Originally posted by: piasabird
If you drop Gym and Art and Homec and other useless classes, that do not prepare you for the workforce, then you might be able to save some money. However, if you still have to have teachers to teach all of those classes, then you cant save much.
This article is interesting but it raises some other issues. For instance if you get out of school at 16, then a lot of people at 16 will want to drive a car as a necessity to get to work. Also, people at 16 will be entering the workforce full-time.
Here are some problems I see in the High School Environment:
1. Grades are too dependent on homework assignments. Lots of places, the homework is 50% or your grade. I think this is way too high. We should make High School more like college, putting more stress on projects, term papers, presentations, quizes, Tests. Too much homework can be a bad thing. A weekly quiz is far better. Doing homework is fine, but too much emphasis is put on turning in homework. Many kids do the homework and then dont turn it in, leave it at home or whatever. I think the homework is making some teachers lazy. If a teacher gives homework, then every paper should have to be individually graded by the teacher, not the students, during class time.
2. Do away with Detention. If kids dont behave call their parents to come pick them up immediately, or make them stand in the hall or in the back of the room. If kids can act up too much just call the Cops, or give them probation or suspension and tell them not to come back without their guardian. Teachers are not baby sitters.
3. Teachers have too many days off for training. Cut that out right away and make them do training during the summer. Let them have training on their time. Put the trainng on tape and they can watch it in their spare time.
4. Change the semesters so Fall ends at Christmas and Spring begins after new years. It is stupid to do otherwise. It just makes more sense. Most colleges are run this way. Some colleges even give off a week for thanksgiving, and then close down a week before Christmas. One college I went to set up their schedule so the last week of class was always for finals, and class was used for studying and Finals Prep.
5. Make the 7th and 8th Grade part of High School. Jr high is just stupid.
6. Make some vocational high schools. One for Factories, one for Farming, one for the arts, etc.