jeniwren@compuserve.com
Our government has done a lovely job of choosing what is important for our precious progeny to be taught through the public school system. (That is mild sarcasm, by the way, in case you didn't recognize it.) I agree: Reading, writing, math, history, humanities, sciences should be required at certain levels. In that respect, they are right on. But! There are some things that are missing that are absolutely crucial to their development as future citizens capable of voting. If I were Queen of the country, here are the things I would require immediately in the school system:
Most students…oh man, scratch that…most Americans, do not perform any sort of community service that isn't self serving in some way. If you do, you're wonderful and I wish you could be cloned. (That's another rant…someday.) I think it should be part of the required curriculum that students perform community service. I would start them right on their own campus. One hour every week, each and every student would work somewhere on campus making their school a better, cleaner place. I can't imagine why this would possibly be bad for anyone except the janitor.
This is by NO means an encouragement for them to go out and immediately practice what they've learned in class. (That's what sex education is for….btw, has it EVER occurred to anyone that if they are going to require sex education they should require parenting classes too? Maybe I was the only one who thought of this.) However, at no point in a pregnancy is either father or mother required to learn something about being a parent. There are definite skills involved, from the practical (sure you can change a tire, Bruno, but can you change a diaper?) to the more philosophical (to spank or not to spank, that is the question). They may never use what they learn in this class, but it's a skill that won't do them any harm and will greatly benefit their children if they decide to become parents someday. This should be a required course that must be repeated until passed.
You probably thought this was required already, didn't you? Personal finance is. Home economics isn't. Learning to cook, clean and generally keep a house in a suitable living condition should be a duhhhh sort of topic for any developing human. This course should be required, but it should be possible to test out of it if the student's parents actually did a good job and taught them these things like they're supposed to.
Mostly, I don't think kids should have much of a say in how their lives are run. That's why we grew up: so we could boss around our kids. However, I've seen an alarming trend both personally and as covered in the media in the denegration of our teacher's skills to teach. My own personal experiences ranged from having to take the same math course twice because they didn't have enough books when I was ready to go on to the next level to having a biology teacher who graded papers based on the student's looks (no, I'm not kidding). There are some wonderful teachers out there and they should be rewarded for their skills. There are some terrible teachers out there and they should get OUT of the teaching business. Let them be administrators, or hall monitors or something if they must. Further, I think the students, with the assistance of their parents, should be the ones to review them. Consistently negative reviews should result in termination. Period. No union bullsh*t. Consistently good reviews should result in bonuses and other perks.
I'm a parent of a child not yet in school, so I can spout off opinions about the school system from the nice cozy comfort of my chair, having had no real practical experience in dealing with it directly. I have heard with a great deal of consistency that parental involvement in the education process is … well… it's pathetic, people. If I were running things, parents would be required to commit an hour a week to the school. If they have more than one child, they would still only be required to put in one hour total. God alone knows what we would do with them, but it seems that the school system is always hurting for resources and this would be an abundance of resource all in one swell foop. Parents who didn't show for their required time would be penalized a fine that would be multiplied by the number of children registered to the school system. (I would also offer some sort of incentive to businesses to allow parents in their employ to take their hour without penalization - not unlike jury duty.)
That's all. I think that's a start. I don't like the idea that we need these things in the schools today, but until more parents get a clue, these topics need addressing.
[Rant Mode OFF] Thanks for listening.
