HS Schools no longer teach people how to learn:(

[Locut0s]

Last edited Thu Nov 1, 2012, 08:14 PM - Edit history (1)

What follows is a bit of a rant. The material has been covered many times before and is probably obvious to all of us, I just thought like venting a bit. So please don't say "well duh" And yes I know I'm exaggerating, schools still do teach theory in most classes but it's a pale imitation of what it should be.

I'm 30 yrs old now and attending a post secondary school for the 5th or 6th time, the delay and number of times due to personal problems I've had in the past. I graduated HS some 11 years ago now and even back then HS standards were far lower than just a few decades before. It seems things have only gotten worse during the ensuing years. The fundamental problem is we no longer teach HOW to learn nor is there any focus any more on abstract principles and overarching themes. The problem is that the principles and abstractions are the fundamental bedrock of just about every field of knowledge. Without them you aren't educated, instead you know FACTS. We teach history as a series of events, instead of looking at the common threads and principles that tie events and cultures together. We teach science as a series of disconnected tools for getting answer X when you see Y, we hardly spend any time on the scientific method behind ALL scientific disciplines. We teach English and language in general as a potpourri of vocabulary and grammar rules, instead of the structures that underlie all languages an tie them together. We teach math as a set of disconnected tools on which we "turn the crank" to get the result, instead of the beautiful abstractions just under the surface. And so on.

Students are dumbfounded when they go to learn another language like German or Russian because they see it as learning how to speak and write again from square one. If instead they had been taught the basic structures that underlie English and all languages, they would be able to see that "ahh so the same principles apply in this language too only instead of XYZ the structure is now ZYX". Conservatives and Right wingers scoff that we are being elitist, don't give me any of your ivory towers mumbo jumbo. But they don't see that once your mind is opened to the underlying principles that tie knowledge together and make it all work, you can apply the same tools to the world at large. Hmm... maybe there are underlying principles at work when one looks at world poverty. Maybe... maybe there are historical and sociological principles at work in Africa, Asia, Alabama. New Orleans, and maybe these principles share much in common, maybe I share much in common with them?

Fewer and fewer are those who can look at even simple problems, let alone academic ones, and point out the underlying threads. I'm afraid we are raising a generation of crank turners, and button pushers.

[stopbush]

1. That's not at all the experience my kids are having in the CA public school system.

Sorry if your education was so substandard.

[FSogol]

2. Not my experience in No. VA. n/t

[davidn3600]

3. I've been saying this for years

Our high schools really are a joke.

People can deny it all they want, but the test scores show our nation is falling behind dozens of other countries as far as public education is concerned....especially in math and science.

[MineralMan]

4. Depends on the teachers, the school, the state, and the student, too.

I'm an old fart, and they taught all those principles back in the 50s and 60s when I was in school. For most students, it went right over their heads and they didn't bother to learn that. Instead, they learned a few facts. On the other hand, some students did take the time to learn principles and underlying structure. Those students went on to excel in college and in their careers. The others, unless they figured out what learning was about, became crank turners and button pushers.

Today, it's the same thing. I know kids who graduated without learning much from high school. I also know kids who did learn principles and the underlying structure of things. It was taught, and they learned it. Same as when I went to school. Typically, they also had parents who helped them understand the importance of learning how to learn.

It's not just what the schools appear to be teaching at all. Some kids have a hunger to learn. They did in the 50s and 60s, and they still do today. They will learn. Other kids don't, and won't.

[OneMoreDemocrat]

5. I never thought of grades 1-12 as being a place where one learns to truly learn...

I always looked at college as being the place where you learned how to learn and how to think and to find the 'underlying threads' and such.

My impression has always been that schooling prior to that was just about memorizing the answers for the next test; I don't condone it but I just never saw it as anything else. I went to a private school for those years and that's pretty much how I remember it...it wasn't until college that I realized that going to school was actually interesting.

