[politics & society] education reform

[laurenhat]

I often feel somewhat torn between more progressive and more libertarian views on various issues. I generally know what my goals are, but it's rarely clear to me what the best approach is for achieving those goals, especially when there are any economics involved. Empirically, what's the best way to make changes? I am not generally in favor of

Comments

[ratatosk]

I'm reading a book on schools, too, but it's more the "schools reproduce the dominant social order through the enactment of symbolic violence" type than what you had.

[hitchhiker]

there was no tickybox for "i'd like to see more posts about education", which is the bit i find fascinating! for what it's worth, catholic schools in india do an excellent job of providing a mostly secular education (also, indian society as a whole is secure enough in its secularity that the odd religious elements aren't seen as proselytising)

[laurenhat]

there was no tickybox for "i'd like to see more posts about education", which is the bit i find fascinating!

Heh. That has more to do with my short attention span than anything. :) I might post more on education, but I'm more likely to move on to other things. Noted, though!

Thanks for the notes on India! I meant to ask readers for some cross-cultural comparisons, if they had any, but by the end of the post I'd forgotten several things I mean to mention. :)

[grendelyn]

I like the poll at the end! I felt I had to read in case it was a quiz!

I like posts on education too.

I haven't even had a whole cup of coffee yet

[dancingwolfgrrl]

...but here are some randomly ordered thoughts

Re: I haven't even had a whole cup of coffee yet

[tyopsqueene]

1. general point How do we ensure that the people with the least resources don't get screwed? This is my shouty, knee-jerk question to most reform. But I'm an authoritarian socialist who likes people to be TOLD WHAT'S GOOD FOR THEM rather than make bad choices, so ymmv, etc

Re: I haven't even had a whole cup of coffee yet

[laurenhat]

Yeah, one thing I *didn't* want to suggest when I said I thought there should be more choices for different tracks for older kids to explore is that they should be stuck in any particular track. Ideally, I want them to be able to try several things for a while, and then optionally if they want to in late high school start focusing on one thing. I just want there to be more types of learning experiences beyond the sitting in the classroom learning lots of required facts on required topics thing.

Re: I haven't even had a whole cup of coffee yet

[laurenhat]

My worry about instructivism: what do we mean by "what's best?" Test scores? I don't think incentivism is sufficient, but the idea of a whole nation of teachers stuck "teaching to the test" (as MA teachers complain of having to do) makes me shudder.

Ugh, yes. I meant to emphasize this concern more. You can empirically figure out what works better to achieve certain goals, but if your goals are "pass a multiple choice test", then that may have nasty consequences in the classroom.

I believe, although I'm not going to look it up right now, that this also results in the deprecation of non-test subjects (art, mustic, PE) that I would like to see *more* of in the curriculum.

I would like to see more of these available, but I have bad memories of being forced to take a certain number of these things with bad teachers... I'm against having them required. And there's a whole other post in me about PE reform for another time. :P

My sub-worries about instructivism: nickel says the same thing isn't best for all childrenNickel? I agree

Re: I got my hat on, and my coffee mug....

[laurenhat]

Good points! Thanks for your excellent reply. Lots to think about now, but that generally makes a lot of sense... :)