2022 EDUCATIONAL CHANGE NEEDED  

 

It is obvious that school reform is needed.  Here are some reasons:

Population density

Worldwide travel

Instant transmission of disease

Internet and information revolution

Higher literacy rates

Electronics

Changing vocations

University system reform

Politicization of public schools

 

Curricular suggestions for Vocational beginning at around 12 years of age with introductory information with voluntary signups for older students in more specialized learning across the spectrum. 

 

·         Food Production

·         Welding

·         Mathematics

·         Engineering

·         Mechanics

·         Carpentry

·         Internet

·         Personal finances

·         Electronics

·         Art

·         Video Construction

·         Gaming

·         Critical Thinking

·         Writing

·         Programming

·         Ap construction

·         Music

·         Strategy

·         History

·         Sociology

·         Health care

·         Law

·         Government

·         Energy Sources

·         Military

·         Space Science

·         Mathematics

·         Small business

·         Entrepreneurism

·         Capitalism

 

 

Reorganizing Sports To Eliminate Injustice

 

Sports are important and as such should be considered but possibly from a different perspective than now, using the schools to perpetuate them.  I know from experience that ‘ineligibility’ is always a huge issue with students and teachers and administrators who did not want an academically failing student to have success at sports and thus be a role model.  This attitude does not allow the sports talent to shine and the students usually drops out.  Taking sports out of the schools’ control could result in the success of a set of talented students now eliminated by the system.  Our high schools should not be ‘sports farms’ for the predatory promoters at the university level.  It is expensive and the high school events have low community attendance due to the low number of students benefitting. 

 

I will use Tucson as an example of a possible paradigm for sports events in the community without school involvement.  Possibly each Ward could field teams and the Wards play each other, with community attendance and banquet for all teams hosted by the city.  Tryouts come from the community and attendance is free, a subsidized community benefit.  How about adult teams, teen teams and youth teams?  The community already has numerous playing fields at the schools, right there to be used by the communities who paid for them.  Put the sports in the community and make it for everybody, not just the ‘eligible’.    

 

As for sports in higher education, I suggest the promoters find other sponsors.  The stadiums can be used for other purposes and for community games.  Possibly the promoters could now pay the players more than currently because they make huge money off students using the university name to do it.  And even the Board of Regents is bolstering sports by requiring students to buy sports tickets even when they are not interested.  Are they still collecting that, even now?   And all the Promoters are paid fat salaries to preside while the players who make the money for them look up at the prestige boxes…

 

This is an opportunity to change education and how our tax money is being spent.  I think if the school boards cannot make changes that adapt to changing conditions, the education money should go to the parents.  The parents need a flex scheduling option for home instruction plus online meetings and pre recorded options for attendance purposes.  This should be delivered by the school in an easily accessed

format and in person tutoring sessions should be available upon appointment.  If this cannot be done, the school should receive no funding, as it is inadequate for current conditions.   

Monies spent on sports in the schools should be redirected to the cities/counties for development of a local inclusive sports program that serves the community. 

 

The Contingency Planning Problem Demands Creativity and Flexibility

 

School personnel and parents have an identical attendance goal:  Parents want educational credit for attendance of distance learning and the schools want credit for attendance to receive funding from the state.   The encouragement of attendance is paramount and to achieve that goal, the schools must accommodate the needs of the parents and students. 

Students need a curriculum and curricular choices that reflect academic standards and employment interests.  If the current high school graduation standards are in effect, the curriculum must reflect this reality.   The ‘grades’ should go to a mastery learning format that automatically adjusts to the student, thus enabling students to work at their own speed and achieve at their own speed.  To force the babysitting format of the public schools on home learning is ludicrous, so let the motivated students forge ahead.  This includes ‘high school’ students as well.  If a student can finish ‘high school’ academic requirements in less time than the proscribed four years, so be it.   If it takes longer, so be it.  The point is that schools must offer the curricular requirements necessary for graduation to receive funding, not just log in attendance to a weak program. 

As for implementing the curriculum, the distance learning format can be utilized to provide prerecorded lessons and assignments that can be used to guarantee attendance credit for both parties.  This is a convenience for parents and administrators and the student receives lessons that must be done to receive attendance credit.  Attendance reporting policy probably needs revision to reflect a new reality.   Weekly reports should be enough, not daily.   

