A lot of people are content with these school systems. We learn reading. We learn writing. We learn arithmetic. Now we also learn history and science. We are trained to be good workers, too. But why?
The school system originated in Prussia about 200 years ago to create “good employees.” Basically, we are expected to do the normal — get a job, retire, die. But how about the percentage of people who want to OWN businesses? That requires management of money.
Unfortunately, from all the schools I have been to, none of them teach a thing about money except weird math problems nobody needs. Most do not know the difference between assets and liabilities; that is very simple. You are expected to learn it on your own. Many would say “it’s easy to learn that you should save money,” but how about the number of people in credit card debt? Illegitimate!
Back to about school, there are still more things wrong. What’s with the relearning of information? I don’t see why this is. The first six or so weeks in a school year are spent on reviewing last year’s information. Pointless.
This is mainly because of summer break. Why does it have to be 14 week long where you forget about everything? I know that it’s for farmers and all (which most of us are not) but why is America assuming that we’re farmers? Maybe a 4 week summer break would actually be suitable to at least people living in cities and have 1 week breaks every 2 or 3 weeks.
Also, there is the issue of homework. Why go to school when you must do work at home? I understand essays and projects and all that but what about math homework? You learn the math at school then you do homework at home. Why can’t we just be assessed based on our tests, quizzes, or classwork? For the challenged and behind, they could do homework. For the really good kids who think it’s a waste of time, let us NOT do homework. It should be extra credit.
Overall, there are many things wrong with school systems today that need to be fixed. If I had the chance, I would change everything to this ideal school. The year-round thing is really something that should be considered. Most of all, just fix our schools!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Ian,
That is a very narrow-minded approach. I agree that the summer schedule leaves something to want, but your veiw on homework isn’t sensible. homework is used to reteach the lesson taught in school, so you have practice come time for a est.
Some kids are just fast at school, though. We can’t help that. What if a school teaches multiplication and the student gets it on the first try? Maybe 2-5 questions a night are necessary, but when I was in 4th through 6th grade, we had to do maybe 15 problems a night on multiplication and division alone, supposedly for review.
Many things should be left optional in homework. Different people have different strengths. Unless the person has a bad record of not doing homework, they should just let the student be.