(November 15, 2011 at 8:43 pm)Epimethean Wrote: You missed my point about the metric for assessing the net effect of paying kids to get good grades. and your suggestion for an uber-lifeskills course would result in just another elective, most likely. We can dream about creating the ultimate reality course, when, truly, teaching students the stuff they are in school to learn in the first place, doing it damned well, and assessing their understanding with properly written, rigorous test batteries is the way to get them into upper academics. I would suggest, if we are going to consider such a class as you suggest here, that we do the more logical thing and embrace voc-tech education for the students who would benefit from your course, as they are unlikely to be of the high performing set by and large and would be far better served to get into programs such as EVIT or other such vocational ed schools offer.
Let's be honest here: 50% of students who graduate from high school really are not meant to be in universities. They go because there is a set of expectations that they do so, and little opportunity elsewhere. It is mandatory for students to remain in school until they are either sixteen or a sophomore. The rate of dropping out has risen steadily over the past few years. Let's get the students who are not great students involved in voc-tech and let them begin such a course of study at sixteen rather than wasting their time accruing C's and D's in classes they don't truly get.
So, rather than a "life changer" of a course (because, most likely, it wouldn't be unless it were taught by an incredible teacher, and an incredible teacher can make ANY course life changing), let's let them change the course of their lives.
"50% of students who graduate from high school really are not meant to be in universities." Says who? Every should be successful and have high paying jobs. Everyone should be intelligent and understanding of each other. I believe those are a few characteristics of a utopia where every single citizen is accounted for. I believe that we need to create a utopia and that the idea of a utopia is plausible. Great education is the first step. As for the vocational school, At 16 do you think people can really decide what they want to do for the rest of their life? A life changer course, is not what I had in mind. Think of it like this, lets say a women has A cups, she get breast implants which gives her D cups, The class would be more of an life enhancer compared to a "life changer."
