Saturday, June 14, 2008

Drop 'middle-class' academic subjects says schools adviser

This article in the Daily Mail made me feel like I now live in the twilight zone.

British professor, John White, believes that lessons should"
cover a series of personal skills.
Pupils would no longer study history, geography and science but learn skills such as energy- saving and civic responsibility through projects and themes.

Professor White wants ministers to encourage schools to shift away from single-subject teaching to "theme or project-based learning".

Pupils would still cover some content but would be encouraged to meet a series of personal aims. The curriculum already states some of these but is "hampered" by the continued primacy of subjects.

The aims include fostering a model pupil who "values personal relationships, is a responsible and caring citizen, is entrepreneurial, able to manage risk and committed to sustainable development".


Why bother sending your child to school at all if this is what they are going to be taught?

The dumbing down of the curriculum and grade inflation has lead to:
A leading university will become the first to introduce its own entrance exam for all applicants because A-levels no longer distinguish the brightest teenagers.

Imperial College will ask them to sit a problem-solving test as well as A-levels - claiming that grade inflation has left the gold standard exam "almost worthless".


This is yet another reason why I am glad we homeschool.

In our homeschool we concentrate on the basics, taught hierarchically which will ultimate lead (we hope), to children who will be able to logically analyze all information that comes their way.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Good grief...how scary. Talk about unveiling the hidden reason for schooling our kids to become good little citizens for the powers that be to manipulate them however they please!

Michelle (The Beartwinsmom) said...

Have you ever read the book "The Dumbing Down of America" by Charles Sykes? (I think that's the correct title- I'm going by my very old memory here.) That book is very powerful in showing just how much watered-down curriculum many schools have. That is why my boys attend a charter school.

Shez- Your blog is awesome, as always. I love these types of posts the best. :-)

dss said...

hey sherene,
i just read your blog for the first time and i really enjoyed it. I am now realizing as i apply to jobs for next fall in special education in the state of maryland that schools are way to focused on learning for tests and less on enjoying the material. Even to apply to grad school in special education in maryland there are different tests to take to get into different schools.