Reinventing the School
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Reinventing the School
1–10 of 51 posts
Re: Reinventing the School
#2I like the topic, but it's a little too idealistic to tell an underfunded school system to double the pay of teachers just because you can't afford to be timid in reform.
Re: Reinventing the School
#3I like the topic, but it's a little too idealistic to tell an underfunded school system to double the pay of teachers just because you can't afford to be timid in reform.
Not only that, but doubling the pay of teachers will only improve your results if you get rid of your current teachers. Which will be difficult to do. Otherwise you are just paying the same people more money and probably getting the same results.
Re: Reinventing the School
#4Good ideas, but lets just not have classrooms / teachers - just learn online and then come in to use teacher as consultant
Re: Reinventing the School
#5I like the topic, but it's a little too idealistic to tell an underfunded school system to double the pay of teachers just because you can't afford to be timid in reform.
Not only that, but doubling the pay of teachers will only improve your results if you get rid of your current teachers. Which will be difficult to do. Otherwise you are just paying the same people more money and probably getting the same results.
Based them, in some way, on standardized test scores?
Re: Reinventing the School
#6"Let’s imagine that a tablet sits on every child's desk, and text books have been banished. The tablet is filled to the brim with the best educational content curated by the finest teaching minds in the country. The content isn’t simply paragraphs and images, it’s completely interactive. Don’t understand Pythagoras theorem? Here’s a demonstrative video. A word in Shakespeare’s Macbeth that you don’t understand? Simply highlight it and see the definition. Photosynthesis just not making sense right now? Mark it to read later so you can study it at home. Your entire educational life would live on this tablet, from homework to novels to quizzes."
This is happening today, we're helping power this transition at Clever (YC S12). Interested in helping out? We're hiring: http://getclever.com/about/jobs
Re: Reinventing the School
#7Not sure what is meant by getting rid of textbooks. If they mean dropping physical books and going electronic, even interactive... fine, doesn't matter one way or the other to me. If they mean dropping the idea of books in favor of a hodgepodge of apps and websites and videos... I'm not so sure. There is merit to having a consistent voice throughout and stepping from one subject to the next. This is something that googling for information on the internet and reading wikipedia haven't replaced yet.
Re: Reinventing the School
#8The school isn't the problem.
There are huge social problems that need to be addressed, which are unfortunately politically-incorrect, before we start changing schools.
Go visit a school in a very poor area sometime. They need social workers, not teachers.
The problem is that a lot of teachers don't want to be social workers, they want to be teachers.
Re: Reinventing the School
#9OP has a number of interesting points; however, I would suggest he's also _probably_ myopic in his views on education.
I think the reason that the post feels all over the board to me is because of the complexity of the situation. The system is made up of teachers, administrators, boards, parents, materials, and (most importantly) kids. Fixing one doesn't fix them all. It gets even more complex when one looks at the socioeconomic situations of the systems.
Teachers are not in it for the money. The majority (nix that...the good ones I know) want to make a difference in society and the world around them. That being said, I'd love it if they were making more.
The socioeconomic ties can NOT be underplayed. Give every kid in a poor section of town an ipad and I would guarantee you that some would be sold, a lot would get busted, etc.
OP stated that "parents today are often left in the dark as to their child’s progress". This can be true. A lot of parents I see also can not be bothered to lift a finger to check up on how their kids are doing. As a part of the system, EVERY piece must be willing to step up. Only if most of the parts are strong can the system deal with weakness in other components.
Let's say a quarter of the parents are doing a crappy job. The teachers of those students have to work extra hard to engage those kids. Those kids have to work extra hard to push themselves.
Got some crappy teachers? Then the parents and kids need to work extra hard.
tl;dr: it's a complex system and every part must improve and take responsibility.
Re: Reinventing the School
#10The school isn't the problem. There are huge social problems that need to be addressed, which are unfortunately politically-incorrect, before we start changing schools. Go visit a school in a very poor area sometime. They need social workers, not teachers. The problem is that a lot of teachers don't want to be social workers, they want to be teachers.
They need _way_ more socioeconomic support. Social workers, counselors (completely underfunded), administration, and teachers. It _is_ a hard knock life.