What is school becoming?

[CompUser]

I have been thinking about my previous and current school curriculum. I am laughing thinking at all the programs that students are/were required to take.

- Life Management (learning a little bit about cooking but mostly about drugs)
- Character Inc. (doing "team building activities")
- Group Guidence (learning to go to college and not to make fun of people)

A few weeks ago my freshman class had to go to a "Low ropes course" 45 minutes away to do "team building activities" that did not include using ropes. It was the stupidest waste of time and money ever.

Next tuesday at school we are having an all day event called ADL Day. ADL stands for Anti-Defamation League were we learn not to call people names and such and how it can hurt. Some students are required to talk about issues with the 9th and 10th grade students about issues. Also, during the day if we call someone a name we have to say "oops" and the person who got name called has to say "ouch", because "names can hurt too".

9/10 teachers think this is stupid and talk freely and make fun of it openly. For example one of my teachers says "Names cannot hurt, words have no meaning, if I say abra-ka-dabra the door will not open".

Just thought I rant/complain about this ridiculous crap we have to go through in school. One of the teachers highly involved with the planning of it was trying to convince a friend of mine to do a gay/lesbian talk because she is an athlete and people might think girl athletes are gay or something.

Before you know it there will be 3 classes a day about not calling people names.

 

[DaveP]

I graduated high school in 2001 and did not go to the local public school because as my Dad put it, it was a "nut factory." It's curriculum was based on some ideas by a Brown professor and had a lot of group work and discussion and interaction and in general the students did poorly with actual work. When it first opened (early 90's) it had a number of liberal policies that were later revoked. For example, there was a "smoking room" for students (even though only about 15% are 18+), which was later shut down because of so much underage smoking as well as students skipping class to smoke. I was fortunate to be able to go to a local Catholic school with very good academics.

 

[dornoforpyros]

your stupid!

Yes the PC hoops that students/teachers are forced to jump through these days are rediculas. I remember a story a while back about teachers in the UK being told not to use red pens on students work because it would hurt their feelings.

 

[MongoTheGeek]

Its astonishing though what this winds up doing to people. It breeds bullies and sarcastic disaffected youth.

Since names hurt and who is to say what name is derogatory being called a bully is as bad as beating someone up.

 

[CompUser]

your stupid! .

OUCH!!

Can I see the nurse, somebody called me stupid.

 

[mlw1235]

At least you are not an upperclassmen who was pretty much forced to be part of the "Link Crew"......stupid freshmen (at my school).....



and I agree about public schools now, that's why they pay for me to take college courses. See, smart people do always win in the end.

 

[CompUser]

At least you are not an upperclassmen who was pretty much forced to be part of the "Link Crew"......stupid freshmen (at my school).....



and I agree about public schools now, that's why they pay for me to take college courses. See, smart people do always win in the end.

Yea, we almost had to do that but all of the upperclassmen refused.

Also, in our advisory periods, we have to talk about diversity.

We also used to have to do Link and Learn, where we had to do activities with kindergarden inner city kids. It was the worst thing ever because we had to baby sit them and they asked us why we are white.

 

[katie ta achoo]

Woa.. at my school, we've never had to do this...

We're a small school (about 700) and everyone's pretty close (well, not EVERYONE, but everyone kinda knows everyone, blablabla).

I guess we're so busy with our art areas that even if they did make us take a class like that, no one would go or pay attention.


From what I've seen, there isn't much intolerance in the student body that would warrant needing classes. In my 3 years there, there have been 0 fights... I don't really expect any this year.

They're always telling us that "we're in a microcosm" and the world will "shock" us when we get out. Not everyone will be a dirty liberal Democrat (shucks, haha), and that we're smarter than a lot of people...

maybe they just like to build up our egos so when they pop it's a fantastic sight? *shrug*

 

[flyfish29]

Its astonishing though what this winds up doing to people. It breeds bullies and sarcastic disaffected youth.

Since names hurt and who is to say what name is derogatory being called a bully is as bad as beating someone up.

I am an education administrator and although I would agree that many of these programs are horrible attempts to give students some of the things they are not receiving at home, I would also say that it is not these that breed bullies. The bullies are that way usually from their upbringing (although there are teachers that do things that help breed them occasionally ) I will tell you that the main problem with public education is most of the decisions that are made in education are not made by educators! Think about how many people/constituents have their hands in education: Government (Federal, State, Local) including but not limited to Presidents, Congress/Representatives, Judges, community members, parents, lawyers, teachers, administrators, and last but not least hopefully students (in an ideal world!) Now, you tell me any other profession in the world that has that many constituents that have to be kept happy!?!?

Public education is very broken in many ways, however there are many schools in the world that are doing things very right despite all those constituents demands- which I might add are all so very different. Usually there are three very different demands that all conflict with each other and the world of education must be forced to make decisions only to keep these people/groups happy which is usually crappy ground to "grow" students in.

INSTEAD, educators should be able to make decisions that help students "grow" and learn. It is that simple. Oh yeah, also we don't pay squat for good teachers. When I was teaching I could have quit, gone to work at McDonalds as an assistant manager and made $10,000 more a year (and had free food and uniform to boot!) It is sad that we pay people so much more to take care of our computers than we do people who teach and care for our children! Also, what does it say that people who do daycare and preschool are paid even less than public school teachers. Those are some of the most important years of a child's life!

Also, bullies usually don't "breed" or show up as much in smaller schools. My current school only has 51 students K-5 and it is a wonderful little school. My previous school had 450 K-4 and it was horrible! Bullies everywhere. Students were getting lost in the shuffle, they were not all known by the teachers therefore they struggled. And this was in an affluent part of a suburb. My current school had class sized no larger than 19 and the average is around 15- and that is for combined grades! (ie. K-1, 2-3, 4-5)

enough said-

 

[runninmac]

Yep in my school district the freshmen meet every last friday of a month to "get to know eachother" . Everyone thinks its a huge waste of time becuase 90% of highschool students dont want to make friends this way.

