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Originally Posted by Wetzel
I had what I wanted and is needed for a successful education.
My parents were very involved from the beginning, and still take an interest. Parental involvement is one of the best indicators of a good outcome for children.
Wetzel
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I completely agree. I wouldn't be anything today without my parents. I am very self-driven, but without my parents to instill that in me originally and continue to foster, I would be much more lax.
Now, I must start out that an ideal system doesn't exist, because not everyone's happy. However, standardized testing is not as effective as it is efficient, and ideally should be done away with. Practically, it cannot be done. It is far too difficult to test everyone's skill in any other way other than to sit them down and have them fill out a mass produced and graded test.
I'd like to see an alternative, but it simply isn't practical.
Secondly, I learn more about my intended major everyday in FIRST than in my entire school day. Sciences, maths, and english helps, but I learn more afterschool. Why? Because it's something I enjoy, it's challenging, and it's something I chose to do.
If classes were somewhat shortened (probably using the block scheduling system, I'll detail if people are not familiar with it) Students would be able to pick a certain area of expertise or interest, during the school day, and in that particular area, be given a challenge, and a curriculum based around it. I use the term curriculum lightly, more likely it would be a judged challenge between groups of the same discipline, or perhaps between different ones, judged separately.
This change would not be extraordinarily difficult to implement in today's school systems, and would give students an incentive to learn, and to grow in a field of their choice. Knowing 30 different types of carbon compounds will probably not help you in a real world situation, but by implementing a more efficient and need targeted approach to using some of them would help you to create a polymer capable of a certain requirement. But... this is fantasy after all...