[liberal_at_heart]

9. It's not that way anymore

Colleges expect students to hit the ground running. Most colleges expect freshmen to take calculus for example. I had to take 4 or 5 remedial math classes in college so I was behind. I still never made it to calculus and I didn't finish college. I too feel like my high school did not prepare me for college. Fortunately my daughter will be ready for calculus her freshman year of college no thanks to her teachers(not that all teachers don't care but my daughter's 7th grade math teacher did not care). When she was struggling in 7th grade math my engineer husband took her aside at home and taught her math. She made great strides and was then able to understand what she was doing in class. Many colleges and businesses are complaining that our public school system is not preparing our students for the world. I do not want the republicans in charge of our school systems, but the democrats cannot sit on their hands and say well at least we didn't cut the funding like the republicans did. We have to fix our public school system. It is failing our kids. Drop out rates and global scores on math and science prove that.

[jody]

6. One CA school district has related concerns, "RIVERSIDE: Schools rethink career preparation"

http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/riverside/riverside-headlines-index/20121030-riverside-schools-rethink-career-preparation.ece

Getting students ready for careers is a bigger challenge than college preparation, Riverside Unified School District board member Tom Hunt said Monday, Oct. 29. He said high schools don’t offer enough career technical classes.

The district’s current definition says “college ready” and “career ready” are the same thing, said Cheryl Simmons, interim assistant superintendent for secondary education. Students need more math, communications and computer skills to get entry-level jobs, she said.

She said new research shows that “career ready” may be more arduous than “college ready,” defined as the academic skills students need to succeed without remedial courses the first year of college.

[liberal_at_heart]

10. we have shifted to an information and technology economy

Our public school systems have not changed to reflect that.

[Harmony Blue]

7. Crititcal thinking and abstract learning

are cornerstone of developing and cultivating thoughts. When I was in school I was fortunate enough to have some teachers (California education system is arguably one of the worst in the union easily) that taught me to look deeper. One example is my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Smith. She taught us not only about temperature and how to read it (Celsius and Farenheight). But more importantly what exactly temperature is. The simpliest definition is this: Temperature is the average amount of heat at a given location. We did an experiment and recorded temperatures at different areas of the class. What we found was the temperature readings were all different. Now, college level students in Thermodynamics classes struggle with the simple concept of temperature because they were taught that a reading is the exact amount of heat (which is wrong).

I find that those that have teachers that teach them critical thinking skills excel at the collegiate level. Most college exams require critical thinking. The few exams that require knowing equations or memorizing numbers/definitions still require critical thinking to apply the right ones. Even for multiple choice questions critical thinking is required to weed out some of the answers that are not likely and increase the chance of finding the right answer.

[liberal_at_heart]

8. I agree

My daughter has had two classes in her 13 yrs of K-12 public schooling that really taught her how to learn. Up until her 8th grade science class she was not managing her workload properly. She learned time management in that class. Thank goodness. Just in time for high school. It was her 11th grade advanced history class that I really feel like she learned critical thinking and how to take on a college level work load. They loaded her butt down with work. It was difficult, but it taught her what to expect in college. It is because of these two classes that I feel she is ready for college, but it only happened because the teachers themselves took it upon themselves to make sure their students had these skills. School districts doe not put time management, study skills, or critical thinking in their curriculum and I think that is a mistake.

[Bucky]

11. As someone who teaches history I can assure you I try to teach more than "just the facts"

But two points should be made here: one conservative and one liberal.

First, facts are important. Nothing embarrasses me more than those surveys showing 70% of Americans can't find Brazil on a map (and 20% can't find America on a map). Hell, we've come this close to having an American Vice President who thought Africa was a country and Russia was the Aurora Borealis. When I get my kiddos at the start of the school year, typically less than 10% of them can find Spain on a blank map of Europe--and the year right before they get to me, they've just finished their high school geography class.

So I teach plenty of facts, I teach facts out the wazoo. I fucking hammer those poor kids with facts until their knuckles are burning. I've had 'em for 10 weeks now--one fourth of the time they'll spend with me (or one eighth given a few of my little knuckleheads). They came to me as wild untrainable gibbons and now I've just gotten them to where just over half can correctly spot the Black Sea on a blank map of Eurasia and a strong majority can explain what role the Silk Road played in the Black Death of the 1340s.

