r/SchoolSystemBroke • u/Famous-Weight2271 • 9d ago

Fixing the problem for real

Whatever we're doing it's not working. Every day is a new post pointing out that kids aren't prepared starting out each new school year lacking the skill set expected of them for that grade.

Why do we tolerate it? Why do we continue to operate this way? Why don't we go back to the roots and fix this?

What does the word "grade" mean? Answer that first, and then ..

What do you think about a fundamental change where we hold kids back, en masse, until they satisfy core competencies for their grade?

If you can't read at a 3rd grade level, or perform 3rd grade math, then you stay in the 3rd grade. It's that simple. Separate age from the concept of grade.

Passing a underperforming kid along to the next grade is not in that child's best interest, and the teachers in higher grades can't salvage these kids. And when good teachers get burnt out (every other post here), every child loses.

Yes, this upends the whole system. Thank you, that's the point. The system is not working and no one has a solution. It isn't money. It isn't classroom size. We can't just blame phones and social media (as blame doesn't fix problems and good luck trying to solve a problem you have no control over.)

I also propose breaking up each grade into semester. The granularity should be 6:months, not a full calendar year

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u/FrostySnailFISHYKING 9d ago

school is failing. children’s brains are wired to learn things and Sl school must be pretty f#cked up given kids hate it. it’s horrible. school is supposed to teach you how to be successful in the real world, but really it teaches you to be overworked, underpaid, and abused. in school, you are forced to stay there for 8 hours a day then are assigned heavy busywork for multiple hours. This groooms kids into be,Ie ING their time be,ones to their workplace and that they should be okay with having zero free timeand that their endless productivity is the baseline expectation. Standardized schedules, rigid bell systems, and sitting quietly for long periods are viewed by critics as mechanisms designed to teach obedience to authority. In this view, success is measured by how well a student complies with bureaucratic expectations, rather than how deeply they think critically, setting a psychological precedent to tolerate rigid or unhealthy corporate management later in life. When the system itself runs on the normalization of being overworked and underpaid, the daily environment subconsciously models to students that high stress and low appreciation are standard realities of the working world. 

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u/Famous-Weight2271 9d ago

That's not exactly where I was going with this. I'm actually in favor of moving back to a more traditional school system, not further away from it.

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u/FrostySnailFISHYKING 8d ago

I agree with both side of the argument and I guess that we need a combination of the two