What are your thoughts? What would you do if you could poof a magic wand and change it?
I honestly haven't given it much thought, as at all possible I'm really hoping to send my child to a private school. But, we'll see, I guess. Will depend on a lot of things.
The one thing I have thought about and do have experience with is I believe it is absolutely ridiculous that you have to go into hundreds of dollars of debt to get a higher education.
How was your education? What about home schooling vs private school vs public?
I personally went to a public school until the 3rd grade (my brother until the 5th). Due to my brother's failing grades in a public school setting, she pulled us both out and home schooled us until high school. At that time, we went to a small private school. After high school, I attended Purdue University. My younger siblings all went to a private school, no homeschooling.
As for home school vs private vs public, I think it is *so* situational that you can't make broad claims about anything. My mother did a fantastic job homeschooling us (she has a degree in early childhood education). My brother and I were able to move forward at our own pace. For him, without the distractions of a public school setting, that meant he didn't get held back and was able to graduate on time. For me, that meant having an accelerated learning curriculum and going in to high school as a freshman taking sophomore level classes.
Should there be different subjects on school, more emphasis on "common knowledge" type stuff, less on abstract math or specifics about history, etc?
I have no problems with a larger variety of electives, but I don't think less emphasis should be placed on math/history. While I don't think it is the difference between succeeding and failing that I know that Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin (why is that something that every child remembers from their history class? LOL), knowing the history of the world, and more importantly, your country is important. As for math, I strongly believe even the abstract maths help you with problem solving ability and works your mind in important ways. (And honestly, I use algebra ALL the time.)
Should kids be able to study what they are interested in vs a wide general base?
I believe a primary education should be generalized. That being said, that would be really neat if there were opportunities in high school (maybe even middle school) where you can focus your interests more towards a certain subject matter via electives. That also being said, to offer such a wide variety would be hard. I mean, while I was at Purdue, I could take whatever elective I wanted to in SOOOO many curriculum areas. But look at the campus size of a university like Purdue vs the typical high school. It just isn't feasible to offer that many options in a high school unless you are able to shuttle students OFF of campus TO a nearby university - and how complicated does that get?
What do you think about homework? Standardized tests?
Homework is important, IMO. When you're in class, you don't always realize you don't understand something until you go past the example problems. Or you may understand it, but it still takes a fair bit of effort to get things all line up in one place. So, you practice with homework. If homework was able to be assigned and completed while in class, that would be even better, but that would mean cutting lecture time short or extended a class period, which would extend the school day (either in the time of day, or days throughout the year - which isn't necessarily a *bad* thing, but it is different).
One of the reasons I liked our private school was that the teachers would communicate and if someone was handing out a hard homework assignment, or they knew a hard test would be the next day, the other teachers would bump back our due dates for homework or not assign as big of a load. We also has a free period (study hall) every day where we would work on our homework at school - SO much more beneficial than doing it at home. I DON'T think a student should be at school for 8 hours, then be at home for the rest of the evening trying to complete their school work for the next day.
In college, because going a full 8 hour day was rare, homework was typically done between classes and you'd still have most of your afternoon/evening free. That was really nice.
Standardized testing...eh. I think tests are important. They give the student motivation to study/learn. If I had never had to take a test in college or highschool, I probably would have zoned out - a LOT - during classes. I don't think they should be timed (within reason - maybe a 4 hour time limit vs the normal 1-2). Not being able to finish because you take longer to read/write/form your thoughts isn't fair.
Things like ISTEP tests and the like? Eh. I remember taking them. It was a huge, drawn out process. We were able to eat in class, I do remember that. And, frankly, I don't remember it either helping or hurting. It was more of an annoyance. And I know colleges wanted to look at your SAT score.
What do you think about the traditional classroom setting? What about higher education, college courses?
I prefer small classroom settings (why I liked our private school so much). You didn't feel stupid for asking a question, the teacher was able to devote more attention, it was more personalized, etc., etc.
At Purdue, a fair number of our classes were actually in smaller groups (20-30), which was really nice. The giant lectures (300+) were really annoying in most cases. You would show up and listen to a power point. In the classes were you could basically self teach, that was fine. In the classes that were much more difficult to grasp (Organic Chemistry, anyone?) it was a nightmare. The professors realized this and offered TA lead review groups once or twice a week and had office hours throughout the week, but let's be honest...how many people really want to take MORE time out of their schedule to go try to understand a subject they hate anyway. Not the entire group of 300, that's for sure.
But smaller class size would increase costs, so....*shrugs* No good answers.
