Building a New Student in Michigan?

Parents Forum
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<p>The cover of the latest Time magazine shows this "extremely" ambitious: "How To Build a Student For the 21st Century." My personal opinion is that the writers missed the issues by a wide margin as the article is a painful hodgepoge of wishful thinking, misleading information, and biased research. In so many words, a typical Time article. Unfortunately, the cover story is only available to suscribers, so you'll have to spend a few nickels to find out. </p>

<p>On the other hand, a side story does present an interesting twist on the issue of reinventing our schools. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1568853,00.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1568853,00.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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Throughout most of the 20th century, the stream of cars rolling off Michigan assembly lines created jobs with high wages and schools with low expectations. When even a kid who dropped out of school early could look forward to a cozy middle-class living, mastering chemistry, geometry or geography didn't seem so important. But now, at the start of the 21st century, both the state's leading industry and its school system are at a crossroads. </p>

<p>While the once innovative industry is struggling to find a new direction, the state's schools have moved into the fast lane of educational reform. "The collapse of the auto industry, which also exploded the notion embedded in the DNA here that you can make a good living despite being a high school dropout, created a perfect storm for convincing everyone we needed to make changes," says Michael Flanagan, Michigan's superintendent of public instruction. For three months last fall a task force of state education officials, school superintendents, college deans and a Ford Motor Company executive pored over scholarly research on curriculum reform, borrowed ideas from private schools with strong college preparatory curricula and International Baccalaureate programs that infuse instruction with a global perspective. The panel also studied the education policies in countries such as Singapore, whose students routinely ace international proficiency exams. And the group consulted education chiefs from states that were early adopters of tougher standards, including Indiana, Oregon and Arkansas—all of which require four years of English and at least three years of math and science.

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<p>Yup, all those great cars coming out of Oregon show what a wonderful difference high standards have made. ;)</p>

3

<p>Just got off the phone with TIME, our copy didn't arrive and they have to send a new one, now I see this thread and I'm frustrated that I can't read the whole article. Even though TIME isn't comparable to a peer reviewed journal it is the best of its kind and does bring up issues the general public wouldn't otherwise consider.</p>

4

<p>I did read that the colleges expected many displaced autoworkers to take classes to learn new skills--and hardly any have signed up. I'd guess some are taking the $$$ and moving to the South where the COL is low and there are jobs and a future. Would make an interesting study over time.</p>

5

<p>
[quote]
Just got off the phone with TIME, our copy didn't arrive and they have to send a new one, now I see this thread and I'm frustrated that I can't read the whole article. Even though TIME isn't comparable to a peer reviewed journal it is the best of its kind and does bring up issues the general public wouldn't otherwise consider.

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<p>Wis75, Time magazine suscribers can log in by simply filling in their name and address, or the account number. Both are printed on your older issues.</p>

<p><a href="https://curtain.timeinc.net/TD/sub_signin.jhtml;jsessionid=WQKZAQ3WXK4AOQHMG5CBQBQ?zone=TD&_requestid=2260436%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://curtain.timeinc.net/TD/sub_signin.jhtml;jsessionid=WQKZAQ3WXK4AOQHMG5CBQBQ?zone=TD&_requestid=2260436&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

6

<p>I read this article, which bemoaned the fact that Rip Van Winkle returning today would be astonished at many aspects of our modern day life but feel right at home in our stodgy classrooms.</p>

<p>The US has gone too far in its return to basics. Students need to learn how to think creatively, globally, and across subject areas. The IB curriculum is a good thing.</p>

<p>Progressive classrooms have first graders using PowerPoint. An exemplary high school teaches calculus using hands on projects with project managers from industry.</p>

<p>This is the kind of cyclical thinking about education that brought us the New Math and Whole Language learning.</p>