Separate but not equal

I’ve been wanting to blog lately, but I’ve been extremely busy. This past weekend was spent in Austin with Skyprincess’s friends. It was a short, yet busy weekend. I’m still recovering from lack of sleep. I don’t see that happening this weekend, it’s another busy one. I’m flying to Philly for a face-to-face interview with SAP America. Then a company in Denver is interested in an on-site interview also, we just need to determine when I can be available to make the trip. I was thinking I might be able to leave the Philly interview and get to Denver that afternoon, but the flights won’t put me there until 5pm. It might be another week.

I found this article the other day which I wanted to blog about, but I think I’m going to pass. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. For me, it’s another strike against encouraging science in America.

I think I want to talk about the talk radio discussion I heard this morning.

I only caught 15 minutes of the discussion, but it was about what could be done to improve America’s public schools. What I noticed was all the normal options were being thrown out. Longer school days. More money to pay teachers. Magnet schools. Administering standardized tests for student promotion. Reducing administrative expenses. Consolidating school districts. School vouchers.

Again, nothing new. Nothing that hasn’t been tried before and failed.

Instead of being one of those who screams “fix it!” but doesn’t supply a “how-to”, I’m going to give you “Mizike’s plan to fix public school”. You may recognize some of the ideas. They’ve been presented before. Why not use them?

For the most part, K-6 would remain pretty much the same. I would change the current text books, since they are failing the students. I would remove any ability of special interests in deciding the course materials. The text books will be standardized nationally, and not determined by local school districts. Any politically derived content will be removed. To read more about the failure of textbooks, read this MSNBC article.

I would also change the focus of some courses. For example, the focus of English should now become composition and creative writing. Writing skills for most Americans are abysmal. And I count myself in that group. My writing skills embarrass me at times. Americans have no clue how to write, and that needs to be taught very early. English should no longer be just conjugating and memorizing spelling lists.

The core courses should be English/Composition, Science, Math, Geography, Social Studies, Art or Music, and foreign language.

Foreign Language would be one of the most severe changes. Starting with K, I would mandate 3 hours each day for foreign language. Each student would be required to take these languages from K to 6th grade. They would be Spanish, French, and Mandarin.

With the extra 3 hours, it would require longer school days. To offset the class time taken away by the language classes, I would change the school year to be the full 12 months with 2 weeks off for Christmas, 2 weeks off for a summer break, and normal holidays. There will no longer be the 3 months break for summer.

Public school would change drastically at 7th grade (Middle School). I would model my school much like the Japanese school system. Each student will need to prepare themselves for testing to get into their next school. Depending upon which school the student wishes to go to, they will work with a counselor to pick their schedule. They would need to score well enough to get accepted to their school of choice. This will make sense in the next paragraph.

In the 9th grade, schools will be broken down into specific fields of study. This is similar to the school for performing arts in NY. If a student pursues a trade skill, the school will focus on trade skill related classes. These would not be your typical “Shop Class” we grew up with. These schools would be high quality craftsman schools taught be true artisans. Woodworking, metal skills, etc. This will prepare the student for those trades when they graduate. If anyone thinks this is a poor choice for students, just try to hire a plumber. Oh, I’d also make sure business classes are mandatory. These would not be your typical accounting classes, but classes that will give real world experience and expectations.

Of course, there will still be basic educational requirements that will be standardized. Math, science, etc. During these classes, students from all schools will attend. This will allow the social interaction that the segregated schools prevent.

There could be a school for performing arts, if a student wishes to become an artist. Music classes, music composition classes, sculpture, etc. Again, taught by true artisans.

I would also add seminary schools for those seeking to serve their religious beliefs.

Then there would be the college prep schools. They would be focused on the degree program you wish to pursue. Pre-med, law, science, etc. You would be tested every 4 months. If you are not making progress in your studies, you will be removed from the program and must pick a trade school to attend.

The focus of these changes is to provide the student with the necessary skills to have a skill set they can make a living with. Each student will need to work hard to achieve their goal. No longer can we afford the idea of entitlement. No longer can we accept the premise every student is entitled to go to college. Because it’s not true. Look at all the hundreds of thousands of students who never finish college. It’s because they have the idea of entitlement. They are entitled to go to college, but it doesn’t click that they need to work to succeed. It should be a privilege to go to college.

Here are the bigger changes.

I would abolish all non-public schools. I will make it illegal for any private schools of any type.

It is a sad historical fact. After the civil rights changes on the 50s and 60s, private schools began to flourish. School integration came about when the idea of ‘separate but equal’ proved false. The idea you can segregate classes or races of people, and still teach equal quality education.

Public school today has integrated as far as race is concerned. But we now have a class system where those with more money can receive a better education than low income people.

I would take away those private schools and force all students into public school systems. Next, I would take away locally funded school systems. All schools will be funded from a national budget. The quality of the school will no longer be based on the local tax brackets of the residents.

Public schools have funding problems. People do not want to pay the taxes to raise the quality of many public schools. The social groups (rich folks mainly) who can actually affect changes to the system will now be required to take action. They will see that public schools are sufficiently funded, since it now affects their children.

That’s my plan. I would like to throw in this, that has nothing to do with our education system, but I would want to implement. I would change citizenship requirements. There would be 2 classes of residents. Full-Citizens, with full rights to vote, hold elected office, etc; and Resident-Citizens, residents will full protection of the law but they cannot vote or hold an elected office. The difference is one group has taken the responsibility to lead the country; the other will be a protectorate of the country.

So how do you gain full-citizenship? Does this sound familiar? It’s like the book Starship Troopers (the book is far better than the movie, which sucked). You would give 2 years of your life to public service. You can serve as in the military or in non-military roles, such as the post office or some other government capacity.

Well... time to go back to work.