On Sun, 2 Feb 2014 08:07:47 Andrew McGlashan wrote:

> > Regarding class size, I think that to a large extent the best class size

> > is determined by the skill of the teacher. Some teachers are simply

> > incapable of keeping order in a class of more than 8 or 10 students.

> > Others can keep order and usefully teach 50 students.

> Don't disregard that in a group of people (kids in this case), each has

> there own set of skills that are complimentary to others in the group.

> When one or more of the group is down on a subject, then there are one

> or more in the group whom could work with them and bring them up to the

> standard (without any direct teacher involvement). And given that the

> skills vary per topic, if the group is large enough, then the reciprocal

> can work for those helpers to become the helpees.

If that worked well then they could just sack all the teachers and have the kids just hang out and teach each other.

http://etbe.coker.com.au/2007/05/17/lord-of-the-flies/

I've blogged about this at the above URL.

The TV Show Kid Nation is on The Pirate Bay if anyone is interested.

> > Regarding the violence in schools. The easiest way to improve things would

> > be to make every teacher sit the PCL-R test. There's probably only a few

> > psychopath teachers in each school (I know of two at the high school I

> > attended) but it's enough to make a huge difference.

> That seems to be quite an obsession of yours, perhaps you should seek

> counseling over it.

No more of an obsession than any of the other ways that I've observed that society is badly broken and needs to be fixed.

It's very sad the way some people seem to regard wanting to improve the world as a mental health issue. There are even a lot of psychologists who believe that.

> > Another easy way of improving the school system would be to expell the

> > students who have no hope of passing year 12 when they are 14 and make

> > them work at McDonald's.

>

> You cannot know for sure that a 14 year old that is behind the others is

> not going to make it later. Sometimes it is a matter of the light

> suddenly turning on and that can happen at a different age and then that

> kid goes forward in leaps and bounds. You can't just say, you're dumb,

> get out of here!

No I can actually be quite sure of the result when a 14yo who is treated as an idiot because they can't keep up with the other kids and who gets further behind because they can't understand what is being taught.

If it's a matter of them just needing to be a year older then spending a year working would be much better than repeating a year.

> Another problem with today's schools is that they they pass every

> student almost every year, when some students need to be held back at

> least once to help them get up to speed and not to be forever behind

> everybody else.

That's a bad idea. It's an extra year to the prison sentence.

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My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/

My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/