Lawrence Torres56 said:Honestly, forget about that reading list for a second—what’s actually keeping me up at night is all this talk about extending the school year. And don't even get me started on the plan to ramp up all this field trip stuff; I mean, looking around, isn't it obvious that a ton of parents are already struggling just to keep up with the basic costs? Then there's the move to push formal writing instruction down to second grade, while they're simultaneously trying to shove statistics into the first-grade curriculum... it's just getting ridiculous, isn't it? 🤣
👎 I guess that's just how it works in other developed nations. Do you happen to know how much longer it'll be or what the schedule might look like (holidays vs. classes)? I don't have anything against field trips, as long as they don't turn into nothing but visits to camps or memorial sites. 🙄
majo I’m just writing based on what I remember. I have no clue how things work nowadays or what’s changed in the meantime. For me, it was pure stupidity having to transcribe two or three pages of bibliographic data and author notes, then summarizing the plot and that whole "brief synopsis" thing—you know, the beginning, the rising action, the climax... The goal was always just to hit as many pages as possible. There wasn't anything creative about it; it was just tedious. It's fine if you're allowed some freedom to express an opinion, but I don't recall us ever writing book reports that way. 🤔 It was such a dry, soul-crushing chore.
I remember back then, hardly anyone even bothered to speak up during interpretation sessions—it wasn't like we were actually given the chance to participate. 🤣 To be honest, I don't think we ever really grasped what was expected of us; the textbook questions were vague, and the stuff the professor asked just didn't click. I haven't kept up with how things are now, except for hearing the workload has increased. Given everything is headed toward a total overhaul anyway, I doubt much has actually changed.
Karen Richardson3 said:I have no clue what the supposed benefits of this are, since I'm not the one standing at the front of the classroom.
That said, I personally used to love the writing assignments, specifically when we got to dive into our own interpretations (if that's even what we're talking about here?), mostly because I wasn't really the type to jump into every single debate during class time—though I might have raised my hand 😁 if the room went totally silent and nobody had an answer.
handwriting practice. 😬 Personally, I find it hard to believe a fifth or sixth grader could produce a deep analysis based on their own interpretation. 🤷 Sure, there might be a few outliers, but they're the exception. At least, that's my impression when I look back at how we handled literature discussions in middle school.
Karen Richardson3 said:I’d imagine one of the main points is basically just to give people a reason to actually practice building sentences while sticking to standard American grammar and spelling rules.
It’s not like they don't write anything else in that school. 🤔 Thinking back to myself—and honestly, plenty of others—that whole thing was just a massive waste of time. You can cover this stuff way more effectively during class, and any teacher can tell pretty quickly if a student actually did the reading.
Susan James said:I didn't catch the broadcast last night, but honestly, after talking to so many different school administrators over the past week, my excitement about these educational reforms is starting to fade pretty fast.
Regarding required reading, I was actually incredibly lucky with my English teachers back in high school 🙏, which is a huge contrast to what my partner experienced, though we both share a deep love for literature and read constantly. I’d say that passion just runs in the family—well, in my case, it wasn't just family, but I grew up seeing adults who really valued reading and showed me how engaging it could be.
One thing that gave me such an advantage in high school was that we weren't forced to write long, tedious book reports. Instead, we had to show up prepared to actually discuss the work in class; the themes would pop up in our worksheets and show up on tests all the time. It was nearly impossible to "fake it" without having actually read the book, but we didn't have that crushing pressure to just churn out a formal essay.
Nowadays, since the era of Google, required reading in our schools has basically turned into "copying"—and let's be real, it's less even copying and more just straight-up copy-pasting from the internet. It’s definitely a good move to introduce more contemporary works, if only to ensure there isn't some quick summary available online so students are actually forced to pick up the book and read.😬
I think I agree with Susan James on this one; we need to find a middle ground. I'm perfectly fine with a curriculum that balances the timeless classics with modern literature.
It was the same way here. 🙏 To me, writing those essays is one of the dumbest requirements out there. I don't see the point at all. I haven't been keeping up with the news lately—is there any talk about getting rid of them entirely?
I skimmed through this pretty quickly. I really liked those last few lines, though. 🤣 Since we’re on the subject of literature, back in high school, I used to think it would have been awesome to study Toni Morrison. 😁Even way back in elementary school, I had my favorite books and used to imagine how great it would be if we actually read them in class.
silentraven6 said:Last night, Nikola Jokić said something incredibly profound during his interview regarding that whole mess in San Francisco. School is boring for kids; they aren't learning anything practical, and they aren't facing any challenges that actually build character—they're just memorizing because someone told them they have to. The moment kids are in schools and institutions where they are actually engaged in studying the systems imposed upon them—basically, when they are actually challenged to think throughout their education—violence will decrease.
Such a beautiful thought.
If we add digital literacy starting from first grade—and I mean based on modern tech, not some textbook from 1993—it could actually work.
