Do you remember how it felt to sit at your school desk, which had been used by numerous students before you? Ink blots and drip stains from decades past may be seen scratched into the surface in the form of names dating back about 50 years. As a result, you feel the agony of sifting through the nonsensical information on the chalkboard, which only professors could decipher.
Most of you were slumped over your desks, your minds wandering, while the teacher droning on and on. Some of your classmates have their eyes closed, others are sketching in the margins of their scrapbooks, while yet others appear to be in a trance as you look around the classroom. You’re wondering if this was all about education, aren’t you? “When will I ever utilise this knowledge?” is the question on your mind as you begin to think about how much more fun it is to play football than it is to learn about vivisection of frog legs. “Also, my iPod has all of this information at my fingertips.”
All of us appear to be lacking basic knowledge, and worse, simple answers to common queries that are so crucial to our daily routines. Without realising how stagnant and uncreative our educational system has been for decades, we are stuck in a stimulus-response culture with no genuine idea of creative thinking. NCLB (no kid left behind) has to be reformed or eliminated before the so-called “underperforming” schools be shut down, says the education system.
If teachers want educated children, rote learning is out and consulting students’ understanding is in!
We begin with the recruitment of teachers at all schools, public or private. How do they find work, keep it, and get paid? Check it out, you’ll be amazed. Discrimination remains alive and well; not everyone is entitled to be a teacher or even to receive basic education.
Teachers must have a love for the next generation in order to provide the best education possible for today’s children.
There is a lot of discussion about the high expense of education, and if we make any further cuts, will the United States descend into Third World status? Ha! It will be interesting to see what happens if nothing is done quickly.