How can education be improved?
M. Orhan Tarhan
April 14, 2009
The improvement of education should not be left totally to schools. It should start at home. Parents should be interested in their childrenīs education. They should follow up their progress, and when it is stalled, they should get busy and solve their childrenīs problems.
The American Childīs home life consists of TV-watching, play, extra-curricular activities, and school work. TV-watching should be closely regulated, maybe an hour every day. Very important educational programs can be taped and watched over the weekend, when more time is available. Extra-curricular activities may be culture-building, such as learning to play a musical instrument, singing, painting and water colors, reading literary books, or sports and scouting. Sports can be body-building (Gymnastics, running, high and long jumping, fencing, javelin or weight throwing, etc.) or team sports (Foot ball, basketball, volley ball, etc.) These are all wonderful activities, but a child cannot do them all. Parents should not push their children to be involved in too many activities. To the contrary, they should choose one or two of these activities, in considering the childīs interests ( maybe a culture-building one and a body-building one) and have a great deal of time left for home work.
A new curriculum must be written for the entire country, for classes 1 12, that should be as strong as the French or the Japanese curriculums that emphasize the teaching of thinking and philosophy in 12th grade. Such a program would take 12 years to initiate. The first year only the first grade will start and those kids will be the first to complete the program, when they will graduate in 12 years. Other classes will follow them. Parallel to them, teachers will be trained to teach the new curriculum, also in 12 years.
Such a curriculum must be written once for all the 50 states. We cannot expect the products of Dewey to write it. We must get French, British, and a few Japanese education experts to form a curriculum commission in the Department of Education in Washington with some enlightened American teachers of long experience. They should start by writing the first gradeīs curriculum and allow the program to begin. They will have 12 years to complete the entire curriculum. After that, the commission would be reduced to one scientist who would follow the progress in various sciences and technologies and keep the curriculum up-to-date. The training of teachers should be expected to have difficult logistical problems. Those who teach them will have to be European experts hired for 12years.
The main reason for writing the curriculum for the entire 50 states, is to prevent the influence of local ignorant school boards on the curriculum. Some of our school boards are 160 years behind the times. Their ignorance should not infect the new curriculum.
Once the program is in full swing after 12 years, the Department of Education must prepare yearly examination questions for all high schools , public and private, and devise a cheat-proof way of using them, that does not show the identity of the student to the grader of the paper. Here the concern is not that just the students may cheat, but that the teachers might cheat to show that their class has been successful. That is why the graders must not know which class they are grading. They might be grading papers of another school. The exam questions should not contain multiple choice questions. They should not require the schools to train the students to pass the tests, in stead of better teaching them. Then, The schools and the teachers must be Judged by the success in educating their pupils.
For graduating, a student should not fail on any subject. If he/she fails from one or two subjects, she/he would have another chance to succeed by taking summer courses in the school and entering a "completion exam" before school starts in September. If he/she succeed then, he/she . will graduate in September. Otherwise he/she will have to repeat 12th grade. Failure in three or more subjects results in repeating 12th grade. Once students understand this system, they will study much more vigorously and successfully and very few people will repeat the class. At the ends of classes 1 11, there will be also a yearly examination, only the questions for these exams will be prepared in all secrecy by a State Commission of experienced teachers. Success and failure will be the same as described for 12th grade.
The Schools and teachers should be judged by the percentage of successes and failures of the students. Failing schools should not be closed (I have changed my mind on that) it would be investigated whether the problem is in homes, in students, in administration or in teaching. If the investigation shows the administration to be deficient, the school management would be changed. If it is in teaching, deficient teachers should be replaced. If it is in the homes and the neighborhood, parents should be educated. A nation that can send a man to the moon should be able to fix its schools. Closing schools or giving parents money to transfer to private schools sends those kids to religious schools to be indoctrinated in stead to grow as enlightened citizens. Besides it is something to be ashamed of, to admit that the government cannot run a decent school.
The new curriculum should be applied not only to all public schools, but also the private schools. If those private schools want to give a high school diploma, their students will have to pass the yearly national exam.
Once students start graduating from high schools under the new curriculum, they may not need most of the 4-year colleges. Those colleges, if they do not want to close, will have to transform themselves into something useful such as special engineering schools, Law schools, etc. In time, graduates from the high schools will go directly to the universities. Some universities may choose to institute entrance examinations. Ability to send graduates to these universities may be another way of judging a high school.
To Readersī Attention: Anyone who wishes to receive THE ORHAN TARHAN LETTER should send an e-mail to orhant@verizon.net ith his/her full name, e-mail address, and PLEASE phone number, in case there is an interruption caused bythe server, or in case of e-mail address change. It is free.Comments are welcome. These LETTERs are also published in AmericanChronicle.com.
