renewedinchrist

As a believer of homeschool and its benefits, I would say life itself will provide precious chances for teaching skills and knowledge. In making plans for such learning activities, good characters such as patience, diligence, integrity…can be related to and practiced.

It is a very heartfelt pity that after decades, schools and classrooms have changed so little, if they have changed any. Of course they have. The teachers are using more digital methods to assign homework, track progress, and form the grades. What was written in notebooks are now recorded in laptops and teachers in public schools even have fancy game APPs designed to help with homework. However, this does little to help students get ready for a future where AI can threaten their brains and where grammar, logic, and rhetorics that are well trained and mastered will be practical to assist them to make good life decisions.

In China, curriculum is tailored for exams, and real life challenges beyond exams are not considered important by most parents. Parents “tolerate” (accept) the weakness in real life skills in their children. As long as they score high enough, they can enjoy meals prepared by nannies or family members, leave the communication work to adults, play some video games while sitting at the table.

The whole society values results more than the process. Well, not exactly so, because if they really care for the result, they should think further, and foresee the possible results of the ongoing education system. However, it is not the job of teachers to worry what the job seekers face as they graduated from colleges or high schools. Responsibilities are for the educators to make sure the kids will get a good job in the coming decade, and the teachers who are underpaid serve that purpose—the performance of the kids when they were in the work market is not catered for in the lesson plan of the teachers.

Who should be responsible for designing a curriculum? The stakeholders—parents, students, teachers, public authorities—should talk about optional ways to evaluate what a good education means besides good scores, and they had better not waste time in the talk. The generations to come cannot afford the waste of time.

If there were no pressure from entering a good college through an exam that determines what to teach, I believe most people involved will be happier and healthier.