Expanding on an earlier point.... I honestly think the education system in this country is seriously screwed.
1) I believe in vouchers. It takes years to fix a school that is doing poorly. Guess what? My kid is stuck in there being victimized daily by the crappy school, even when they FINALLY admit there is a problem. I want the authority and financial backing to pull my kid OUT. I don't have time for them to "try" to get their act together, my kid is in there only for a handful of years. There is no time for second chances at a quality education, especially at the early years.
2) Practical skills are not being tought. Children are not being tought how to compare interest rates. Economics should teach home buying basics, stock market basics, how to calculate a P/E ratio, comparing Credit card interest rates, figure out how much it's costing you to keep it on credit, how much that 0 payments / 0 interest for 6 months will really cost you if you EXCEED the 6 month limit and get hit with the interest whack. For economics courses, they need to prepare people for real-deal economics.
3) Mindless regurgetation IS being overtaught. Far too often, our eductional system resorts to expanding short term memory instead of how to THINK FOR YOURSELF. School can't teach everything, and we need to work on challenging children & especially young adults to tie concepts together, apply concepts to other areas, delve into them... and above all... think for themselves.
4) Our children need to know what guns are and how to handle them properly. I heavily support firearm safety education in schools. If we can teach 'em about the birds and the bees, we can teach them about not blowing their kid sister's arm off playing with a gun.
Just like with drugs, if we do not teach children, their friends and the streets will.
Here's what a 1995 federal study investigating juvenile crime found after looking at 20,000 randomly selected households:
Relationship between type of gun owned and percent committing street, drug and gun crimes.
Illegal gun:
Street crimes = 74%
Drug use = 41%
Gun crimes = 21%
No gun:
Street crimes = 24%
Drug use = 15%
Gun crimes = 1%
Legal Gun:
Street crimes = 14%
Drug use = 13%
Gun crimes = 0%
"The socialization into gun ownership is also vastly different for legal and illegal gunowners. Those who own legal guns have fathers who own guns for sport and hunting. On the other hand, those who own illegal guns have friends who own illegal guns and are far more likely to be gang members. For legal gunowners, socialization appears to take place in the family; for illegal gunowners, it appears to take place 'on the street.'"
"Boys who own legal firearms have much lower rates of delinquency and drug use and are even slightly less delinquent than nonowners of guns."
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, NCJ-143454, "Urban Delinquency and Substance Abuse," August 1995.
5) Most of all, we need to set our expectations higher. Our children can be the best and brightest in the world because they are. We cannot afford to constantly cater to the lowest common demoninator.
1) I believe in vouchers. It takes years to fix a school that is doing poorly. Guess what? My kid is stuck in there being victimized daily by the crappy school, even when they FINALLY admit there is a problem. I want the authority and financial backing to pull my kid OUT. I don't have time for them to "try" to get their act together, my kid is in there only for a handful of years. There is no time for second chances at a quality education, especially at the early years.
2) Practical skills are not being tought. Children are not being tought how to compare interest rates. Economics should teach home buying basics, stock market basics, how to calculate a P/E ratio, comparing Credit card interest rates, figure out how much it's costing you to keep it on credit, how much that 0 payments / 0 interest for 6 months will really cost you if you EXCEED the 6 month limit and get hit with the interest whack. For economics courses, they need to prepare people for real-deal economics.
3) Mindless regurgetation IS being overtaught. Far too often, our eductional system resorts to expanding short term memory instead of how to THINK FOR YOURSELF. School can't teach everything, and we need to work on challenging children & especially young adults to tie concepts together, apply concepts to other areas, delve into them... and above all... think for themselves.
4) Our children need to know what guns are and how to handle them properly. I heavily support firearm safety education in schools. If we can teach 'em about the birds and the bees, we can teach them about not blowing their kid sister's arm off playing with a gun.
Just like with drugs, if we do not teach children, their friends and the streets will.
Here's what a 1995 federal study investigating juvenile crime found after looking at 20,000 randomly selected households:
Relationship between type of gun owned and percent committing street, drug and gun crimes.
Illegal gun:
Street crimes = 74%
Drug use = 41%
Gun crimes = 21%
No gun:
Street crimes = 24%
Drug use = 15%
Gun crimes = 1%
Legal Gun:
Street crimes = 14%
Drug use = 13%
Gun crimes = 0%
"The socialization into gun ownership is also vastly different for legal and illegal gunowners. Those who own legal guns have fathers who own guns for sport and hunting. On the other hand, those who own illegal guns have friends who own illegal guns and are far more likely to be gang members. For legal gunowners, socialization appears to take place in the family; for illegal gunowners, it appears to take place 'on the street.'"
"Boys who own legal firearms have much lower rates of delinquency and drug use and are even slightly less delinquent than nonowners of guns."
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, NCJ-143454, "Urban Delinquency and Substance Abuse," August 1995.
5) Most of all, we need to set our expectations higher. Our children can be the best and brightest in the world because they are. We cannot afford to constantly cater to the lowest common demoninator.
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