If you controlled education, what it would be like? - Where kids actually learn real things

[Xarpho]

Splitting off from an A&H article which discusses adults wanting life skills taught at school instead of academic subjects, what would a good school set-up be like, in a way that actually educates kids and doesn't crush their souls?

Personally, I wouldn't try to do some whole "from-scratch" makeover with no teachers, no homework, changing schedules, and exiling "problem students", or whatever.

The biggest things I would do would make a class that teaches home economics mandatory, which includes everything from basic sewing skills (a button on a shirt) to automotive (change a tire) to cooking.

Second thing I would do is rework the history class entirely, with an emphasis on "why things are the way that they are" that set up current economic and social situations today. No focus on race/women subjects for representation and definitely no critical race theory. World War II will include focus on exactly why Hitler hated Jews and others, and the problems with Weimar Germany, even if Nazi Germany's actions aren't justified.

It's late (early) for me, and I need to go to sleep soon, so I can't think of much others.

 

[Stephanie Bustcakes]

If you controlled education, what it would be like?​

I'd teach op proper grammar.

 

[DumbDude42]

Spoiler: we all know it's the best option

 

[garakfan69]

Second thing I would do is rework the history class entirely, with an emphasis on "why things are the way that they are" that set up current economic and social situations today

So things no two historians can agree on?
History should be about cold hard facts first.

 

[Poppavalyim Andropoff]

School would be work hours.9-5.
Boxing in phys ed

The biggest things I would do would make a class that teaches home economics mandatory, which includes everything from basic sewing skills (a button on a shirt) to automotive (change a tire) to cooking.

In other words just roll back the curriculum 50 years?

 

[Carlos Weston Chantor]

 

[Lemmingwise]

Controlled education? For everyone? Probably instill a culture of personality about how everything everyone has is thanks to me.

 

[Sexy Senior Citizen]

Reading, writing, and arithmetic as a start. Follow up with history- both the good and the bad. Then science, and hammer home that science cannot be changed to suit a political agenda. Finally, at the age of 13, begin to teach skills like cooking, cleaning, balancing checkbooks, etc. Establish a foundation, build on that, and never forget that certain things (like sex ed) should be taught by the parents.

 

[Green Banana]

Home ec, shop class, gym, all ordered towards maintaining a household and a career in a trade. Nobody has to go past 8th grade. Higher ed kids learn Greek and Latin, as these are the languages of instruction in Universities.

 

[Sped Xing]

Just constant exhortations for kids to kill themselves. The strong will survive.

 

[Slappy McGherkin]

First things first, I'd hire teachers that could actually teach and impart knowledge, not follow some rando educational/political mantra passed along by the government. I'd also bring back civics to the classroom and have students somehow serve/participate within their local community, be it an individual or group project level. Emphasis on core curriculum math, English, science, history with everyone held to the same standard. Life skills classes would be mandatory (as someone mentioned above) - financial skills (checking accounts, savings, investments using credit wisely, etc.), basic automotive knowledge, running and budgeting for a household, cooking, etc. I'd also have a class on life choices with college being optional, not the current schtick of the only way you can succeed in life is by indebting yourself and going to college. With that, there would be a heavy emphasis on apprenticeships with the trades in the local community (no shame in being a butcher at the local market, computer programming, or many other trades). ROTC would also be a choice. Social Studies would also be mandatory, but not in the sense of just looking at other cultures, but how to actually communicate and function within society as a whole.

Hell, I don't know what school even is these days. But yeah, I have strong opinions about what it should be to prepare you for life as an adult.

 

[verissimus]

Social Studies would also be mandatory,

I don't know about that, and this is coming from somebody whose side-hobby is enjoying history (well parts of it at any rate). I think only some "social studies" should be mandatory those being the history of your country, civics (high school level), some geography, and macro economics (high school). To me, history was generally meaningless until high school (excluding 7th grade geography for me anyway). I knew and learned far more outside the classroom than in.

 

[Helvítis Túristi]

A lot of people bring up good ideas for education, but I would also add in the truth behind the communist revolutions. Which individuals spread the ideas, who funded it, how they were able to get power, and most importantly the genocides they conducted. I'm aware of no one in current academia that actually talks about the crimes committed by communists in a truthful manner. More people need to be educated on the who, the why, the how, and the when.

