If you could alter your education in any way...

[appianway]

... what would you do?

[brightsky]

Increase flexibility. Modern education is too rigid.

[appianway]

Disband student clubs? Why so?

[the.watchman]

There really needs to be a change from teacher = school drop-out,
to teacher = educated / intelligent specialist

There are way too many teachers in schools these days in the dumb 'i-learnt-the-stuff-just-so-i-could-get-a-job' category

[brightsky]

There really needs to be a change from teacher = school drop-out,
to teacher = educated / intelligent specialist

There are way too many teachers in schools these days in the dumb 'i-learnt-the-stuff-just-so-i-could-get-a-job' category

+1

[*ryan777*]

i agree with most of what gmx said
in lower years they need to shift focus to building the basics in more relevant subjects
also need regular testing earlier, nothing too serious, just so students and teachers have some sort of standard to work towards each year. it also makes sure students dont proceed up through each year level with large gaps in their knowledge.

[/0]

Art and Music is not useless learning :<
And what's wrong with student clubs??

English, Geography, Sciences and Humanities should be compulsory in Junior School.
However, from year 7 onwards you should be able to choose any subjects you like, so long as you can pass a test indicating that you know the rules of grammar and can apply them without much trouble (and are also familiar with the basics of the other disciplines)

From Year 7 onward you can choose to continue with senior school, but you can also choose to go to a college which specialises in a subject area of your choice. Each college has about 4 levels = ~4 years worth of teaching, since they are specialised and therefore move through more material more quickly and more thoroughly. University courses may have requirements from different colleges, for example Arts/Law might require minimum level 3 in an Arts college and level 3 in an international relations/politics/legal studies college, so 6 years (you could alternate between colleges each semester, or even attend both simultaneously).
There should also be a lecture/tutorial system, instead of monotonous classes. In the lectures you get the theory, in the (many) tutorials you are free to talk and discuss its implications. It's much better than the class system where you can only voice your opinion when the teacher lets you.
Also, every resource you need should be online. All the lectures should be video-recorded and the lecture notes and problem sets should be available to download. Textbooks should only offer supplementary problems, or serve as a reference, but the lecture notes should be sufficient.

Students will go to uni much more competent in their subjects, so university courses need not waste time on the basics, but rather would be able to dive in the deep end at the beginning. Also, students would hopefully enjoy their chosen subjects more, and so would learn better and faster.

[vexx]

Art and Music is not useless learning :<
And what's wrong with student clubs??

English, Geography, Sciences and Humanities should be compulsory in Junior School.
However, from year 7 onwards you should be able to choose any subjects you like, so long as you can pass a test indicating that you know the rules of grammar and can apply them without much trouble (and are also familiar with the basics of the other disciplines)

From Year 7 onward you can choose to continue with senior school, but you can also choose to go to a college which specialises in a subject area of your choice. Each college has about 4 levels = ~4 years worth of teaching, since they are specialised and therefore move through more material more quickly and more thoroughly. University courses may have requirements from different colleges, for example Arts/Law might require minimum level 3 in an Arts college and level 3 in an international relations/politics/legal studies college, so 6 years (you could alternate between colleges each semester, or even attend both simultaneously).
There should also be a lecture/tutorial system, instead of monotonous classes. In the lectures you get the theory, in the (many) tutorials you are free to talk and discuss its implications. It's much better than the class system where you can only voice your opinion when the teacher lets you.

Students will go to uni much more competent in their subjects, so university courses need not waste time on the basics, but rather would be able to dive in the deep end at the beginning. Also, students would hopefully enjoy their chosen subjects more, and so would learn better and faster.

That all sounds good in theory, but there are very, very few year 7's who have any idea of what they want to do with themselves in the future, so perhaps specialising isn't so good that early. And this idea isn't practical at all if one is unable to do subjects from a different 'specialising college' and can only stick to what they chose initially.

[/0]

That's why you can choose to continue with senior school if you want

[vexx]

That's why you can choose to continue with senior school if you want

oh sorry i didn't read it properly, but still, at such a young age they shouldn't be able to decide to specialise as it will most likely be different from what they really want to do years later. I know exactly what i would have specialised in if  had the option to in grade 7, but if i had done that i would have certainly regretted it at this age, i'm sure this is the same with a lot of people (or would be).

Improvements to the current system (more realistic approach...) I think English should be compulsory until grade 11 or 10, but not in the final year and not have to count, otherwise the system is actually fine.

[appianway]

I think there should be more flexibility to take advanced courses (as in, take a year 12 or university subject in early high school) and to complete research. Those are two of the few things that the American high school system has going for it, in my eyes.

[kenhung123]

There really needs to be a change from teacher = school drop-out,
to teacher = educated / intelligent specialist

There are way too many teachers in schools these days in the dumb 'i-learnt-the-stuff-just-so-i-could-get-a-job' category

That is true, most young teachers give me that impression for some reason. Maybe because they aren't passionate about teaching

[the.watchman]

There really needs to be a change from teacher = school drop-out,
to teacher = educated / intelligent specialist

There are way too many teachers in schools these days in the dumb 'i-learnt-the-stuff-just-so-i-could-get-a-job' category

That is true, most young teachers give me that impression for some reason. Maybe because they aren't passionate about teaching

Maybe because DipEd was their only option, because they weren't good enough to get into what they wanted

[luken93]

umm go to a different school where they are actually interested in getting good scores?

[kenhung123]

I don't really rely on teachers though.