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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

#261

Post by jschwartzi »

maxerickson wrote: post #71
masklinn wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

There's really solid evidence that increasing classroom time increases learning. Of course, people haven't yet gotten the idea that we should try to accomplish sufficient learning with minimum classroom time.

As long as you pay teachers overtime for all the extra hours they'll be working to put together curriculum for your longer school days, I'm in. It's not just students who have to be working during those hours, it's also teachers.

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

#263

Post by ssdd »

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.

Longer school days might help kids with stressful home environment but it also poses risk to bonding b/w kids and parents especially for parents who are able to provide and are working towards holistic(moral, etc.) development of their kids. Longer school days should be optional with extra curricular activities to fill the later part of the day.

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

#264

Post by Jormundir »

PantaloonFlames wrote: post #245
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…

> 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.

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

#265

Post by jschwartzi »

vxNsr wrote: post #257
JamesBarney wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you arguing for better access to birth control? Or that the children should be punished for the sins of their mother?

Someone might argue that people shouldn't engage in activities that have a strong probability of creating responsibilities they can't handle, no matter how good those initial activities feel. In other parts of society we'd say "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time." I know this is a very unpopular opinion the world over right now, but: This applies loosely to sex as well (Don't have sex if you can't afford to…

No, it sounds like you're arguing that the child should bear the burden of the parent's bad decisions. Ever hear the phrase "sins of the father?"

The fact is the child has no control over their home environment, and you're effectively damning them to a life of lower achievement based on the fact that their parents can't afford enough bedding. Is that really the kind of world you want to live in?

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

#266

Post by jschwartzi »

darepublic wrote: post #233
JamesBarney wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you arguing for better access to birth control? Or that the children should be punished for the sins of their mother?

Well like it or not, children do pay for the sins of their parents. It's not something to be argued for its simply the truth

We're not arguing that it doesn't happen, we're arguing that it shouldn't.

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

#267

Post by dmix »

sebringj wrote: post #118

From what I read it seems he's focusing on the pain points or barriers to learning from the perspective of the underprivileged from whence LeBron came. If you have someone that lived this giving him deep insight to the real issues AND he's a good person AND he has power to change, that is a fabulous formula for success. I hope this works out. Too many times you have people meaning well that have not actually experien…

I'm not convinced this 'diversity of thought' (aka direct domain expertise) is actually as useful as people love to claim these days. It's an extremely popular narrative that gets pushed with very little questioning or measuring of its utility.

a) is it really accurate that a smart person can't legitimately learn and be sensitive to life experiences from others or b) why can't they hire people to advise them while still managing the project themselves?

This sounds like a solvable problem by promoting being sympathetic and deferential, rather than replacing people outright from the process simply because they aren't 'from' that group. It's just as likely the people with the life experience don't have the other skills for managing or running a project as well.

Everyone is acting like this project is already a success when it has just launched...Id wait a couple years before calling LeBron a hero.

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

#268

Post by panzagl »

masklinn wrote: post #191
panzagl wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For lower socioeconomic status kids a stable environment means not being at school at 6 am because Mom kicked you out to 'party' with her new boyfriend, or not coming to school high because Dad hotboxed on the drive over.

Sounds like a case for boarding schools. Does that technology not exist anymore in the US?

If people can't get their shit together enough to make sure their kid has a sandwich everyday they certainly aren't putting their kid into boarding school. Parents found unfit for parenting have their kids placed in the foster system, but that is a lengthy legal process.

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

#269

Post by FireBeyond »

lemoncucumber wrote: post #223
gnat wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And research consistently shows that teenagers perform better if you start school later in the day than 7am. E.g., http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192636502086633... "shifted the school start timefrom 7:15 a. m. to 8:40 a. m. This article examines that change, finding significant benefits such as improved attendance and enrollment rates, less sleeping in class, and less student-reported depression." http…

The high school I went to looked into shifting the start time later because of research like this. Unfortunately, they concluded that it wasn't feasible because of after school sports -- our teams play against other high schools in the area, and the timing of that is based on when all the schools start. So if one school wants to start later, its students wouldn't be done in time for sports games and such. Pretty lame…

"The day they cut the football budget in this state, that will be the end of Western Civilization as we know it!"

-- Mr Holland's Opus

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

#270

Post by dragonwriter »

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.

The longer school day and it's structure are, per the article, designed to provide compensation for at-home support that is deficient in the target population; done right—e.g., so it doesn't just look like normal classroom time stretched longer—this may well be the best available mitigation for the social problem it is addressing.
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