 

[Slappy McGherkin]

I don't know about that, and this is coming from somebody whose side-hobby is enjoying history (well parts of it at any rate). I think only some "social studies" should be mandatory those being the history of your country, civics (high school level), some geography, and macro economics (high school). To me, history was generally meaningless until high school (excluding 7th grade geography for me anyway). I knew and learned far more outside the classroom than in.

Agree, in my day social studies was completely different than history, though. It was more like reading National Geographic that focused on the cultures of the world, not the history of the world. None of that really taught me HOW to function within society itself, which is the point I was making. With everybody currently wearing masks and living in mom's Asperger basement until their 30's these days, there's a definite need for social skills, so maybe calling it social studies isn't the correct term anymore.

 

[verygayFrogs]

>Home Ec
> Government/Economics earlier than last year of high school and teach how the government is supposed to work and how you can get fucked over
>How the Minds of dictators work so you can understand why Hitler hated the Jews, the shit in Russia etc
> Actually decent food bc it’s either starve, eat shit or hope that you have some other source (Ie a culinary class, homemade lunches, local joints)
Just things that won’t make you a drooling idiot.
Also every special Ed either has a buddy to stop them or wrangler bc no one needs to deal with tard wrangling at 8 like I did

 

[Tism the Return]

People wouldn't learn anything, makes the population easier to control.
...
But that's what's happening already anyway!

 

[Absolutego]

-Don't group subjects by grade. Have levels that students can test into for each of them, like University. This allows kids with interest in certain topics to advance (maybe with some limits so the 8 year old who loves math isn't put in pre-algebra with 13 year olds), and doing it for separate subjects minimizes the social impact skipping an entire grade can have.
-Don't teach History as one narrative of the human story. This invites all sorts of ideologues to worm their way in and spin a narrative upon the children, as we see with every single controversy over history courses for the last century. Instead teach the discipline of history, how to evaluate and compare viewpoints, and the value of knowing the history of subjects you like. Political history should be broken into elective-style courses, with maybe a few different flavors of National History offered so parents can enroll their kids in the one they want them to learn instead of fighting over who is in what.
-Bring back Civics, so we don't have grown-ass adults asking what a veto is every time our Congresscritters and the Executive get into a spat.
-Especially as kids get older, physical education should focus less on team sports/group coordination and more on finding students a physical outlet they will continue to do as adults (with an obvious exception for the kids in organized sports). Things like running, cycling, climbing, swimming, weightlifting if that's what they're into, etc.

 

[verissimus]

Here's another thing that I've discussed once or twice with my brother and that is insisting on making all (not some, not most, but all excluding seminars) courses at the high school level semester long. I know a few are already that way, but I think all should be for mainly one reason. That reason being that it would easier and, I'd imagine infinitely preferable, for any one student to catchup with their classmates over the summer than to repeat a whole year.

I'm also of the opinion that more should be done during the summer but nothing grand. Make it something simple like classes, seminars (essentially short classes), or projects for students to do.

 

[WeWuzFinns]

Step 1. Fire all teachers.
Step 2. Hire entertaining people to make online courses.
Step 3. Automate the exam process. Math and multiple choices are easy to automate. In open questions keep up the illusion of manual review and this doesn't even really matter because you are forced to pass retard kids anyway nowadays and smart kids do their best which is enough. If they complain about their grades give them better grade.
Step 4. Make sure everyone gets these courses for free.
Step 5. Use the saved tax money to bomb the shit out of brown kids schools in some sandy shit hole.
Step 6. Watch the teachers seethe and leftists dilate.

 

[Make Anime Illegal]

I would abolish it.

I was homeschooled as a kid. My "math class" was my parents giving me an algebra 2/trigonometry/etc. book and telling me to read it and take each chapter test, and then take the cumulative test at the end. This obviously worked because I was able to take a calculus class at the local community College while still in highschool and get an A. I also did very well on my SATs and was accepted into university with no problems. And the amount of effort it took was, literally, about 1% of the effort I would have spent in a conventional math class.

"Education" by definition is something somebody else does. But learning basic math/science/etc. at the level schools teach is something kids could do on their own. It should be like doing chores, like it was for me. Your parents say "do this chapter and prove you learned it before you play video games or whatever."