-aid problems like gangs, bullying, and even rudeness in class, the only tools in the arsonal are detention, suspension, expulsion and "special schools" never once did I hear of or witness a bully get counceling for underlying fear and anger issues, a lot of the time fear is what makes bullys bully, and everyone else lives in fear of them:
3: too god damnd much artificial pressure: standardized tests...odd state requirements written by lobbiests for either tree hugging hippies or bible thumpers and not educators, and just the general social stress of high school which is magnified because home is nolonger a safe haven, where the cat fights stop in the school yard they pick back up on myspace, IM SMS etc... in that respect kids today have it even worse than wwe did in 2000-2004
High school is a cluster fuck of hormones with no one to talk to outside of parents (which is awkward for all, and illadvisable or impossible for far too many)
I believe that a focus on mental health durring puberty would revolutionize high school.
DISCLAIMER I AM JUST A COMPUTER NERD, these were my observations and reflecions upon my sentence in High school...
I used to be just as jaded about high school or "Hell Screw-all" as I called it...but a few years removed and a college degree under my belt, I have a different take: there really is no way for an operation the size and scope of the moddern school to run smoothly without a degree of standards and conformity.you can not stop 100 kids from continuing just because one does not follow the concept...
The real deficiencies in public schools are three fold:
1: not enough attention being paid to the kids who have a slight mis-understanding, a slight mis understanding of a basic consept can be corrected in a few minutes if caught early enough, but it usually isnt caught till a few years on when the concepts build a lopsided structure on the crooked foundation. This leads to students getting low scores, and even dropping out, and also leads into my second point:
Early intervention is HUGE where I work. So I disagree with that. EVERY damn kid as an IEP or 504 plan or some other damn thing. It's not about individual attention....it's about kids not being taught that THEY must adapt to the SYSTEM...not the other way around. That's how life works. It's just not how Public Ed works.
2: just as society as a whole, schools do not have a strong enough focus on mental health... I do not mean students in straight jackets here, I mean in stead of trying to band-aid problems like gangs, bullying, and even rudeness in class, the only tools in the arsonal are detention, suspension, expulsion and "special schools" never once did I hear of or witness a bully get counceling for underlying fear and anger issues, a lot of the time fear is what makes bullys bully, and everyone else lives in fear of them:
Anti-bullying programs and self-esteem/emotional health are also huge where I work. There are entire anti-bullying systems/curriculums in place, as well as a full time guidance counselor in each elem. school. Many schools are like this. So I disagree.
3: too god damnd much artificial pressure: standardized tests...odd state requirements written by lobbiests for either tree hugging hippies or bible thumpers and not educators, and just the general social stress of high school which is magnified because home is nolonger a safe haven, where the cat fights stop in the school yard they pick back up on myspace, IM SMS etc... in that respect kids today have it even worse than wwe did in 2000-2004
I suppose I can't disagree with all of that, though the tests ARE written by educators and never by bible thumpers. I'm just saying.
High school is a cluster fuck of hormones with no one to talk to outside of parents (which is awkward for all, and illadvisable or impossible for far too many)
I don't know why you think that. Maybe there is something you'd like to tell us.
I believe that a focus on mental health durring puberty would revolutionize high school.
DISCLAIMER I AM JUST A COMPUTER NERD, these were my observations and reflecions upon my sentence in High school...
Gotcha. See my points...I really think you're perceptions are off base. No offense. Just take it from someone that has taught at the elem. and HS level for nine years in two states and three districts. I just haven't seen what you have.....not in rich districts, not in less well off ones.
I don't know why you think that. Maybe there is something you'd like to tell us.
Gotcha. See my points...I really think you're perceptions are off base. No offense. Just take it from someone that has taught at the elem. and HS level for nine years in two states and three districts. I just haven't seen what you have.....not in rich districts, not in less well off ones.
Like I said, I was only one student in one school, in a medium size town, with a wide mix of kids, but being the target of bullies and punks relentlessly probably jades my view of things:
sample 1: kid behind me (who happened to be on the tennise track and some other sports team) wouldn't stop talking during the lecture, I asked him to and he went off, I am talking punching kicking and such...he teacher froze like a dear in headlights...
