Do you believe it would be possible to create a school children want to attend?

Well, I loved school. I loved everything about it. I loved learning and taking tests and doing projects. Didn’t care for some of my teachers but I loved school.

Well, I guess I’m not the right person to answer this question.

I loved going to school.*
My kids love going to school.

Oddly enough, my dad used this as a way to punish me. If he wasn’t happy with me, he threatened to not take me to school. Strange parenting. It’s a wonder I got into a good university.

*Up until part way through high school when we moved. And I discovered what it was like to go to crappy schools.

My kids love school.

Especially sciene, but also the overall experience.

@Dutchess_III I think you’re qualified to answer. If you loved going to school, it means that the school(s) proposed in the question already exists. :)

Put more educational video games. Get rid of bells and buzzers. Pay me for my troubles.

But I know of a lot of people who went to the same school I went to, and they hated it @fluthernutter. They complained about the teacher, they complained about the projects, they complained if they had to read. So much of it depends on the individual kids.

@Dutchess_III Good point.

This is definitely worth thinking about. I don’t think most children want to sit in a chair for six hours a day listening to an older person speak to them. I also think the traditionally punitive atmosphere of schools has got to go. I read an article about how a struggling school succeeded when the new head of the school changed the environment to positive enforcement instead of demerits and detention. I wish I had the link.

Why is it when I look back on my school years, sitting at the desk is NOT the first thing that comes to mind? It isn’t a negative memory, either.

^^Possible because it wasn’t the highlight of your school years. My case in point, perhaps.

Perhaps. But, again, my memories are one of excitement over all of it. Same room, same teacher, same lessons, other people may only remember having to sit at desks, although I’ve never heard anyone mention it. It’s something you just adapt to. Kindergarten and first grade are pretty loose, though. A lot of time is spent playing and doing hands on lessons.

Have a nap room like the university of Calgary.

Yes. Waldorf Schools are particularly known for being an environment where children thrive and love to learn. I generally loved school and loved learning – but some teachers were notably better than others.
The “bad” ones made subjects feel harder to learn or less interesting to me – just because I disliked the instructor.

Yep. It’s called AltSchool, and my kids love it.

I liked school as well and so did my kids, but it was because we loved and still love learning about the world. We are constantly sending each other facts and articles about daily world wide events that are important, or scientific or medical discoveries, or simply fascinating facts or historical facts.

I think what helps is that we each know what interests each other. Maybe schools should find out what interests each child has and add some of those things to the regular list of things children would like to learn. It will encourage them to dig up some things on their own. Let’s say a kid is interested in insects. He can study them on the side for extra credit. From there they may learn about our environment the effects it has on insects. Then from there it goes onto how it also is effecting human beings. They need to find each childs niche.

I think it’s possible, too, though I can’t say I loved all my schools. I went to four different ones, and I only truly loved one. I loved everything about it. It was tiny, and the teachers were very authentic. They made me feel safe, because they just seemed interested. When the holidays started, we would be told to be sensible, watch out for cars, and get back safely. The teachers paid attention to our behaviour outside of school, too, and would address any bullying or dangerous behaviour they heard about.

The kids were from all over the world, and lots of them didn’t know any English when they first came. The teachers managed to tailor lessons to each specific kid, as well as create a fun and colourful environment. We had housepoints and a weekly school assembly, both of which helped keep up the school spirit. The teachers had a sense of humour, too. On our birthdays, the two male teachers would grab kids by the arms and legs, proceeding to lift them into the air once for every year of their age. Instead of an emergency exit, we had a slide protruding from the school hall window!

Funnily enough, there is no other school that even comes close in my ranking. I feel like I got half my set of morals from that one school, and none from any of my other schools. I only spent one year at that perfect school, but I had a lovely time. My self-respect improved drastically, too, because all the teachers at that school knew how to make a child feel proud of herself. I wrote a few good poems and essays during my time there, and every time, I was immediately sent to the principal to show him my work and get praised.

It may have to do with the fact that I didn’t know any English when I started at that school. I learned an insane amount of new words every day, as well as the sentence structure and pronunciation. Sometimes, a challenge will really bring out the best in a child.

If school started later than when I went I would have been much more interested. Any start time before 9:00 was brutal for me. Some schools have two shifts. If I had had the option of a late day shift I would have been a much better student.

More visual learning. Probably if there had been computers when I was a kid I would have done better. Visual learning includes more movies, especially in history. I hated history, but I liked watching movies. Documentaries, interviews with people who experienced that time in history, that sort of thing.

Study periods in school with volunteers available to help with schoolwork.

See, that’s the crux, @JLeslie. More visual learning would have been better for you but there were ~25 other children to consider for whom visual learning might not have been their best way of learning.

@Dutchess_III I agree people learn differently, but I think almost every kid likes to watch TV. I’m not dating that should be the format for the entire class, just more of it. I can focus on a teacher and learn really well from lecture. A lot of people can’t, they tune out after ten minutes.

Right now there is a huge emphasis on reading and it would have made me miserable and I think I would not as done as well as I did in school in my early years. It would have negatively affected every single subject for me now that they try to put a lot of reading in with everything.

I grew up with a father who is an avid reader. His business now is books. My parents and maternal grandparents have college degrees. My aunts have masters degrees. My parents read to me as a child and took me to the library. I was very exposed. I still hated it.

I loved field trips and documentaries. I hated nor being constantly entertained except when I got to sleep in class. I would love to have been home schooled. In grade 7 I skipped 88 days of school and I taught myself. So in a way I was home schooled.

They like watching TV, but it may not be their best learning style. For me it’s hands on. That’s how I learn the best.

Oh! Tell me please, exactly what it is you hate about reading @JLeslie? It’s almost like you told me you are from a foreign exotic land and I want to know what it’s like! I always had my nose in a book when I was a kid, when I wasn’t outside trying to find things to do that would probably kill me.

@Dutchess_III
I loved to read.
But I hated reading for school.

Two entirely different animals.

M, admittedly reading for school, like text books, wasn’t so splendid. My mind would wander and I’d have to go back and re-read.

@Dutchess_III Not just textbooks. Reading a book for class would ruin a book that I had already read.

The pace, the forced discussion did not make reading enjoyable for me.

I’m glad I had to read some of the books I did, because I wouldn’t have otherwise. Romeo and Juliette. At first blush it seems so ponderous and impossible to understand, but once you got into it it was all good.

@Pandora Where was this fabulous school?