EDUCATION REFORM ANYONE?

You know, I'm sitting there in class the other day and wondering why in the hell do I have to take Elementary Algebra when I've already taken it in high school and the fact that I'm a Film major - a field that has no academic correlations whatsoever to Algebraic mathematics. Better yet, why is it that I have to take College Composition or Intermediate Chemistry to graduate? This is college - higher education - should I not be learning more on which angle works best for an exterior shot or how light interferes with the camera lens's sensitivity.

Now I have a theory that I believe holds the reason as to why we still have these academics as a requirement to graduate. Long ago, scholars were short in numbers, therefore the need for someone who understood more than a single field of academics were high, education alone was a career in itself back then, thus the need to be (as those who are proponents of advanced education for basic/primary schools) "well-versed". It has continued to a point till now where those in seats of hierarchy within colleges/universities (i.e. presidents, vice presidents, deans, etc.) see this as an opportunity to line their pockets even more. What better way to get more money out of students than to make some classes mandatory, I mean if they were to get only what they needed to know for their career fields, they'd be in and out in no time and they'd have spent probably not as much as students really do nowadays.

I don't know about you guys, but after calculating everything I found that practically two-thirds of the time and money I've spent to graduate with a degree in film was for things OTHER than film classes (i.e. math, science, english, etc.)..what...the...f***?...

Not only in college, but also in high school. My bigger question is why do we put so much emphasis on academics that we don't even use in the ordinary life? When was the last time I needed to use my knowledge of algebra or chemistry to get through my day-to-day tasks? Let me as you this, why is it that we still remember how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, yet can't remember how to solve 'x + y = ?' or some equation of that sort. Time in school would be better spent on teaching us how to further survive in the world. When I got out of high school, I didn't know what a down payment was, I didn't know what a 401K was, I didn't know where to go to vote for politicians, and I almost killed my employer when I saw that I got less than what I was expecting in my paycheck cause I didn't know that taxes were to be deducted from my pay. It's as my friend said: "You know, when I got out of high school, I didn't know how to pay for my car, I didn't know what banks meant by 'interest', and I didn't know I could appeal for a court hearing if I got a ticket if I felt wrongly accused...but jeez, ain't it great that I can at least explain to you in detail what Pythagorean's Theory is?".

How about we start learning some of these stuff in class, I only had one semester (4 months) of economy class and one semester of government class, and they went by pretty fast, too fast to get into detail what many things I've learned the hard way. Nowadays, you even have jobs that won't hire you cause you don't have a degree. I remember back then when all you needed was your high school diploma and the employer of any simple part-time job wouldn't ask for any other qualifications (I heard of McDonalds now needing certain positions like shift leaders/shift supervisors or assistant managers needing at least a Bachelors degree to qualify...dude, again...what the f***?). Look, I'm not one to trash any form of academics, if a guy wants to be a scientist, make sure he passes chemistry, if a guy wants to be a mathematician, he better learn calculus, but for us everyday, average person that doesn't plan to be in those expertise, I think our time in school/college would be better filled with other academic subjects.

I thought about detailing out how I would reform education if I was Secretary of Education, but I didn't want to extend my statement too long or to a point of lethargy. Anyways, what are your thoughts on this?

Agree but that's life

lairefaerie wrote: Agree but that's life

Doesn't have to be.

Being an education major, I took BS classes until my senior year where I am actually in the classroom finally teaching. It made sense and really kicked my tail into gear learning about augmented Italian/German sixth chords, counterpoint, learning to compose and analyze Bach Chorales, taking basic math and writing courses, Bible study (stupid) and finally nutrition. Yeah, when I stepped into a classes of all grades k-12, where was the time management, dealing with parents class, legal classroom management discipline strategies, people and office skills for school employees? I'm looking and figuring out all that crap right now and writing lesson plans to save my life, I rarely teach 10% music during my classroom time. I am so disappointed that my professors are laughing at me now when I bring this concern up and ask them why they didn't prepare me for this my Freshman year instead of throwing music theory down my throat. They still laugh...

We SO need education reform for college.

