Today's Youth, what are they comming to?

[Mike Schroeder]

Originally posted by FotoPlasma
The title of this thread is enough to convince me that the entire educational system of the United States is in need of reform, of some sort.

Posession of marijuana at school bugs me a lot less than not being able to discern when a word should be capitalized, and the proper spelling of a simple word, such as "coming."

Education is key. That's all I really have, or want, to say.

Well Jim in part i think this is true, but at the same time i think it has somthing to do with the fact that people need to learn to get off the computer and do homework, this is where you learn these thing and that is somthing "Starting Converstion" will not teach you

[Wayne C.]

The "need to reform the educational system" responses above really tick me off!! The educational system's problems are a direct reflection of the country's societal problems in general. If the general public actually valued public education this wouldn't be an issue.

I am a HS teacher- and have been for 18 years. Teachers ARE underpaid. They deal with every family's nasty little problems and get nothing but abuse for it. No wonder the country is grossly deficient of experienced teachers.

Yes- there are some bad teachers. Get over it. There are also plenty of terrific ones who you owe a lot more to than you will ever appreciate. Try being a teacher in a lower level HS class, or how about a sub? See where your head is after a few years of that. I think all students can relate to the nonsense they have seen or done in a classroom. Picture dealing with that daily for the rest of your life for a wage that the general public spits at. Then talk about lack of teacher accomplishment.

Q: Who is responsible for a student's performance and success?
A: the student

Teachers should provide an OPPORTUNITY for success. Students need to take the initiative to capitalize on that opportunity and work to succeed. Teachers are not entertainers although many students seem to think that is their function. Learning involves work-something many students fail to appreciate.

The main reason my students fail my classes is for lack of doing homework and assignments. AKA- laziness. It is extremely frustrating for teachers. That is a habit they pick up outside the classroom. Try holding a job with the same level of performance.

I guarantee that the vast majority of teachers would welcome with open arms courteous students who are eager participants and who show even the slightest iota of interest in their subjects. And I can't think of any who wouldn't go the extra mile to help a civil, interested student succeed with a difficult concept.

So before you rag on teachers as being the cause of societies problems take a look at the homes and communities the students are coming from and what these kids are doing for entertainment.

Grrrrr!!!

WC

[Amanda M]

Okay. I agree. Personally, I look at people around me and I notice what retards, for lack of a better word, they are.

First of all, I was not grilling teachers. Most of the time I can see eye-to-eye with my teachers and what they are doing or saying.
I think that through money, however, teachers can gain encouragement to be better than they are. Of course, this would only apply to the "bad teachers", but it still makes a HUGE difference.

[Mike Schroeder]

I dont pretend to know allot `bout anything, but in my experience, there is a little song i learned that explains this:


Money Makes the world go round, world go round, world go round.....


anywho, i ask the adults and College students this


If you were making a couple of bucks more than you were now , would you work harder?



I think that teachers should be paid WAY more than what any athlete, doctor, actor/tress gets paid, look at it this way


WHO TAUGHT THOSE PEOLE HOW TO DO WHAT THEY DO?

[Bill Gold]

Wayne C.:
Like others have said earlier in this thread… A possible reform could be to increase the base salary of public teachers, to try to draw well qualified adults from industry (or elsewhere) towards teaching jobs, no? I don't think Foto was implying that the blame for our weak school systems rests solely on the shoulders of teachers. It seems pretty obvious to me that a person can't be a spectator in their education. Yet, part of me just refuses to believe that doing homework and not understanding, or doing homework to barely understand concepts is better than or equal to understanding the same concepts the first time one encounters them. When I was in high school I would never do my homework, but I passed the vast majority of my tests in every discipline with A's. It just seems ridiculous to me that high school required so much meaningless busywork, while for the most part college doesn't seem to care about homework. It's as if high school is preparing the kids who bust their butt doing homework and getting mediocre scores on tests to fail, or at the very least do slightly worse than they expected in college. Having a worse overall grade in high school courses than other students who knew less than me was frustrating, and made me even less inclined to do homework. I also refuse to believe the notion that homework prepares students for the workforce. If this is true, why is homework valued so little in college (compared to high school)? Maybe it’s different in other states, but here in California (something like 48th, 49th, or 50th in education in the country) it’s exactly like I described. I didn’t mean to rag on teachers too badly.

As for the homes which bred these kids from the article which sparked MattK’s trigger happy posting reaction… I think it’s pretty safe to say that these kids probably didn’t come from a family resembling either the Beavers or the Brady Bunch. Like MissInformation alluded to earlier in this thread, a lot of people have children while in varying degrees of unpreparedness. While this is not a recent development in the world, I think most of us would like to see people only having kids when they can financially and emotionally care for them. People are still having children; even teenagers are still having children. It appears that the pro-abstinence policy put forth by the government for quite a few years now seems to be about as effective as the “Just Say No [to drugs]” policy suggested by Nancy Reagan in the 80’s. Maybe a “Fine… I guess sex isn’t so bad, but if you’re going to do it, be sure to wear a condom and/or use birth control” policy is in order? Also, spreading knowledge regarding the “morning after” pill, which isn’t the equivalent of RU-486, it is not an abortion (for those of you who have moral and/or religious issues with abortion), would seem logical as well. Yeah… That ought to liven this thread up a little bit.

