A specific school’s teaching may be bad, but the general principle that schools are there to give kids what they need, not what they want, seems like a basic one.
A specific school’s teaching may be bad, but the general principle that schools are there to give kids what they need, not what they want, seems like a basic one.
My kids NEED time to play outside and be physically active and learn social skills just have a joyful childhood.
School administrators WANT them to sit at desks doing rote learning for hours on end because its easier to control them and maybe there is some slight chance it raises their scores a bit on the state exam they (the administrators) are evaluated on (and if it doesn't, its the kids who pay the price anyway, not the administrator).
I don't think there is such a dichotomy between student needs and wants. Sure, don't feed them ice cream all day (though school lunches are barely better), but if we get beyond "don't cave into the kids most childish desires" there is less of a gap between wants and needs. My kids want to learn to read, etc. So long as it hasn't been force on them all day long.
P.S. This dichotomy was taken to the extreme during COVID, when in the name of giving kids what they "need", safety, they took away what they actually needed, "school, breathing the air freely."
That’s the approach taken by Montessori schools, but I don’t think it works for many important skills and values which young people need but are in no position to appreciate.
Please give me a voucher equiviliant to my schools k-12 spending so that I can exercise my beliefs about what would be best for my child.
I don’t find your explanation that you know better what my kids need compelling enough to deny me this. If you insist that your superior knowledge of what my kids “need” justifies denying me school choice, then I will no longer accept that it’s “fine if you believe that.” I suppose we will need to have a knock down drag out fight and only one of us can get the school run the way we want.
A specific school’s teaching may be bad, but the general principle that schools are there to give kids what they need, not what they want, seems like a basic one.
Let me phrase is differently.
My kids NEED time to play outside and be physically active and learn social skills just have a joyful childhood.
School administrators WANT them to sit at desks doing rote learning for hours on end because its easier to control them and maybe there is some slight chance it raises their scores a bit on the state exam they (the administrators) are evaluated on (and if it doesn't, its the kids who pay the price anyway, not the administrator).
I don't think there is such a dichotomy between student needs and wants. Sure, don't feed them ice cream all day (though school lunches are barely better), but if we get beyond "don't cave into the kids most childish desires" there is less of a gap between wants and needs. My kids want to learn to read, etc. So long as it hasn't been force on them all day long.
P.S. This dichotomy was taken to the extreme during COVID, when in the name of giving kids what they "need", safety, they took away what they actually needed, "school, breathing the air freely."
That’s the approach taken by Montessori schools, but I don’t think it works for many important skills and values which young people need but are in no position to appreciate.
That’s fine if you believe that.
Please give me a voucher equiviliant to my schools k-12 spending so that I can exercise my beliefs about what would be best for my child.
I don’t find your explanation that you know better what my kids need compelling enough to deny me this. If you insist that your superior knowledge of what my kids “need” justifies denying me school choice, then I will no longer accept that it’s “fine if you believe that.” I suppose we will need to have a knock down drag out fight and only one of us can get the school run the way we want.