rowdypanther12 said:I’m not saying it isn't useful to know, it’s just that my method of learning is honestly a bit chaotic 😁
Honestly, I don't really know how their classes are structured—you'd have to sit in on one of their lectures to tell me for sure. But to me, it seems perfectly logical to have a textbook that lays out all the input and output units, provides clear explanations, and offers plenty of examples. Then, during class, everyone can jump on their own computer to actually see those concepts in action. The real issue would be if they didn't get hands-on time to verify what everything is and why it works; otherwise, they're just trying to memorize an example without truly understanding it.
It's the exact same deal as using a guide for Microsoft Excel—it's much easier to grasp the material when you have a book explaining everything, but at the same time, if you aren't actually clicking around in Excel, that book isn't going to do you any good...
Input and output units? She breezed through those. She even figured out on her own that an iPad screen functions as both an input and output device 😁 It’s definitely useful knowledge to have.
But honestly, once you start looking at the questions in Red Bull and hearing what they claim is the "correct" answer, it can be pretty disheartening. We just end up telling ourselves, "In Computer Science class, the right answer is simply whatever the teacher decided was right—just don't let it get to you." 😁 I felt the exact same way back in college; I eventually just gave up on certain topics altogether. There's such a massive disconnect where Computer Science in our school system seems to be living in its own little bubble, while real-world tech is moving in a completely different direction... To start with, they aren't even speaking the same language 🤣
That said, I don't think the subject is inherently bad. Sure, there’s plenty of nonsense and outdated material mixed in, but there are some genuinely smart concepts too. Plus, it’s finally a mandatory part of the curriculum now, which is about what should have happened twenty years ago.
I didn't catch that in my textbook—it might just be a different publisher they’re using. But I have definitely noticed how poorly some of this material is structured. Honestly, I find myself spending my entire weekends explaining things that should have been clear in the first place, and there's quite a lot of 😵
Computer Science is exactly the same story.
It feels like they’re actually competing to see who can write the most incomprehensible, mile-long sentences. You see it even in the lower grades; for example, in junior science, the definition of what makes up an Address is this massive, convoluted paragraph instead of just saying An Address consists of: - street name - house number - ...
I spend half my time helping students break down these cryptic, tangled-up compound sentences into simple, digestible pieces. I truly feel for the kids whose parents or teachers don't step in to help—especially if those adults struggle with it themselves. If they don't get clarity now, they'll just end up with a lifetime of confused, jumbled-up concepts floating around in their heads.
That was such a beautifully articulated point from Mr. Kutle. It’s honestly quite rare to see someone from those certain "circles" express their opinion with such refreshing public honesty—especially since it's us atheistic, irrational types who end up footing the bill for them anyway.
I actually signed the consent forms for both my kids this year—they finally introduced that option recently. My oldest is in the choir, so she wanted to perform, and my younger one was just dying to see what all the fuss was about. He told me the priest was spraying water over the bread, and at first glance, he honestly thought he was being sprayed by a microphone! It took him a second to realize what was actually happening 🤣
Since religious folklore isn't really part of the regular curriculum anymore—it’s just that one hour of special performances where you have to opt-in—things at our local school are pretty manageable. Though, if I'm being honest, I still don't quite get why they bother with those extra activities during school hours, but hey, other groups do it too. In previous years, there were these massive productions involving food drives and whatnot, often without any prior consent being asked. Back then, we’d just tell our daughter to head straight home after class to skip the whole show. I distinctly remember feeling so incredibly relieved to be tucked away at home, pretending to be sick just to avoid the chaos 😁
In my experience, I know at least two kids who ended up dropping their elective language class entirely just because the schedule clashed with their sports practices. It’s such a shame. Isn't there some kind of option to join a different 5th-grade class for those lessons instead, just to find a better time slot?
