Posts by rowdypanther12

Jacob Lopez2 said:It really depends on the specific school district. There isn't some universal mandate. In our area, the younger kids usually hang out in the library, while the high schoolers pretty much figure things out on their own.
Exactly, those block schedules are great because if the class falls at the start or end of the day, they can just show up late or head home early.

My fifth grader has a morning schedule where he only has two classes first thing, so he'll just head into school later. When it's scheduled mid-day, he’ll probably just stay home since he has enough time to grab lunch, rest, and get his homework done before heading in. For the older kids, it's easy as long as they aren't relying on their parents for a ride.

Though, looking at what mom2be wrote, that logic is completely nonsensical. If my local schools operate that way, we're going to have a serious problem, but I doubt it. It's a school, not a correctional facility. It makes zero sense to essentially punish students just because they aren't attending religion class.

If they actually let students leave school early where you live, that's pretty great.

redridge13 said:Since we’re already deep in the weeds talking about religious studies during class hours...

So, my kid doesn't take religion classes, and on the day all their religious friends have a block period for it, they told the non-religious kids that they aren't allowed to leave and just come back later for their regular lessons. Instead, they’re stuck sitting in the library?!

The school is right in the middle of the neighborhood—literally a ten-minute walk for everyone. These kids are in high school, and instead of being stuck in this ridiculous religious loophole, they could easily just head home, grab some lunch...

I'm honestly just waiting for the first parent-teacher meeting to blow a fuse... ☕

Technically, students aren't supposed to leave the building during school hours here either. There's probably some handbook rule about it.
Let me know what they say at the meeting; I'm actually curious to hear how they handle it.

The library, the hallways... unfortunately, they aren't allowed out anymore. They used to go outside with their teacher, but since fifth grade, they can't go without supervision.
We don't have the full schedule yet, but for now, it’s just one period on one day and another one in the middle of the week.

😂
So, basically, it caught her on the fifth

I'm running a little behind—if my mom starts at 7:00, did she get caught up yesterday?
Or maybe since 5:00?

So, how did the classes start under the new curriculum?
Is everyone following it now?

So, I think we're on the same page here 😁
Maybe I should start a petition to abolish this whole "school of life" thing 🤔

rustybison462 said:Fine, I get that, but reading through the previous pages, it feels like everyone's just blaming the teachers, even though they aren't the ones who implemented the reform.

Not exactly, but they do implement it poorly. Some teachers do their jobs right, while others just don't.

Sorry, do you realize that neither I nor monstera are actually talking about grades?
We couldn't care less about grades.
Our focus is on the quality of this learning method, which looks great on paper but is a disaster in practice—or at best, entirely dependent on the level of support and resources a kid has available to them.

Honestly, all the resources you need are online if you just take the time to hunt them down.
Yeah, the teacher sets the assignment and outlines the criteria, then grades it—that’s just how it works. It’s really all about learning how to delegate.

rustybison462 said:I don't see an issue here either. At most, the teacher just highlights the core concepts and mentions what they intend to cover on the test, and that's that.

Great. 😂
What's the actual point of having a teacher then? Just to check if a kid memorized some facts? We might as well just switch to all online testing and save money on salaries.

Sarah Hall53 said:The whole thing comes down to the fact that modern teaching actually puts the student front and center, whereas that old-school frontal style? It’s all about the teacher being the star of the show—which, let's be honest, feels like some dusty 19th-century relic. 🙄 Honestly, it is just soooo boring. You end up with students who are basically just sitting there like statues.

Well, if the focus is actually on the student, then they should probably be given the tools to make learning easier and more effective 😂
I think I see where you're coming from, but this approach is incredibly frustrating for both the kids (who actually want to learn) and the parents who end up having to redo the work that should have been covered in class.

In my daughter's case, I've seen both sides. It works great when she isn't forced into that "figure it out all by yourself" mindset, but I've also seen how much she struggles when she's just expected to memorize everything like it's some old-fashioned lecture course.

Sarah Hall53 said:Kids heading into middle school—grades 5 through 8—have already had their fair share of computer classes. For those entering 5th grade, it was an elective they could've picked up as early as 3rd grade, while the kids moving into 8th grade had it as a mandatory part of the curriculum back in 5th and 6th.
And honestly? You can’t just cut kids off from the internet entirely—I mean, let's be real, it's impossible—so the next best move is just trying to teach them how to use it responsibly.
That includes knowing how to actually search for things, too.
What you guys are all debating over on Moonlight right now—Moonlight, pun intended, I know—is basically "project-based learning." It’s this super hyped-up method where the teacher explains the basics first, then hands out a detailed assignment, and the student learns everything else by researching what they need to get the job done. Theory suggests that information retention and making real connections happens most effectively when you learn that way—by working independently on a concrete task.

In theory, that sounds great. Since I don't have kids that age and don't see them much in my daily life, if I were looking at this objectively, I'd say, "Wow, thanks, that definitely sounds like a better way to learn."
But the issue lies in that "explain the basics" part, because some teachers have started treating these projects like they don't need to explain anything at all.
Then there's the issue of sources; online resources in the US can be hit or miss, often either unreliable or written with a vocabulary that is way too advanced for a 10 to 14-year-old.
Thirdly, a lot of kids simply aren't equipped for this yet. No one ever taught them *how* to learn this way, and they aren't always motivated by gaining knowledge—they're usually just aiming for the grade.

