If you had the power to design the curriculum for our public schools, what changes would you make?

Question

What subjects would be mandatory for all students in grade school? In high school? What subjects would be optional?

Would you adjust the standard school-year length? How much emphasis would you place on homework and outside activities, such as field trips, etc.?

Answer 1

English language would be the most important. Communication skills are absolutely vital in every job these days.

I'd increase science as well as more sports and make sure all full-time students got a proper healthy school meal every day.

I'd minimize the number of school trips outside. The kids just get too excited and distracted and don't really learn much.

Answer 2

I think it would be great to make all kids stay in school for as long as it takes them to get a certain grade point average. Too many kids flake off school and cheat and end up not learning one single thing that helps take them into the future.

I would make it manditory to take a "REAL WORLD" course where students are taught about how to balance a checkbook and how to balance a small paycheck by paying rent and groceries and gas and car repairs and then see how much they don't have left over for frivilous shopping and such.

I think English would be manditory and would have to be close to mastered before allowing them to graduate... I don't care how long it takes you. English is much more important that Geometry. You'll use English every single day for the rest of your life.

I would also bring back manditory music/choir classes and manditory art classes. AND manditory Physical Education classes. With those things taken out of school- it doesn't give a lot of kids "fun" stuff to do at school. It doesn't help their creative sides get out.

:)

But leave the summer breaks alone. Kids still need summer breaks. And so do the teachers! :)

Answer 3

its funny that you metion this, cause i actually got to help do this recently. My high school is changing the curriculum, and the way the schedule is set up. Now we have a block schedule. As a tenth grader, last year, im going to be in 11th in about a month, we got to make new classes, and help decide when school starts.

Not all of what you said we got to decide, cause we still have the state requriements, and stuff, but we got to do a lot.

This some of the things we changed.

school starts at 9, and ends at 3

we have more sports for our school, like laccross, rugby, diving, badmittin, biking, etc.

some new classes are the following:

Marketing research

forensic science

forestry

archery

kickboxing

trig

college math

probability and statistics

composition/arrangment

history of rock and roll

history of war

sports and entertainment marketing

lifeguard training

EMT training

Intro to teaching

Pharmacutial  traning

and so many others.

If i could change the mandatory for all students, i would make it a requirement to take a foregin language, and more math and science. And more history.

I think it is important to learn everything to make sure you are prepared for the future.

If i changed the homework, there would still be some, but it would be based on completion, rather than being correct, as long as you put effort in it.

as for field trips, for our high school, we have a lot more. And we have put in a suggestion to make less for grade school

Answer 4

I would definitely include Financial Planning at ALL grade levels.  We teach students to learn, how to get jobs, how to make money, but we don't tell them what to do with the money once they earn it.  It's a serious flaw in most curriculums.  I personally would like to have school year-round... I think it leads to much better retention and you don't give children three months to forget things.  I personally do not agree with homework.  I think it puts those children who have no assistance at home to a severe disadvantage.  Plus, when you get the homework, how do you know it's really the child's work or the parent's or brother's or sister's or neighbor's or best friend's?  You get my point.  Any GRADED work should be under the direct supervision of the teacher in my view.  Field trips are fine, but they can be overdone.  I feel once or twice a year is adequate; of course, they should always be academically related to the subject matter they have been studying.

Answer 5

Mostly I would incorporate  more real life training, more morals, and discipline,respect for authority, and communication skills. I don't think there are enough parents doing it at home,if there are parents at home, so the schools need to pick up the slack. Look at the kids today, more than 50% have their heads so far up their butts, they can't see right from wrong.  They are emulating criminals, thugs, and drug addicts.  Please change something!!!!

Answer 6

First of all, I would take a look at the requirements for college and then work backward from there. I think that pre-school needs to be pushed. It used to be that parents taught their kids at home so that when they entered kindergarten, they knew how to write their names, count to 20 and so on. I think that there needs to be mandatory kindergarten in all states OR an entrance test for first grade. If a child doesn't test well for 1st grade, they may need to go back to preschool to get some basics. The problem with the school system today is that too many students are not prepared for 1st grade and then the problem worsens as they move along. I don't like retention. I think that the probelm needs to be dealt with before 1st grade. Next, I would move to a balance year and remove the 3 month vacation. Students are not working on anything in the summer and are losing things that the learned the previous year. It is taking the first month or so of school to review before teachers can actually jump into grade level material. I am a great fan of homework. Teachers need to make sure that homework is work that the student has actually worked on in class. I think that parents should have the student do the homework first and then come and check it. Directions and instructions for the parents should be on each piece of homework.

     In high school, I think their should be 4 years of English and Math. Then, depending on what the child was planning on studying in college, requirements should be different. For example, maybe a student knows that they want to pursue science, so they may take 3-4 years of science, etc. In order to do this, there needs to be more qualified guidance couselors to help the students and parents. I think that so many student don't know what is out there and so when you ask them what they want to be, they say, "I don't know." I think that field trips are very important as well as distance learning. Some students have never been outside of there small town and don't know what the world has to offer.

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Answer 7

English and math are extremely essential subjects. i would make art and french optional subjects; they aren't very necessary to learn.

          i would say that there should be 1 field trip every 2 months, and there should be homework given daily. at my school, the standards aren't high enough; they don't provide students with any text books to learn from. that's why i'm changing schools. i think we should get a summer vacation of 3 months, not 2. the description i gave would make a perfect school!!!!!