Do teachers teach or do students learn? Can teachers teach without students and can students learn without teachers? It is obvious that students CAN learn without teachers, so what role does the teacher play in education? Many subjects can be learned, without help, by anyone who can read. Other subjects require some explanation to expedite the learning and others are nearly impossible to learn without expert guidance. In either of the cases cited, an ability to read is essential. The teacher's primary skill should be the ability to instill and stimulate the desire to learn.
Mathematics and certain sciences which are more difficult to comprehend than, for example, History, require more "teaching". The grammatical part of English requires more teaching than the literary part. The current model of education does not make this distinction. Teachers should " teach" the hard stuff and students can "learn" everything else on their own. Why spend time teaching something that can be learned without a teacher?
Class size has been a long-standing complaint of teachers. This could easily be addressed by cutting the school attendance week to three days, half the student body at a time. This would require a six day school week. The subjects which require little more than assigning work to be done could be done independent of classroom attendance. Let's call it homework. This method is very successful among homeschoolers. Including some degree of independent study can help encourage other independent learning.
As indicated above, the ability to read and, of course, comprehend is essential to learning. For this reason, no child who cannot read at grade level should be allowed to advance, only to continue to fail, until that deficiency is corrected. It would be better to correct the problem to prevent future failure than to promote failure.
Fairness has been the hallmark of free nations. One of the few places fairness, and common sense, has been lacking is in our schools. Bad behavior by some students disrupts the learning of many others. Most attempts to separate these students from the general population are thwarted by an attempt to be "fair" to those who are disruptive without regard for "fairness" for the victims. Until this issue is addressed and corrected, the public school system will continue to fail.
Mathematics and certain sciences which are more difficult to comprehend than, for example, History, require more "teaching". The grammatical part of English requires more teaching than the literary part. The current model of education does not make this distinction. Teachers should " teach" the hard stuff and students can "learn" everything else on their own. Why spend time teaching something that can be learned without a teacher?
Class size has been a long-standing complaint of teachers. This could easily be addressed by cutting the school attendance week to three days, half the student body at a time. This would require a six day school week. The subjects which require little more than assigning work to be done could be done independent of classroom attendance. Let's call it homework. This method is very successful among homeschoolers. Including some degree of independent study can help encourage other independent learning.
As indicated above, the ability to read and, of course, comprehend is essential to learning. For this reason, no child who cannot read at grade level should be allowed to advance, only to continue to fail, until that deficiency is corrected. It would be better to correct the problem to prevent future failure than to promote failure.
Fairness has been the hallmark of free nations. One of the few places fairness, and common sense, has been lacking is in our schools. Bad behavior by some students disrupts the learning of many others. Most attempts to separate these students from the general population are thwarted by an attempt to be "fair" to those who are disruptive without regard for "fairness" for the victims. Until this issue is addressed and corrected, the public school system will continue to fail.
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