The American Childīs home life consists of TV-watching, play, extra-curricular activities, and school work. TV-watching should be closely regulated, maybe an hour every day. Very important educational programs can be taped and watched over the weekend, when more time is available. Extra-curricular activities may be culture-building, such as learning to play a musical instrument, singing, painting and water colors, reading literary books, or sports and scouting. Sports can be body-building (Gymnastics, running, high and long jumping, fencing, javelin or weight throwing, etc.) or team sports (Foot ball, basketball, volley ball, etc.) These are all wonderful activities, but a child cannot do them all. Parents should not push their children to be involved in too many activities. To the contrary, they should choose one or two of these activities, in considering the childīs interests ( maybe a culture-building one and a body-building one) and have a great deal of time left for home work.
A new curriculum must be written for the entire country, for classes 1 12, that should be as strong as the French or the Japanese curriculums that emphasize the teaching of thinking and philosophy in 12th grade. Such a program would take 12 years to initiate. The first year only the first grade will start and those kids will be the first to complete the program, when they will graduate in 12 years. Other classes will follow them. Parallel to them, teachers will be trained to teach the new curriculum, also in 12 years.
Such a curriculum must be written once for all the 50 states. We cannot expect the products of Dewey to write it. We must get French, British, and a few Japanese education experts to form a curriculum commission in the Department of Education in Washington with some enlightened American teachers of long experience. They should start by writing the first gradeīs curriculum and allow the program to begin. They will have 12 years to complete the entire curriculum. After that, the commission would be reduced to one scientist who would follow the progress in various sciences and technologies and keep the curriculum up-to-date. The training of teachers should be expected to have difficult logistical problems. Those who teach them will have to be European experts hired for 12years.
The main reason for writing the curriculum for the entire 50 states, is to prevent the influence of local ignorant school boards on the curriculum. Some of our school boards are 160 years behind the times. Their ignorance should not infect the new curriculum.
Once the program is in full swing after 12 years, the Department of Education must prepare yearly examination questions for all high schools , public and private, and devise a cheat-proof way of using them, that does not show the identity of the student to the grader of the paper. Here the concern is not that just the students may cheat, but that the teachers might cheat to show that their class has been successful. That is why the graders must not know which class they are grading. They might be grading papers of another school. The exam questions should not contain multiple choice questions. They should not require the schools to train the students to pass the tests, in stead of better teaching them. Then, The schools and the teachers must be Judged by the success in educating their pupils.
For graduating, a student should not fail on any subject. If he/she fails from one or two subjects, she/he would have another chance to succeed by taking summer courses in the school and entering a "completion exam" before school starts in September. If he/she succeed then, he/she . will graduate in September. Otherwise he/she will have to repeat 12th grade. Failure in three or more subjects results in repeating 12th grade. Once students understand this system, they will study much more vigorously and successfully and very few people will repeat the class. At the ends of classes 1 11, there will be also a yearly examination, only the questions for these exams will be prepared in all secrecy by a State Commission of experienced teachers. Success and failure will be the same as described for 12th grade.
The Schools and teachers should be judged by the percentage of successes and failures of the students. Failing schools should not be closed (I have changed my mind on that) it would be investigated whether the problem is in homes, in students, in administration or in teaching. If the investigation shows the administration to be deficient, the school management would be changed. If it is in teaching, deficient teachers should be replaced. If it is in the homes and the neighborhood, parents should be educated. A nation that can send a man to the moon should be able to fix its schools. Closing schools or giving parents money to transfer to private schools sends those kids to religious schools to be indoctrinated in stead to grow as enlightened citizens. Besides it is something to be ashamed of, to admit that the government cannot run a decent school.
The new curriculum should be applied not only to all public schools, but also the private schools. If those private schools want to give a high school diploma, their students will have to pass the yearly national exam.
Once students start graduating from high schools under the new curriculum, they may not need most of the 4-year colleges. Those colleges, if they do not want to close, will have to transform themselves into something useful such as special engineering schools, Law schools, etc. In time, graduates from the high schools will go directly to the universities. Some universities may choose to institute entrance examinations. Ability to send graduates to these universities may be another way of judging a high school.
To Readersī Attention: Anyone who wishes to receive THE ORHAN TARHAN LETTER should send an e-mail to orhant@verizon.net ith his/her full name, e-mail address, and PLEASE phone number, in case there is an interruption caused bythe server, or in case of e-mail address change. It is free.Comments are welcome. These LETTERs are also published in AmericanChronicle.com.