Topic: What subject should K-12 schools focus on most?
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Post
Steve Myers Site Admin
Swiped from MLive , the link is art the bottom
Take the new Taking Notes Poll
Posted by Chad Livengood December 09, 2007 14:21PM
Categories: Education issues & trends, Polls
This certainly won't be scientific, but I am going to start launching weekly polls about local, state and national education issues.
We'll kick off the first Taking Notes Poll with a pretty basic question.
Run your mouse over the boxes next the poll answers.
Every subject is based on reading. Even Math meap questions are by large percent story problems in which the student has to read to understand what to add or subtract etc.
When great grades of improvements are made in say the science area, focuses are made in the low areas like soc. studies. The next year Soc. Studies grade improve and Science grades are low.
Teaching to the test. I would rather teachers have control of what is taught in their own classrooms. They can see which individual class needs focus in which areas.
Peace,
RAP
_________________ The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
John F. Kennedy, speech at Vanderbilt University, May 18, 1963
Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:39 pm
Deena F L I N T O I D
MEAP and the NCLB Act virtually eliminated local curriculum decisions.
Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:20 am
Dave Starr F L I N T O I D
Teaching to the test is the worst thing that's happened. Administrators are obsessed with the test results, to the detriment of the kids' education.
_________________ I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos.
Mon Dec 10, 2007 9:14 am
Deena F L I N T O I D
Let me ask you Dave, if your job depended upon one stupid test, wouldn't you emphasize that test over everything else?
I resent the amount of time spent on testing and I also resent linking education to the results of any test. Should my daughter have a creative science teacher who chose to emphasize an civil engineering unit over the astronomy unit required in 5th grade, would that mean that my daughter was suddenly "less educated" than the class that did the tested material? Not a chance.
Somewhere we lost the idea that education should teach kids to LEARN instead of teaching them to regurgitate tested materials.
Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:14 pm
Dave Starr F L I N T O I D
agreed, 100%.
_________________ I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos.
Tue Dec 11, 2007 2:10 pm
Tegan F L I N T O I D
where is history?
actually I agree that reading should be focused on the most because if you can't read, how do you learn about all the other subjects?
Tue Dec 11, 2007 5:06 pm
00SL2 F L I N T O I D
quote:Tegan schreef:
actually I agree that reading should be focused on the most because if you can't read, how do you learn about all the other subjects?
Reading begins with phonics which to my understanding hasn't been taught in public schools for many, many years. One needs to be able to communicate, to speak, to listen, to understand what is being taught, to learn! It is frustrating when I cannot understand the speech of an adult at the other end of the telephone or in a business environment who is supposedly speaking English, not a foreign language.
Tue Dec 11, 2007 8:11 pm
FlintConservative F L I N T O I D
Without the reading, everything else is pretty impossible to learn, but I have to say that we do an absolutely horrible job of teaching everyday life skills. How to balance a checkbook. How credit scoring works. How to shop for a mortgage. How to budget ordinary household expenses. Perhaps even how to live within our means?
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