Tuesday March 1, 2005

Dear Visitor:

Recently, Bill Gates (someone I rarely agree with) said that the schools in America were not just broken; they were out of date. I am not sure I would call them useless. However, I do agree they are broken and the design is severely flawed.

One example of why this might be flawed is a T.V. program I saw years ago. I believe it was on BookTV around, 5-8 A.M. Eastern Time, between 1999-2001. It was a book signing event. The author was a retired (I believe High) school teacher from New York (City, I believe). He was saying that some people who he knew had done some interesting research. They found that almost every subject taught all the way through High School level required x number of "contact" hours. The interesting thing is math was around 34 hours; English 45. I may have these hours wrong. However, I do remember, I was shocked because it was under 100 for every subject he listed.

If you have these numbers and do the math (as I did when I was watching), you can teach nearly everything needed for a high school diploma within the first 6-9 years of school. Yet, our school system requires 13 years before college or university. How crazy is that?

There are a few ways we can work on making our schools better. They likely require more work from the teachers, but it is necessary. Below are some of these ideas:

• Mix content from classes. For example, have an English student have an assignment to write a business plan if they are in a business class.
• Classes should, as Gates said, be brought in line with what Businesses and Universities are looking for.
• Classes should use real world examples. Include examples of why a math skill is important, why writing is important, etc.

Sincerely, Trever Adams

P.S. If anyone has any data on these studies or on the date and content of the program, please let me know. I am interested in following up on my thoughts on these matters.