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How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

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Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#271

Post by clairity »

masklinn wrote: post #68
roland35 wrote: post #50

I am excited about this approach and I think LeBron's organization has put a lot of though and work with experts on this project. - This school is a true public school and not a charter school. In Ohio a lot of charter schools can have some degree of selection in their students and kick out families which don't meet the requirements which leads to more at-risk students left to the public schools. This school is makin…

> Longer school days, 3 meals, and a longer school year helps students stay focused. The middle one is absolutely true, the other two I really doubt e.g. in Finland or Germany, schoolday starts around 9AM and ends around 2PM, yielding 3h30 to 4h studies a day accounting for breaks, 5 days/week, with little homework (maybe 5h/week total). Afternoon is usually dedicated to clubs.

your example doesn't contradict the idea of having a longer school day or school year. as others have said, kids who lack a nurturing home environment can benefit from a nurturing environment at school (if that's what it truly is).

for example, school could open at 6am for parents who work early, but not start until 9am. the intermediary time could be nap time, unstuctured play, or guided exploration (gardening, science experiments, even animal husbandry in rural areas). between structured classroom time, they could have more breaks for more naps, play or exploration. school could end later so parents can pick them up after work, and have shorter and more frequent vacations so kids don't forget so much in-between.

you could even have morning or evening joint learning times, where parents join in to learn how to teach and encourage their kids (such programs seem to help break the cycle of poverty).

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#272

Post by dghughes »

masklinn wrote: post #68
roland35 wrote: post #50

I am excited about this approach and I think LeBron's organization has put a lot of though and work with experts on this project. - This school is a true public school and not a charter school. In Ohio a lot of charter schools can have some degree of selection in their students and kick out families which don't meet the requirements which leads to more at-risk students left to the public schools. This school is makin…

> Longer school days, 3 meals, and a longer school year helps students stay focused. The middle one is absolutely true, the other two I really doubt e.g. in Finland or Germany, schoolday starts around 9AM and ends around 2PM, yielding 3h30 to 4h studies a day accounting for breaks, 5 days/week, with little homework (maybe 5h/week total). Afternoon is usually dedicated to clubs.

> Finland or Germany

Both those countries are also very prosperous and innovative. It seems the people or culture are what makes them do so well not the amount of school hours.

For all we know parents in those countries are far more supportive of their children. And may also be intelligent enough to assist their children with the homework. By intelligent I mean they are able to teach their children well I don't mean to be able to understand what a six year-old is learning (if not there is a far bigger problem!).

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#273

Post by Consultant32452 »

mliker wrote: post #30
rory096 wrote: post #14

This "normal public school" line is bizarre to me. Yes, it's a part of the school district. But it accepts specific students and has its own expanded curriculum. It's a magnet school.

Yes but it's a magnet of underprivileged and at risk students. Not your typical magnet. Props to LeBron for starting the school.

In my state the magnet schools work exactly the opposite. They put magnet programs in underperforming schools in the hopes that bringing in a bunch of high achievers will be a rising tide or something.

I have no idea what the effectiveness is in my state, whether success is contagious to underperforming students or not. Either way it will be interesting to see how this inverted philosophy of magnet schools performs in comparison.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#274

Post by s73v3r_ »

triviatise wrote: post #148

The #1 factor for improving schools would be public school choice. Competition makes the participants in any system better. The schools need to use a lottery for acceptance of students. We can drop all the regulation around testing results and simply let people choose which public school they go to. Some schools will be great and have a lot of demand. Some schools will be crap and will have little demand and they sho…

"Competition makes the participants in any system better."

That's not universally true. There are places where the neighborhood public school is in "competition" with charter schools, however, the charter schools aren't required to play by the same rules (get to select which students attend, don't have to cater to special needs students, etc). The public school receives less funding, and thus is stretched much thinner due to what it has to provide.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#276

Post by swasheck »

mixedCase wrote: post #211
swasheck wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do wish that this comment could serve as the banner comment for this post. It's such an immature response to assume that because you're taking responsibility to resolve or address something that it implies that you're to blame for it having occurred in the first place. This mentality is pervasive in the elementary and middle schools that my kids attend and it's unfortunate that adults haven't grown out of it. Thank…

> True leadership says that we need to work toward fixing the problem, while selfish ambition says, "not my fault, not my problem." The sad reality is that in the other hand, thanks to the ever present tragedy of the commons, there are selfish people that take advantage of this thinking "someone will fix it, doesn't matter if I contribute to the problem for my own benefit".

