It is a common cry through America that public schools are failing children. Some parents try homeschooling or enrolling children in charter schools, but for many families, that is not feasible. Though parents and politicians want better public schools for their children, the suggested changes do not tend to stay beneficial for long. This is because the focus problem solvers take is on the system and money, not the children or how the system is implemented.
Most American public schools are not the best they can be for a myriad of reasons. Rote memorization is the main method of teaching children, not informing them why they need to know or how it may affect the students aside from getting a decent grade. Money is spent on luxuries such as …show more content…
Several call for better budgeting, and a few others call for a “trend” of holistic education in neighborhoods. In holistic education a higher emphasis is placed on the children and community, which lets students learn in different ways which may let their education stick with them longer. The school becomes just one part of the way they learn, extending to the neighborhood around them and letting the parents be a part of their childrens’ education. But implementation in poorer neighborhoods is expensive and requires cooperation from the parents and community for their involvement. Levine and Wilson, both involved with Boston’s holistic education policy “The Circle of Promise,” note in their essay “Poverty, Politics, and a ‘Circle of Promise’: Holistic Education Policy in Boston and the Challenges of Institutional Entrenchment,” that an additional flaw with implementing holistic education is that policy makers make the assumption that non-profit organizations in the area would have excess funds to invest in the holistic policy (13). This is not to say that such a system cannot work, rather that it will need some …show more content…
Budgeting the school’s money better would be a start. Finding out what curriculums work with the students and teachers best before implementing them gives a better chance for more learning to happen. Less spending and better grades occur when school and homework is not seen as a daunting task, so fostering a child’s desire to learn his or her topics outside of school puts less responsibility on the system itself. Finally, a greater focus needs to be put on the child, not just his or her results on a score sheet. Students are humans, not machines on an assembly line, therefore they should be treated as such. Bob Cornett, a former bureaucrat argues in his essay “A Need for Human Logic in Education” that for reform to be useful, politicians must take a step back and address schooling as a human problem that requires human thinking. Appealing to a wide range of learning styles and understanding how much of a workload interferes with healthy development leads to better students. Many children also need direction for life after school. Helping students figure their potential future out early aids the child before he or she wastes a college semester on classes for something he or she does not want to do. Several others know what they want as a career, but school does not provide the tools and skills needed for it. Teaching critical thinking and other life skills gives the
Most American public schools are not the best they can be for a myriad of reasons. Rote memorization is the main method of teaching children, not informing them why they need to know or how it may affect the students aside from getting a decent grade. Money is spent on luxuries such as …show more content…
Several call for better budgeting, and a few others call for a “trend” of holistic education in neighborhoods. In holistic education a higher emphasis is placed on the children and community, which lets students learn in different ways which may let their education stick with them longer. The school becomes just one part of the way they learn, extending to the neighborhood around them and letting the parents be a part of their childrens’ education. But implementation in poorer neighborhoods is expensive and requires cooperation from the parents and community for their involvement. Levine and Wilson, both involved with Boston’s holistic education policy “The Circle of Promise,” note in their essay “Poverty, Politics, and a ‘Circle of Promise’: Holistic Education Policy in Boston and the Challenges of Institutional Entrenchment,” that an additional flaw with implementing holistic education is that policy makers make the assumption that non-profit organizations in the area would have excess funds to invest in the holistic policy (13). This is not to say that such a system cannot work, rather that it will need some …show more content…
Budgeting the school’s money better would be a start. Finding out what curriculums work with the students and teachers best before implementing them gives a better chance for more learning to happen. Less spending and better grades occur when school and homework is not seen as a daunting task, so fostering a child’s desire to learn his or her topics outside of school puts less responsibility on the system itself. Finally, a greater focus needs to be put on the child, not just his or her results on a score sheet. Students are humans, not machines on an assembly line, therefore they should be treated as such. Bob Cornett, a former bureaucrat argues in his essay “A Need for Human Logic in Education” that for reform to be useful, politicians must take a step back and address schooling as a human problem that requires human thinking. Appealing to a wide range of learning styles and understanding how much of a workload interferes with healthy development leads to better students. Many children also need direction for life after school. Helping students figure their potential future out early aids the child before he or she wastes a college semester on classes for something he or she does not want to do. Several others know what they want as a career, but school does not provide the tools and skills needed for it. Teaching critical thinking and other life skills gives the