Poll of the Day > Universal Pre-K for 3 and 4 year olds

(+) Yeah! (+)

In all honesty, America's educational system has been in need of a serious overhaul for decades. That one size fits all schooling that most of us received as kids is seriously outdated.

I'm of the opinion that less is more but in the US teachers are under immense pressure to get kids to do more.

For example, kids shouldn't start school until age 7 and by doing this, kids are allowed to be kids to learn through playing and exploring together. rather than sitting still locked up in a classroom.

The kids start school when they are actually developmentally ready to learn and focus. That first year is followed by only nine years of compulsory school.

Everything after ninth grade would optional and at the age of 16 the students can choose from the following three tracks:

Upper secondary school - this would be a 3-year program that would prepare kids for Matriculation Test that determines their acceptance into college. Students would pick which upper secondary school they would like to attend based on the schools specialties and apply to get into that institution. This would be a mixture of High School and College.

Vocational training - this would be a 3-year program that would train kids for various vocational occupational opportunities i.e. electricians, plumbers, etc.

Just some ideas I had about ways to overhaul the US educational system because our kids lag way behind kids in other developed countries and it's not improving.

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As someone married to an educator who has taught in poverty level schools almost exclusively, it doesn't matter what you do to kids in school for the education system. The only thing that affects how kids will perform in school and in life is their quality of upbringing at home.

No teacher is a miracle teacher like in the movies that can rescue a child in kindergarten that has been almost entirely ignored their whole lives by their parents.

With the obvious exception of those with mental disabilities, the worst students are going to be those with the worst home lives that either get beaten, ignored entirely, dont know where their next meal is coming from, or taught bad values overall (my wife had a student who's mother was a professional criminal and took her son on robberies to teach him the family trade).

Want to fix education in America? First fix poverty, then educate parents, and then maybe pray that those educated parents no longer in poverty start to care about and take care of their children.

A child in kindergarten/first grade and beyond that is succeeding is not because of a teacher but because of educational and value based support at home as well as a full belly and wanting for no basic needs

And success or failure at those years is what basically determines the path their life in education (and most often into adulthood) will follow from that point on

Absolutely support. Theyre learning like crazy at that age and the benefits are huge of having them in a structured environment where they can socialize. Plus it will ease the burden of childcare for a lot of working families.

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BUMPED2002 posted...

For example, kids shouldn't start school until age 7 and by doing this, kids are allowed to be kids to learn through playing and exploring together. rather than sitting still locked up in a classroom.

I would have to think about this, but as someone who had a horribly difficult time focusing, and applying myself, to different areas of education throughout being homeschooled, I do know that something about my younger education needed to be changed. Whether it was just that I had difficult times getting along with my parents (I had a lot of attitude problems that let's just say they were very "not effective" at handling in a proper/successful manner), or I was just a little developmentally slow (which I definitely may have been), I just hated sitting down feeling all ADHD and not being able to apply myself to anything education related.

The only kind of "education" I really got excited about was sitting around on the computer "making games" (so, I mean, at least that got me familiar with development processes, but not that I actually learned a whole lot at the time, besides your run-of-the-mill game engines I was basically just writing stories by keyboard every.single.day, because actually, to this day, I am still a horrible writer/penmanship, still don't know cursive, either)

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We dumb af, bro.

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I'm not opposed to it, so maybe available but not mandatory. I don't have much experience with kids at that age, is it better for them to be at school or at home?

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PMarth2002 posted...

I'm not opposed to it, so maybe available but not mandatory. I don't have much experience with kids at that age, is it better for them to be at school or at home?

Depends entirely on the home.

I don't understand why.

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Judgmenl posted...

I don't understand why.

it is very good for their education and is the norm in developed countries

the US is backsliding in a ton of ways, infrastructure is one way but education is another. We are educating kids like it is still 1990. Not only can most not compete in the international job market of the 21st century but many of them are graduating high school so stupid that they cant tell truth from lies because they dont know how to scrutinize information or verify claims.

