--Jen
My solution, in its entirety, but for a few typos corrected and a few names removed. It was originally posted March 9, 2011 on another blog:
A friend of mine had a simple status on Facebook this morning: "When did teachers become the bad guys?" It led to a small discussion, part of which I joined. As an afterthought, I added that if anyone cared, I had a solution. Another friend of mine said she'd be curious to hear it. What? You, too? Great, because here is what I wrote:
Compulsory
education only until 8th grade. After 8th grade, everyone can try high
school, but you don't have to. If you choose to stay, you are choosing and committing
to NOT be a disciplinary problem. If you can't handle that, you are no
longer invited. (Now, I don't mean we won't have fights or
what-have-you. But we will not have chronic issues, because those
children will be asked to leave.) In my utopian system, there will be
alternative schools available.
Likewise,
if you are in high school and want to drop out, by all means, drop out.
The catch is, you can't go on welfare; you have to get a job. If, after
twelve consecutive months, you decide you really do want an education,
then you can come back. Except we'll have "night school" for you. After
one school year there, you either graduate, or you are eligible to move
back to regular day school. Or, you can choose to stay. The education is
the same, but there are no extra-curriculars, etc. It is 100%
academics-focused. Some kids just DO better in alternative settings, and
this will be their chance. The difference between night school and day
school is not so much punitive (although you DO have to earn the right
back into day school) as it is that one setting is no-frills and the
other has all the traditional accoutrements of high school.
In my
system, a child can "age out" of eighth grade. You get two tries. After
that, you must leave for twelve months. Last year, I taught eighth grade
math. I had a student who was SEVENTEEN. He was in his third round of
8th grade -- and he was failing!! C'mon now. Really? What kind of
influence do you think HE had on his classmates? Even better, what kind
of influence do you think he had on the 6th graders at that school?
Unacceptable. As a PARENT, I would not want this "adult" around my
6th-grade child; but the law said we had to let him. Ridiculous. And you
can only begin to imagine, I'm sure, how some of the girls thought he
hung the moon. Let's just say it was a terrible situation and if I had a
sixth-grade daughter, I would have been beside myself with the fact
that the "system" allowed this phenomenon. (For reference, sixth graders are typically eleven and are coming right out of elementary school. This kid was a seventeen and in many ways thought he was a man.)
In "The
World According to Jen," we will also stop trying to push down classes
like algebra into seventh and sixth grade. We will bring back recess
and gym, and let kids be kids. Then, when physiology and science and age
together indicate that the kids are ready for abstract reasoning (right
around 9th grade), we will teach more abstract stuff ... and we will
STOP trying to cover everything a mile wide; instead we'll try to make
sure that what we do teach, the kids actually learn. There's no race to
finish the textbook, and no constant interruptions for standardized
testing. I want our students to LEARN, not to learn how to bubble. Our
local schools here lose TWENTY DAYS a year to standardized testing in
various forms. Um, did anyone count?! That's an entire school month
spent on testing! Unacceptable. Won't happen in Jen's Utopian World.
Also, I
think we need to go back to what we all had in school -- at least my high school -- where we all had both academics and trades available to us.
There shouldn't be this distinction of vocational schools (or trades in general) as being somehow
lesser than a "traditional" education. Trades are invaluable, and our
society has made them second-class. Nope. EVERYONE should have to take
some trade class, just like we all had to take tech-ed; I wish it had
continued into a high school requirement!
Now, do I pretend to have all the answers? No, and this system of mine surely has issues. I haven't even gotten to special ed!
BUT --
this system eliminates chronic discipline problems, and I believe with
all my heart that the root of every problem in our schools today starts
with discipline. I don't care what anyone's home life is, or what
disadvantages they have, etc., etc. If they are chronically disruptive
and we allow it to continue, we ruin everything for everyone. Our
schools today pander to the lowest-common-denominator. Our success rate
is abysmal because we leave behind the very kids who are capable and
want to be successful. We throw them away to try -- often in vain -- to
reach the bottom kids. I have asked this over and over and over again:
WHY? (I am not talking about special ed kids here. I am talking about
kids who don't WANT to do; not kids who aren't ABLE to do.)
Bet you're sorry you asked now, huh?! ;)
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