Submitted by Canadian Teacher, A.D. (not verified) on January 20, 2008 - 10:19.
There is no question that school systems need some serious consideration, but there is a great deal to think about with respect to the needs of the children, their health,their productivity, their interests and motivators. I do not agree with the concept of a 24-hour school system. Young children do in fact function best when there are routines. They benefit greatly from regular bedtimes and mealtimes and homework times, particularly in the younger years. They are also affected profoundly by the relationships they build(or do not build)with their peers and their teachers and family members. Regular school hours do more than just prepare children for following a time clock, they allow children to build relationships within and beyond the school, in their families and communities, not just with those who share like interests, but with a wide variety of people from all walks of life, and I think this gives an important breadth to their understanding of others.
Customized education is necessary to some degree, but their is also great merit in people sharing common experiences, common knowledge and especially common success...particularly when they can see that despite differences in learning styles, strengths and interests there are many fundamental aspects to our humanity. A child who learns to understand and respect others, learns to communicate well with a variety of people and remain flexible in their thinking is, in my opinion,learning important skills for our world, no matter how fast it is going. In fact, one of the problems we clearly face, is that people need to take more time to reflect on the growth we are creating as a civilization and how it is impacting us as global citizens. There are many of us out here in the world that think things really ought to slow down and that people need to tread a little more carefully. Change is inevitable, and progress can be a wonderful thing, but if we are genuinely concerned about effective education, then I think we need to start by deciding how we are going to define progress. Perhaps our primary goal should not necessarily be to maintain pace with the business world? I think one of the greatest problems facing education lies in how we define and measure progress. How do we remain flexible to the needs of diverse children, support the development of their potential (currently an unmet constitutional right for many), and still meet the desires of the general population to see standardized testing so that individual schools and the children in them, can be ranked and measured according to regional and national standards?
Children often have strengths that appear at different stages in their development,and their interests during the younger years can vary from day to day, from week to week, and it is vital that they have some breadth in their education so that they are at least somewhat qualified to make decisions later in life. A good teacher finds ways to diversify instruction and stimulate interests in a variety of subjects and may not always stick perfectly to the curriculum mandate if the classroom dynamics ( meaning the needs and interests of the children), demand greater focus in one area or another. Many, if not most, teachers already work with curriculum that is integrated across disciplines, and visitors from various walks of life are commonly encouraged to participate in classroom life, if their schedules permit and their perspectives relate well to areas of study.
Although there is much room for growth and positive change in our school systems, it is critical that we reflect carefully on what is working, and on our definitions of progress and success. I think it is important to work towards developing in children, their emotional intelligence, their sense of self-confidence, their capacity for critical thinking, the courage to question openly, and to act responsibly, not just for their own gain but also for the benefit of humanity. For this they need some breadth in their education and they need a sense of community, not just an isolated specialized community,but sense of the greater community in which they exist. They need a sense of belonging and meaning and common understandings. All this needs to be considered in the development of quality education and there are many of us who are endeavouring to do all this in spite of the constraints of the system. Let us be careful we "do not throw the baby out with the bathwater". There is a great deal more to public education than just babysitting and churning out workers for the industrialized world.
The Needs of Children
Submitted by Canadian Teacher, A.D. (not verified) on January 20, 2008 - 10:19.
There is no question that school systems need some serious consideration, but there is a great deal to think about with respect to the needs of the children, their health,their productivity, their interests and motivators. I do not agree with the concept of a 24-hour school system. Young children do in fact function best when there are routines. They benefit greatly from regular bedtimes and mealtimes and homework times, particularly in the younger years. They are also affected profoundly by the relationships they build(or do not build)with their peers and their teachers and family members. Regular school hours do more than just prepare children for following a time clock, they allow children to build relationships within and beyond the school, in their families and communities, not just with those who share like interests, but with a wide variety of people from all walks of life, and I think this gives an important breadth to their understanding of others.
Customized education is necessary to some degree, but their is also great merit in people sharing common experiences, common knowledge and especially common success...particularly when they can see that despite differences in learning styles, strengths and interests there are many fundamental aspects to our humanity. A child who learns to understand and respect others, learns to communicate well with a variety of people and remain flexible in their thinking is, in my opinion,learning important skills for our world, no matter how fast it is going. In fact, one of the problems we clearly face, is that people need to take more time to reflect on the growth we are creating as a civilization and how it is impacting us as global citizens. There are many of us out here in the world that think things really ought to slow down and that people need to tread a little more carefully. Change is inevitable, and progress can be a wonderful thing, but if we are genuinely concerned about effective education, then I think we need to start by deciding how we are going to define progress. Perhaps our primary goal should not necessarily be to maintain pace with the business world? I think one of the greatest problems facing education lies in how we define and measure progress. How do we remain flexible to the needs of diverse children, support the development of their potential (currently an unmet constitutional right for many), and still meet the desires of the general population to see standardized testing so that individual schools and the children in them, can be ranked and measured according to regional and national standards?
Children often have strengths that appear at different stages in their development,and their interests during the younger years can vary from day to day, from week to week, and it is vital that they have some breadth in their education so that they are at least somewhat qualified to make decisions later in life. A good teacher finds ways to diversify instruction and stimulate interests in a variety of subjects and may not always stick perfectly to the curriculum mandate if the classroom dynamics ( meaning the needs and interests of the children), demand greater focus in one area or another. Many, if not most, teachers already work with curriculum that is integrated across disciplines, and visitors from various walks of life are commonly encouraged to participate in classroom life, if their schedules permit and their perspectives relate well to areas of study.
Although there is much room for growth and positive change in our school systems, it is critical that we reflect carefully on what is working, and on our definitions of progress and success. I think it is important to work towards developing in children, their emotional intelligence, their sense of self-confidence, their capacity for critical thinking, the courage to question openly, and to act responsibly, not just for their own gain but also for the benefit of humanity. For this they need some breadth in their education and they need a sense of community, not just an isolated specialized community,but sense of the greater community in which they exist. They need a sense of belonging and meaning and common understandings. All this needs to be considered in the development of quality education and there are many of us who are endeavouring to do all this in spite of the constraints of the system. Let us be careful we "do not throw the baby out with the bathwater". There is a great deal more to public education than just babysitting and churning out workers for the industrialized world.