I guess she has the right to not care. But it’s kinda f****d up.

Interesting ideas. Mind if I give a few of my own pointers?

Dark Overlord said
How would you fix our educational system. For me, there’s a lot i’d do:

For math, i’d ban the use of calculators. Using a calculator isn’t that different from just typing the question into Google and i want to ensure that children can do math equations without the use of technology.

I can assure you that this would be an absolute disaster. The main use of calculators is not to help students solve equations, but rather to reduce the amount of time it takes for a single calculation. For example, a simple part of a question where you have to solve 2.5 / 4.325. You would theoretically be able to get a close enough answer, but you might as well use a calculator since it’s much more effecient.

For social studies, i’d want to ensure that everything’s taught from a neutral but also pacifistic standpoint. While i want to keep everything politically neutral to avoid teachers presenting things using their personal bias, i also want to ensure that fighting is kept to a minimum, which is harder to do if schools are praising our troops. Instead, are schools should be saying something along the lines of “While it’s terrible what happened on that day, it’s unfortunate that we decided to respond with violence instead of diplomacy and i hope you don’t make the same mistakes they did”.

  

I agree, for the most part. There is, however, the issue of whether true neutrality can be maintained, though this is less of the idea itself and more with how it applies in the real world.

Also, i’d love to see a larger emphasis on current events and i’d love for teachers to be more accepting of Wikipedia, while also emphasizing the importance of reading the sources at the bottom of each page and using those as sources instead of Wikipedia itself.

Generally I think most teachers don’t mind that you use Wikipedia, as long as you actually use the references down there, though this may be different in your part of the world.

For English, i’d want to see more emphasis on classic literature like Dracula and Frankenstein, as well as a more diverse set of literature including works from Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

Now, I love literature as much as the next guy, but it pains me to say but…. not a lotta people like reading. It is a travesty, I know. I heard from some of my peers (back when I was actually pretty social) what their thoughts on reading is, and their response is generally “I do respect people that can enjoy it, but it’s not my thing.”. More kids seem to enjoy modern pop culture more than ye olde classics, and I don’t think it’s gonna change. My suggestion is to have English classes have students dissect their favorite parts of modern culture, such as movies and TV shows. This will give them much more enjoyment in classes, while potentially opening the door to other more niche parts of storytelling, like classic literature. For example, a teacher can give a short run down on ‘The Hero’s Journey’, and then have students do an analysis on the shows they watched and then do a presentation to the class. Not sure how it’ll actually work out, but it’s worth a shot, I guess.

Also, i want to ensure that ALL Americans can speak English fluently. Don’t get me wrong, i’m fine with people speaking their native language but English is the American language and i want to ensure that immigrants don’t have a language barrier when entering the real world.

For science, i’d like to see a larger emphasis on current discoveries. Also, i’d like to see science cut back and merged with a life skills class that would teach you important life skills like how to pay rent, how to shop at a grocery store, how to file your taxes (for some reason, they never teach you this in school), and how to use an oven.

For lunch, i want EVERYONE to get a free lunch (i don’t care whether your father makes $1B/year, you’re still covered) and that free lunch won’t contain any nuts, eggs, dairy, fish, soy, or gluten to ensure that no one has an allergic reaction, with being given water instead of milk. Also, we won’t give kids anything they didn’t ask for because we want to minimize food waste and if you force a kid to take a fruit or vegetable with every meal, there’s a good chance they’ll just throw it away.

As for parents deciding to make their own kid’s lunches, that’s fine and they can bring anything they want (with obvious exceptions). However, they’ll be forced to sit in a special room if the food (which’ll be vetted by staff every day) contains nuts, eggs, dairy, fish, soy, or gluten.

Not much of an argument here, though I’d like to know how recent are the current discoveries you are reffering to. 

For gym, there’s not much to change here except that i wouldn’t require students to change their clothes.

Jocks smell, dude.

However, for health, i’d like to see less emphasis on what to eat and more emphasis on how much to eat and how to offset it with exercise. Contrary to popular belief, you can actually LOSE weight by eating nothing but fast food, as British scientist Phil Mason learned when he continued to lose weight despite eating nothing but McDonalds. Also, i’d like to see them talk more about the downsides of recreational marijuana use (which isn’t as bad as harder drugs but is still addictive, terrible for your lungs, dangerous to use while driving, and stunts brain development).

I do very much agree on the marijuana bit, but I don’t think marijuana companies would like the idea too much. Also, not sure if this is true, but I heard that education’s stance on marijuana borderlines on fear-mongering, so I’m not sure if it the downside message needs to be toned down or up.

For the rest of the classes, you might not like what i’m about to say but hear me out, we should cut them entirely. First of all, they’ll be learning about art in English and social studies and music in science and math but most importantly, school is not a pleasant place to be at and i don’t want people to lose interest in are and music because they didn’t enjoy art or music class.

I mean, I kinda get what you’re hinting at, but I don’t know if I agree or not. I mean I understand the desire to eliminate classes that students think are just a distraction from the ‘important subjects’, like maths and science, but I think you can only go one way or the other when it comes to this, by that I mean you let them be or eliminate the ‘lesser’ classes altogether. Science and maths are already incredibly dense and and information heavy, and adding stuff like music into it feels like a worse solution to an existing problem. English and art feels too disparate to even put together in the same course. So I don’t think this approach will work well. Also there are entire NGOs that exist solely to make sure the arts are properly funded and not forgotten in schools around the world, so obviously they think very differently. But then again, this question is a complicated one in the first place, so a universally agreed upon solution is pretty hard to attain, anyway.

As for other things, i’d forgo homework, as it’s just a waste of time that could be spent in a more productive manner, and i’d also look into the potential racism and misandry in our education system, as it seems like white women do the best while black men do the worst in our current system, and do anything i can to ensure that everyone has a quality education, regardless of race.

Ah, homework, this one’s a kicker. I’ve lost count the amount of times I heard this one in a high-school debate session, and I don’t mean it in a patronizing way, it is probably the most controversial part of the entire education system. Frankly, I’m as neutral as one can get when it comes to homework, though personally I’m more of a practice-solutions-and-get-better student, so homework seems to have helped me as a wee lad. The race-education disparity bit is also another kicker, since it seems to exist as a problem with no pinpoint cause nor solution in sight. The only thing I can really say is to put more emphasis on lifting up the lower-income-percentile when it comes to standards of living and education and whatnot, but nothing else really. 

Finally, the statistics on special ed should also be looked into, as 14% of students are currently in special ed, with some areas and demographics being higher than others. 

I mean, this one’s not really that controversial. Helping disadvantaged people is always nice. 

Just my two cents, do feel free to tell me what you think. 

P.S: The obvious solution to the music problem is to make kids sing and play Beatles tunes. If every single student can play “All You Need Is Love ” in a mega youth concert, we can achieve world peace. I have a ten-page proposal on a year-long Beatles music course for IGCSE students for Year 7 to 9.