Example 2: in a typing class I reported a malfunctioning system to a teacher...the system was malfunctioning because someone was running Napster or Kazza or something: I knew a lot about PCs and they knew it and I didn't want to take the blame for it. A kid on the other side of the room called me a "RAT" and took a large nut (roughly the size of a car lugnut) out of his pocket and chucked it at me...direct shoulder hit...the teacher did NOTHING!! I HAD TO LEAVE THE CLASS WHILST THE TEACHER WAS THREATENING ME WITH INSUBORDINATION CHARGES...I didnt feel safe...so I barged into the principals office set the bolt on his desk and said "DEAL WITH THE VIOLENCE PROBLEM" that actually got some results, don't know what happened but the kid apologized a week later and we were pleasant acquaintances the rest of HS...
Sure the kids who tortured me in high school are as far as I know, a lot worse off than me now, but I cant help but wonder if all of those trouble makers could have been turned around into industrious members of society: they were usually pretty smart, they just applied themselves to the wrong things...
Also, the comment about Hippies and bible thumpers, I phrased that wrong: what I meant was that yea, educators write the tests, but they also spend the year teaching you how to pass the test, not how to use and apply the material of the class -- this was a key difference that I loved about college. and as a separate thought, the curriculum in so far as what school kids can and can't read, and what sciences will be taught in what fashion, and even education about how, when, with whom, were etc. they should have sex, appears to me to be WAY too heavily influenced by the fringe groups on the right and left political movements, and not by scientists researchers and educators as it should be.
Like I said, I was only one student in one school, in a medium size town, with a wide mix of kids, but being the target of bullies and punks relentlessly probably jades my view of things:
sample 1: kid behind me (who happened to be on the tennise track and some other sports team) wouldn't stop talking during the lecture, I asked him to and he went off, I am talking punching kicking and such...he teacher froze like a dear in headlights...
Example 2: in a typing class I reported a malfunctioning system to a teacher...the system was malfunctioning because someone was running Napster or Kazza or something: I knew a lot about PCs and they knew it and I didn't want to take the blame for it. A kid on the other side of the room called me a "RAT" and took a large nut (roughly the size of a car lugnut) out of his pocket and chucked it at me...direct shoulder hit...the teacher did NOTHING!! I HAD TO LEAVE THE CLASS WHILST THE TEACHER WAS THREATENING ME WITH INSUBORDINATION CHARGES...I didnt feel safe...so I barged into the principals office set the bolt on his desk and said "DEAL WITH THE VIOLENCE PROBLEM" that actually got some results, don't know what happened but the kid apologized a week later and we were pleasant acquaintances the rest of HS...
Sure the kids who tortured me in high school are as far as I know, a lot worse off than me now, but I cant help but wonder if all of those trouble makers could have been turned around into industrious members of society: they were usually pretty smart, they just applied themselves to the wrong things...
Sorry you were bullied, but I don't think that's the fault of the system. What you have to understand is that the teacher is really powerless because of the way things are with lawsuits, etc. Back in the day, the teacher would smack a kid like that....pick him up by his hair....and then the kid would get in trouble at home. Now the teacher would be fired and charged with child abuse.
Also, the comment about Hippies and bible thumpers, I phrased that wrong: what I meant was that yea, educators write the tests, but they also spend the year teaching you how to pass the test, not how to use and apply the material of the class
That's a bit generalized, but it's true to an extent. The reason is they have to, because they are under pressure to get test scores up not just overall, but across all the disaggregate groups (blacks, hispanics, low income, etc). If any ONE of those groups doesn't make the AYP targets (Adequate Yearly Progress), the school goes into the warning/corrective action phase. And the targets get higher every year. It means that even districts with 90% proficiency on their tests sometimes have "failing" schools. So the teachers are kind of in the middle. I agree it's not right.
-- this was a key difference that I loved about college. and as a separate thought, the curriculum in so far as what school kids can and can't read, and what sciences will be taught in what fashion, and even education about how, when, with whom, were etc. they should have sex, appears to me to be WAY too heavily influenced by the fringe groups on the right and left political movements, and not by scientists researchers and educators as it should be.