I teach World History. Here's what I'm expected to cover in my class over the course of the year: fucking everything. Here's what else I'm supposed to get done in addition to planning lessons, teaching the class, redirecting off-task kids, grading all the work we do, and monitoring the hall in the five minute breaks between classes: a goddamn mountain of useless fucking bureaucratic paperwork.

Here's what I was expected to teach this week: Here's what I was expected to teach this week: Monday: the Byzantine Empire (all of it, from Justinian's Codex to iconographic art to the Schism between the Greek and Roman churches to the feuding with the Seljuk Turks). Tuesday: the Crusades (all of them, including the immediate and causes, the names and roles of the major leaders thereof, the reasons why Turk and Arab Muslims couldn't unite to resist them, the final tragedy and many myths of the Children's Crusade, and the long term global effects of them). Wednesday: the Black Death (all of it, including the causes, the background factors that made Europe receptive of it and reasons why Egypt got hit so much harder than Europe and yet no one talks about Cairo, the mythology of the Plague, the art resulting from the Plague, the medical and spiritual responses to the Plague, and the influence it had on trade, agriculture and social mores) plus I was able to work in a couple of activities on turning raw social data into charts and graphs for statistical analysis of historical events (that's teaching to think, right?). Thursday: the scientific & technological advances of the Sui, T'ang, and Song Dynasties (including the "Four Great Inventions&quot and a lesson on evaluating the changes major & minor inventions brought to peoples' personal lives in the Middle Ages.

Friday we're doing the Yuan Dynasty. but I ain't worked up what we're doing yet for them. But in all that cram and all the padding of paperwork the administration has us do so that their asses are covered, I don't see where I can do more to teach high order critical thinking skills. It's certainly a priotity in my heart, but I don't get the time to do that with all the bureaucracy making sure I'm also back-to-basicking my kids too. That's my liberal gripe. I lovehate my job from all directions. I hope that you know that you don't have to wait for someone to teach you to think.

It's not a trick that you learn to do; rather, it's a habit you should learn to love. Good luck.

[liberal_at_heart]

13. you have to be taught it before it can become a habit

You sound absolutely overwhelmed. I'm sorry you have so much to cover in so little time. It sounds like the school disrtict is cramming too much into the curriculum. It doesn't help to throw so many facts at them when they're obviously not going to remember most of it especially if they're not interested and there is not enough time for student participation and critical thinking. I know my daughter loved her advanced history class because critical thinking was part of the curriculum. With the curriculum the teacher was given, she had time to teach critical thinking. Sounds like you need a lighter curriculum, not like that's your choice. That's the district and school board's responsibilty. Having to learn critical thinking allows students to have an opinion on what their learning, peaks their interest, and they remember it. There were several times last year when she would come home hear something on the news and shout hey I know about that and could have an intelligent adult conversation with us about history and politics. It was great.

[RepublicansRZombies]

15. you sound like an awesome teacher- thank you for your service!

[spin]

12. If you were able to transport a person who grew up in the 1800s to our modern world ....

he would be overwhelmed by our modern technology. He would expect to see horses and carriages but would be absolutely amazed by cars, trucks and buses let alone aircraft, rockets, computers and cell phones.

But if you brought him into a high school classroom he might quickly understand what was happening.

We need to move our educational system into the current century and better use our technology. I see little reason for a teacher to attempt to educate a classroom of 20 or 30 bored students on the basics of match, English, science or history. Most students today are fascinated by computers and extremely computer literate. Developing computer programs to teach students and allow them to advance at their own rate seems to me to be a good alternative. The teacher could devote time to aid the slower students to master a subject rather than to allow them to slow the progress of the entire class. The faster students could aid the teacher as often a student can explain a concept to a fellow student in language that he/she can understand.

