Reply #32: One of the problems comes from the lack of reality in the schools -

[haele]

From what I've seen in "trends of modern corporate education", I have no wonder as to why our children are bored out of their skulls and cannot seem to get past the "all upfront and spelled out, requires no real logic or imagination" video game or TV entertainment for their motivational activity. If all they have to do in school is sit down, supposedly read and listen, take quizzes and tests and act like good little boys and girls - there's no challenge for them to grow and explore their possibilities.

People, especially when they're children - learn in a combination of several different styles and varying levels; some people learn best in a more tactile-driven environment, some people in a visually-driven, and a very few people in an audio-driven. But psychologically, the most important part of the learning experience to most children is the ability to show a product as "progress" after any session of learning.

Interspersing the typical "sit down, shut up, and listen" type of classes - the 3 "R"'s (and History, unfortunately) - with "expensive electives" of Art (Music, Drama, and Art), "Life Skills" (Science Lab/Shop/Home Ec.) and Sports (or P.E.) play an critical part in the healthy learning capability of a child as those activities provide instant feed back and creates the motivation to continue towards some form of excellence.

A child cannot really engage the entire learning functions of the brain if you sit him or her down for an entire day with only a test at the end. All s/he learns to do is to put up with a static environment and perform a routine - and how long does a child need to continue learning to perform that?
Where's the learning about initiative, how to create confidence to try new ways of doing/looking at a problem or situation, how to use logic to get to a result, how the choices one takes affects an outcome? There needs to be a great deal of interaction to get the brain to process the learning functions...

What children need to learn as well as the facts and figures that school provides is how to recognize a change in a situation and how to adapt to it the process of "learning to make a logical, realistic observation". They need be be learning about how to research - "learn what making an effort actually is and feels like". They need to be learning about taking responsibility for their actions and the consequences of those actions - "learn to make a decision, and follow through with it".

These things are critical for survival, whether one lives in the city or in the wilderness, no matter what type of job one does. Without observation, decision-making, and effort, one only floats through an unhappy, unfulfilled life as a drone.

I'm the daughter of educators, and am now helping to raise a thirteen year old who has never learned any of the three processes above that my brother and I, and most of my peers, had learned by the entry into adolescence back in the 1970's, even when the educational system in the US had begun to decline.
When I went to school in "the big city", there was still the feeling of confidence and satisfaction with exploring Art and learning to make an effort to continue feeling that satisfaction. There was the learning to deal with the "horrors" of socialization/team building and physical effort with P.E. and Sports, the discipline of body and temper. There was learning spacial and mental logic through performing the "hands on" research and steps to complete projects in Science Lab and Shop.
Now, all these things are considered "frivolous expenses" and "liberal" (therefore, unnecessary and a waste of time at best).
Heck, if taking tests is all the school districts think are important and to be stressed, end "schooling" at 6th grade and pump 'em all into a trade or educational finishing school, 'cause those children can't continue sitting down and doing the same routine over and over without starting to lose critical thought capability.
Start the kids working - as apprentices and/or real jobs by the time they're 15/16 - like in the bad old days of 19th century America, where everyone supposedly knew their place in life.
At least in those days, kids came out of school with the ability to function with real life on their own...their logic and initiative skills had not turned to mush by the time they left "public schoolin'".
All the "electives" mentioned above - Art, Sports, "life skills" - are instrumental in developing and advancing the critical survival skills both to observe, adapt, and hopefully flourish. Frankly, a school that doesn't have these "frivolous, wasteful" electives is nothing more than a public supported babysitter/holding tank for the "parents" while they're away at work for 12 years...at least in the bad old days, if there wasn't money for the electives at the schools, the kids were going home to actual work at home that would develop the skills that would normally be developed by these electives. Nowadays, there isn't any "chores" or learning done at home - it's all the rewards that were normally given to kids after the chores were completed - malls, games, "hanging out" and empTV. All the rewards for no effort.

It's frustrating that to too many people in American Society - especially parents, who should be concerned about the future of their children, just answering a multiple choice question successfully and not acting out in class is the sign of a school success. Hey, that's less money they have to shell out in taxes to keep the "schools" open.

My two bits.

Haele