Temporary Archive: Suzanne Brockmann's Message Board

"Now, what educational system would do that? Not sure—but it would be very well funded. It would be populated by accomplished thinker/teachers and those teachers would be widely seen as national assets. It would maximize technology and not be fixed in "proven methods". It would be lean and stripped of cumbersome technic or requirements. It would have diverse instructional methods and it would have diverse measures of success. It would be flexible and risk accepting. It would not differentiate* based on race, or social status (*in that, it would acknowledge everyone’s inherent right to succeed—if that required differentiation at a local level, that would be acceptable) It would focus on current events as the closest to future events that you can get. It would be critical of the decisions and actions of the United States as a means of self assessment."

This is almost verbatim the discussions my husband, friends and I have been having lately. In a perfect world this would be true. We are so far behind in math and science, but my 10 yr old has to conjugate a verb 25 times in one homework assignment and then pick out another 25 personal pronouns in another (2.5 hours a night of page after page of this). I want to scream. Yes, he gets this, it's busy work. I would much rather see him using this time to be challenged in math and science. The same is true with my 7 yr old, his class is doing the same math in 2nd grade he did in preschool. What a waste of potential! They are like sponges eager and ready for more challenging work and it's such a missed opportunity. BTW, I did meet with both their teachers and they now have more challenging math and less busy work.

"-Create a significant portion of population capable and adept at thinking"

This is a wonderful theory, but again, how do you accomplish this? Better schools, early education in critical thinking? Is it truly possible at all? I'm not sure this one is. From the general population you delt with just in the Navy do you think it is?