I had the same experience you had regarding being forced to take high-school or even junior high level math in college. When I opened the $91 book (removed the plastic), I got pissed. Because I was in the class for more than 3 days, I was not allowed to get my money back for anything - which was about $300 down the drain. When I bitched at the office, I was told I cold take the exemption test for both the easy math and the easy English. So, did both, but had to pay out of pocket, since financial aid refused to cover either. Of course, I passed both, since they were stupid-easy !

Based on my compass scores, I feel I should've not even been required to take the exemption test for these two classes. I also think those two classes should've been remedial classes.

The college text books are way over-priced and I think there is a racket going on there with them. Some of the courses are also stupid-easy and should either be condensed into one harder class or into a cheaper mini-mester.

Part of the problem is also lack of federal oversight or, at least, some type of objective rating system. The teachers may be highly educated, but, because they are students themselves, they aren't giving much effort into organzing their classes and informing students of what needs to be done when. So, if a student gets something wrong because of the teacher, her grades or transcript suffers. I withdrew from an English class because the teacher refused to give us the book code for a whole week (and I hated him), long after the 3-day deadline to withdraw without consequences. So, not only was I charged for the book and class, but there is a permanent negative mark on my transcript until the day I die ! Now, I withdraw on day 3 if I feel any misgivings at all.

Books at the bookstore are sold out, so students don't have the book for 10 days or more, yet their first book assignment is due on day 7. How crappy is that ?!

In some of my in-class sessions, teachers allowed students to cheat, talk on the phone, text answers to each other, ect...

I am very discouraged about college. I have even had some crying fits and panic attacks.

And, yes, some of the classes are unnecessary for a person's future career goal.
Many of the programs are fully covered by financial aid even though the program is unneeded in the US and may never benefit the student after graduation. And, if the student merely gets a C grade, he or she is still covered. There is little incentive, from a financial aid point of view, to get really good grades.

Also, my first semester, I had a 98.5 average in all classes, but it is calculated as a mere A, which could be a mere 90 avg for someone else. This pissed me off. When it happened in another semester, it meant I had a 3.85 avg, because I got a (high) B in one out of the 4 classes. In the other 3 classes, I had a 97.5 avg. So, the way things are calculated pisses me off. I no longer try nearly as hard now. After all, a 90 is as good as a 100 !!!

I am not too familiar with the education system in there but I am just happy that in our school we only have to take single courses of each school subject. I study photography and I am very happy that the emphasis is on the photography and not everything else. Ofcourse if it was up to me I wouldn't take any courses on photojournalism ( ) BUT I understand why they are important courses for someone who is studying photography.

I don't even know what this gives to this particular conversation but I blame that fact that in here it is 1.08 am so I should have been asleep several hours ago.

JackOfAllTrades wrote:

lairefaerie wrote: Agree but that's life

Doesn't have to be.

Actually it does, at least for our generation.
Even if you did become extremely motivated beyond just ranting (let's be honest, you won't, few people do and that's why we read about them in history books) and seek to really change education, by the time your fruits came to harvest you'd be dead and gone.
So for us, it has to be this way, that's just how it is.

lairefaerie wrote:

JackOfAllTrades wrote:

lairefaerie wrote: Agree but that's life

Doesn't have to be.

Actually it does, at least for our generation.
Even if you did become extremely motivated beyond just ranting (let's be honest, you won't, few people do and that's why we read about them in history books) and seek to really change education, by the time your fruits came to harvest you'd be dead and gone.
So for us, it has to be this way, that's just how it is.

So...you're saying this is so we WOULD start an education reform? Sorry Mattie, but not really getting what you're saying.

JackOfAllTrades wrote:

lairefaerie wrote:

JackOfAllTrades wrote:

lairefaerie wrote: Agree but that's life

Doesn't have to be.

Actually it does, at least for our generation.
Even if you did become extremely motivated beyond just ranting (let's be honest, you won't, few people do and that's why we read about them in history books) and seek to really change education, by the time your fruits came to harvest you'd be dead and gone.
So for us, it has to be this way, that's just how it is.

So...you're saying this is so we WOULD start an education reform? Sorry Mattie, but not really getting what you're saying.

Well I'm not trying to be negative but honestly, it's just not gonna happen unless you make it happen. People don't care enough. You're showing interest, so are you going to do something about it? If you don't, nothing changes. Ever.

im all for making seifuku a required uniform