I have a plan.

[LEDrexel]

For the whole of my life I've been taught that education is important, and the only thing other people cannot take from you is a good education.
Well, today in America, education is at an all time low. I recently noticed a survey with 19 countries including the US. Out of 19 countries, America is at the bottom. We are number 17 out of 19. I think the problem is we have too many sports in schools. so, I have a suggestion. By the way, I know that I may have upset a majority of you with my sport comment but I think I may have found some middle ground which I will explain.

I believe to fix this crisis in America,, we need to put education back in education. Here's my plan.

Take out school sports, and put the funds into some pre-existing classes and make some new ones. As far as physical education is concerned, we will still have it, but it will be three times a week at two hour intervals. The kids are gonna have a gym where they can run on a treadmill or run on a track, and lift weights. If they want to play a sport, thats fine, but not in school, go to an outside organization.
Next, all that money is going to go into the arts and increase the quality of it. The arts is a very a good way to stimulate the mind. To have an understanding that all the rappers and singers and music artist today are the biproduct of Mozart, Beethoven, etc. To have an understanding of theatre and writing. To know that is a skill to acting, directing and writing.

This is not just limited to the arts, we will incorperate better math, english, science, and history classes. We implement a new rule that if a teacher cannot break down the material then it's their responsibility to assign them to a tutor to help with the material.

We incorperate philosophy as apart of the curriculum. In order for the students to fully understand what they are learning, they need to understand the works of Aristotle, Socrateas, and Plato.

And for the funding issue, schools will get there funding based soley on student academic performance, not athletic.

Teachers will only be able to keep there jobs if they legitimately pass students. That means no more passing a student because he needs to play in the big game on saturday, and there is no more ten year for teachers.

This is a plan that I've been working on for a little while. It is still a work in progress. I came up with this plan, as I previously stated, education in the US is at an all time low. I believe the plan is a step in the right direction. I am open to suggestions. And when I've worked this out, I do plan on going before congress and proposing this idea.

Thank you.

[Loss Leader]

Not very good at sports, were you?

[rjh01]

Do you have any recent links about US education standards? The best I could find was Many Nations Passing U.S. in Education, Expert Says (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/education/10educ.html)

[Dave Rogers]

I recently noticed a survey with 19 countries including the US. Out of 19 countries, America is at the bottom. We are number 17 out of 19.

I think you've illustrated the problem very nicely there. ;)

I think the problem is we have too many sports in schools. so, I have a suggestion. By the way, I know that I may have upset a majority of you with my sport comment but I think I may have found some middle ground which I will explain.

I believe to fix this crisis in America,, we need to put education back in education. Here's my plan.

Take out school sports, and put the funds into some pre-existing classes and make some new ones. As far as physical education is concerned, we will still have it, but it will be three times a week at two hour intervals. The kids are gonna have a gym where they can run on a treadmill or run on a track, and lift weights. If they want to play a sport, thats fine, but not in school, go to an outside organization.

I think that one of the problems the USA is perceived as suffering from by other nations is the belief that complex problems can be resolved with simple solutions, and I think this is a classic example. On the whole, I agree with your general point that schools shouldn't be dominated by sports, but I think (a) that's far from being the only problem and (b) you're going too far in the opposite direction. I had a very good education at a school that played cricket, rugby and hockey as competitive sports; the key point, I think, is that those sports weren't used as revenue streams for the school. Having amateur sports in schools is at worst no problem, and at best a positive benefit to health and morale. When the level of committment required becomes akin to that in professional sports, then things have gone too far.

And, if it helps my credibility, I was useless at every sport and hated every minute of games afternoons (when I wasn't AWOL, that is).

Dave

[Jeff Corey]

...Teachers will only be able to keep there jobs if they legitimately pass students. That means no more passing a student because he needs to play in the big game on saturday, and there is no more ten year for teachers...

Sigh.

[Dancing David]

Um, while the funding of sports might be perceived as an issue, it is not that big at K-12.

The biggest issues in education are poverty, poverty and poverty.

[paiute]

For the whole of my life I've been taught that education is important, and the only thing other people cannot take from you is a good education.

Your post convinced me that not everyone is getting a proper education, but it convinced me not in the way you probably intended.

[Jeff Corey]

Your post convinced me that not everyone is getting a proper education, but it convinced me not in the way you probably intended.

Me, too. See post #5.

[Doubt]

I think the problem is we have too many sports in schools.

Evidence?

That, and what everybody else has said so far.

If you do have any evidence, also save yourself some time and check on how many of the top countries also have sports in schools at the k-12 levels.

[madurobob]

Take out school sports, and put the funds into some pre-existing classes and make some new ones.
Interesting. Have you researched just how much of the budget goes into sports in an average K-12 US school system and what you might be able to cover with those funds? What about pay-to-play? There are school systems that have eliminated most sports and those that have gone to pay-to-play in order to better fund academics. Have they fared better under these plans?

Next, all that money is going to go into the arts and increase the quality of it. The arts is a very a good way to stimulate the mind. To have an understanding that all the rappers and singers and music artist today are the biproduct of Mozart, Beethoven, etc. To have an understanding of theatre and writing. To know that is a skill to acting, directing and writing.
Um, you're wanting to defund sports to create more rappers and singers and musicians? THIS is one of my problems with a lot of kids I meet these days - they're entire career plan amounts to "sing a song and get famous". I love music and my family is full of musicians (my 19yr old is on a music scholarship in college). But, I think we need to focus on something a bit more concrete. Screw the arts, lets focus on language, science and math. If you want to learn to sing, find a voice coach. At school, lets focus on critical thinking, on formulating hypotheses and then devising tests for them. Lets focus on establishing a solid work ethic and achieving long term goals, rather than assuming the fame fairy will sprinkle stardust on us when we turn 18.

