What do you think we should do to improve learning in our schools?

The first thing that needs to happen is we stop granfathering old teachers into new innovative programs. Right now, whenever most schools try to change anything, teachers hired or got their license before the changes are not required to step up to the new pace. This causes a whole bunch of problems for administrators and new teachers trying to change anything.

I think the administrative system needs to be gutted and re-thought. We are still under the late 19th century factory model of schools. For the most part, it’s the principal over all of the teachers (with the exception of a few department heads) and that’s not enough support of supervision, IMO. Teachers are left on their own. That’s fine for an awesome teacher but some that are struggling are left to rot on the vine until they get fired at the end of the year. The kids suffer and the school suffers from this. There needs to be a more supportive structure so more teachers can be excellent.

I’m not sure how new schools should look, but this warehouse factory thing needs to end. Sometimes I think we need a great purge and just burn all the schools down and start over. I’m only kidding—somewhat.

I have several friends who are educated and enthusiastic about teaching children that can’t find jobs. I think @keobooks is correct.

There isn’t one answer. Neither are there two or three answers. The first thing I’d like to say though is there isn’t a problem in every school system in America.

One of the things I’ve heard teachers complain about though is teaching to the tests. That is one of the major faults in our system right now. That is the dominate culture, as Mr. Robinson said, in our system now. It isn’t working.

Have home-schooling by telepresence, and turn the extra space into homeless shelters

I can only speak about the English school system, or rather, the school that my son attends. And even then it’s difficult to know what really goes on in school, because we cannot literally sit there and watch them all day. I do however, know that there could be more active learning especially for boys (but not excluding girls here!) and more outdoor schooling. At best, you can get free flow to an outside area but I know that doesn’t happen in my son’s school and rarely in others after reception class.

I also think there is a major problem within the relationships between teachers and parents. I would guess that you get parents who are just glad to drop their kids off at the door and parents in the opposite extreme who are tainted as ‘pushy’, overly intrusive and demanding, ”...and for goodness sake can they just not leave schooling to the teachers???!!!”. I would hope I lie somewhere in-between; I don’t profess to know a lot about teaching the curriculum, but I know a lot about teaching my child and what gets him motivated. He would benefit from some more creative learning, but this, in school, is not tailored to his strengths.

I have seen the above mentioned talk a few times, shared it and greatly endorse his views. My sister runs a nursery though and she finds it difficult even to get the parents’ backing for this kind of education. Parents frequently just want their children to be able to add up and write their name…at 3 years old forget about activating their imaginations! And I’ve frequently heard parents moan about their children coming home covered in paint, or wet through, or moaning about having to provide a change of clothes. An attitude change might not go amiss. And that goes for the education ministers, local councils, headteachers, teachers, governors and parents.

We are ultimately all responsible. Start at home and spread the word and maybe we’ll meet in the middle some time?

It was a good philosophical talk but not much to go on. He seems to be a great believer in change but it is change that got us where we are. Something “changed in the 70s”: that brought a screaching halt to our growth of HS graduations. We dropped from a world leader to the back of the pack in education. I’m not sure that nationalizing the education system has helped us much. The department of education, No Child Left behind, Race to the top, all seem to be dismal failures. Maybe if we get Washington and it bureaucratic nightmare, out of the way, we can resume growth.

It does seem a dismal failure, @Jaxk. Another example of how throwing money at a problem doesn’t correct the problem.

Sorry I haven’t read the links or the posts yet but I was thinking about this the other day.

According to a book I was reading there are four types of memory: sensory memories, and muscle memories, emotional memories and can’t remember the other one.. Lol.

The most inefficient way to teach is repetitive teaching but since there are little labs or very little emotion and discovery transmitted from the majority of the teachers. The only way to retain memory is repeat it.

Also I think the gap in my education or the biggest gap. Was learning how to think question discover and learn how to argue debate and think logically. That is the tool that is necessary to expand your mind beyond the realm of inefficient, questionable and overviews of pop quizzes and cultural data.

Will get back to read the comments later.

@rosehips I seemed to question like that naturally from an early age, and I thought I was peculiar…I found my home in philosophy and that taught me that I wasn’t so peculiar after all :-) Philosophy is great for kids and fortunately it’s being taken up a little now too in the UK

All elementary schools should be set up like the Discovery museums around the country, only have a different room for each subject. Children love to learn, but not sit in rows of desks.

Every room in Middle School and High School should be set up with computers and desks for every student. Give them a list of what they are to know by the end of the term and let them go.

I know see my answer was beyond the parameters of the question. My apologies.

@nebule Yes but it wasn’t encouraged or built upon. Logic and Critical Thinking were something that existed but was not taught or shown.

Thanks for providing the link. It is a positive start.

Thanks to all who answered. I don’t know what the right answer is, but it seems to me that we should learn from those who are doing really well. We’re spending so much and getting so little. Let’s look at the nations that are spending half as much per capita and cleaning our clocks. How do they do it? Is their system national, state-level, or locally directed? In a day when standardized tests do matter, how do they avoid just teaching to the test? I don’t favor change just for the sake of change, but when something isn’t working, I do favor trying something else.

For math, always start with a real world example.

Let’s say you want to introduce the concept of exponentiation and the concept of the logarithm of a number. Here’s an example I love:

Suppose you got a piece of paper about a tenth of a millimeter thick. Now think of folding it 120 times. It gets smaller but thicker. How tall will it be? Like a house? Like a skyscraper? Like from here to the moon? More? Wow.

How big is the universe in millimeters? How does this compare with the thickness folded piece of paper?

I used this example several times in real life. At the age of 12, most kids are fascinated by it. So I get them to think, hey, math can be fun.

@mattbrowne Great answer. At 12, that would have fascinated me. Still does, for that matter.

@ETpro – The folded paper by the way is 100.000 times larger than the universe. You need the formula log(x^y) = y*log(x) to find that out.

Unfortunately, in many schools teachers start with the formula. Not with a real life example. Students see yet another new formula, and think, gee, Paris Hilton’s new dress is so cool.

@mattbrowne I think that depends on how you fold the paper. If you fold it in Japanese fan fashion, then it is 120×1/10 mm thick, or 12 millimeters. I certainly hope students are able to point this out.

@ETpro – Good point. The way I did it was showing the kids how to fold the first 3–4 times. But as a text-based exercise the folding method needs to be clear.