read whole stories or novels instead of excerpts
Agreed! I've also
posted about this in the past... meanwhile many schools are creating anthologies of passages/excerpts for students to read, out of context.
Instead of presenting facts only, teach how discoveries are made and how they must be proven. EVIDENCE. This theme is essentially lacking from pedagogy today...
Agreed!
Grammar: bring that back. Schools don't teach this subject like they once did (the National Council of Teachers of English took a position against it in 1985).
Agreed!
I stand by my criticism of harsh attitudes that blame people for circumstances beyond their control ---
I would tend to agree. There is a difference between making self-defeating choices, and dealing with a set of circumstances beyond one's control.
idea that anyone can just pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
While many can, and some are unwilling to, it is probably untrue that
anyone can.
Where's the constructive compassion?
I'm familiar with heroic levels of volunteerism, as well as sacrificial levels of monetary donations and goods to those in need.
Possibly you mean it is government-funded, using taxpayer money?
wage laws ensure that people can live on the earnings of a single full-time job
Some might say wages are better determined by supply and demand?
Schools are funded equally, and they 1) spend their money well and 2) don't have to go begging for art or science supplies.
US schools spend
$12,296 per pupil (2012 figures), including teacher benefits, such as advanced degrees, health insurance, pensions.
The
US expenditure per pupil exceeds that of Canada and Denmark, which are both reported as approximately
$10K (2012 figures).
More reports available from National Center for Education Statistics (
NCES).
Browsing these statistics and those of State Departments of Education show that low-performing districts may actually spend
more per pupil.