This is not just limited to the arts, we will incorperate better math, english, science, and history classes. Well, yeah, like that. But, will throwing money at them necessarily make them better? I'm not clear what you plan to do with the money.

[Orangutan]

A plan. Let me put on my slightly larger glasses.

[Mr. Purple]

If you are solely speaking about college athletics, I would be inclined to agree with you on first glance. I am offended that people hold degrees in high regard while uneducated athletes have them given to them for free.

However, as I try to learn to be a better skeptic, I would suggest we would need to investigate (among other things) how much money these sports programs generate. They may very well be a net benefit to the academic pursuits. I just don't know, and you didn't supply any evidence to back your claim. Either way, on principle, I would agree that it is an issue worthy of scrutiny.

If you mean k-12, then I will struggle to retort so diplomatically. Setting aside the allocation of the big bucks they spend on kickballs and floor mats, I have to wonder if you just want us all to be fat. If anything, I think our youngsters need more physical education / recess time, not less.

ETA: No bias against athletes on my part, I played a million sports, some of them rather well. Huge Pro sports fan as well.

[Ray Brady]

So... what about the other 170+ countries in the world? Are we above all of them? If so, good for us. If not, then that survey doesn't really provide enough information to draw a useful conclusion.

[madurobob]

I am offended that people hold degrees in high regard while uneducated athletes have them given to them for free.
Oh, definitely not for free. They may do different work, but they do a lot of work. They also often sign away many rights to the university, which can make millions on marketing their likeness yet is conveniently prevented from splitting any of the proceeds with the athlete. There is nothing free about the system to the athlete.

[Minoosh]

There are a lot of ways to tie sports into academics. Box scores teach statistics, football uses negative numbers. Plus, the student-athletes are fairly motivated, in season.

[Alt+F4]

The biggest issues in education are poverty, poverty and poverty.

Correct, correct and correct. Then add limited English, absenteeism, parental neglect, transience, substantace abuse and teen pregnancy (In 18 years of teaching high school I've never had a pregnant student that graduated on time).

Then we have the Obama/Duncan/Bloomberg/Rhee solution: just test every kid all the time and the above will be fix/cured.

[Spindrift]

The schools in my town and many others don't have any school sponsored sports until high school.

What exactly is the problem with sports in schools anyway? You said you wanted to take them out but you gave no justification for why.

[ApolloGnomon]

A bigger problem than sports in school taking money from education is our government shooting million dollar bullets at people who don't care about us one way or another.

If we would start to look at the population of future voters as a vital part of the national infrastructure maybe we would start electing people willing to fix the problem instead of blaming the teachers for being unable to do their jobs with insufficient resources.

How many tests and studies showing more money = better grades does it take before people finally get it?

The grade school in my neighborhood is called by some "Spanglish" elementary -- I'm sending my kids to a charter school across town instead. Spangler has the highest percentage of kids on free lunch in the entire district -- and the lowest grades. These kids aren't in sports -- I was talking to a woman who taught there for a while and she had to spend her own money just to have classroom supplies, AND she was helping the kids by buying craploads of pencils and even, sometimes, shoes.

Yes, in the 21st century, in a county infested with technology companies, a schoolteacher is buying students shoes so they can walk to school in the winter.

Sports smorts. Give those kids a soccer team and maybe that would give them some school pride, a sense of community and a connection to the larger community around them. And in the meantime, the school needs to be remodeled and the entire neighborhood needs a new attitude.

Simple people like simple answers. Complex and complicated problems require deeper thinking to solve.

[madurobob]

I was talking to a woman who taught there for a while and she had to spend her own money just to have classroom supplies, AND she was helping the kids by buying craploads of pencils and even, sometimes, shoes.

This is not at all uncommon. Walk into any public elementary school classroom and its likely that the majority of that cool kids-oriented education stuff on the walls, on the desks, being sent home in kids folders, etc.. is stuff the teacher purchased out of his/her own pocket. And, the way we pay teachers, those pockets aren't deep.

Its a testament to teachers everywhere that they care enough to give up their meager salaries to better educate the kids in their class. But, at the same time, its an indictment of our society as a whole and the (meager) value we put on education.

[timhau]

We incorperate philosophy as apart of the curriculum.


But not spelling, I presume.


This is a plan that I've been working on for a little while. It is still a work in progress. I came up with this plan, as I previously stated, education in the US is at an all time low. I believe the plan is a step in the right direction.

Your plan is that education in the US is at an all-time low, and you believe that is a step in the right direction? That is cunning.

[ApolloGnomon]

Ya know what I blame? The price of dope and gasoline went up too much.

Back in the day a high school kid could work a 12 hour week at DairyQueen after school and have enough money to buy gas to go out with friends, and a "dime bag" would get a casual smoker by for a week. Now, gas is too expensive and a pot is sold by the gram. Kids need to work 40+ hour weeks to afford gas and pot and they don't have enough time for homework.

[jayh]

...
How many tests and studies showing more money = better grades does it take before people finally get it?
....

according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) US education expenditure is right near the top, and many of the systems that do better are spending far less.

[Magyar]

Um, while the funding of sports might be perceived as an issue, it is not that big at K-12.

The biggest issues in education are poverty, poverty and poverty.

While moeny does have something to do with it to some extent this is a red herring.

I think it has FAR more to do with work ethic and expectations.
We don't demand much from our kids so they don't give us much
You look at the curiculum of other countries compared to the US and you can see the sad truth.

I've been following this since it came out.
http://www.2mminutes.com/