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Is public education in America facing a crisis?
School districts across the U.S., faced with deep funding cuts, are being forced to consider drastic cost-cutting measures, including laying-off teachers and increasing class sizes.
At least 34 states and the District of Columbia have implemented cuts to K-12 education.
At least 43 states have implemented cuts to public colleges and universities and/or made large increases in college tuition to make up for insufficient state funding. In this edition of the show we ask people in New York City: Is public education in America facing a crisis?
Disgraced high street banks ‘to be welcomed into the classroom to teach children lessons in financial education’
They have been mired in mis-selling scandals, forced into nationalisation and accused of Libor rate fixing. Now high street banks are to be invited into the classroom to teach children about financial education, it has been reported. Banks included Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Lloyds would be considered for a list of groups given permission to use branded material and make presentations in English primary and secondary schools from September 2014, according to the Financial Times.
Learning about finances: More than 200 MPs are campaigning to make financial education compulsory in schools. The proposals come amid calls by more than 200 MPs to make financial education compulsory by incorporating it into core subjects like maths. The All Party Parliamentary Group of Financial Education has submitted a report to the Department for Education, saying that the new National Curriculum needs to include a far better provision… Continue reading
The War on Kids
The War on Kids is a 2009 documentary film about the American school system. The film takes a look at public school education in America and concludes that schools are not only failing to educate, but are increasingly authoritarian institutions more akin to prisons that are eroding the foundations of American democracy. Students are robbed of basic freedoms primarily due to irrational fears; they are searched, arbitrarily punished and force-fed dangerous pharmaceutical drugs. The educational mission of the public school system has been reduced from one of learning and preparation for adult citizenship to one of control and containment.
A lesson children need: Why financial literacy should be included in the National Curriculum
In just over three weeks, a little noticed Private Member’s Bill will get its second reading in Parliament.
Drawn up by Thomas Docherty, MP for Dunfermline and West Fife, and launched last summer, his Bill calls for financial literacy to be included in the National Curriculum.
This sounds like a no-brainer. What’s not to like about giving future generations of British consumers a better grasp of how to manage their money as well as the nous to fend off slippery financial salesmen?
Not enough: Ministers have been nothing if not lukewarm, promising only a commitment to ¿look at¿ financial education as part of the review. Continue reading No future for youth: The changing face of Europe (Op-Ed)
University social gap ‘narrows’
University social gap ‘narrows’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20245187
MailOnline::Parents’ fury at school’s plans to close on Friday afternoons… so staff can catch up on paperwork
http://bit.ly/Poq04R Parents’ fury at school’s plans to close on Friday afternoons… so staff can catch up on paperwork … #MailOnline
Teacher training tests toughened
Teacher training tests toughened http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20083249
Ban on the cane ‘left schools unable to impose discipline and led to deterioration in children’s behaviour’
The scrapping of the cane has led to a deterioration in children’s behaviour at school, according to teachers.
Sanctions available to schools since corporal punishment was abolished 25 years ago are ‘totally inadequate’ at reasserting authority in the classroom and lack the same deterrent effect, they said yesterday.
While rejecting a return to the cane, members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers condemned existing sanctions such as detention and suspension.
Figure of fear: The forbidding use of canes is alleged to be behind the sharp decline in children’s discipline
‘Novel’ punishments are needed to allow teachers to reassert their authority in the classroom, they said.
Delegates at the association’s annual conference voted unanimously for research into ‘effective’ disciplinary methods.
‘When corporal punishment was abolished nothing was put in its place that had equivalent deterrent powers,’ said Julian Perfect, a teacher from London.
Laws forbidding state schools… Continue reading
Unschooling: the new class of learning | euronews, learning world
Many parents are taking their children out of the formal school system in favour of a freer way of learning.
It is not home schooling, where the standard curriculum is taught by parents or tutors. They call it unschooling, where youngsters are encouraged to explore the things they want to learn about or for which they have a specific talent.
In Berlin, we meet a young American who turned his back on school by the time he was 11-years-old. Dale J. Stevens is writing a book that he describes as “a practical guide to learning the skills that school doesn‘t teach but are requisite for success in the real world”. It is based on his experiences as an unschooler but also incorporates the stories of other people who found success in non-traditional ways.
In Paris, we meet the Stern family. André Stern is a well-known name in the world of… Continue reading