I understand and appreciate your perspective on this. However, I'm not certain that those of us who are "haves" or who are privileged in some way can put the majority of the burden on those who are "have-nots" to simply stop what they're doing and wait for change. If the goal of our lives is to protect what we have, then I have a feeling that we're going to die with unfulfilled lives - we just may not know it until it's too late.

[edit]typo: "doing" -> "going"

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#277

Post by malcolmgreaves »

Jormundir wrote: post #264
PantaloonFlames wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am not trying to blame the parents in all the cases either, a lot of the time there are single parents just trying to get by and make ends meet and don't know what more they can do. If there is a household with one parent, 5+ children, and not enough beds for them, the problem has occurred long before. One cannot blame the parent for "that day", but certainly the adult bears some responsibility for creating such…

The problem with pinning responsibility on that parent is, the original decision that led to this situation may predate the parent. Maybe they were raised by a single mom with many siblings and not enough resources too. Maybe they live somewhere deeply conservative where contraception isn't taught about. To act like the parent is wholly responsible is unrealistic and naive.

They are responsible though. Unless you want to take away decision making power from a person.

This realization does not have to incur any sort of "well you deserve this outcome and sucks to be you" sort of logic, however. It is the parent's fault for creating the situation, but society can choose to bail one out for poor decision making.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#278

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

tonysdg wrote: post #143
wiremine wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a longer school year helps students stay focused My kids (4th and 7th) attend a school with a year-round schedule, and we (kids and parents) love it: * They are less stressed because there is more breaks throughout the year. Teachers seem less stressed, too, because they don't have to pack so much in. * They retain more in the summer. * Outside of academics: it's really nice to have the option to take longer vacati…

Growing up in Upstate NY, I always assumed part of it was also due to the fact that breaks during the winter basically translate to hours spent cooped-up inside, watching TV or playing on the computer. I know that the 3-month summer break stems from historical harvest/planting schedules... but when there's 20 inches of snow outside and the wind chill is -10 F, I'll take 3 months of summer vacay over 6 weeks of summer…

Winter break is to save money on heating. Which is why it doesn't exist in lower latitudes of the US.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#279

Post by travmatt »

bsiemon wrote: post #182
zjacobi wrote: post #147

First: longer days worries me if they aren't starting later. American schools start WAY TOO EARLY and probably make children chronically tired because of this. See https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/back-to-schoo... Second: Even if this school has good results, it seems unlikely that it will scale well, because it's relying on more money (from outside donors, etc.). You can't throw more money at a problem…

> You can't throw more money at a problem, then declare you've come up with a general solution. I agree in general that throwing money at a problem by itself is rarely useful. However, I think your statement sets up a false dichotomy. Is the answer to give every school 10 billion dollars? No. Is the answer to fund schools enough that they can give free meals to students and pay teachers enough to stay? Maybe.

It’s so weird to come on HN and read how money isn’t the solution and we’re just throwing money after problems, then go onto my Facebook and see gofundme campaigns from my teacher friends trying to afford supplies for their students.

It really enforces to me that most people don’t let their lack of knowledge or interest in an area stop them from passing judgements.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#280

Post by s73v3r_ »

fhood wrote: post #219
s73v3r_ wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"but does very little to help my country move past the political chasm that has opened up, and is crippling our government." The Right has never seemed interested in engaging the Left. So why is it now the Left's fault that they are recognizing that, and showing less interest in engaging the Right?

Because we aren't trying to win an argument here. It isn't about being in the right or winning, it is about successfully running a country.

That still doesn't answer the question of why the Right isn't blamed for not reaching out to the Left. And given that they're the ones in power, it's their responsibility to do the reaching out.
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