Personally I think we often look back and recollect things differently than they actually were. Theres a lot that goes into child development and many improvements/realizations have been made over the years.
As well as regressions.
While many things seem dumb on the surface, it may be whats best despite our gut reaction. I dont like the participation award concept but there is no harm in not always putting the winner on a pedastal either. You are still the winner even if others get praise as well.
I didn't necessarily say winner. I firmly believe that there has to be a goal type of system. Something that compels a person to try to strive for the best that they can be (for some, it won't matter though), not necessarily a winner. A participation type of system doesn't quite achieve that.
As you grow and enter the workforce, the participation award is easentially the system we embrace. You cant just keep the best guy and grow, you will always have the underacheivers that get rewarded with a check every week.
I think the workforce you entered into is quite different then the one that I was in. If you weren't able to keep up and it was clear your were an underachiever, more often then not, you were culled at some point.
I'm surprised that you didn't experience that given Florida is an "at will" state (or at least was, I don't know if that's changed or how).
The biggest change to that is if the person in question ticks one or more boxes of some type of identity politics issue. Then it's hard to get rid of them.
I think all in all the schools do a good job given their resources.
I would like to think that, but I don't see it. It may have started off that way when all this stuff was starting to come down, but it's been this way for so long, just reached a point of apathy. Then you have those teachers mentoring the incoming teachers and those new teachers start off getting that apathetic approach. Student teaching really disillusioned the ball and chain. It really did.
Policies, subjects and strategy are dictated by politicians rather than educators so hands are tied.
I agree and that actually doesn't make for an argument of pro school either (at least in my mind). Unless those policies, subjects etc don't disturb you enough to think otherwise.
Its not just about what you learn from a book either.
I don't think anyone ever did say that. There is a time and a place for everything. But, just because one location was the traditional spot for various learning aspects, doesn't quite mean that it still is, especially as things change (you mentioned one aspect of that in the quote directly above). And sometimes they are forced changes and not natural progression changes.
My 1 petty gripe is that my daughter (kindergarten) is allowed to bring water to drink in class. They should have to wait for breaks, theres a certain bit of discipline learned with that. Adults are just as bad though.
Some things that we attribute to learning as discipline and a good thing, aren't exactly the best for our bodies. That kinda feeds into what you were talking about in the first part. Improvements/realizations were made. This could be one of them. I'm probably more sympathetic to this particular aspect as my formal education was in equine reproduction and
nutrition and in the grande scheme of things, there are alot more similarities then differences when you talking about members of the same class (in this case mammals).
This is something that we could debate for quite a bit and I don't think there is one one size fits all answer. And because there is no right answer, what may work for one, may not work for the next. All I have to do is look into my immediate family to see different results and paths taken in regard to this very matter.
