Sometimes said:
One thing I have been impressed with here in New Zealand, is that our school is focussing a great deal of energy on how to think well, and the ability to express, both verbally and in writing, a cohesive and convincing argument. Noone expected any kind of thought from me in public school, much less an original thought, until I got to College. I had a hell of a transition to make.
My generation of teachers are really focusing on differentiated instruction in the classroom, which gives kids more freedom to learn at their own pace and their own way, and what you have in New Zealand is what we want out of kids. It is so much easier to do now with the technology we have in the classroom. I teach in a the poorest county in my state, but my students all have 1 to 1 iPads. My kids create wikis, blogs, iMovies, all kinds of stuff to express their thoughts, arguments, and just general research on the information we facilitate too them.
It amazing what these guys come up with! For instance, remember in high school in chemistry class, we were forced to memorize the periodic table? Well the chem teacher had them make a video on what certain groups on the table and describe the elements. One group made a rap video, and it was really freaking good, and they had examples of things that had the elements in them. AND IT ALL RHYMED! It was so great. Then later on the year they built off of that knowledge and figured chemical reactions and such.
Any good teacher hits all levels of bloom's taxonomy in their lessons as well. This is where that real-world stuff people crave so much is.
As far as the article, Mickey wrote above, the first paragraph to me is somewhat correct, but in the elementary school levels. In high school, you don't have to go to school all day and be "confined". You can take like 3 core classes and then leave and go to work, or go take college courses somewhere close.
For the second, again, I see this more in the elementary and middle school levels when it comes to the social stuff. It's crazy when freshmen get to high school and they raise their hand to speak, "I'm like dude, if you have something to say, say it!" The last part of the paragraph is incorrect. Because a teacher has different views does not mean they are going to loose their job. My boyfriend works in a very conservative christian based school district, and he is an atheist. He still has his job. And I went to a school that was extremely conservative, and the liberal teachers (who expressed themselves very bluntly I may add) were some of our best teachers and held their jobs. And lastly, I work for an all male administration, and I am feminist, and can be vocal about it.
I agree with the third paragraph, except my school doesn't do homework, so I really can't comment on that.
Fourth paragraph, yep, **** standardized testing. Really? You want us to make your child an individual when you standardized them? Pffff. This is why when people choose to vote for someone, look at what they believe in education. 100% agree here.
Fifth, I really don't know. I'm in a dying community, less and less people live here. The school alone can keep this community running. We need jobs here, which makes families move here, and makes kids goes to school here. See, how school gets their money is that the state pays schools for ever kid that goes there. Well, if the community cannot support families, then they go away. Then the school loses money, then they lay of teachers. We have to close one of our elementary schools this year because of this, and there goes 10 teaching positions, those people won't be stimulating the economy anymore. I feel like when it comes to economic development, teaching jobs come after the industry jobs because schools need a community to support them. That is only my perspective on it though.
As for the final reason, I don't think I completely understand what h is talking about. Is like the government stuff and political stuff? Because in that case, yea, politicians like to make us they care about the kids, because that hits home for a lot of people.