Education

It's quite obvious that many of our society's ills are the result of uneducated or poorly educated people.  For a long time now people have recognized that America's education system is in desperate need of reform.  But you know how the political game works, theres a lot of song and dance and pretty words, but no one ever really comes up with anything worthwhile, or they simply fail to make the change.  But I'm here to present the way I think education should work.

A much great focus is needed on:
+ Math (it's useful and keeps the mind sharp)
+ Science (for obvious reasons)
+ Physical health (not just some half-assed gym class, but a serious and appropriate exercise program in addition to instruction/lectures on healthy eating, hygine, sexual health)
+ Music (much like Math it helps to keep the mind sharp and can open the door to other forms of creativity)

Additionally, I think educators should teach and encourage students to value traditional virtues.  And by traditional I don't mean "zomg gays are bad! etc."  I mean things like honesty and courage.  Especially from an early age, children need to be taught the values that will make it possible for them to sucessful in life.


Less focus on:
+ History (it's good to know, but there are much more important things to focus on)
+ Composition/English (certainly it's useful, but kids should be solving Math problems and doing science experiments more often than writing book reports)
+ Optional classes (things like Home Econ. and Shop Class are fine, but schools should focus more on academics).

Also, there shouldn't be any study halls or free periods.  Any free time should be used exercising or doing something useful.  (and don't argue that study halls are useful, because most kids will just screw around or go to sleep).

LUNCH:
+ No soft drinks
+ No junk food     (if you have to ask why, GTFO)


OTHER STUFF:
+ No student should be passed along if their performance sucks.  No exceptions.  They'll be tested and retested again and again until they display a satisfactory level of comprehension.
+ Teachers need to be paid well.
+ Teachers should receive a bonus or some other incentive for every student who does well in their class.
+ Uniforms for students.  It reduces social anxiety and bullying.
+ Segregation of the sexes, at least for middle school.  Kids will be more focused if they're not staring googly-eyed at whoever their crush of the minute is.

>>1

I'm going to homeschool my kids to keep them out of the school you want.

IMO the focus should be like this:

1. Skills: Graduates should be able to change a diaper, invest their money, read a book, write a book, design and build a working firearm, change their car's oil, fix a door, change a tire, write a simple program, defend themselves, grow a garden, design a building, sketch a person, play an instrument, kill dinner, cook dinner, give speeches, answer questions, build a fire, graph an equation, give first aid, plumb a house, build a computer, and recognize the potential utility of things most people don't.

2. Knowledge: Graduates should be able to discuss philosophy intelligently, know history and economics, draw a reasonably accurate map of the world, apply the scientific method, understand physical science, basic physics, biology, health, and other branches of science.

3. Experience: Students should graduate from a class once they demonstrate that they understand the topic so well that they can teach it. When you know it well enough that you can teach it, you're less subject to forget it as soon as you're out of the class.

Physical fitness is not a priority. Emphasis on the benefits of exercise would certainly be present, but not forcing kids to run so many laps so fast or do so many pushups. That makes them resentful if they're already inable to do so, and bored if they can do it and have to do it too much or too little.

Kids should be allowed to eat whatever they want. But they should cook it themselves.

Kids should be allowed to go to whatever class they want whenever they want, get up and go to the bathroom whenever they want, and eat lunch whenever they want. A fifth grader can walk in on a precalc class to see what he'll have to do in a few years, and look at the other math classes until he finds the one he learns in, but which doesn't rehash what he already knows too much. If they're late to class, they're not punished, they just have to catch up without the teacher's help. The teacher can also lock the student out and make them catch up the next day or the next time the class is taught.

Maybe I'm crazy, but I want kids to learn how to do a wide variety of things while they're still young. They can specialize as they grow older. I want them to leave school ready for life and almost anything it'll throw at them.

This is based on the stupidity of my experience at school, my experience now that I'm out of school, and the fact that even though I had a 3.5 GPA, I still don't know what the fuck is going on. School didn't prepare me at all for life. Fucking waste of 13 years of my life I could have taught myself everything they taught me without their help, and they didn't teach me anything useful that I couldn't learn on Wikipedia or browsing a website on the subject or just by watching the Discovery or History channels.