[Kristina]

Ok, its an insanely early hour of the morning cuz I just got back from Lord of the Rings so bear with me and my two cents.

First of all, I would like to preface this with the fact that I consider myself an extremely fortunate person. I grew up in a great household and community, and I went to really good public schools. While I may complain about the shelteredness of my suburb (hey, they filmed Pleasantville here if that gives you any indication of what it's like), it has shown me a lot suprisingly. Like many other people said, I think the problems with today's youth come more from the home and family rather than the abilities of a teacher. (I have a speech about this if anyone wants it, they can IM me).

Growing up in a good environment (which doesn't neccessarily mean the perfect 2 parents, as long as its nuturing and teaches you good work ethic) I think you're definately more prepared. Once you have that strong base, I think one realizes that you can only get what you put into it. There were horrible teachers at my school, good people who just couldn't teach; and there were also amazing teachers who changed my life. But many people didn't take advantage of the good teachers, didn't take advantage of what the class taught them in both the world of acadamia and real life.

As I told most of my high school teachers when I came back to visit a few weeks ago, I am so grateful I took every opportunity I could, challenged myself to the fullest, and soaked up everything I could. People thought I may have been crazy for having such a busy schedule and heavy workload but I couldn't waste golden oppurtunities. Not to sound egotistical at all, but I consider myself smart and I continued to challenge myself and that's why I got so much out of high school. On the issue of homework, it might have seemed like busy work to so many people, but I did it all usually without slacking (yes, I know I was one of those people in high school that y'all hated). Everything thinks that since I'm asian, its my parents who force me to do everything. In reality, they told me to have more fun and not pressure myself so much, that it was OK to get a B.

Now that I look back after finishing my first quarter of college at what I consider a wonderful university, all those pesky homework assignment, all those challenging classes, and all those activities I did were all 100% worth it. The emphasis may now be more on midterms and finals but everything in high school taught me discipline and self motivation. It's incredibly tempting to go out late on a weekday or find anything distracting in the dorms to avoid work. It's so easy to skip class because no one tells you what to do or not do your reading because you don't have a hw assignment on it.

And guess what, even at UCLA, there were tons of kids doing all this because they coasted throughout high school sheerly on their intelligence and still thinks it works. Well now a lot of those kids are failing out of classes and are on academic probation because reading the book before your final to learn it all just doesn't hack it. It is my sole belief that you can not get by in a good college purely on your smarts. I've been blessed with the chance to meet such a diverse group of amazing individuals coming from different neighborhoods and I see a common bond between all the successful ones. They all have that internal drive, that was most likely instilled into them at an early age because when you're on your own in a totally new environment, the only person you fully have to keep you in check is yourself.

And despite my lovely speech on self motivation, I don't want to undermind the public education system in my valley of California. Thanks to my teachers, especially the one history & gov teacher that completely changed my life. I'm thinking that if this whole lawyer thing doesn't work out, I would love to teach politics and gov. Now that I've written a novel, I will go to bed. Feel free to contact me about what you think, I think this is a really great topic and I love to debate.

[SkitzoSmurf]

theres way too many problems today. I dont know how they are gonna be solved. Crimes are pretty low, but now people are gettign into drugs in 3rd grade. SCARY. Kids need to grow up with something to look forward to, and FIRST does this, but it wont cure drug problems. I think the whole attitude of my high school peers in general is horrible. HOpefully it will improve with time.

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally posted by Jnadke
This is why FIRST is important. FIRST teaches kids about understanding things, and not merely learning them. Although not all kids are changed by FIRST (this past weekend I had a kid try to tell me that hooking an alternator to the bot would generate unlimited energy), generally a lot of them are. It is important to not only learn how things work, but understand why they work.

... FIRST also helps student apply concepts that they are learning in the classroom, into their everyday life. I know I personally have a hard time learning things if I have no idea how I am ever going to use them in "real life". One of the big turning points for me (in my education) was when I used basic trigonometry last year to find the incline of a slope. I was able to take something I had learned in the classroom, and use it to figure out something that was useful for me. Not just plugging numbers into a useless equation, but using it to figure out how to make a part for our robot. I have used knowledge gained in the classroom many times in FIRST, most of the time without even knowing it. As Woodie Flowers says, "Chalk and talk is dead." FIRST can't solve all of the world's problems (well, not yet, at least) but maybe by starting at the classroom level, we can make things better.

</semi-rant>

- Katie