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Cynthia Chen

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Reforming the education system to incorporate new findings about children

As a student myself, I am learning about many new research findings on how children learn and grow, leading me to wonder why this new knowledge isn't being incorporated into our current education system. I will give an example of two ideas that I believe would be beneficial to our education.

The first finding that I believe should be incorporated into how our educational system works is that certain age groups need a certain amount of sleep. For example, teenagers from 10-17 need 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep and adults need 7-9 hours. Here I am trying to functional at 100% on 4 hours of sleep, and I know I could be so much more productive if I got enough rest. This knowledge is so well known, why do schools not give us time and realistic goals to have us get this healthy amount?

The second is the idea of the Eight Types of Intelligence including Linguistic, Logical, Kinesthetic, Spatial, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Natural. I just wonder how many kinestheticly intelligent children are diagnosed with things like ADHD when they just aren't made to sit still for 8 hours a day.

My idea is just to incorporate findings such as these to make education more effective and beneficial for the children and our future.

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  • Heather Carpenter

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    Nov 18 2012: Reforming the educational system is a must. I think starting at a different level should be looked at along with sleep and individualism. I never understood why teachers are one of the lower paying professions but are instrumental in educating the children for the future. Our society is backwards, we pay athletes a substantial income that the water boy probably makes more than some teachers. I do agree changing sleep habits and evaluating the individual and education level they should be at will make for a better system. But when you have teachers with minimal test scores on SAT or ACT test, how do we expect them to help our children. The system needs to be reformed starting with how one qualifies to become a teacher. Another important factor our the children's parents. If the child is not getting enough sleep, is the child getting the right parenting?

    I hope I am not too far off from what everyone is stating. I find this site very interesting.
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      Gail . 50+

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      Nov 19 2012: Teachers being lower paid was once a problem. Now it's a myth. Compare a teacher's compensation package with the total compensation package of other careers requiring masters degrees and the myth becomes obvious.

      Look at the recent Chicago teacher strikes. Starting pay is $75,000.00 and that doesn't even include the incredible benefits that teachers receive on top of that.

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