Well, some of that is to be expected because college is not mandatory. It does seem to me that we've gotten far too much into "edubabble, edumacation" concepts though. We have $30 million football stadiums, olympic sized swimming pools, TV studios, Family and Consumer Sciences with fully stocked professional kitchens, etc.
What we need is a system where students get a solid foundation for their first two years in Math, Science, Reading/Writing/Literature, Art and Music, etc. I am very critical of forced physical education in high school because the reason it was put into the curriculum was so we could be More Fit Than The Russians™. In any case, after two years, student should be able to choose a major of sorts: Math and Science, Arts and Humanities or Vocational-Technical.....IF they get the grades in the basics. If not, they get remedial help first.
I really REALLY wanted to respond to your post in the same civilized manner that you responded to mind, but your idea that I might become a school teacher really cracked me up.
I'm heading into the music/film industry as fast as I can. I'm already writing music for an independent film, submitting music to licensing firms, producing my own piano CD's, and editing my first live action short, (that I wrote and directed). I'm planning on making $100,000 a year by the time i'm 25, and $100,000,000 a year by the time i'm 40.
If I become a school teacher, it'll be in a different body, on a different planet, at a different time.
But not this life. Sorry.
Other than that, everything you said had a very valid point, and I admit to the vagueness of many of my statements.
How can you argue that public education is bad if you are a product of it... seeing as you are one of the most awesome people in the world?
But in all seriousness, I don't know how you expect to make it in a cut throat industry like the music/film industry. You are extremely disillusioned. But I must say, you are an excellent argument for your case that public education sucks.
I'm sorry I'm being so spiteful, it's just that your combination of negativity and pomposity is a fairly lethal combination. I leave you some suggested reading: Good to Great.
A school succeeds when its students learn as much as they can, whether that is a lot or a little. If the school stops teaching after a student reaches a certain level of knowledge, it fails. If the school teaches only facts and not the significance and relationships of those facts, it fails.
Most of the problems of public school would be remedied by a significant amount by more segregation. When the school has hundreds of students, why not sort them according to how much they have already mastered and how rapidly and deeply they are able to absorb a given subject, rather than class?
A school succeeds when its students learn as much as they can, whether that is a lot or a little. If the school stops teaching after a student reaches a certain level of knowledge, it fails. If the school teaches only facts and not the significance and relationships of those facts, it fails.
Well...they basically do that now. Leveling has been used for years. The criticism is that it creates lower expectations for certain groups.
As for school's "stopping" their teaching when students reach a certain level, I really don't know what that could possibly mean. Students can go pretty much as far as they want...right through AP classes. What is your point?
I was homeschooled my whole life
I'm planning on making $100,000 a year by the time i'm 25, and $100,000,000 a year by the time i'm 40.
This right here is an argument for public schools.
You know, the last time I was writing in this thread, I was on a computer in the lobby of a community college, taking classes that were really boring and pointless, and being accused of being stupid, retarded, or gay, by fellow classmates. Oddly resembling Einstien's experience in school.
I recently quit going there, because as a homeschooler I was never taught to drastically diminish my life goals in my mind in the name of "being realistic." That's why school was implemented in this country you know. How many of you knew that? It was implemented so that the average American would be content with a very modest life, and not want anything more. The owners of this country don't want too many little people rising up out of the swamp of 9 to 5 jobs and slavery.
But anyways, in the three months since I've quit going to the college, i've been steadily earning more and more money each month, and i'm currently earning an income that will amount to about $15,000 a year. I'm not 18 yet. I've also been lined up to compose the score to a couple films, including a feature length film. My website is up, I got my business card printed, my first debut CD of Solo Piano is going to be released within the next month, and things are gonna take off from here.
I know it's a little early to point fingers at the guys who laughed at me when I declared my goals, but I have no doubt that my career will continue to take off in the manner that it has so far. I set goals, and I will achieve them.
I made that post mostly for the sake of those of you that were envisioning me as some failing lunatic who can't interact with people.
Knowing the truth about who I am, what i'm doing, and how successful I am, is beneficial to those who would have automatically thought the opposite if I had not clarified this, because believing a lie just decreases a persons own awareness and intelligence.