Which form of basic education do you support?

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I am currently in my last year of the miserable public school system. I have had far too many teachers who knew less about their subjects than I did, even in subjects about which I knew absolutely nothing. I have now learned to just ignore everything my teachers say and learn the material out of textbooks... it's faster, and the textbook is wrong much less frequently. Although our schoool doesn't always give us very good textbooks either, which is why I need to study out of my dad's old college textbooks if I actually want to learn Calculus and Physics. History I probably will never learn adequately, because our school textbooks are so insanely censored.
We should have govenment-funded education, but not goverrnment-provided education. Send children to private schools of the parent's choice, and give students who could not otherwise afford it some money to pay for it. It would be MUCH cheaper than the current system, and student's who can't/won't self-educate might actually learn a little bit.

School of hard knocks.

Hard enough to kill.

no...it doesn't fit the audience. the book is targeted to married couples who are bored. education is supposed to target teens who are horny.

well put.

Which is why I want to be a teacher.

That is just so bad, I can't believe you said that.

Ya better get used to it.
I'm thinking about posting a
bit more again.

I went to a private Catholic school in primary school, then public high school. In general they were okay but I would have liked to be have been encouraged to excel rather than be squelched when I was well ahead of the others in reading.

Although it didn't happen, I would have liked to have had a tutor to help me with maths in high school. Mum says now that had they known how badly I was going in senior maths, my parents would have got me a tutor but at the time, talking about it only caused fights so I eventually just spent the lessons doodling in my notebook and looking out the window.

This was a direct contrast to all my other subjects which I enjoyed and where I put in a lot of work and was usually rewarded by good marks.

The frustrating thing about maths was when I was in 1st - 3rd Grade I was very advanced and loved the subject. By the time I was in senior I hated the subject because of not understanding it but I was on the verge of understanding so that's why I say having a tutor would have got me over the line.

But I voted for "depends on the child" in the poll as different styles suit different children and families. The important thing is; if a child is clearly struggling in one system, attention must be given to either assisting them to do better in that system or moving them to another mode of education which suits them better. That involves parents LISTENING to their kids and taking action rather than just accepting comments such as "your child is stupid" or "your child isn't putting in enough effort".

Homeschooling, only I prefer to call it "unschooling". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unschooling

Cool, my sister does unschooling but I prefer a more structured approach for myself. Neat to find someone else though.

I think specialized schools should be the norm: engineering schools, mathematics schools, writing/journalism schools, work schools (they'd teach you how to do remedial blue collar work and all the information that goes along with it) etc. etc. I don't like Gen Ed, it's "jack of all trades" crap in my book.

If it were about bettering society, learning one trade would make things easier and better. However, it means people would be stuck in one field and no chance of advancement. But seeing as the best jobs are already taken, there no chance of advancing anyway. Generally speaking of course, mainly from my experience with crap jobs that pay to little to live on.

Well, being stuck in one field depends on how much exclusively this training focuses on one subject. If you do not learn soft skills or communication then you very well may not be able to move out of your field, however, if you have some breadth to your background then switching from whatever you are to management is not too difficult. The best jobs are taken by people who have experience, they will die eventually and the younger generation will take them.

I think Homeschooling is the best, if it's properly handled. It's all about motivation, and great parents are going to have much more interest and understanding of their kids than any school system... where you change faculty ever year.

Or if the subjects gets too advanced... they could hire private tutors*.

*I'm only saying this to encourage the use of private math tutors in homeschooling... so I can find employment in the future...

The big worry I have with homeschooling
is losing the opportunity to socialize. Ah,
I now know that most work in little communities,
to do so - but 'tis not the same as dealing with
a lot of peers.

Pugly - as to tutoring, I know a guy who
adjuncts in math, and brings in more through
his tutoring. Considering that route myself, as
I'm pretty good one on one, but indecipherable
to a group.

I've thought about this too, but I believe kids really learn many bad behaviors when their only peers are kids their own age. I don't know if I can express this thought though. Kids interacting together learn their own behaviors... they are rarely learning the behaviors of adults. Which is what they should be learning... not the social rules of the playground...

I agree that interacting socially is important, but it doesn't have to come from being around school kids their exact same age. And I am sure that many here can attest to the problems they had being forced into the social jungle of public school...

Homeschooling seems to have the largest risk/reward swing of any other education.



Hmm, that's interesting. I'd really like to tutor privately, if I can work it financially... I have a nice good intuitive (non rigorous) understanding of Math concepts that is quite relatable.

I've been able to explain to generally non-math people why multiplying two negative numbers is positive...