Have you ever wondered why we have random days off or why our school day is from 7:25 to 3? These are things that I have often thought of. When you think about it, why do we have a half day on October 1st? Interns are not a very good excuse to have a half day. I am not complaining about the two and a half day weekend but many parents are complaining that they have to leave work early to pick up their kids. Also, is there any reason why we don't have school during the summer? Before air conditioning, the school would become unbearably hot during the summer. Now with air conditioning there is no reason not to have school during the summer besides tradition. I would prefer year round school with a month brake between seasons. That would help break things up and help us not forget everything over the 10 week summer vacation. Other things that need to be changed about school are that students are too worried about getting good grades then actually learning the material. Students should be graded on their knowledge of the material rather than how well they can guess and finding all the wrong answers. Also, parents can be way too pushy. If they see an "E" on edline, they could get very angry. However you know that you have not taken the test yet and your parents just don’t know what is going on.
If I were to make my own school from scratch, these are a few things I would change. First, I would have the curriculum having no multiple choice questions. Also I would make sure that parents were informed before asking their student why they got bad grades. I would make the school much smaller, closer to only 1000 kids instead of the 2500 students my school has. The teachers all would have very few kids in the class; no more than 15 rather than the 30 currently. They also would be able to discuss with their other department teachers what they want the curriculum to include. All the teachers all would be passionate about teaching and create an enjoyable environment for students. The last thing I would change or add to my school would be an extra hour for lunch and recess that students could leave the building before having their afternoon class. These changes would help add more freedom for students. If my school was like that it would make for such a better learning environment.
Please comment on what you agree and disagree with.
