So, assuming the funding problem more-or-less is taken care of, next up is fixing the quality of teachers.
Y'know, there's a funny thing about the current system in the U.S.: there are all these people that really do care about education, and are themselves educated (or at least passionate enough about education to make up for it), and they'd be happy to spend some of their time working as a teacher. Ironically, the teaching requirements are set up here so that those are exactly the sorts of people that aren't allowed to do any teaching. Instead, prospective public school teachers are driven through this horrible, lengthy, expensive training, most of which enforces some of the latest nonsense in educational theory.
Throw all that out. It's idiotic. It's even worse because teachers don't train for specific subjects; instead, you simply train to be "a teacher", and then you get hired to teach history when you really ought to be teaching math.
I think there are just two things you must know in order to be a teacher: the subject material, and how to handle a room full of kids. Let prospective teachers choose which of the basic subjects they'd like to teach -- history, science, math, literature, "physical ed" -- and then test them on it. The testing process itself can be rigorous without becoming terribly expensive. Then, have them spend a short amount of time -- evening classes would be fine! -- getting some tips on handling a large number of students, and then get out of their way! Throw 'em in a classroom as an aide to a more experienced teacher at first.
The thing that makes this work is that any interested parent is allowed -- and encouraged! -- to volunteer in the classrooms as often as they want, and so they get to provide direct oversight on the teachers.
Finally, you have to come up with some standards for what the kids should actually learn in various subjects. School boards do this currently in the U.S., and you need not be in the slightest educated in any of the subjects that you're deciding course material on. Teachers hate that! Throw it out.
Instead, let the teachers themselves work out the course materials. Make it work by having the teachers for one particular grade level meet with the teachers for the two next higher grade levels, and let them work it out. This way, the higher grade teachers can say, "by the time they get to us, the kids should know this, this, and this".
There are a ton of other details that would have to get filled in to make the complete system work. There'd have to be incentives for those that are professionals or retired in various fields to spend some of their time teaching; there'd have to be some standards for evaluation and critique, not just of the students but of the teachers; precise classroom structure; and so on, but I think this basic form could work.
I would certainly pour several years of my own life into making sure it did. :-)
no subject
Y'know, there's a funny thing about the current system in the U.S.: there are all these people that really do care about education, and are themselves educated (or at least passionate enough about education to make up for it), and they'd be happy to spend some of their time working as a teacher. Ironically, the teaching requirements are set up here so that those are exactly the sorts of people that aren't allowed to do any teaching. Instead, prospective public school teachers are driven through this horrible, lengthy, expensive training, most of which enforces some of the latest nonsense in educational theory.
Throw all that out. It's idiotic. It's even worse because teachers don't train for specific subjects; instead, you simply train to be "a teacher", and then you get hired to teach history when you really ought to be teaching math.
I think there are just two things you must know in order to be a teacher: the subject material, and how to handle a room full of kids. Let prospective teachers choose which of the basic subjects they'd like to teach -- history, science, math, literature, "physical ed" -- and then test them on it. The testing process itself can be rigorous without becoming terribly expensive. Then, have them spend a short amount of time -- evening classes would be fine! -- getting some tips on handling a large number of students, and then get out of their way! Throw 'em in a classroom as an aide to a more experienced teacher at first.
The thing that makes this work is that any interested parent is allowed -- and encouraged! -- to volunteer in the classrooms as often as they want, and so they get to provide direct oversight on the teachers.
Finally, you have to come up with some standards for what the kids should actually learn in various subjects. School boards do this currently in the U.S., and you need not be in the slightest educated in any of the subjects that you're deciding course material on. Teachers hate that! Throw it out.
Instead, let the teachers themselves work out the course materials. Make it work by having the teachers for one particular grade level meet with the teachers for the two next higher grade levels, and let them work it out. This way, the higher grade teachers can say, "by the time they get to us, the kids should know this, this, and this".
There are a ton of other details that would have to get filled in to make the complete system work. There'd have to be incentives for those that are professionals or retired in various fields to spend some of their time teaching; there'd have to be some standards for evaluation and critique, not just of the students but of the teachers; precise classroom structure; and so on, but I think this basic form could work.
I would certainly pour several years of my own life into making sure it did. :-)