If we consider that this will foster group work, teamwork, project-based learning, true inclusion, and better teacher training, we might actually see results in 20 years. It won't happen sooner than that, because we won't produce academic experts capable of reaching their potential and becoming great educators before then.
I was reading through that entire thread about autism over on the health forum the other day, and I was stunned by one example of how an autistic child is integrated into our community, almost as if it were some alien world I've never had the chance to witness. The way children can influence one another, push each other forward, understand, comfort, stand by each other, and learn from each other... I truly believe that is the only way forward. It's a path where we learn from them by giving them the chance to act like little organized societies.
In our rush to chase quantity, we've missed out on the best part of them: their humanity. We forgot to guide them toward one another while nurturing their individuality. Instead, we give them metrics to compete over, rather than realizing—for once in human history—that the evolutionary "survival of the fittest" doesn't apply to the spiritual greatness a human can achieve simply by breaking down barriers and opening up to our shared existence. Our evolution should be about spiritual enrichment and discovering the best in all of us.
I'll never forget the beginning of the novel *ja dijete sa kolodvor zoo*, that description of the endless competition among children fueled by indifferent institutions and parents. Nothing has changed.
Spot on. School was incredibly dull for me, and I hated cramming. It’s funny, I actually had to retake a history exam in high school. Pure boredom. You sit there for an hour listening to a teacher drone on and on. Then, the weird thing happens: the night before the retake, I ended up learning the entire high school textbook. There wasn't a single thing I didn't know by morning. 😂Not even a gun could have forced me to study during the regular school year.
Susan James said:I really hope not! Honestly, either way would be pretty terrible—the first option sounds like a nightmare, and the second one? Just plain awful.
This isn't just your typical change in administration. It feels like we’re heading straight back into the Dark Ages.
And let's be real—it feels like the ultimate goal for this administration, and eventually through the school system too, is to make sure people just stop thinking for themselves. 🤮 One of the main goals of this reform is to encourage individuality, creativity, and critical thinking. However, during his interview, Paar basically tried to convince them that they should be shaping students into mindless followers instead. 🙄
Oh, right... that show was actually filmed on the exact same day they held the vote of no confidence against the administration. Man, if that was their mindset back then, I can only imagine what they're thinking today—and more importantly, what kind of shady tactics they’re planning to pull next.
I was going to say that nothing about this surprises me. While everyone else here was celebrating, I was staying skeptical. I had a gut feeling that changing who's in charge wouldn't actually fix anything. Honestly, what makes it even worse is how much they seem intent on dragging us backward.
If you’re having issues with moderation, there’s a PDF down below covering all that (messages, appeals, comments). We don't debate those rules on other threads, and we won't start here either. Violations carry consequences. Maybe I should have just written my last post in red to make it obvious enough.
Jacob Lewis5, Maja isn't the only moderator on this board. The rest of us are watching the thread too. If you spot anything that violates the rules, just hit the icon on the left to report it.
Henry Cox78 said:Religious studies belongs right where it should be—in the classroom.
It’s pretty obvious to me that people like you who hate religious studies only care about one thing: driving down church attendance until faith dies out completely. It’s going to be a total disaster. You guys are just weak—if believers actually fought back and forced everyone into religion, you'd all be whining like cowards. You should be happy just picking your own worldview instead of being so incredibly bold as to try and shove it down everyone else's throats. Well, fat chance. We aren't living under communism anymore, and the era of being pushed around is officially over.
And how exactly does reducing religious classes in schools lower the number of believers if they're just going to church anyway? 😁 You either believe or you don't, regardless of where you're sitting in a classroom or a pew.
Jacob Lewis5 said:Look, diversity is actually a good thing. We just need to learn how to coexist with it. You aren't going to "win" against diversity by trying to sterilize public or government spaces. If we start purging our own Christian identity from the public square, then we might as well just kick every other kind of difference out too. Right?
I’d suggest you actually read through this thread—maybe even scroll back a few pages—so you can wrap your head around why anyone would actually oppose religious education in schools.
Jacob Lewis5 said:Kudos to the atheists if they actually pull off forcing their worldview on everyone else and blocking 85% of kids from taking religion classes. Honestly, learning about Moses and having actual conversations about love and friendship is way more important in school than just mindlessly memorizing facts without understanding a thing, which is how most other subjects go anyway.
Nobody is trying to stop them. They can listen to him at church just like they did back in the '90s.
I don't quite follow. I know some teachers also act as homeroom instructors (in high school, at least—not sure how it works in middle school). The only way this makes sense is if there’s a specific distinction between a chaplain and a regular teacher that prevents the former from being a homeroom lead. 😕 In any case, what this "honorary" staffer (is she even an official 🤔?) said was completely uncalled for from a pedagogical standpoint. As an educator with degrees in psychology and pedagogy, she really should know better.