Basically, looking at these ten points, there isn't a single meaningful change regarding teacher training itself. Everything else, naturally, needs a complete overhaul. My personal favorite has to be that first point about exclusion and segregation—it’s actually quite funny how they don't mention those "hundreds of online articles" claiming that "everyone" is giving up on inclusion. And honestly, I'll pass on all the empty rhetoric about kids staring at screens and becoming mindless. Like I mentioned before, most people seem to think a chalkboard and some chalk are the absolute peak of technology for children, even though those very same people would demand laptops, projectors, and free high-speed Wi-Fi at school for their own personal use (point 5). Apparently, for these kids, that's just too much advanced tech; their little brains can't handle it, especially while they're still in elementary school. Though, reading through all these supposed struggles with mastering a simple tablet, I feel like I'm just scrolling through a generic newsfeed...
As I was saying, it's basically the National Institutes of Health level of expectations applied to a bare minimum...
Wait, so are you actually suggesting I’m lying? Are you claiming that for twenty-five years we haven't been bombarded with endless talk about "necessary changes" and "modernization"? We hear about constant reforms—one after another, in a never-ending loop—yet in reality, absolutely nothing ever shifts. Are you telling me I'm making things up when the latest news on reform is simply that the labor unions are demanding a delay in implementation? And regarding all that whining in the papers about how our schools are technologically lagging behind... you didn't exactly mention that you personally don't want technology or have any interest in integrating it into the classroom because you just can't be bothered with the hassle, right?
If I'm lying, then maybe the issue lies with me... but if all of this is factual, then perhaps the problem is actually with the system itself. Which system, though? Maybe the educational one? A system you happen to be a part of? Or perhaps it's people like you who seem to suffer from this strange, schizophrenic perception where you claim to be part of the system when blaming terrible parents and undisciplined kids, yet suddenly you aren't part of the system the moment we start critiquing the structure as a whole?
As for specific individuals within the system, I form my own opinions once I get to know them, whether in person or online. And honestly, some of them are truly wonderful. But a few wonderful individuals don't make a system good; they just serve as proof that the majority of it isn't.
There’s potentially an enormous amount of upside here. We’ll just have to wait and see what the actual reality looks like once it settles... keeping that "nothing is impossible" mindset in mind 😁 Based on the quality of the discussions we've seen on this forum lately, I suspect we might be waiting a while before something truly substantial breaks through. Still, taking that first step in the right direction is a win in itself. That is, unless all these collective protests and those petitions from teachers—who clearly still need more training, more education, and... honestly, I don't even know what else—manage to stall the whole process. They claim to want change, but if they succeed in blocking it, we'll likely just cycle back through years of forming task forces, endless philosophical debates, leaks to the press, finger-pointing, peer reviews, public hearings, reviewing the reviews, setting up extra commissions, more committees, everyone eventually giving up, and then starting the entire mess over from scratch—basically doing everything necessary just to ensure nothing actually changes during their entire careers. After all, they aren't the ones carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders every single day...
Look, this isn't really your lane, so I’m not sure why you think you have the authority to dictate who gets to write what around here. If you didn't care for my take on low expectations—specifically regarding those lackluster excuses about battery life and data usage—that’s fine. At least I actually provided reasoning using your own example to illustrate my point. You don't seem to have any actual counterarguments, so you're just resorting to ad hominem attacks? If that's how you want to play it, feel free to head out. Honestly, it makes no difference to me...
I am still genuinely baffled by the inconsistency of it all. How is it that in first grade, we can hand out non-violent pencils and stacks of notebooks without a second thought, yet once students reach high school, suddenly having a fully charged tablet in class becomes some insurmountable obstacle to learning? I certainly don't recall a single teacher ever stepping in to stop a student from buying an extra notebook or some specialized supplies for class, yet apparently, asking for an extra gigabyte of data is treated like some catastrophic disaster...
@nosorog - You’ve covered so much ground here that I can't possibly give you a point-by-point response right now, but personally, homeschooling isn't even on my radar. My expectation is simply that the government provides a coherent education for our kids that actually reflects the era we live in. Honestly, the days of chalkboards and slate tablets belong in the history books—just like the era when kids had to lug around seven-pound stacks of paper every single day. We should be living in the 21st century by now. Furthermore, in this century, computer science shouldn't just be a subject you touch for two hours a week; it needs to be an integrated, daily part of every single discipline. If some people think having three measly hours a month counts as "innovation" or "opportunity"—usually accompanied by a side of complaining about charging cables and Wi-Fi signals—it really just shows how far behind they are when it comes to digital literacy.
