Hi:
Education needs to teach respect, manners, how to learn smartly and effectively, and needs to be increasingly participatory and interactive. Education ought to teach good skills for relating to, and care for humanity and our natural world. We need more diversity training, and positive, peaceable conflict resolution skills. We need to teach people how to deal well with their feelings and issues in their life.
There is no reason for anyone especially kids to act like mean cruel bullying foul mouthed monsters only out to put others down and to get what they want at the expense or anything and anyone else. We need to stop teaching poeple how to be aggressive, pushy, greedy, manipulative, negatively scheming people who take advantage of one another, lie, cheat, steal, and are corrupt, abusive, conniving, power, and control tripping people. Well, this above is the worst case scenarios, but we do need to get more healthy communications training in school.
I think it's reasonable to have increased security at schools such as cameras, and to have a weapons free zone at school enforced, to increase the odds of safety, in light of school shootings esp. I think that people ought to be educated in prevention, intervention, and rehabilitation instead of being criminalized for wrongdoings. Our prisons are filled with 80% non violent criminals- this is ridiculous and supports my statement about learning prevention and rehabilitation of peoples rather than throwing them in jail. Our prisons are getting privatized by the wealthy and are becoming, are big business to the rich. Plus, our tax dollars are being spent housing non-violent criminals, which is ridiculous. I think that there's this question as to how to handle kids which are very active, I don't think riddalin is the answer, I think kids with super high energy levels ought to go outside and play more, exercise more, have more one on one attention, so they can learn to calm down and focus better, and then maybe give some of them medical marijuana or something. Riddalin is a foreign sythetic medicine which can have lots of other mood altering and physiologically negative altering effects that no kid should be trying to deal with on top of their hypractivity. I know parents can become at their wits end and decide to give their kids this medication against their better judgement and I don't fault them, but if they can find another safe and healthier alternative, I think it's worth the time to find one if the parent has the time or can make the time to do so. Perhaps homeschooling is an option or some type of prayer and meditation classes or martial arts classes which can help the kids channel their energy in more calm ways.
Kids learn at differnt rates and have different energy levels. This needs to be acknowledged better by schools and dealt with by having more creative cirriculums which accomodate different rates of learning better by letting kids work ahead who are more advanced and giving more help to kids who need to learn quicker. I think that kids can stay in the same class learning at different levels and that they could go to seperate smaller classes for more specialized help in certain areas, so they can get the extra help they need, and more peace and quiet, to be able to focus better, as the case may be.
I don't like the tracking system though which supposes that a kid will learn and succeed at rates predetermined by their socioeconomic backrounds etc.
I think this is so limiting and ridiculous.
All kids need access to good education which has their best interests at heart and will help each kid succeed according to their own individual person, without being stimatized and stereotyped.
I like the evaluation system of grading kids progress rather than just the letter grade system. Maybe the these two forms can be combined well.
I think that education is results oriented which it needs to be but needs also to make time to enjoy the process of learning and really assimilate and learn info. well not just learn how to get an A. I think people need to experience the joy or learning, exploring dicovering, gaining knowledge wisdom and insight into the world, into ourselves.
Maybe our education system could be geared more towards teaching cooperative structures of living and workign so that we could learn to share and provide better for ourselves one another, and the world. I'd like our natural world and humane humanity to survive.
Signed, Shauansi