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New Academies?


observer

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The Principles of a New Academy in the UK is based on:

 

It must :

 

1. be PERSONALISED ? allowing students to access as many different courses as possible, even if they are not normally taught to their age group.

 

2. be BASED UPON DEVELOPING SKILLS AND UNDERSTANDING, not filling students? heads with information which will be outdated within a couple of years.

 

3. be LINKED, WHENEVER POSSIBLE, TO THE REAL WORLD in which our youngsters live.

 

4. offer students opportunities to learn through VARIED AND EXCITING LEARNING STRATEGIES so that they enjoy learning and will want to continue learning throughout their lives.

 

5. be an EXTENDED CURRICULUM ? not merely on offer from 9.00 to 3.15 in term time only, but extending late into the evening and through the holidays.

 

Interesting enough Minnesota's public schools had this plan in 1990 and some of it works well - others do not as well. Because as was mentioned earlier - each child learns in their own way at their own rate. So then they went to Student Centered Plan - it is worse. Then of course Bush Ordered No Child Left Behind ( good plan, no money) so the teachers are overworked, underpaid and have too large a classroom for most students to actually learn.

 

I say go back to the basics for the first 5 years of school, then let them Branch off to areas of interest to get them to stay in school. But hell, what do I know? :roll:

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Don't disagree with you Obs. But can we really completely discount the genetic factor?

If so, we are saying that ANYBODY could be trained to become a brain surgeon, or an Olympic athlete, or whatever.

As this is patently not the case, genes DO come into the equation as well as upbringing.

Fortunately, they come into the picture on a random basis, so we can't go down the route of breeding programmes, etc. Maybe one day we will be able to do so, but that poses all sorts of moral and ethical issues.

It must be wonderful to be ordinary (or even "thick") parents and suddenly produce a genius, thanks to some gene that has lurked unseen in your family for generations, coming to the surface.

But it must be even more frustrating to "bright" parents to suddenly produce an idiot!

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Of course everyone is different, with different aptitudes, IQs and interests, but my arguement is that any "education" system should be geared to maximise any inherent talents, through identification and streaming to produce the best in any given vocational field - this contrasts with the NuLab doctrine of aiming for 50% university places, regardless of abilities, and dumbing down standards to make outcomes match their dogma OR the Tory idea of "parental choice" favouring accessability on the basis of affordability or parental ambition. No, we can't all be brain surgeons; but the brain surgeons we do produce should be the best; as with all other professions; and so to our tradesmen, right down to the office cleaner - all realising their full potential by matching skills training to their natural abilities, regardless of their social origins. We are living in a global market, with competition via cheap labour; in order to compete, we must be inventive, innovative, creative; using the best trained skills base to stay one step ahead of the competition in order to survive and prosper. :?

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Don't disagree with you on most of that Obs.

But we have had free education in this country for around 100 years I believe. Imperfect though it is, it does give everyone the opportunity to learn. But you can lead a horse to water, but not make him drink.

What we really need to be looking at is why independent schools so often produce better results that the State schools - even the State grammar schools. Doesn't matter how much money parents have got, its the resources the schools have got that is important. If independent schools are better financed than the State then it is a scandal. I don't really believe they are.

But if you are fortunate enough to be able to send your child to a good independent school, he or she will mix with the children of other well-heeled parents and they will all benefit from, generally speaking, being in a more intellectually challenging environment. I know there will be exceptions, but there is not a lot we can do about them.

How do we replicate that in a free State system? Seems to me we used to manage quite well with grammar schools and secondary moderns. In theory, comprehensives should do just as well by streaming pupils, but the evidence is that this doesn't work as well.

The comprehensive schools that do best tend to be the ones in affluent areas, so they are actually more divisive than the old grammar v secondary modern system.

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Well it's back to upbringing Egg; it's a generalisation but' middle class kids tend to be brought up in a culture of learning and psycological dicipline; tend to learn a musical instrument and appreciate classical music - so put them in a school enviroment and the teacher just has to teach, rather than control. Conversely, some poor chav probably has next to no intellectual stimulation, will devour the mind numbing rubbish on TV; and believe his/her only chance of deliverance is through X-factor - sad. Trying to teach such kids is a challenge, and I'm not sure a system where the kids now have "rights" (and know them) without responsibilities; and the naughty step or expulsion is a mere joke; what chance have they got? :?

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They never ticked boxes when I went to Bewsey Primary..... You went to school, you did your work and if you were lucky enough (or clever enough) you passed the 11 plus and went to Grammar school

 

Back then kids were seen as what they really are; different. Some kids are clever and some kids aren't, some are good at sports, I wasn't.

 

Unfortunately, the last 13 years of trying to make us all the same hasn't worked and so we now have situations where thick kids are put with clever kids because that is the "fair" way to do it.. All that seems to have achieved is to create a level of mediocracy where no one is encouraged to excel at anything in case it may upset those that can't

 

Some people (and especially politicians) can't seem to grasp the concept that some people can't do certain things, no matter how much money or effort you throw at it!

 

Harrrrumph !!

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Well the debate has moved on to higher University fees; and the differentials this will cause to University access; well perhaps if they scrapped Mickey Mouse degrees and wannabee Universities, they might have enough money to support those professions essential to the economy? :?

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