It’s funny, though. Just as teachers who were used to chalk and slate eventually figured out that a student's responsibility was to show up with pencils, sharpeners, and a notebook with blank pages back in the mid-20th century, I suppose our current educators will one day realize that a student's responsibility is to have a fully charged tablet with enough data or pre-loaded content ready to go. Until we reach that stage, I guess I'll just find myself quoting comments like these. They don't surprise me, but they certainly manage to drag my already low expectations even lower. It's all just noise...
Anyway, that's my two cents... (typed on a tablet with a keyboard, ten-finger blind typing 👍)
It’s one of those weird situations where you technically have an internet connection, yet somehow, it feels like there’s absolutely no connection at all... 👍
Honestly, I feel like Americans have become masters of the excuse game. If things aren't absolutely flawless right out of the gate, or if they don't solve every single problem perfectly 100% of the time, they won't even bother trying. Instead, they just stick to complaining and moping about how miserable they are and how nobody is coming to save them, it's just sad 🤮
urbantinker8 said:I mean, has it ever occurred to you that there might not actually be internet access at the school itself?😒
Has it ever crossed your mind to actually look into the details? It turns out these tablets come equipped with a SIM card and a state-subsidized data plan that includes 2GB of mobile internet. And honestly, if you happen to burn through that 2GB limit, topping up more data is actually quite affordable. I really have to wonder—where else in this country can you find people who have completed vocational training yet still live in areas completely lacking decent 4G coverage? It just doesn't make sense.
And who might that be? 😒 Am I uninformed? Well, that’s a bit of a loaded question, isn't it? I wouldn't say I'm completely in the dark, though I certainly admit there are plenty of nuances I haven't quite wrapped my head around yet. I like to think I stay reasonably well-versed on the essentials, but I'm always open to being corrected if I've missed a beat!
Honestly, when I sit down and read these supposed "insider" posts from people claiming to be part of the system, it really hits home. It becomes pretty clear that whenever teachers start posting their takes on a subject, you can basically just tune them out. You shouldn't take anything they say seriously at all. It’s obvious they don't actually have a clue what they're talking about; they're just going through the motions and trying to look important.
Honestly, even if we were stuck in a world without a single kilobyte of data—or if schools completely cut off internet access—a truly bright kid would still find a way to make a tablet useful. They’re resourceful like that. Meanwhile, you just know some teachers will insist it's all just a distraction and try to force everyone back to using nothing but chalkboards and slate tablets. It feels like such a step backward.
nosorog said:Of course they can. Tablets just end up masking the underlying issues, because the Secretary keeps insisting that parents will happily embrace tablets and simply forget about all the other shortcomings in today's education system. Honestly, it doesn't matter what medium they use if the content remains the same, especially if the teaching methods stay consistent too. 🙄🤦 If we are trying to save paper, then moving to tablets actually makes sense. But if we keep the same volume and weight of textbooks, then we haven't gained anything except for the fact that the government spent a fortune buying tablets.
Well, if the curriculum is identical and the teaching methods remain the same, then at the end of the day, it’s effectively the same thing—it certainly isn't making things worse. I'm not quite sure what problems tablets are supposed to be "masking"; a tablet is just a piece of technology, much like any other gadget... except you can access the internet with them. That way, you can't make those silly excuses anymore about how kids can't look things up online because they don't have enough money for a $10 voucher (there have been plenty of those "arguments" floating around), or that they can't work on documents via email because not everyone has a computer at home or their school equipment is "ancient." So, if nothing else, that part of the excuse disappears. Though, of course, we Americans are now starting to come up with ridiculous rebuttals like "they don't have cameras" or "that's junk that's only used in Ethiopia while everyone else has moved on"—so why don't we just go back to using chalkboards until we find some mythical creature in a white-walled utopia that offers a perfectly ideal solution we can all adopt? For us, nothing ever seems good enough to even try...
