Don't stay in school.

[crazyauntie]

This song has gone viral I think is a excellent message to schools all over the uk. One school has already listened
What are your opinions about it? Do you think our schools are providing adequate education or could it improve? I honestly think our schools systems should and could change if we are getting enough backing.

Registration and assembly might sometimes 'waste time' but don't actually take up that much of the school day, and some of that time is used for stuff like options, work experience organisation, charity stuff, notices and letters.

I think the technology's and drama should be options but not something compulsory. Registration twice a day and assembly does add up to about 45 mins which is a fair chunk of time.

I don't think American high schools cover more, they covered in my day a huge amount less than DC English schools do now. Drivers Ed was unavailable by the time I was in high school (1980s).

Registration and assembly is only 25 mins per day at my school. You need some time every day to organise the kids.

Technology and drama are optional from Y10 (school dependent on how optional). You wouldn't be wanting to teach parenting etc at KS3, so you'd need to take time from GCSE subjects.

Ok just be defeatist. There's no point working out change as things are perfect yes?
It's just about giving kids more freedom. Why is that bad? Yes we could do one less gcse and allow kids the freedom to choose what options they study more. Like I said don't force them to do GCSE in each topic type.

Assembly is really important in both the primary and secondary DS has attended. They talk about issues, ethics, body image, relaxation techniques etc. It's not just registry and announcements. The tutor also meets them individually about targets and personal worries, desires etc. In what way is that a waste of time?
Drama is also crucial in adolescence btw. It helps them feel comfortable in their bodies, solve problems by playing them out etc. IMO Much more important than learning to change nappies, drive or get a mortgage when they are too young for any of these things

I think drama could do those things but one lesson a week won't do much at all. If kids have an interest in drama great they can choose to study it but making everyone do it for such a tiny portion of time is pointless. Same with PE.
If they talk about those issues in assembly then it's doing as has been suggested. But assembly isn't like that everywhere and it would probably be better to discuss such issues in smaller group sizes than the whole school.

It's just about giving kids more freedom.

Like I said before, kids don't always know what's best for them. Offer an option at GCSE that's a bit of a skive, and do you know who will end up taking it? Not the kids with well-educated parents who see the value in an academic education. And then when the kids who gave up maths or whatever Videokid thinks is shit decide that they want to do science later on then they are screwed. They might know how to change a nappy but the kids who did the solidly academic options will sail past into the eventually better-paid jobs. Then when they have kids 15 years later will be shown nappy changing by the nurses, do an NCT course or read a parenting book or whatever most people manage to do these days.

I don't agree with him about dropping core subjects. I think everyone needs to study English, maths and science. And I think the social, ethical etc classes should be compulsory too.
Just make the rest of the subjects more optional. Like I said why couldn't I study RE instead of textiles at GCSE? Someone else may prefer the other way round too!

At a lot of schools you can choose RE over textiles. That was just your school.

There has to be some restrictions on options simply because it's not possible to timetable everyone's preferences.

At my school, registration is 15 mins per day - of that, one registration per week is assembly, so that's only 1 hour 15 per week.

It's not as simple as offering a free choice of GCSE subjects - a school needs to be able to timetable for lessons, and has to take into account class sizes and teaching staff. And then there's the EBacc and Progress 8 to consider.

In the US they most definitely don't do RE - constitutionally forbidden! Also, a lot less time is spent on physical geography, which is taught as part of sciences, mostly before high school. I suspect these two areas are where the time comes from to teach political systems, along with more human geography than is taught here.

More choice and flexibility is great and I'm sure that in some cases could be organised in schools. Some can be very unhelpful I believe.
However, you need to take in account how many children they are dealing with. Hundreds.
Timetabling for this is a logistical nightmare.

American schools have no national curriculum. If they are indeed teaching civics as standard, then they are most likely making room for it by spending very little time on history and geography (geography in particular tends to be very, very poorly taught in US schools).

American's education system up to university age is pretty weak--I don't recommend using it as a model.

I completely concur with the sentiments of the video: it is no good handing on the culture of the past to our DC without a good grasp of current realities.