I agree with you. The school system sucks. It should be scrapped and rewritten entirely.
I don't have a problem with what they're teaching and the way they're teaching it, but really, when a teacher monologues for the whole period, everything gets lumped together and you don't get the important bits like homework.
Also, I hate transitions. Usually the students are talking loudly and ramming themselves into eachother, and that really causes me to explode.
And my IEP sucks. Seriously, it does. I don't give a damn if I sometimes walk on my toes and don't give eye contact. And I have no control over the IEP. If it's about me, why can I just at least change a few things to make it work?
I completely agree that the school system here in the USA is pretty much screwed. As a child in Elementary School, I was treated badly by some of my teachers and a few of my aides. I did not get treated fairly until 5th grade and that was when I entered a Special Education classroom. I remained in Special Ed. until I graduated from High School in 2003. It was not all hunky dory, I still got picked on and made fun of by other students and my teacher in High School was very strict but it was better than being in a city school where everyone thought I was a nuisance. If the school system does not change in 5 or 10 years, I feel that a lot of parents will be home schooling their children. Most of the schools in Rochester, NY have shut down due to lack of funding. I cannot say that I feel bad because they had it coming.
Well if you do reform your system don't follow the example of us in the UK! When my daughter (SPD/HFA etc) started school we got reported to and examined by the Social Services because the school blamed ME for her behaviour when they weren't doing what I asked them to and I kept telling them she was autistic but they said she wasn't then it took a year to get a speech therapist to help her with her language then - two years after she started there - she got diagnosed! Guess what? She's autistic!!!!
They don't seem to know the difference between "challenging the student" and "dumping a great load of work on the student."
I feel more like I'm getting the latter than the former. The latter is CAUSING me to fail. I can't do that much work.
And my IEP sucks. Seriously, it does. I don't give a damn if I sometimes walk on my toes and don't give eye contact.
I often walk on my toes, because i feel comfortable that way. My mom has always been bitching to me that I should be walking flat feet at all times, or else i will have back problems. wtf? I don't have any back problems--though my mom is a doctor, i think that the "back problems" thing is nonsense. I'm sure she was just trying to persuade me to stop, because it made me look ***. and I don't #$%@ care!!!! Why do NTs make such a big deal about petty little stims like hand flapping, rocking, toe-walking, everything???
I know!! D:< Once in second grade, I had a friend named Jesse (I think he wanted to be called Joey Baboey), and he always rocked, and the teacher kept telling him to stop as if it was hazardous to the health of everyone in the room.
Pah! All this stuff about success all the time makes me sick.
Hey, many of the things you Northern Americans wrote are very very similar to what happens in my country (which has nothing to do with the USA). I mean i can just copy many parts of your posts and use them to criticize MY country's government.
I think it is unfair to blame the teachers. They are simply working for their salaries. What do you expect them to do? Revolt?! Rebel?!
I am convinced that the SYSTEM has to be changed RADICALLY.
We should examine if pupils really need to go to school at all - hey, don't get me wrong! Up to a few decades ago it was only a small (up-scale) sector of society who received formal education. The big majority of kids would play and work (i'm not suggesting child-labour, mind you!). For centuries, humans lived a much better life than we are doing, even though their levels of education was much less.
My point is that the educational system is overloaded. And there is NO
GAIN in it. Anyone whose IQ is less than 130 would never make it to a rocket-technology lab ... if you can get what i mean ... so why the hell are teachers making everyone study a gazillion of (useless) things ?
Why are we forcing kids to sit for complicated (not complex!) examinations?
Why are we making it so hard for them?
And why don't we tell them the truth: "There is no special destiny for you, my son! You will have to strive and struggle just as your ancestors used to do."
Thomas Edison had received no special schooling and Socrates did not attend any academy (the concept of "academy" was eventually invented by one of his students!). Yet their genius revolutionized the world.
In contrast, we were made to study loads of things like crazy ... and what did we achieve? We're here on this forum grumbling like crazy! ! ! ! ! !
I love you. xD
(Not really)
But that's a good thing all the same.
~*~
I don't understand why kids under 16 are not allowed to hold jobs. It's stupid. Even kids as young as 7 need money! We are allowed to spend money like adults, why aren't we allowed to earn money like adults?
Many would argue that this is child labour, but I beg to differ. Child labour was making children work nonstop, often with little food in dangerous conditions. No. I mean something more like working an hour after school at a cheap fast food restaurant, and get 5 bucks as they leave.
Not only do they earn money, but working part time can also teach them responsibility and prepare kids for the world.
Because universities here were used as glorified baby-sitting institutions and kids were pushed into academic courses even when they were more practically minded, we now have a severe shortage of tradespeople.
Our government is now seeing the light and encouraging employers to take on apprentices. It will take years before the full flow on effect happens.
I often walk on my toes, because i feel comfortable that way. My mom has always been bitching to me that I should be walking flat feet at all times, or else i will have back problems. wtf? I don't have any back problems--though my mom is a doctor, i think that the "back problems" thing is nonsense. I'm sure she was just trying to persuade me to stop, because it made me look ***.
Reminds me when someone tells people to stop cracking their knuckles.
Someone says it causes arthritis. Yeah right.
I am a hardcore knuckle cracker. From what I feel, my fingers feel BETTER and less stiff after I crack them. I wonder how noncrackers do it.
Also, it's similar to teachers telling you to stop chewing gum, because when you swallow it, it gets stuck in your stomach for several years. Bullshit. The digestive tract is constantly squeezing material through itself, so it's impossible for anytihng to stay in one place more than 48 hours (I think). All the nutrients in the gum will be absorbed as usual and the remains go to the anus, as usual.
It is definitely screwed up here in the US. No Child Left Behind is a complete disaster, and I do not know a single teacher who supports it. All it does is make these demands on schools without taking into account resources, or lack thereof, historical inequities based on race and class, or anything else of that matter. It is resulting in syllabi that just teach kids to the test and do no allow for creativity. It is resulting in the scrapping of meaningful programs like art, music, history and even science. It promotes a resegregration of the schools. And finally, it puts teachers and principals on a pedestal that they shouldn't be on. While in theory, it's a good idea, the current system we have in place would not support it. When you have one school system spending half of that of another district, and you expect them to meet the same standards, how is that fair?
Yes, the system is screwed up, but I'm not in the USA.
did you know newpapers are 8th grade reading level. so why do the highschools make engish lit mandarory.
Woah, and I've been reading and understanding newspapers since 3rd grade.
Hmmm....
Want to know something funny? I really can't relate to all this talk about homeschooling...
Every time i hear it i cringe, i always wonder how someone's parent is going to be competent enough in all the different subjects that are usually taught.
But then again, i live in Sweden. Homeschooling doesn't exist here, at all. Almost everyone goes to public school, in fact i haven't ever even heard of any privately owned schools. My experiences with teachers and such have been almost completely positive, they have almost all of them almost always tried to help me to the best of their abilities, the times i've been annoyed is mostly when a teacher is not competent enough in their subject, or when they are not competent enough at language, so that they do not understand the questions i am asking, hindering them from answering them properly. Other than that, the only problems have been related to lack of funding.
Lucky you. In the USA, government-run schools are often the worst possible schools in an area.
That does not reflect positively on the government, at all. Why is this so?
"I've also got the impression that every american hate the government. "
Well, if you had George W. Bush for a president, wouldn't you?