In one of the other chorus classes that I wasn't in, a student asked to go to the bathroom, didn't get permission, so he peed in front of everyone in the auditorium.
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In one of the other chorus classes that I wasn't in, a student asked to go to the bathroom, didn't get permission, so he peed in front of everyone in the auditorium.
I would make English a non-compulsory in senior years, not because I didnt like it (I took the highest english courses there were in Highschool) but some of the people in my normal english class clearly didnt want to be there and were just disrupting to the class. Also about phones, I get the rule against using them in class but we werent allowed to use them in school (people still did) which I felt was abit much.
Oh yea and we were required to take a foreign language for the first two years, we had a choice of French and Italian. The french class was taught by an Irish guy, hilarious accent inssued.
At my high school we WERE required to take two years of a foreign language and our options were: Spanish, French, German and Japanese. I chose German because it seemed the most interesting to me. My appologise to Germans out there, but it was an utter waste of time. I never ever use it. I should have taken Spanish like everyone else.
Of course, now I wish I'd taken Japanese! Haha!
As for what I'd change . . . ugh, so many things. I don't have the energy right now to even start.
America does encourage learning another language. Why do you think there's so many American schools that require people to take a language class? Where I'm from, elementary school students have to take Spanish and it goes from there all the way to middle school until they can decide what language they wanna take -- they have four choices which are Spanish, French, German and Italian. In a town next to us, they teach Latin and Japanese in addition to those choices.
(also stupid edit button)
So how come barely any Americans* can speak a foreign language and so many Europeans can?Quote:
Originally Posted by Shiny
* To be fair that's the whole Anglosphere, and the reason is because English is Earth's dominant language and we don't have to learn anything else to get by so why bother, but yeah, point stands.
To everyone I knew in my school, foreign language in our school systems is more of a "Just get it over with so you look better to colleges/get your credits" and then promptly forgetting it, as opposed to actually learning to retain and speak another language. I don't know one person who still speaks another language (learned in school, that is) from my town.
I would say most of the languages taught in the American school system are difficult to learn. Not to say English isn't a hard language to learn -- it definitely is, but I think Americans strive more in closely related languages like Spanish where there's a lot of cognates. I know plenty of Americans who speak fluent Spanish and/or French. I also think there's several factors in how people are able to learn languages and I find that many of those people have family members who were teaching it to them at a young age. But, most American schools make learning other languages mandatory. It isn't the school system telling people not to learn other languages and learn about other cultures, it's the fact that many people realize they don't have to so many of them don't bother after High School. So all in all, them not mastering a language is more so them failing the system than the system failing them imo. *shrug*
Ich kann ein wenig Deutsch sprechen. I got to be pretty proficient at German during high school, but I've lost almost all of it if only because in the years since I've learned it, I've never had a reason to speak it outside of class.
At any rate, I had 5.5 years of foreign language in my middle school and high school, and that was pretty standard for my district, so I wouldn't say it was never encouraged. We had Latin, German, Spanish, and French to choose from. Our schools also used to offer Russian until they dropped it due to lack of interest.
You remind me of a babe~Quote:
Originally Posted by Rye
They pushed the two years of foreign language pretty heavily at our school because it was req'd for a pretty nice scholarship from the state. We only had two choices, though, and that was just barely 8)
I'd make schooling less compulsory in the sense of requiring certain subjects to be learned, and give the students control over what they learn.
It may seem like a disaster at first, but in reality, when someone wants to do something, they'll want to learn how to do it.
I feel like learning alot of useless things in high school and then getting somewhat prepared in college is really stupid when you could be learning and experiencing what you wanna do from early on if given the chance.
I remember reading about schools that ran like this in my sociology class and the kids who stuck with it were always more successful than compulsory educated children.
I think the lack of faith in a person's innate thirst for knowledge is what inhibits the education system.
The babe with the power...
Anyway, I could probably rant about two pages of crap that needs to be done with my countries educational system cause frankly it sucks and sadly college alone showed me that I should actually be somewhat grateful for going to private school (despite it being a psycho Baptist school). Anyway, I will just try to list things in as less detail as I can.
- Yes, teach a foreign language and do it early (elementary age, probably first or second grade) that way it has a better chance of actually sticking instead of waiting til kids are in puberty and only care about disrespecting authority and getting laid. :roll2
- With teaching this language, also teach about the culture itself. I took Spanish for years and until I took my Chicano class, I never realized how little I actually know about the Spanish speaking countries of the world. I also feel its better for us to learn about cultures in general. This narrow "our country is the best" mentality we teach in school has to stop. I'm completely amazed how little people in my country actually know about other countries even when they are somewhat directly involved with them.
- Give teachers more room to actually teach their own way and stop trying to "standardize" teaching. Life is not something you can make a formula and hope to god everyone is affected by it in the same way. Teaching and education are an organic thing and should be constantly evolving. Also, we need a special tax which goes towards the teacher's salary alone cause these people get paid like crap and they are dealing with shaping future generations. Not a good combo in my book.
We need more work in gym and the arts. My school had crappy funding for music and art so I felt rather screwed over by it. Gym became a no show in high school cause everyone assumed if you cared you would join a sport team but personally I don't like American football or baseball. Screw you, I just want some physical activity and I ended up seeking it outside of the school system. Our country has a huge obesity issue so gym should be mandatory until you get out of school :colbert:
Very yes. I actually think that Home Ec. or a class like it should be a mandatory credit for highschool freshmen - I can't believe how inept some people are at these things. I actually thought sewing was a relatively common thing for people to know until about six months ago when a bunch of kids at my old highschool were amazed by me sewing in the halls at lunch > _ >. It was something really simple, too ... I think I was repairing my friends bag or something.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rye
Then again that highschool was daft.
Oh oh ho! I agree with the foreign language thing (in Canadaland, French is mandatory until after grade 9), but I also think that Latin should be taught too. It really gave me a better grasp of grammar and etymology and a bunch of other linguistic crap (although you would never guess ;p)
Ive always been confused about the whole middle school/highshool thing in America (We go from primary Kindergarten-6 to highschool 7-12), how many years of schooling do you actually go through? Are theyre actually two physical different schools you go to from middle to high? It was frustrating having to make new friends after primary school it would be very annoying to have to do it twice. And what does someone mean when they say "Freshman" without context, are they talking about middle school freshman or highschool freshman?
In this country (Pakistan) education for the elites tend to be private and on top of that there are a plethora of private tutoring institutes that further enhance a youths education.
Public education is somehow doable here but not y much.
Tuition fee for education is every where here and if you want free education here, don't expect much
As I said, English is predominantly spoken widely here. In fact its also not so surprising that other non native languages are spoken here as..Not a whole lot but you can a person intermixing German to Urdu and English as smoothly as you can.
For me I can can speak a lil japanese other than my native language (which btw I am quite horrid at). What even is more surprising is that I can mimic other speech pattern if I'm talking amongst certain ethnic groups....
I do wish though that higher education would one day be free as well for the masses, but I guess it'll be past my lifetime I suppose...