My grandsons played World of Warcraft and I would watch. While the game was very violent it also taught some basics of economics. I believe that a similar game could be developed that would allow a student to view historical events and gain a greater understand the society at the times and the issues involved. A student using such a program could visit Rome during Julius Caesar's time and wonder through the streets and interact with the residents. He could visit the Colosseum or the Roman Senate and witness important events in history. By doing so he would gain a deeper knowledge of history and the game could show how events in the past have influence our current life.

Obviously good teachers are very important for a quality education. However in our current school system they are forced to focus mainly on getting their students to pass tests such as Florida's FCAT which rates schools. It could be argued that such test are important but I find that many of the high school students I encounter have little interest in school and hate the experience. I was very fortunate to have some really good teachers when I attended high school in the 60s and because of them I devolved a strong interest in current events and history. When I was the 6th grade the principle used to teach my class in the morning and he used a newspaper to discuss current events and relate them to history. It was to me fascinating.

It is my view that using technology to educate students will show better results than having even a good teacher lecturing for a hour in front of a bunch of rowdy students who are just not interested.

My son in law has learned a lot about history by watching movies. He realizes that often movies distort the facts so he usually goes to the internet to study the actual facts of what happened. He has suggested that allowing students to watch a historical movie, do some research and discuss the results in class would be a good approach to teaching history. I agree.

I feel in order to better educate students we first have to gain their interest and create some enthusiasm for the subject being taught. Sadly often many schools are merely baby sitting facilities with little discipline. Is it any wonder that we are falling behind other nations?

We can do far better. Attending school should be a rewarding and interesting experience. Over concentrating on tests can ruin the experience and turn off the students.

[RepublicansRZombies]

14. great post- there is so much we could be doing with technology

but the school spends all the money on microsoft office and just teaches kids how to use that. sad.

[Floyd_Gondolli]

16. Our entire approach needs to be revamped

Right now, as it has always been, we attempt to push square pegs through round holes.

Students who have no aptitude or learning disabilities in mathematics,for example, are forced to take geometry or trig to graduate. What ultimately happens is they fail course after course and become discouraged and drop out, or if they do graduate they decide college is not for them because one subject tormented them for years.

My point is we need more specialization in our public schools. If a student shows apptitude in graphic design, for example, they should be steered toward that discipline instead of having archaic concepts of what kids should be getting out of school throwing up road blocks.

If I'm not mistaken schools in countries like the UK and Japan are heavily specialized after middle school.

And I'm not saying the basics shouldn't be taught. It's just that maybe they're not helpful beyond a certain age.

[BadgerKid]

17. We used to have dual tracks in high school.

If you were aiming for college, you took additional/advanced courses to go above and beyond the minimal credits and breadth required to graduate.

I believe countries like the UK and Germany have exams for whether you go to the college-prep high school or the high school that leads to learning a trade.

[liberal_at_heart]

18. I think after elementary school certain classes

should be treated like a continued education class would be treated at a community college. Give the kids a chance to learn the knowledge but don't peg their entire scholastic career on whether they pass those classes. It is very discouraging for kids who constantly struggle. I'm not shy about it. I've told my son it is not his fault he gets bad grades in math and science. Oh, I tell him he has to try his best, but he knows that he learns differently and that he is in the wrong classes. I think this has helped to preserves his self esteem. I've been told once he reaches high school they can put him in a functional life math skills class instead of trying to get him to understand algebra, but they've told me there's nothing they can do about the science class. The district doesn't have a special ed science class. I hate that my child is being made to feel this way. He is such a bright, intelligent, funny person. The truly sad thing is I believe my son has a gift and there is no way that our current school system could help him mature that gift even if they wanted to. He has the gift of thinking outside the box. He comes up with the craziest way to solve solutions. He comes up with an answer for something and it just blows me away. Now that is something our school system should be doing for my son. Helping him foster his gift of thinking out of the box. Not making him feel bad about himself because he doesn't understand algebra or physics. But how can they? They don't think out of the box. How can they possibly help him think out of the box?