We rank below other nations and seem to keep changing our studies to teach to standardized tests. No longer do you see kids playing a recess and the choices in the school lunch program are frankly, awful.
In the 50's we did have standardized tests, but I really don't think our education was based solely on what the outcome of the results were.. We had two recesses a day and the school lunches, (while we thought they were awful), served real food. Somehow we all learned what we needed. I truly don't believe that subjects have changed that much.
Kids are still required to take reading, writing, math and science. Reading should be the most important. If you can't read and understand what you read, then nothing else will make sense. Reading is not just for pleasure. The more you read the better your understanding of the English Language, writing construction, vocabulary and ability to grasp overall meaning becomes. Yes, reading should be pleasurable also. My granddaughter was, a few years ago, not wanting to read. I told her that she should continue to read and that someday a book would come along and grab her and make her into a reader. That by reading books you could go anywhere, have adventures, and make you dream. Ha, Grandma was right. She did find that book and now you rarely see her without a book. Her grades have improved and she understands much better. I am so proud that like her parents and grandma, she starts to panic when there isn't a new book around the corner.
I am really disappointed in the inability of todays kids to write cursive. They only get a few weeks and then it's back to printing. None of my grandkids write cursive. I believe that writing, the making the letters beautiful and legible helps to make the mind creative. Of course, their inability to really read cursive will hinder any comprehension of anything written in old letters, journals, and other kinds of media.
Math, this is my downfall. I've never understood math. I know that it is important and that it has it's own beauty, but other than adding and subtracting, I am at a loss. I can make change without a calculator and do percents, but that comes from years of retail work. Still, it is important that our kids get the basics.
I cannot understand why kids no longer have recess. It boggles my mind that there basically no way for kids to get outside during the day to play for 15 or 20 minutes. I substituted for a year, and found that these kids are like little robots going from one subject to the next and no physical play at all. Ha, where are the jungle gyms, the swings? Where is the play? I didn't see that they were learning anything other than a highly structured robotic
education.
School lunches are a joke. Chicken patty sandwiches, pizza, really awful vegetables. Where is the tuna sandwiches, where are the chicken and biscuits (my favorite from my school days), where is the chili and grilled cheese? The isn't any real cooking going on at schools. It's all microwave and go. Kids don't eat real food at school unless they bring their lunch. I am so glad that my kids do just that.
It just upsets me that parents are more involved in their kids learning. You see children failing and the parents are blaming the teachers and the school. Wake up folks, they are your kids. Ha, well, I could go on that subject forever.
Schools have also been bitten by the political correct, and the idiotic right. We read the books that are deemed politically incorrect and because we knew history, we knew a frame of reference in which certain books were written. No parents, politicians, or religious leaders protesting. Teachers weren't afraid to assign certain books for fear that some right wing idiot would complain. We have sanitized history and literature. Enough!
Ha, well, this is my rant on the modern school system. Take it or leave it.
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