Hot Topic - Education

[Clare]

August's Hot Topic is Education!

Sorry it's a very late "Hot Topic" again.

But since August is the time when most schools, colleges and universities are shut I thought this would be a good topic to discuss.

Are you currently in Education? If you are, what level are you at, ie. High School, College, etc.

If you have children or younger siblings, how do you help them with their Education?

How old do you think a child should have to be until they can 'leave' Education?

Also, what should be the basic subjects a child has to study in school? Should the teaching of foreign languages be compulsory?

[cyclica]

I'm not in education anymore, its all behind me now. At 23 I may be one of the oldest people on this board.

I think a child should be about 16 or so before they can leave education. As for basic subjects, I dunno. When it comes to foreign languages, there should be more options, if you're gonna learn another language it should be one you intend to use. In my school we had to take french before we could take german, and I didn't want to take french! It was a waste of time and I wasn't motivated, but I had to do it coz I wanted to learn german.

[smallz]

I'm a senior in high school. Personally, I think that all students should be required to have a high school diploma before giving up on school. The people I know who object to that are too stoned to get up and say anything to me (which sorta proves my point).

Also, yesterday most of the teachers in my school district called in sick. It was a massive strike planned to protest teacher wages. Several schools had to shut down and those that couldn't had to enprison their students in their auditoriums and play movies simply to make them "sit down and shut up" as the 9 o'clock news put it. I was at home sick anyways, so the news was how I heard about it.

[partcynic]

At the ancient age of 22 , I'm continuing to study at uni. I've completed my Bachelors and Masters degrees in Psychology, and I'm currently working while studying for a PhD.

As far as compulsory education goes, I think that completion of high school/secondary school really should be mandatory - it may suck having to do things you don't like, but people rapidly realise the doors education opens up once they leave school and get into the real world. With basic subjects, English, maths and science are fine as the current compulsory ones, although I think foreign languages should be taught earlier. One of the reasons so many people from non-English speaking countries are so fluent in English is from the amount of exposure they get from a young age (and/or side-by-side teaching of it with other subjects) - and in the UK, we start French/German/Spanish way too late. Once people reach about 14, the capacity for fluidly learning another language starts dropping rapidly, so most of the teaching ends up a little self-defeating.