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Doing better by our children
July 12, 2012 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) at 08:32 AM
This week’s Economist has three articles on education (Charting a Better Course, Testing the Limits, and A 20-Year Lesson).
The first article is perhaps of most interest, as it rather conclusively suggests that giving schools independence is the way to go. But the last article has a dynamite conclusion, reproduced here. H/T FG
- In rich countries, this generation of adults is not doing well by its children. They will have to pay off huge public-sector debts. They will be expected to foot colossal bills for their parents’ pension and health costs. They will compete for jobs with people from emerging countries, many of whom have better education systems despite their lower incomes. The least this generation can do for its children is to try its best to improve its state schools. Giving them more independence can do that at no extra cost. Let there be more of it.
Any distraction when trying to concentrate throws a person/child off, so when a child is learning to read, pictures on the same page would draw a child’s focus away from the task at hand.
Who knows? This may be why there are so many add and adhd kids and adults today. Our world is full of distractions—tv, radio, noise pollution, and of course it carries right into the classroom with child-centred learning (very disruptive and oftentimes chaotic) and Ontario high school students being allowed to bring their electronic toys right into the classrooms. As a result, have many of our kids and adults who have been diagnosed with the above instead been trained not to focus?