Jobs are pretty cool when you think about it. Hour long commutes are not, as I realized. But I mean, after you get out of work, you're done. No homework, few continuing responsibilities, they're surprised if you get something done by the first week. In school overload happens first day, first second, and I say really? We get such a hard education experience to do what, ruin our childhoods? High school needn't be so specialized, it really needs to culture kids to their needs and make sure they have fun. Only if you cause them to become involved in their environments will they actually learn, and it will be many times better than some of the set ups we have now. This process involved discarding some accepted methodologies, but is it really necessary to have such stringent policies involving education when later in life you find out you actually have free time? Just my two cents
/end rant.
This is actually an excellent point.
ReplyDeleteYou probably only feel less stressed because your life doesn't depend on your job yet. :P It's certainly not happy happy fun time for adults when they leave the workplace... or maybe it's just my family?
ReplyDeleteYou've simple been absorbed into the TJ mentality. Most high school students do have tons of fun during their education; it is merrily the money (college is only a step to it) driven mindset that causes this atmosphere. Not that I approve of it, but as G pointed out - high school and college are the only times to have carefree fun- it is the students responsibility to embrace that.
ReplyDeleteI mean the majority of adults have stable jobs - news tends to exaggerate imho. Even in this recession, you still see that as long as you pay attention and get stuff done (taxes, credit cards) - you'll be fine. Besides - you're earning something tangible, which makes it all the more better than getting through something not too useful.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate, and very much agree with, your point about simply having fun and enjoying life. However, you seem to indicate that this can somehow be achieved by cutting back on specialization. You state that "high school needn't be so specialized."
ReplyDeleteOne of your qualms was that a "hard" educational experience "[ruins] childhoods." However, keep in mind that every student has their own strengths and weaknesses. What may be hard for some might come easily for others. What, other than increased specialization, can address this issue?
Your other point was that high school, despite the significant investment of time and effort that it demands, is "not too useful." It it clear, however, that every student has his or her own needs. It is only by addressing those personal needs that education can be useful. Again, specialization is the solution, not the issue.
The two arguments I see against specialization are students not really knowing what they want, and infeasibility due to lack of resources.
ReplyDelete"Hour long commutes are not"
ReplyDelete...now you know how the rest of us feel...
"High school needn't be so specialized, it really needs to culture kids to their needs and make sure they have fun."
Are you sure your problem is with the specialization? It sounds like you're unhappy with the _lack_ of specialization. I mean, I'm taking three physics and one math next semester, and I only wish I could have done this sooner.
Saketh raises the point of resources, and students not knowing what they want. We can avoid these with an "open" educational system. Just hold classes like we do now, but allow students to drift from lecture to lecture. If a student dislikes something, he can easily move away from it, and similarly, this system doesn't require any more resources than we already use. Sure, it's a radical departure from status quo pedagogy, but isn't that what we need?
I need to rephrase what I meant by specialization. I mean that we needn't specialize so much into every subject. Truly, I think APUSH is much more than I need if I'm going to be a science and tech person, and AP Physics is also too much for an art major. We don't need to teach such specialized material to everyone is what I have qualms against.
ReplyDeleteYou don't need to take APs in any subject, in fact those are supposed to be subjects you want to know more about. However I am a proponent of requiring basic classes in all subject areas. Not only is a well-rounded education healthy for critical skills, it allows students to figure out what they like, since not everyone immediately knows. Without the required freshmen compsci, odds are I still would have been a bio kid. For most people high school (even the first couple years of college) is a time to take random things and figure out their interests. For those who do know what they want, there are specialized classes- like APs. But blaming a liberal arts AP for being too much for a physics student, is a self-induced problem.
ReplyDeleteIf I understood Zeming's clarification correctly, what he really meant by 'specialized' was 'advanced.' That is, he believes that advanced courses in subjects outside of a student's chosen area(s) of expertise are unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteYes, devotion of time and energy to subjects irrelevant to your interests probably detract from the applicability of your high school experience to your later life. However, this takes us to the issue of providing students adequate exposure to the options available to them before asking them to select their areas of interest. As Anastassia points out, a well-rounded education allows students to make an informed decision when it comes to selecting their field(s) of specialization.
Additionally, mandatory coursework is actually fairly flexible in allowing the student to select his or her depth of involvement. Yes, you have to take a physics class in your Junior year - but you can choose between the introductory class and the AP course. Yes, you have to take a course on US History. But again, you have the choice to take the normal class or the AP course. So when you complain that APUSH and AP Physics are too advanced for people who aren't specifically interested in history and physics, it begs the question of why those people are taking such courses in the first place.