If you want the win in this conversation you can have it on a silver platter.
To go through the list of Extra-Curricular activities and delineate which ones should be kept and which ones should be scrapped and to weigh their value isn't going to happen.
I could take a hard line against all of those types of activities though and be just fine. I mean don't we already have a park district? Don't we already have a number of private enterprises that are relatively accessible? Isn't there already support from the business community?
Why do I hand it over on a silver platter? Because I forgot to get that PhD and get credentialed to create the model school. I have a little humility to say I don't have the answer. My credentials prepared me well to serve the world in my area, but I just forgot to go and get one in education.
However, I think I am intelligent enough to see that as I am responsible for operations in one area, that I can start to see waste and redundancies in another.
What is, first of all the mission of any education district or individual school?
What is the mission of secondary and post secondary institutions?
Well, is the mission BEST accomplished when the building is closed for two and a half months?
Are children best able to handle the tasks given to them at 7:45 in the morning? Why can't they come in at 9?
How much does extra-curricular support the mission of the school? How much does school have to bend for the extra curricular?
The answer to our point of contention rests in the above two questions.
I would additionally say that part of the problem also lies in governance and the fact that there are too many districts in the State of Illinois, all trying to do the same thing. The whole structure is inefficient.
What if Transportation were reliable and Madison County had one superintendent and had multiple options.... What if Edwardsville HS was now the MADCO AP Center..? What if Granite City were the region's Vocational Technical School? What if Collinsville had more options in Art?
What if Alton/Roxana/Wood River and Civic Memorial formed a similar cluster?
What if Highland had more options for Agricultural tech?
Right now, each town has to produce its own programs...
I think my above idea is far fetched because of transportation...but is such out of box thinking even possible when we stay locked into age old traditions?
But I wouldn't want to stay on that one topic for long.
So I am a Junior in Granite City. Getting ready for senior year and looking at Colleges.
I gotta work for a living, and couldn't impress the Scouts...no athletic scholarship... I'm pulling a B average, and so not many academic scholarships either. Mom and Dad make a little much for me to get anything out of FAFSA, but they don't make enough to preclude me from work.
Ok so I have two options..... GO to SWIC or go to SIUE. Those are about my only options within the realm of affordability, because room and board can be had in Granite City....while I work..
OK...
So it would be nice if I could just go to SWIC and get all the Generals done ... and then go to SIUE and have a full affirmation that all the generals at Old Granite North would just be honored at SIUE. But it doesn't seem to work that way. SIUE wants me to take some additional things.
To me, there are the same College Algebra classes going on at Belleville, Granite City, Lewis and Clark and at SIUE.
To me, the same English 101 class is being taught across those same places.
It seems the same Introductory Biology, Physics, History, classes are all being taught.
None of these classes require a full professor to teach them. Hell, many of them are masters level graduates who are teaching in the first two years of college anyway.
So this is the beginning of making University more affordable.
Why can't there be a way to standardize....especially the general ed. credits...so that anyone can take them anywhere and they are recognized throughout the state.
It is a complete and utter waste that the general ed credits are so costly, when they are basically glorified high school courses anyway? (It doesn't mean I aced them, I'll admit it, but I got through it.)
I mean we really don't need the expertise of a full professor or an assistant professor until we get into the third or fourth year. Then we are starting to get into the subject matter of things and doing comparative analysis. Then there seems to be fewer scan-tron type of tests and more presenting and applying. Yeah, at that point in time...
But that's the problem, much money is wasted because college is supposed to be an 'experience'.
No, Sebastian and Caitlyn shouldn't need to work a job while taking 12-15 credits. They should be free to run around with greek letters, and 'go away' to experience Campus life.... While the debt racks up to $250,000, Go team go and rah rah rah!
I digress...
What would be nice is that English 101 is English 101 at SWIC, SIUE, McKendree, and even in Missouri Schools, and hell, even at Harvard. College Algebra and Calculus I are the same courses and once credited....you're credited.
I see no reason why the first years of undergrad should be so inaccessible. If anything, high schools, junior colleges and universities should work to making it simple to attain these types of credits.
Make it affordable.....then we can go into Bernie Mode and Elizabeth Warren Mode. But I can't be about giving away 'free' things, until the waste is first cut out. Even if the government has to spend money (because I'm still the conservative here), then at least get something in return.
The folks at SIUE should hate what I am saying....but hear me out... Imagine if you lost all your freshpeople and sophomores. Now you have only Juniors and Seniors....and Grad students at the university.
You have buildings full of people that WANT to be there in a Higher education setting.
Again, I don't have the PhD by my name, but I see all kind of redundancies and red tape --- and we are taxed at each layer. If the layers could just communicate with one another.
Free college with all this overhead is ludicrous...and there should not be room and board included.
But to get 60 credits of general eds taken care of (as long as you pass) probably would cost the government less than it costs to give Sebastian five home games with Caitlyn jumping up and down while holding poms.
With all apologies to all the Caitlyns and Sebastians of the world. Most of them are really good kids and most of them will turn out to be pretty decent adults as well.
My simple point is that in all of it - our tax dollars are used inefficiently to support these systems that best served us in ages past.
The real underlying point here is that are we willing to ever change the box we have been thinking within?
on May 7, 2019, 2:28 pm, in reply to "