At what level should education curriculum be decided?

[Ifreann]

local level, the people who are paying for it should get to decide. in the states it is usually the local (including city) school district.

Why should the people paying for it* decide, exactly?



*Not that I accept the popular notion that money paid in taxes remains the property of the taxpayers

[Ethel mermania]

a kid in wyoming doesnt need the same skill set as a kid in brooklyn. much more time should be spent on farming and animal safety in wyoming, than in brookly.

also it is unfair for me to dictate my standards on other kids. the people who are most intvested in a kids developement are the local community.

Unless of course the kid in Wyoming doesn't want to learn farming and animal safety. The same concept for the kid in Brooklyn.

at the primarly level, what the kid wants doesnt count for anything. i dont care what a thrid grader wants, the curicullum is designed by adults for the kids. even at the secondary level animal husbandry is pretty useless skill set in brooklyn. once you are at a post secondary level, does the kids desires count.

[Ethel mermania]

And a farmboy in Wyoming shouldn't be able to say "fuck this shit" and move to Brooklyn because... What?
You don't like social mobility or equal opportunity?

farmboy can do what he wants, when he pays for it, which isnt going to happen till he is in college. if he wants to go to new york tech, he can pay, move and go there. at age 12 he cant.

[Imperializt Russia]

Unless of course the kid in Wyoming doesn't want to learn farming and animal safety. The same concept for the kid in Brooklyn.

at the primarly level, what the kid wants doesnt count for anything. i dont care what a thrid grader wants, the curicullum is designed by adults for the kids. even at the secondary level animal husbandry is pretty useless skill set in brooklyn. once you are at a post secondary level, does the kids desires count.

Animal husbandry is a vocational skillset.
He can learn it as part of a vocational course. When I was at school, vocational courses came at the end of your state education and were completely elective. As they should be.

That's the sort of mindset we used to have in the UK after the Second World War. Secondary-level education became compulsory, and farmers complained because their children "only needed enough to go and work in the mills" at age 11.

[Indira]

How about a mixture? An international standard for broad points (Basic reading maths etc), national for the more detailed stuff (more advanced sciences, maths etc), local for local issues (local history etc) and the student for electives

[Post-Keynesian Economics]

How about a mixture? An international standard for broad points (Basic reading maths etc), national for the more detailed stuff (more advanced sciences, maths etc), local for local issues (local history etc) and the student for electives

What if there is a conflict?

[Chinese Regions]

How about a mixture? An international standard for broad points (Basic reading maths etc), national for the more detailed stuff (more advanced sciences, maths etc), local for local issues (local history etc) and the student for electives

What if there is a conflict?

Yeah, Germany sides with Leibniz and UK sides with Newton on who invented Calculus first, meanwhile France worships Pascal.

[Sociobiology]

How can education needs differ between cities?
Or, more correctly, why do they need to?

a kid in wyoming doesnt need the same skill set as a kid in brooklyn.

yes they do, at the grade school level, yes they really do.

animal husbandry is not in grade school education, unless it is part of an elective.

[Sociobiology]

The national government is free to create educational standards, the problem is the national government will have to take over and run the schools then.

An unpopular move and one that would be costly. Like it or not reality currently dictates that education will continue to be local.


As for common core my prediction is it will flop like no child left behind.

Its a great idea it is just the stuff IN the core has not been tested.

[Sociobiology]

You learned to walk and talk all by yourself?

Talking is an entirely new and radical concept to a mind that has not known a language. I'm not saying ban the schools and impeach the teachers. But students should pursue what they want to, natural interests should be encouraged by teachers, rather than a pre-conceived state indoctrination plan.

so students should learn the earth is 600 yrs old and the holocaust never happened?
also students are not that good at knowing what they need to learn, most would not learn math.

[Sociobiology]

Irrelevant.

Why on earth do states know better than the feds? One deals with an insular network of neighbouring, culturally homogenous authorities on a national level, the other deals with a network of global, culturally heterogenous authorities on an international level. I know which one I'd trust to teach my kids.

I'd trust neither. But I would first trust my State before the federal government to teach. FURTHERMORE, the states are not "culturally homogeneous" as you'd like to believe.

but it is more "culturally homogeneous" than the entire country.

[Frisivisia]

Pink Floyd level, namely banned.

[NERVUN]

I like the idea of a common set of standards with the details left to the states and local levels.