Comments on: Will High Schools Be A Relic Of The Past?

North Carolina's 'Early Colleges' Combine High School And College Classes To Get Dropout Rate Down

We have something called Running Start. We also have college in the high school, etc. Our child signed up for running start for his senior year. No, the classes are NOT dumbed down. They are regular college classes taught by college professors. Our kid's overall attitude is: "I was sick of being spoon fed. It's great to just get on with it!" Our student does not have a 4.0 gpa. He has a 3.3, and he had to work HARD for that. Many students with the 4.0 gpa are perfectly happy to stay in the high school atmosphere. My kid was not. BTW the college credits will allow a greater opportunity to take classes there would not have been time to take.

[olebd]

Will this give colleges MORE excuses to raise their tuitions???

I'm not sure this idea is the answer.

Kids do need more incentive and guidance to stay motivated in school.

These days it seems too much emphasis is being placed on problems other than the core of education.

1. No Child Left Behind is failing. It places teachers' focus solely on testing to achieve adequate passing grade numbers....causing the opposite effect of what it initially intended.

2. Runaway illegal immigration is draining the coffers for ESL (English as a Second Language)

3. More money is needed to improve facilities, update technologies and make sure teachers are given on-going training to improve their techniques. This is especially true in many rural schools.

As long as the current administration insists on digging us deeper and deeper in debt with Iraq, I don't foresee any miracle strides in providing for our public schools.

[marcpcbs]

Managing the educational problems of a High School is like bailing the water out of a boat. There are two ways to stop the bailing. One is to fix the holes in the boat and the other is to let the boat sink. North Carolina has decided to let the boat sink and let all her students drowned. North Carolina has also inflicted a massive injustice to all of their students that worked hard for their High School Diploma.

In 1996 The United States decided to let some of it's states go into the business of growing and distribution around $35 Billion dollars worth of very strong mind numbing pot all across the nation. Over seventy percent of this pot ends up in this nations school system and is destroying our kids educations, health and futures. All of this because the pot lobby chose to push the lie of Med Pot. And we bought it.

To get our schools back on track we first of all have to vote to reverse the Med Pot Lie and employ drug testing on the students and the teachers to make sure our schools are clean. Secondly we have to remove all the popularity-seeking bureaucrats from running our schools and replace them with strong people who care more about education, kids and the level of learning excellence in this nations future than how popular they are.

If we don't do these things and soon, then the good ship USA will sink.

[grumpas]

You missed the point I was trying to make completely bwright923! If you had taken something other than metal shop you might have a little insight! The point I was trying to make it was not a necessary ingredient to educate! Whereas English, math, science and history are! Metal Shop is something most people could live without, with no harm ever being done! There are more important things to take in order to get a well rounded education! After all isn't that why people like you spend your time in school is to be educated???? But, I guess I am just being an elitist!

[bwright923]

grumpas,
That was a pretty elitist thing to say. I am a senior in college getting my degree in Biology, but I also had metal shop in high school. It was pretty hard. I guess you never worked with your hands.

[grumpas]

In order to graduate high school in 1960 I had to have 4 years of English! I don't remember the other requirements but I think we had to have 2 years of science, 2 years of history, math and etc. As far as I can see the public school system started going down the tubes in 1970 (my children were in school in this era) when the teaching methods and requirements to graduate were changed! They were supposedly updated to meet the needs of the day! My kids were offered "Creative Basketweaving" and "Metal Shop" as a class options! They need to go back to the old requirements! They produced better results!

[gangesdak]

I hope college education in North Carolina is not coming down to the level of High School education. There is no short cut to education. Pretty soon the industries would learn that a college graduate from North Carolina is really just a High School graduate. Then what? Will it stop the inflow of competent educated people from overseas? How long will the gimmicks work, and how long will the parents in N.Carolina be content with the education doled out by the state that has no resale value?

[sbergman6]

There's a private school in Tennessee that provdies a similar program. At St. Andrew's-Sewanee (www.sasweb.org)students can take classes at the University of the South in their junior and senior years. The best part is that they don't have to give up the high school experience. They live on a high school campus complete with a prom, sports teams, school plays, and peers their own age.

[sueneely]

GREAT IDEA!!! High School has a place, I just don't know where it is.
I think the old relic is perpetrated because of government funding systems. These will need to be changed.
The whole sports for dollars charade could come crashing down. High School is a time for young boys to develop into atheletes for big bucks.
I think it could be time to look at the European and English systems of education. It can never be too late to prevent students from the boredom
and lack of purpose that plaques our current system. On the down side, it is possible for students to be put in a niche that should not be their permanent home. Technical training could never be wasted, but there needs to be some provision for a change in tack if a student discovers a different interest or ability. It would also be necessary to try to insure that mandatory exposure to subjects that are vital like American history and languages are not relegated to the dust bin.
Education should be a life long pursuit which doesn't always have to do with earning power.
Education includes social reponsibility, fun and mostly any student's increased knowledge of himself and subsequent place in society.

[rillifane]

I think sy2502 is absolutely correct.

We've built an educational system that pretends that somehow everyone is "above average."

The only way to do this was to lower standards to the point that, in my opinion, the average college graduate of today is about as educated as the average 10th grade student back in the 60's.