What would you think of a school like this?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>Warning, long post. I've been thinking about how much better my district could be, reading up on how other countries educate their children, and picturing what the system would look like if I had designed America's education system (there really should be a standardized system, IMO). This is what I came up with:</p>

<p>By completion of secondary school education, students would have:
* a basic ("literate") knowledge of a broad range of essential subjects (English, writing, speaking, literature, mathematics, history, social studies, science, and technology)
* a greater depth of knowledge in a particular field
* fluency in at least one foreign language
* a future career plan</p>

<p>Lessons will be structured so that students are always aware of the practical applications of the topic, and receive hands-on experience wherever possible. For many classes, the homework/schoolwork would be reversed from how it currently goes - most of the initial learning would take place at home as homework, with the practice and application or discussion taking place in the classroom. In theory, this will make lessons shorter and more effective.</p>

<p>"Explorations" are courses or series of courses providing an introduction to an area of study and teaching the very basics of the topic.
"Interests" are more in-depth courses or series of courses that are chosen by the student. These series build on Explorations, increasing breadth of knowledge within a particular subject area.
"Focuses" are series of courses within a particular field of study, chosen by the student. These series build on Interests, increasing breadth and depth of knowledge within a particular field.</p>

<p>During Primary School, students will complete a standardized series of explorations covering various areas of all the basic literacies. During the first half of students' primary education, they will take a trimester-long introductory course in each of the nine offered foreign language classes, as well as an introduction to two-dimensional art, three-dimensional art, and music. At the beginning of the second half of their primary education, students will choose a foreign language to study, as well as an art form. Students can change their selections anytime through their final year of Intermediate School. Beginning in Year 4 (age ~8), students will be split into different levels by placement tests and teacher recommendations.</p>

<p>During Intermediate School, students continue with their literacy curriculum, their foreign language, and their art form. Students will also begin to choose interests. Interests offered include topics in mathematics, history, literature, science, technology, and the social sciences. Students can also take up an additional foreign language (including additional options outside the nine from primary school) or art form in lieu of an interest. At the start of Intermediate School, English is dropped from the core and replaced with literature. </p>

<p>At the beginning of Secondary School, students choose a field (chemistry, biology, math, physics, technology, art, history and social studies, social sciences)to focus on. During the second year of Secondary School, students may change their focus or add a second. They also continue with their literacy curriculum (except the courses in their chosen focus). Students continue to take interest courses, and their foreign language studies. Secondary School students may drop their art, or take up an addititional form. They may also begin a second or third foreign language. The last two years of secondary school are optional, and feature a reduced core. Tech schools are offered for the last two years.</p>

<p>To accommodate a large depth and breadth of courses, and reduce scheduleing conflicts, many courses will be offered online. To keep with the application-based philosophy, online courses will mostly be literature or history, which are taught primarily through discussion. Courses taught in foreign languages will also be available over the computer for intermediate and secondary school students. Secondary school students are required to take a certain number of immersion classes in place of their usual foreign language classes.</p>

<p>How would you feel if you went to a school like this?</p>

2

<p>I actually like this idea, especially the whole foreign language course. I know many children in intermediate school that would love the option to learn another language but are unable to due to resources and money. </p>

<p>However, seeing how many parents are now, I don’t think many of them would approve of the split primary school would cause. I can easily see children labeling them the “dumb” and “smart” class. While the idea is that the split would motivate students to study harder I doubt there would be many parents that would approve. A class of mine actually tried to do something like that but it failed due to parents complaining.</p>

<p>I can’t find any complaints for Secondary school. It sort of reminds me of my school I suppose but with more options available.</p>

3

<p>I would love it!!!</p>

4

<p>The split wouldn’t be hard, so to speak - parent overrides would be available, and students would be retested at the end of every year. Students who needed to switch classes during the year could. All classes would be in the same building, as well.</p>

5

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Yes. This is useful. Also, you could explain to kids why you require them to read a certain book. I’ve seen kids in my English class wonder why we have to read To Kill a Mockingbird. The answer seems obvious, but to have the teacher explain it would be nice.</p>

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Take out speaking. It’s not essential that an educated person knows speaking (though it is important and awesome). Writing and literature are oxymorons because a knowledge of English implies a knowledge of writing and literature.
Aside from that, it seems fine. Seems like a description of a liberal arts education.</p>

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Not sure I agree with this at the high school level. In high school, the goal is to have a “broad knowledge of essential subjects.” I mean, I disagree with focusing on one thing that early.</p>

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Sounds nice, but is very hard. My mom edits French and German textbooks, designs curriculums for French and German students in high school and college, taught college French, and taught middle school French. It’s really hard to be “fluent” in a language. Hell, she has a master’s degree and lived in France for a few years, and still doesn’t consider herself “fluent.” As much as I’d like to see more emphasis on foreign language in education, that’s an unrealistic goal.</p>