Not to mention the costs of childcare for young kids and the fact that the US is the only developed nation not to give parents paid leave when they have a baby. So parents basically have to decide to either pay for expensive childcare which is very much a problem riddled industry in itself, or hope that someone can sacrifice some of their time to care for the kid during work.

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Combine the Finns making tuition illegal and the competitiveness of the Japanese system and get rid of school districts.

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ReggieTheReckless posted...

As someone married to an educator who has taught in poverty level schools almost exclusively...

You sound like Ben "my wife is a doctor so I'm pretty much a doctor too" Shapiro there.

So... universal babysitting in the guise of school, where most of what kids that age learn is playground habits that follow them for another decade following? Let me get back to you on that.

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Reigning_King posted...

You sound like Ben "my wife is a doctor so I'm pretty much a doctor too" Shapiro there.

Hey fuckface, I'm allowed to communicate about things that I've learned from my wife. You know, that person who's ideas I listen to and learn from as we live our lives together?

The point of saying that "I'm married to an educator" is so that all the real people here can instantly understand that I am speaking not from personal experience but from her experiences.

I'm also sorry that I'm not enough of an asshole to add a disclaimer in my post that states, "Hey, scientist with a masters degree here that is working on a PhD and is married to a teacher with a bachelor's degree that has a decade of experience working with underprivileged youth and informs me of her day to day life which I will now try to get across to you in the simplest terms possible."

I am however enough of an asshole to not stand for some fucking loser calling me out for literally nothing when they don't even know who I am or anything about me.

Jesus christ, why does it always have to be about status with you people. Like every person in the room has to prove themselves before they are allowed to talk without getting shit on by someone on a video game message board.

Also what the hell is a Ben Shapiro

Entity13 posted...

So... universal babysitting in the guise of school, where most of what kids that age learn is playground habits that follow them for another decade following? Let me get back to you on that.

Yup. That's what I don't get. School is basically just babysitting for 8 hours a day. You can see how livid every non-functioning parent was when they couldn't shove their kid to daycare / school for several months last year.

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Maybe calm down there Reggie. You certainly don't come off as anyone I would trust to comment on the education of young children just on your tone alone, that's ignoring the obvious bias you have. Most teachers and school systems suck, sorry to break it to you. Is that the only problem? No, but it's undeniably a large part of it.

"More school, earlier" is not a good idea. People should raise their own kids as much as possible.

Judgmenl posted...

Yup. That's what I don't get. School is basically just babysitting for 8 hours a day. You can see how livid every non-functioning parent was when they couldn't shove their kid to daycare / school for several months last year.

You can also see how all-too-happy parents or legal guardians are to sit their kids down in front of a television for hours at a time so said adults could do their own thing. Also, how livid said adults get when the television exposes kids to other ideas; same with school at any level.

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Judgmenl posted...

Yup. That's what I don't get. School is basically just babysitting for 8 hours a day. You can see how livid every non-functioning parent was when they couldn't shove their kid to daycare / school for several months last year.

shut the fuck up dude, last year was a really difficult fucking year for most parents

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe-SZ_FPZew
Came up on my Youtube feed today.

Entity13 posted...

You can also see how all-too-happy parents or legal guardians are to sit their kids down in front of a television for hours at a time so said adults could do their own thing. Also, how livid said adults get when the television exposes kids to other ideas; same with school at any level.

It's not TV these days, it's tablets. And honestly, TV would be a better solution because TV is actually regulated, unlike the internet.
I mean I wasted my teenage years discovering stuff online, but I don't think that people under the age of 13 should be doing that. By the time I was using the internet I had a moral compass* and understood the idea of not doxing myself to online strangers.

*Technically that moral compass on internet etiquite was based on the fact that 12 year old me ruined multiple online communities by not understanding what I was doing.

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