Education

I need to clean up all of these posts maybe add pictures and links in the near future. But for now i will continue with education.

Over the years i have read so many articles about No Child Left Behind and how the school system needs revamping. But what have we done? Not much. The problem i propose is public school systems in the US.

Here is a list of problems and solutions.
1. Attracting teachers:
The pay needs to be based on merit rather then teaching longer. The average teacher takes 3 years to pay their college debt. Why try to teach? We need to encourage the best and the brightest to teach in the system. Merit pay can lead to the best teachers making easily enough to stay in the business from early years and lead to them actually caring if their class succeeds. There should also be rewards for teaching in the cities.
2. Private schools
My proposal is a private school system paid not by parents but by the state, at least to some extent. You choose the school, the state pays the amount it would to a public school you would go to. This will allow you to have very cheap private education and will force public schools to compete or go out of buisness. I believe private schools are good for 3 reasons:
a. they can kick kids out. It is extremely hard to kick kids out or punish in regular school. Acting out in class, fighting. What can a school do? Suspend you? So youll get to hang out out of school? At a private school they could have other kinds of disipline addressed in part 3.
b. parents pay. This means that they will pressure kids to stay in them and work hard.
c. are forced to do well. In the public sector we just through money at the problem. From 1978 to now we spent 2x as much adjusted for inflation on education. In the private sector you dont work you go out of buisness.
3. Disipline
I feel community service can be a disipline. Act out in class? Get sent to principal? Is suspension really going to help? Community service can show you the world around you and open your eyes. It can teach morals to kids and show them how they can succeed.
Also, allow kids to have to clean up if get in trouble like a lunch room or help a janitor. This would help to pay for certain aspects of a school for cheaper as well as be a big reason kids dont get in trouble as then they have to actually work.
4. Keep kids in school/good grades
The money idea proposed and utilized in inner city chicago has done very well. People i spoke to from debate and other activities after school there actually study because they instantly see an incentive from doing the activity. They get paid for extracurriculars, which will save Chicago well on its police budget (keep kids out of trouble) and get kids to learn more leading to a more equal and better future for america.
There is much more to post but i will save it for the future so as not to overwhelm in a single post. These include: educating for the future, educating for college, equalizing city students with those of the rest of the area, fixing the school day etc.

School

School. I have advocated for many years a change. Unfortunately Im 15, and even if i could get them argued by someone older, they still would take many years to change. But the need is urgent. This might be an old test, but it has been getting worse and worse with each year. The competition is fierce, and when if you only tie their scores they will seek out those workers as they will work for a lower price you need to encourage better.

The first thing I propose is a more equal teacher salary. I argue the investment in current teachers is leading to a wide difference between the best and worst, and in my society everyone will do better, thus leading to more entrepreneurial ability and more money/jobs in the long run. It is our mistake to not do this while other countries are.

Therefore: I want merit pay. This will mean a good first year teacher can make money and doesnt live their first three years paying off debt as studies have shown. It might weed out some teachers who could have improved later, but unfortunately that is the cost. Someone teaching for 20 years with an outdated teaching mentality, or a new teacher of 2 or 3 years who is top of the line. I agree the 20 year teacher will have experience, and if they show that, they should get more. One of the merit pay methods proposed should be used, I concede I do not have the experience or the time to read each plan offered.

Also we must change the curriculum. In math they have you memorize 50 formulas for the test. I personally have never memorized a single formula, maybe from excessive use. I learn them. Learning them is what needs to be done - anyone can go on google and just look up. But why even do that? If i go to my job and i need to know the area of a circle, google will tell me. Focusing on the methodology is key. Arriving at problems fastest, thinking in terms of logic more then just physical problems so it helps everyone in their future jobs, not just math majors.

Social Studies: Honestly, this class is ok in my school as the ones ive taken. If its a memorization class, only have it as an elective. Essays, Analysis, all those things can help us in the future, memorization of dates? Very little.

Foreign Language: I really do not like this class. I actually advocate something I am against. I advocate learning it like we learn english. For like chicago, there could be a facility where we can immerse ourselves in only spanish for a week after a few years taking. Learning spanish in a spanish environment is best, and it would be the same for all others. Also, our school focuses very little on culture, and honestly, those are the things that will be needed in future society.

Science: I like the way my chemistry teacher is teaching it and like chemistry. However i feel the classes taken as the "recommended" classes are ones very very few kids will major in and most people wont care about. Science can be a required 2 years of any order of classes with a wide variety offered.

English: This should focus on what you need in jobs. I understand the need to read books and stuff, but active read? Do as you want. Honestly... if you dont want to, its not purposeful. Also cut down on them as they wont help us in our jobs. In a world of sparknotes, etc. we dont need as much. Focus more on essays, learn about resumes, things that will always be needed, or at least for a while. Proposals, projects, ones that cross the borders of categories for jobs.

There are many more areas to be fixed, including AP tests, college application, etc. and i will likely cover in a future post.

The cons of the ACT and SAT

I feel they are not outdated. I feel they never should have existed. To me, a college should test on what it wants to get in. The individual college. Not only would it curb students from applying to the 10 schools they do now (unless they want to take 10 tests), it would also test what the individual college wanted.

In a study done at MSU almost 20 years ago, researchers found that as many as 50% of the items on a nationally standardized achievement test may cover topics that students wouldn't in the classroom in a given locality (Popham).

makes me feel good about that. Not only that, but teachers teach towards a standardized tests. If their students are going to a full range of colleges they'll be forced to teach what they believe is important, and not what will get a good score. Also, ACT/SAT tutors will be gone. You can't have an MSU teacher or a GW teacher, its to hard. It will cut down the gap of rich and poor as they wont have the people paying for a full time tutor vs minimal education.

That is if we need standardized tests at all...

Most standardized tests are written for the white middle/upper class. There are huge gaps between different groups (as shown on the site) like gender, racial group etc. The tests are written to trick students not test their intellect. People who arent good test takers are not taken into account and on the SAT the idea that if you get one low score it affects you even if you get a high one next time is absurd. One bad day can ruin your life.

There are so many reasons why these tests are bad and so few why they are good. If we need testing, let each individual college test you. My proposal: an online test/essay test. These two options allow for a student to be themselves and be weighed, take away from problems with tests and will allow for foreign language students to use tools at hand. Why handicap anyone from using tools theyll have in college? 

Superbowl

Football. It is one of my favorite sports. Since the 5^th grade, I’ve played tackle football in junior Spartans, and flag football even longer. Every year, I watch most of the bears games on television, although over the years as social commitments and school get in the way I watch less and less. The one definite has been watching the super bowl. The game is usually great, some years it has been a blowoff, but the one constant has been great commercials. This year however, I really didn’t see a single one that stood out, that was “great”. Or even that one that got ranked the worst, one godaddy takes pride in trying to get every year. Maybe it was the recession, maybe it was a lack of innovation. But the one thing that surprised me this year was the game. That’s right, the game actually was its own highlight this year. The first half, the game looked like it was going to be a blowout for the Steelers. But near the end, the safety instead of the Steelers getting out. Then there was the  touchdown to take the lead by 3 from a 13 point deficit. And then to end it all off, the touchdown to win it all, Steelers winning their 6^th super bowl, the most super bowl wins by a football team ever, and almost the first Super Bowl overtime. Super Bowl XLIII, football at its finest.