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No. Not everyone graduating from high school knows what career they want to pursue. In order to really know what career you want to pursue, you must have explored a broad range of subjects to really know your interests. While some kids might know what they want to do for a career, I don’t think it should be required that all students should have a future career plan.</p>

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Go on.</p>

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Ehhh…this might work for motivated students who enjoy learning. But, that’s not the majority of the country. They’ll look for easy/BS classes to take. </p>

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Yeah, again the majority of the country are not motivated. Again, people would look for easy/BS focuses.
And, this isn’t like college, where you have to have some level of intellectual competence to get in. This is high school. Everyone goes to high school. I fear that many kids would take easy/BS “focuses” in order to get out of doing actual work.</p>

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Cool sauce. Sounds like what we already have.</p>

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This means that every school has to have the funds to hire nine foreign language teachers. And, which languages are you talking about? The music and art sound cool, but I already had “music” and “art” in elementary school. This already happens.</p>

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That’s pretty young to make such an important choice. Personally, I’d wait until the start of Intermediate School to make that choice. That way, less parents would make that choice for them. 'Cause let’s be honest. How many parents are going to let their kids decide what foreign language to take after the first half of “primary school?” </p>

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Sounds nice. But, how can they “get back on track?” There’s a reason why most educational policy takes up more than one post in CC.</p>

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First, this stratifies kids into different classes at a young age. Not sure I’m okay with this in terms of what it’s implication are on society. I’m going to give my opinions on this specifically by giving my opinions on post #4.</p>

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Let’s find out.</p>

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“MY SON’S SMARTER THAN THAT! HE SHOULD BE IN THE ADVANCED GROUP!” Good luck with that.</p>

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That’s a better solution. Forget the parent overrides.</p>

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Sounds chill.</p>

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How can you expect that as an educational policy maker? Policy makers can’t determine what buildings schools are in. That’s determined on the micro level, not the macro level. If they did, it would involve the selling of thousands of perfectly good schools, and the consolidation of districts, and a lot of ridiculous stuff. </p>

<p>Back to my opinion…</p>

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Sounds good.</p>

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Would they have been taking these subjects in primary school? I know I took history and mathematics in primary school. Make clear.</p>

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First off, how many interests can a student take? And second off, how can kids expect to get a broad exposure if they get to pick all their classes? My friend said he never wants to take English, History, Science, or Math again. He just wants to take Music, French, Japanese, Latin, and Chinese. Under this plan, it seems he could do this. Then, he clearly wouldn’t have received a “basic knowledge of a broad range of essential subjects.” Please make this clear.</p>

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English is the study of Literature and Writing. What happened to Writing (including creative writing, journalism, expository writing, etc.)?</p>

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Isn’t that what kids do in college? Wouldn’t that involve a complete re-thinking of American Education at the university level as well?</p>

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If kids have two focuses, how can they receive a broad education in the nine subjects you initially listed (English, writing, speaking, literature, mathematics, history, social studies, science, and technology)?</p>

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Try balancing the 9 proposed “essential subjects” plus two foreign languages and two focuses.</p>

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Cool.</p>

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How could they fit it in their schedule? Could you please give a sample schedule? Is this going to be on a quarter system, a trimester system, or a semester system? How many hours a day do students receive instruction in their art form? Will it conflict with their academics?</p>

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Three is too many. My mom tried taking three, and told me that two is the maximum. Your brain can’t process three languages.</p>

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No more specialization. Kids are already specializing in middle school. And, I’m not sure if after sophomore year, kids have received the education necessary to function in our competitive global society. If we want America to be a competitive nation, we need kids who have received a competitive global education, which requires them to have studied up to grade 12. Sorry.</p>

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I like this better than the current system of four year tech schools. I think we should implement this in our current education system.</p>

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I’m watching the deficit grow higher as the government pays for the servers, curriculum designers, programers, and editors to pay for this.</p>

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So…why would they be taught online? If history and literature are discussion based, why teach them in a form where discussion is near impossible?</p>

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What about math? I’ve actually taken an online math course, and it worked very well. Why isn’t math offered online?</p>

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Sigh…my mom constantly complains about people who talk about teaching foreign language in an “immersion” style. Does that mean only in the native language? Is that a “culture” class? What about Latin and Greek? How could you have the Classical languages taught in an immersion style? </p>

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Organized for a single school, this would be great. As widespread educational policy, it would be a disaster. Kids would graduate high school either burnt out from trying to receive a general education as well as a specialized education, or they would wind up with a bad general education. Also, good luck convincing every single college in America to redesign its curriculum. And don’t get me started on the societal implications of separating children from an extremely young age. You think the kids on CC are elitist? Imagine if every smart kid was. Sorry, I don’t see this working.</p>

<p>Again, I’m sorry if I’m harsh or mean. Please don’t take this personally. I’m really interested in educational policy as well. PM me sometime if you want to discuss it. But, you seem to be very smart, so I’d love to talk about it with you.</p>