PS Even if the government "just wasted money on tablets" (and besides, most of that was actually EU funding, not our own domestic budget)—I see it as a positive. I think it's wonderful that every child gets a tablet. We are living in the 21st century; this provides at least some tangible benefit to every kid.
PPS My daughter has a street backpack, and she's quite happy with it. Everything fits. Her art supplies (since they carry those), her gym gear, and her German books (since she has German class). And judging by how well it holds an umbrella, I'd say it's reasonably waterproof 😁 I have no idea what the bottom is like; nobody really cares how the backpack sits on the floor. Her books were mostly used anyway...
nimbletiger7 said:I don't think tablets are happening. As far as I know, countries that tried relying on them gave up because the results were pretty terrible. Take Portugal, for instance. I guess maybe Ethiopia is the only one still trying that route.
Workbooks aren't mandatory this year, but I imagine publishers will push hard to make sure teachers still ask for them. So, the total number of books will probably end up being the same anyway.
Where on earth are you getting that from? From what I understand, everyone in fifth grade is slated to get a tablet. Regarding that mention of Ethiopia, I should probably point out that a friend's son just started elementary school in Canada—he was basically a preschooler here—and he was handed both a tablet and a laptop on his very first day. Also, if a country has decided to move away from tablets, it’s possible they opted for laptops instead, even if they are more expensive. That said, looking at my kid's experience over the last four years, aside from English class, it feels like we've been stuck in the 20th century. A jump into the 21st would be a welcome change. I don't want to be overly pessimistic about the reform before it even starts, because honestly, it's hard to imagine things getting much worse than our current setup... unless we're talking about Ethiopia.
Susan James said:And what about those kids who head off to fifth grade basically carrying nothing but a tablet and a few light books? 🍿
Well, they're starting because... honestly, my kids were told at school that they basically know nothing yet. It makes me wonder how things would actually play out if we went that route! I certainly don't have any intention of buying a new backpack for mine; she just got a brand new one last year, so hopefully, this one holds up just fine...
Robert Rodriguez9 said:And once again, just to be safe, they’re asking about the first day of school. 😁
Not to mention that little disclaimer they always include, suggesting you "won't learn anything bad" there. 🤣
Back home, we actually have this little tradition where at the end of every school year, they run a quick survey. You basically just check off which electives you're interested in for the following year—things like Spanish, art, or maybe choir.
Haha, I honestly don't think our local politicians—who act more like clergy than public servants these days—will ever actually give us the option to decide whether we want to fund those medieval living fossils or not...
Tyler Ruiz502 said:So, is it safe to assume people aren't actually taking Communion if they skip religious studies?
In certain neighborhoods where basically 99.5% of the kids are enrolled in religion class, you see people complaining—constantly—about the whole curriculum. They’ll moan about everything from the textbooks to the grading scales to the specific rules... but honestly, if it’s such a headache, why sign them up in the first place? Well, because then they wouldn't be eligible for Communion, and let's face it, that's a bridge too far for some families. If a kid doesn't get baptized or take their First Communion, Grandma or the mother-in-law will never let it go. It becomes this massive family drama.
And besides, First Communion is just so sweet. The little outfits, the gifts, the big family dinners... it's a whole thing.
But seriously, how does it work regarding Communion in areas where we actually hear that maybe a quarter of the kids aren't even taking the class? Do they still participate in the sacrament or what?
Well, how could they?! They won't be doing the communion, obviously. Besides, how would my kids go to communion when they haven't even been baptized? 🤔 From what I understand, none of the kids in my child's class who skipped the religious ed classes went to communion either—though I can't say for certain since she didn't really care about any of it (and why should she, when her best friends are all skipping the classes too?). And clearly, there wasn't much talk about gifts either; if it came up at all, it certainly wasn't enough to make her feel left out.😁