Rethinking 10

"In some sense, the divorce of schooling and learning may take us back to an era where individuals negotiate their own learning experiences , often with strong guidance from their parents." Page 129

So, what kid listens to their parents?  Home schooled kids do , I think.  Don't you think that the authors are pretty presumptive by claiming that children don't learn anything in schools anymore?  I have to think more about this one.

"The current school system does not help students develop intrinsic motivation to learn.      One report found that 50% of high school students are bored every day in classes; another found 82% of California 9th and 10th graders reported their school experiences as "boring and irrelevant.""  Page 131

I agree with this set of statements.  I find that students are bored in every school that I am in.  But, they are not bored in every class.  They like band, choir, shop and certain classes where they are constructing things such as the video/TV production studio, Art and sometimes their web design classes in schools that have that.  This should tell us something.  Maybe we need to design teaching so that students are doing something physically active to learn academic content.  I used to take all of my upper level wildlife classes hunting and fishing on weekend field trips.  I had a mini physics class where certain students signed up for "special studies" where a retired physicist and Marine taught us to reload ammunition, tune rifles and how to shoot well.  Students seemed to like those "special studies", especially girls.

"As a society we need to understand how to balance the need to use schools as engines of economic committment..............."  Page 144-145

Yes, this is my complaint.  We should be training students for the work force.  But then, we might need to stop the practice of hiring foreigners who pay no taxes, take the money home and who pay no social security taxes.  A lot of business owners would not like this because for every one they hire, they save the 7.5% soc sec match.