As a person in highschool, though I'm young and have less formal education than most, I do have lots of ideas and opinions and have good observational skills.
But I've got something that the majority of the population doesn't: The ability to enter highschools and get the inside scoop of our education. Jealous?
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A parent asks a child: "What did you learn at school today?"
Child: "Nothing".
It costs taxpayers $8,472 a year to send a child to school to learn 'Nothing'.
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What Actually Happens in HighSchool?
Backrounder: Highschool Students in Metro Vancouver attend 180 days of School per year, each student taking 8 classes a year.
There are 4 classes a day on alternating days, with each class an average of 82 minutes.
A minute by minute diary of what I do at HighSchool since December 6th: Page
1,
2,
3,
4.
Rather than reading my messy handwriting, I have organized the data into neat charts below:
Categories:
Exercises: Group Assignments eg. Labs, Group Discussion
Movie: Watching Movies or Videos
Work Time: Independent Quiet Work Time
Free Time/Wasted: Time spent off topic, Free Time on computer, or Free Time to do whatever we please (Socialize).
Lesson: Teacher's Lesson eg. Reading and Explaining Textbook
Review: Teacher Reviews Prior Lessons, or Teacher Check/Reviews Homework
Exam: Quiz or Exam eg. Writing essays
Presentations: Presentations by Classmates
DATA:
In Other Words...
An Essay/Exam every 5 classes
Free Time on the computer (or socialization time) every 3 classes
Presentations every 5 classes
A Movie every 25 classes
Average of 6 minutes of "Lesson", 7 minutes of "Group Exercises", and 6 minutes of "Review" Every Class.
In Other Words...
In the typical Class of 82 minutes, we spend...
53 minutes independently working (on math),
10 minutes "Wasted"
14 minutes going over previous Homework
5 minutes on today's Actual Lesson
There's an Exam every 7 classes.
In Other Words...
In the typical Class of 82 minutes, we spend...
31 minutes independently working (on work)
8 minutes "Wasted"
17 minutes on today's Lesson
14 minutes Reviewing Previous Assignments
12 minutes doing Mini Quizzes (or 24 minutes every 2nd Class)
There's an Exam every 10 classes,
a Lab every 4 classes
In Other Words...
In the typical Class of 82 minutes, we spend...
40 minutes independently working (on anything)
24 minutes doing what we please
12 minutes on today's Lesson
6 minutes Reviewing Previous Lessons
There's an Exam every 9 classes
In Other Words...
In the typical Class of 82 minutes, we spend...
7 minutes independently working (on work)
11 minutes socializing
24 minutes learning from reading the textbook
40 minutes watching movies
There's an exam every 20 classes
In Other Words...
In the typical Class of 82 minutes, we spend...
16 minutes independently working (on french worksheets)
21 minutes talking useless/random nonsense
14 minutes teaching francais, either through the whiteboard or textbook
14 minutes reviewing and marking worksheets
9 minutes doing a quiz
8 minutes doing group exercises
There are French Project Presentations every 8 classes
- Physical Education and Band would skew the results if included.
In a way, when the child says that he learns 'nothing' at school is somewhat correct. The only times when a teacher is actually needed in a highschool (for the lesson and review) only accounts for 23% of the time spent at school.
The lesson only accounts for 13% of the school time, while free/wasted time is at 17%.
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My Opinion, it is not correct for taxpayers to send students to schools where most of the time is used up with activities that can easily be completed at home.
(For example, if you knew what workbook pages or worksheets were to be done, then the 25% "Work Time" could be done at home.)
My Conclusion: 21st Century Education needs Reform. A dozen years into this century, and it has never been a better time to ask for an improved education system.
My Goal: To improve education circumstances in a way that would benefit current students (like myself), future students, teachers, and taxpayers.
Stay Tuned for Part 2 of this series, (I think will be called "What we learn at School")and Part 3 (I think it will be called "The Purpose of School").
AND REMEMBER: Those who we teach now, will teach others in the future. So we must teach our students well, and ensure that the education of our future workforce is of good quality.
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PS. Sorry for the Spelling Errors in the Graphs (Exercise). Spelling's not my strong point.
Feel free to shoot me an email to ask me questions, or ask me to write about a topic, or contribute your education observations. Most people don't have the inside scoop to our education anymore.