Curricular implementation through ‘class’ meetings online restricts parent and students to a timeframe that may not be convenient considering job responsibilities and other family members.  These ‘class’ meetings should also be recorded for reinforcement of curricular goals.  Participation in these should be voluntary, with grade credit for watching the session.  Exercises should be offered in electronic format or printable, and able to be graded and recorded online.

Distance learning serves the parents and students, not the schools.  The schools serve the parents and students and if the school cannot provide parents with a convenient way to educate their children, they will go elsewhere.  The law requires teaching the children, but not where.  Public schools are a convenience, not a requirement.  If parents do get control of the student money, the incompetent schools will fail and the system will revert to charter schools who take the state money and might charge a hefty registration fee.  Perhaps they should not be allowed to charge fees if they take state money.

The need for a contingency plan for education is obvious.  I do not fault the educational establishment with their initial lack of planning for an epidemic of long lasting proportions.  A pandemic was inevitable, given modern circumstances, but yet unforeseen by few. 

But now that we know about the pandemic effects given that we had a mild form from an epidemiological point of view.  Not like plagues of the past where all who got it died.  As of now, the educational edifice must produce a contingency plan designed to last, not just stopgap measures waiting for a return to “normal”.  Even if it returns to ‘normal’, we still need contingency plans and some parents may want to continue in the new way.  It is finally time for school reform in teaching modes and community participation. 

No high school should be bereft of experts in any field, due to e participation.  We need lectures by real professionals, backed up by facilitators who interact with the students to reinforce the material or go over it in the shop or lab.  These prerecorded lectures augment online textbooks with exercises, procedures and answers.  And the teachers tutor the students. 

At last, a reason to have small class sizes, something the teachers’ unions must have missed during past negotiations.  Classes convene in nice social distancing mode with way fewer students than before.  I disliked the masses of asses format that resulted in some teachers having 5 classes per day of at least 30 students each.  That’s 150 students per day, 150 papers and exams to grade.  150 students to assist in a 5 hour format.  Nobody skates through that.  It would be nice to seat the students so they could not touch each other, lacking the social rules that control that conduct.  It is known that the lower the student density, the lower the number of disciplinary referrals.  Possibly having online students as well as in person students would be a solution to many behavioral and academic considerations, as well as afford employment.  One teacher may prefer in person instruction but another might leap at the chance to manage online learning programs. 

E learning has advantages in that mastery learning allows students to proceed at their own speed or with a group if desired.  Some function best as part of the academic group and others can comprehend more individually.  The key here is flexibility on the part of the teachers.  I am sure the teachers’ colleges emphasize flexibility in their abilities instead of a chapter a week and a test on Friday.  Some students like that predictability and pace but others may not and the teachers must accommodate the students, not themselves.  Drumming out students who do not fit the mold is a thing of the past.  The punitive attitude sifts while maintaining a system that needs revision. 

 Sports are important and as such should be considered but possibly from a different perspective than now, using the schools to perpetuate them.  I know from experience that ‘ineligibility’ is always a huge issue with students and teachers and administrators who did not want an academically failing student to have success at sports and thus be a role model.  This attitude does not allow the sports talent to shine and the students usually drops out.  Taking sports out of the schools’ control could result in the success of a set of talented students now eliminated by the system.  Our high schools should not be ‘sports farms’ for the predatory promoters at the university level.  It is expensive and the high school events have low community attendance due to the low number of students benefitting. 

Monies spent on sports in the schools could be redirected to the cities and counties for development of a local inclusive sports program that serves the community.  Persons now employed in the sports programs in the public schools could find comparable employment there.   

I will use Tucson as an example of a possible paradigm for sports events in the community without school involvement.  Possibly each Ward could field teams and the Wards play each other, with community attendance and banquet for all teams hosted by the city.  Tryouts come from the community and attendance is free, a subsidized community benefit.  How about adult teams, teen teams and youth teams?  The community already has numerous playing fields at the schools, right there to be used by the communities who paid for them.  Put the sports in the community and make it for everybody, not just the ‘eligible’.