When the process is actually guided—like some teachers still do by working through things alongside the students during class—it works much better.

I'm not sure how or why we've moved away from traditional direct instruction, but I think it needs to be the foundation that modern methods like project-based learning build upon.

rustybison462 said:Look, I'm telling you straight: I couldn't handle things that way, and frankly, I shouldn't have to. Sure, you need to explain stuff, but there has to be a limit. Nowadays, those boundaries just don't exist anymore.

When I was in school, did a teacher ever hand me an assignment and then offer to help me out at any random hour of the day or night? Not once. And don't get me started on all those "detailed instructions" and other nonsense. You got a task, you did it, and you figured it out yourself. You brought it to class, they gave you a grade—whatever that grade was—and they didn't even bother explaining why you got it. If I wasn't happy with my mark, I just told myself, "Alright, I guess I need to try harder next time," and that was that.

What really trips me out is your claim that a modern teacher can't afford to explain things because if they explain too much, people end up acting like they're doing a bad job.

I'm not talking about failing to explain an assignment; I'm talking about the actual COURSE MATERIAL. 😁
Students should study the material themselves, learn it, and then complete a project (where they get specific guidelines on *how* to build it, like "use six slides with this layout"). Then, they present what they've mastered to the class. 😁

You guys are talking about grades, but I’m actually referring to how we pass the entire learning process down to our kids

I'm hoping they'll start offering language courses soon too. 😁

If I had two kids going through the same school system—one before the reforms and one after—I could actually tell you if the teaching quality has dropped or if it’s just business as usual.
As it stands, I have no way of knowing if teachers were already just surfing the web for an hour while students taught themselves from a textbook, or if this "project-based learning" is a new trend they think is cool when, in reality, they used to actually lecture and explain things properly.

Michelle Nelson4 said:Wait, is there actually a theory floating around now that the modern education system—the one currently shaping our kids—is fundamentally flawed because it focuses on cramming piles of facts that most students just dump out of their brains three days after the final exam?

🤣 🤣 🤣

Actually, they still do, but now kids have to dig up those facts themselves and try to make sense of them—googling every third term from a slide deck and all that. 😂
Nowadays, they actually end up just rote learning because if a parent doesn't step in to explain what a specific term means or help them grasp the concept, they're stuck.

My little one is lucky with her teachers, but there are these two who really took a dislike to this project-based learning approach. They decided that meant they didn't have to teach or explain anything anymore, and honestly, I feel like I'm doing their jobs for them.
If my daughter just wanted to memorize things without understanding them, I’d probably let her, since half of that stuff doesn't matter anyway
but she won't, so I'm the one sitting there explaining everything she should have learned in class.

I really hoped that in places like Scandinavia, things would be more advanced than they are here—that kids would actually learn the core concepts first, get a solid foundation, and then have the chance to explore and build on them alongside their teachers.
That was my impression at least, especially since Finland seems to have such incredible results.🤷

Susan James said:I recently stumbled upon a really fascinating book called "Alternative Facts." It’s by a Swedish author, and in the fifth chapter, she dives deep into how we approach knowledge and critical thinking in schools—basically what we call "modern teaching" today.

Beyond just highly recommending it, I found her take on the 1994 educational reforms in Sweden particularly striking. She talks about how student scores on PISA tests dropped afterward (especially in reading comprehension), followed by only very minor improvements. But the most interesting part is her critique of "individualized learning." She really questions whether all these "projects and activities" are actually the best way to teach.
(Instead of just lecturing, the idea is that teachers and students should be engaging in dialogue)

She argues that instead of giving kids a solid foundation of facts so they can actually learn how to solve problems and think critically, the system has leaned too hard into extreme individualization. This means the kids who succeed are often just the ones who have extra resources at home—things they really ought to be getting at school.
She even shared stories about her own children, who would come home with projects and assignments but zero instructions or prior knowledge. It basically meant she and her husband had to step in and do the heavy lifting for them. I see this happening more and more here, too—it often just depends on which teacher you get; some lean into these "modern methods" and push kids toward "independent research" without much guidance.
Teachers themselves often say their role is to "help students find the facts themselves," but of course, that all depends on *how* they are helping... especially with the way things work on HRnacin.

Her main point is that to solve problems and think critically, you actually need to know the facts first. We have to teach children something before we can expect them to think critically about a subject. It seems like many school reforms—she mentioned the USA and France, along with Scandinavia—tried to move away from traditional instruction to focus on projects and "critical thinking," where the teacher's job is just to guide students toward finding their own answers.

It makes you wonder: if the goal is self-discovery, what exactly are the students supposed to do in a critical thinking class? 🤔

I originally intended to write about the new critical thinking course being introduced in middle schools, but I figured I'd post this here since we've discussed these teaching methods in this group before. Honestly, the more I read, the more I wonder if we were right to wait for the bus back then—if so, maybe it's a good thing that changes happen so slowly over here.

Yeah, totally. I couldn't agree more.
I’ll skip the reading, though; I don't really need the extra depression today.