 

[gekko513]

9/10 teachers think this is stupid and talk freely and make fun of it openly. For example one of my teachers says "Names cannot hurt, words have no meaning, if I say abra-ka-dabra the door will not open".

You should tell that teacher that (s)he's wrong. Verbal abuse can be just as damaging as physical abuse.

Seemingly, these initiatives that the school is taking doesn't have the effect
that was hoped for, but at least the teachers should go with it when the decision is made.

The topic is very important and is a big problem in our society. Maybe they can find better ways of addressing it, but it the mean time I think you ought to be old enough to recognise the message behind.

 

[watcher2001]

I have been thinking about my previous and current school curriculum. I am laughing thinking at all the programs that students are/were required to take.

Showing my age here but I graduated HS in 1983 (Yeah I am an old fart). When I was in school it was all about memorization and recitation. Basically you studied for a test the night before, had it fresh in your memory for the test and then forgot 90% of it after the test. While this was good for grades it did very little to prepare you for life.

- Life Management (learning a little bit about cooking but mostly about drugs)
- Character Inc. (doing "team building activities")
- Group Guidence (learning to go to college and not to make fun of people)

Not sure how old you are, but when you get out "on your own" in the "Real World" I would tend to think classes like these could be beneficial.
- Life Management A little about cooking beats take out every night.
- Character Inc. (doing "team building activities") In the workplace odds are you are going to be part of a team (And this is way different from hangin with your buds)
- Group Guidence (learning to go to college and not to make fun of people) This is just common sense to me but I guess some folks need a class

9/10 teachers think this is stupid and talk freely and make fun of it openly. For example one of my teachers says "Names cannot hurt, words have no meaning, if I say abra-ka-dabra the door will not open".

Wow, 1 teacher in your school has some common sense? I am guessing he/she is the fat/ugly/gay/poor/etc/etc (you pick) that got picked on as a kid and knows that yes it does hurt and can damage you for life.

Just thought I rant/complain about this ridiculous crap we have to go through in school. One of the teachers highly involved with the planning of it was trying to convince a friend of mine to do a gay/lesbian talk because she is an athlete and people might think girl athletes are gay or something.

Before you know it there will be 3 classes a day about not calling people names.

It may seem ridiculous now but in the future you will probably look back and "Get it" BTW Is name calling still an issue in school these days.

 

[Kobushi]

- Life Management (learning a little bit about cooking but mostly about drugs)
- Character Inc. (doing "team building activities")
- Group Guidence (learning to go to college and not to make fun of people)

isn't this what health class is for? Sure, it can be helpful in life...sort of, but I don't think anyone can justify 3 full classes for this. Perhaps if they were more indicatve of real world scenarios say......

Life Management: How not to go irreversably into credit card debt.
Character Inc.: How to take responsabilty for your actions and not blame it on movies/music/internet, etc.
Group Guidence: How to deal with jerks. Because no matter where you go, you're bound to find one or more.

 

[Kobushi]

.....I remember a story a while back about teachers in the UK being told not to use red pens on students work because it would hurt their feelings.

Yup, my mother currently teaches high school and has had to abide by this. Now she just writes on their papers in BIG Green letters "Please tell me you're not really this stupid!"





Just kidding....she uses purple

 

[CompUser]

I and everyone else thinks all of these programs are stupid and we do not feel they are an effective way of teaching us life lessons.

Team building activities- no one gives a crap about them, usually some "mentally challenged" person is the only person who cares about the whole thing and everyone else sits back and talks to each other, unless it is a team building/communication building activity where they don't let you talk.

Life management was the biggest waste of time. The militant Jewish teacher (no offence to the Jewish community, many of my friends are Jewish, but this lady was insane, she would talk about how Hanukah is better than X-mass and she would never make snowmen because they are somehow related to christmas). She would teach us how to make slice and bake cookies and concoctions that no one liked while also making rude and innopropriate comments.

Character Inc was the biggest waste of time. Team building activities do not work. Trying to pass hola-hoops around in a circle does not help team building.

Group Guidence is stupid in my town. We are a town full of people who don't care about education and want to grow up to be nothing. We learned absolutely nothing in that class and it is stupid.


I know that many of you are much older than me, but does it help teaching something that we won't take anything from. No matter how much team building, etc is masked by team building and "fun" we won't learn anything from it. I think it is stupid how much the school system wastes time and money on these pointless classes. IMO adults cannot say "We need to do this because it will teach people to all get along with each other". They have no idea what students are actually feeling or how we learn. Just how they buy IMPACT math books, an investigative approach to learning algebra, which is so bad TEACHERS try as hard as possible not to use it and students and parents hate it as well.

I am Vice President of my Class. I know what most people think of these programs. Including the overly sensitive people. And yes the teachers don't like them either.

One of the teachers who said the ADL program was stupid is a very brilliant person IMO, and I believe that words cannot hurt you, they have no meaning, they only mean what you think/want them to mean.

 

[njmac]

One of the teachers who said the ADL program was stupid is a very brilliant person IMO, and I believe that words cannot hurt you, they have no meaning, they only mean what you think/want them to mean.

Actually, words are very powerful and can make a positive or negative effect on a person, sometimes lasting an entire lifetime.

That being said, I think the main focus of school should be getting the students to read, speak and write proficiently and to get the other basic skills down. So many students are failing the basics and to waste time with ADL program is just insane.