What would you change in order to modernize education?

Spelling and reading comprehension are part of the test. SO . . . bringing something to correct bad spelling to the exam would be frowned on.

@Tropical_Willie Then why allow a paperback dictionary and a paperback thesaurus?

Spellcheck is frequently wrong.
Another reason is one of the goals of educators is to make sure adults can function with, and without modern technology. It really is an important aspect of functionality. When the world faced the possibility of a Y2K disaster, people were suddenly faced with the realization of how dependent we had become on electronics. On the one hand, educators want to prepare people for where electronics may go, but they also don’t want people to be hopeless if somehow cyber function should fail, for a little while or long term.

The Finnish model is a winner

@RedDeerGuy1 Maybe if you have to keep looking up words; they know you can’t finish the test in a timely manner.

Spellcheck is destroying the english language, so is autocorrect.
I would agree with Finlands take. I would also put an emphasis on teaching some practical life skills like investing, how a mortgage works, how to mix 2 cycle engine oil etc…

Have school all year round.
Separate girls and boys in grade 7 through grade 9.
Make uniforms mandatory.

I don’t know, because I don’t know much about pedagogy more than conveying info efficiently to people who are already motivated to learn. It’s very easy to teach sailing and scuba diving to people who really want to sail and dive.

So, the first thing I would do would be to investigate those educational systems around the world that consistently get top ratings, such a Norway and the other top five or ten, then find a way to adapt their techniques and philosophies of pedagogy into our system.

I keep reference books near me because I can’t always access the net in certain places I got to and the dependency we have on electricity, electronics infrastructure and electronics makes me feel queasy. I can think of a thousand scenarios that could make internet access disappear in a flash.

Even sailing by electronics—interactive charts, realtime data location of larger ships at sea relative to my position with alarms, realtime GPS course tracking, electronic autopilot, radar with various alarms, sonar —gives me a feeling of over dependency. What happens if I lose my generator, my CPU burns, or my batteries get wet? I use these things only when I have paying clients aboard (insurance requirements). I also don’t want to lose my old school sailing and navigational skills due to disuse like I did with things like algebra.

So, I keep hard copy sailing references such as Chapman’s, charts, local rules of the road, medical texts and military manuals concerning field expedient medicine,astronomicals tables and star charts, mathematical texts and formulas, pencils, a protractor, straight edge and compass on board at all times. I even have a sextant. But I fear losing my old school sailing and navagatonal skills, so whenever solo, or only with a first mate, I sail under 1890’s technology like a real sailor.