One of the pleasures for me monthly is the new edition of Discover magazine and Wired.
Both offer articles about what is being done in the world and the ideas that are created everyday. No matter how my day--or week--or month, etc........--is going I always find something that just wakes up the 8 year old me in the dusty corner of my brain that says--Aww that is Wicked Kool! Its kind of like a fountain of youth because I am always rejuvenated and rebuild my excitement about life.


In this months edition of discover is an article on the FIRST competition (For Inspiration And Recognition of Science and Technology)
Basically teams from high schools all over the country are to create a robot to perform a certain task--which changes every year--and compete against other schools.
The object is to create a sense of excitement about learning and getting interested in engineering and the like--which America is falling horribly behind in.
The results are that of the teen competitors a great many become interested in going on in the engineering pursuits. The biggest return is just how many of the kids realize that they can indeed do what they set their minds to and there are NO limits.

The disturbing line for me was where they mentioned that most kids will decide if they are "Smart" enough for such things by age 12!!!!

OMG!

The goal of the FIRST competition is to catch them before 17 and build their confidence and excitement about learning.

There have been many discussions here at AD over reasons why the education system in America is failing and why there seems to be a lack of respect for being educated in America and I am sure there will be many many more.

But what would YOU do to try and give learning the kind of buzz that equals sports or the EXTREME everything that goes around these days.

Contests? Change the way classes are presented? Propaganda--such as the TV spots with celebrities that attempt to build enthusiasm for learning.

I don't want Why it will never work! YOU have the power to initiate changes and need an idea to present to the president and 100 prospective funders.

Limit is only your imagination-- the goal is to help inspire the children of the country or the world.

Ready

Set

GO!

Well, this is just off the top of my head and not very well thought out. However, as my wife said. It is pretty basic, if you want kids to want to learn, then that learning needs be interesting and fun.

For example:

Why could we not use pool tables when teaching Geometry?

Why is it so important that children memorized dates in history class rather then focus on the events and what can be learned from them? Why not get students to re-enact events, perhaps with costumes and all. Maybe we could make this a tie in with drama classes and put on historically accurate plays.

When studying government, why not actively promote student involvement / volunteering on local campaigns (let them decide which side)? Take the kids to the local state legislature to watch them in action and give them the opportunity to meet their legislators to ask questions and maybe even challenge them?

Most schools have teachers of varying ideologies. Why not hold teacher debates on issues of the day for the kids to watch?

Why limit english classes to literature from the long forgotten past and not include brilliant works from modern times about events kids can relate to? Why limit reading skill development "see jack run" and the like instead of the power rangers or spongebob?

Math classes could use black jack, biology classes could actually have live animals in them again, computer classes could cover game programing, auto shop could actually repair and maintain school vehicles and take trips to local race tracks and visit the pits.

Take them to a local play, take them to a local monument, take them to the local zoo, take them to the local prison. USE all the resources you have available in your communities to make learning fun again.

Of course, there are other issues as well. One of the biggest issues in schools is the lack of parental involvement. So, why not institute parental awards? We reward kids for perfect attendance, why not do the same for parents when it comes to conferences, plays, etc? At work we reward those who go out of their way to do the best job they can. Why don't we recognize the parents for doing the same in regards to the school? How about a special party, held each year where all the parents who attended all the parent-teacher conferences were the only ones invited?

Another problem with parents is when the parents do not understand the material themselves. Why not create parent books for each class? Allow the parents to learn and understand the material and then give them ideas on how to help their children with it.

One of the big deterrents to learning is the classroom itself. Yet, the world in general is loaded with learning opportunities. When studying physical science, why not hold classes outside when weather permits? For that matter, when studying weather, why not hold classes outside when there is a storm? When studying history, why not bring the kids to the history and visit the local city history museum, local historical landmarks, etc?

I realize we have liability issues when it comes to field trips, so we would have to enact a law that makes the parental permission slips truly binding and limit legal actions to incidence of GROSS neglect(drunken bus driver and the like).

When it comes to technology, lets face it, most text books are horribly boring. Why not write the text books with the effort included to make them fun? A joke here and there, an funny story, etc. Include paragraphs that put what the children are studying the the context of their daily lives. What about an interactive CD or DVD that allows the students to see new reels or reenactments of events covered, scientific testing & exploration in action, etc?

Couldn't we develop educational video games?

There are a multitude of opportunities to make learning fun and make the lessons more real in the eyes of the kids. We need to think outside the box when it comes to education. What the government needs to do is pass legislation to severely limit the potential for legal action against the schools so that the Adminstrations can once again feel safe allowing field trips, animals in the classroom, etc.

Overlandsailor made some good points.

I am aware of how property taxes are assessed in Michigan because I sat in and watched as our current state constitution was being written. In four hours of watching, they failed to resolve the issue of whether a punctuation mark should be a comma or a semicolon; but I learned that tax assessments would be based on 50% of the fair market value. A co-worker learned that the hard way when he told a tax appraiser, "If you think my house is worth that much, I'll sell it to you for the appraised value."

In elementary school, we had to go outdoors and take weather measurements and make predictions. That 32 degrees F. is freezing became very memorable.

And yes, I think it is a brilliant idea to provide teaching guides for the parents! I don't know how many parents that I have heard complain "I never had to learn new math!" or "Children shouldn't be allowed to use calculators." When I was learning Set Theory and the like in High School, over forty years ago, it was placed in a historical context. It was only thirty years ago or so that it became "new math." Would you frequent a business that required its cashiers to tally everything up with a pencil, and wouldn't let them use cash registers or calculators? Would you trust your business records to a CPA that didn't trust computers? Using a calculator to do basic arithmetic is actually far more of a current life skill than memorizing addition and multiplication tables. Parents need to be aware that their children are learning necessary life skills in school, and they should worry more about letting teachers employ modern methods than drilling students on 18th century skills with 19th century methods. Teachers should try to let the parents know what their goals are in each class so that parents can help children reach those goals.


How about an idea that doesn't even need funding? Have the President of the United States read more often!

I have a poster of Jean-Luc Picard reading Shakespeare. The President of the United States however was seen on television saying, "I'd like to say I read those books, but that would be a lie." He has repeated often that he doesn't read newspapers. He doesn't read books. He doesn't read the memos that cross his desk every morning...

The President's wife is a librarian. Surely she could find the President something more interesting to read than My Pet Goat, and he could make a point of being seen with a book in his hand.

American children already watch too much television. Television and the President are giving our children a message that they can succeed without reading. I honestly doubt that 4 more jets will be hijacked if the President cracks another book. If, however, he tries to persuade children there is value in reading; perhaps they will listen.

Number one: Hire and reward creative teachers.

To do this, you must be involved in the politics and policies of your local school board.

Number two: Have a society which supports creative people receiving appropriate compensation.

To do this, you must be involved in the politics and policies of state and federal government to support the free market.