Would we be better off in one room school houses?

I think that you have made a few good points about teaching today. The one I want to draw out is the statement, Now there are students who don't care about school, and aren't truly made to care either. I think that there are several reasons for this, the first being that the amount of time children spend in school and then are sent home with tons of homework, kids feel overwhelmed. Also because of the politics involved in what has to be taught to them there is no time for going over problems students maybe having. What I mean is instead of working with students to grasp certain concepts they spend the recommended allotted time and then move to the next subject. So if the students are grasping it they have just lost, even if it's a small percentage, I feel that the teacher didn't do their job. I think the answer to the problem in part is, smaller classroom sizes, more time spent teaching and working in class and less time sending work home. Homework should be what was left over from the day, or a project or a report that is given a set amount of time to be completed. Homework shouldn't be a daily thing to be done because the children were given no classroom time to even attempt. Children should be able to come home and be children, then maybe they would look forward to going to school. I will tell a quick story. When I grew up I attended schools on the East Coast until the beginning of 7th grade, when my parents split up and my mom moved us to the West Coast. Before the move I loved school, couldn't wait to go to school. I had very little homework, only when something didn't get finished or had an assignment that was considered a project that required time and effort to be put in. I arrived here and not only went to school all day but came home and did homework for 1 and half to 4 hours. Now I wasn't a poor student I was an A and B student so a little above average, and I hated school here. I complained to my mother that I spent more time going to school and homework than adults did at work. She really couldn't argue, but couldn't understand what the change was either. (I say it's CA schools and all the political bs.) What I'm trying to say is that if we want our children to love to learn then we have to give them an environment that teaches that. Which means not cutting funds to education, smaller class sizes, and teachers that enjoy teaching. Over the years I have met some excellent teachers and some bad ones, however most have been average. They have treated, as most treat work, as a job to go to and collect a paycheck. Teaching should be more than a job and children should want to go to school and learn. The current system is broken, we need to look into the past and see what worked and take that knowledge into the future. As always just my 2 cents worth!

I think we would be better off if there wasn't a culture of anti-intellectualism in this country. Reminds me of the time I was working in a stationery story, and there was this little kid running around like crazy, and eventually his mom lost her patiences and said, "stop it or I'll make you go to school." When children are getting that sort of attitude toward school from their parents, we're doomed!

Well, I think that one room school houses were great because it forced students to learn and to get as much as they can out of learning. Of course, there wasn't much to learn back then, and learning back then wasn't anything compared to what it is today. Back then, say the late 1800's, you just read books, and got any and all ideas out of what you read, today, you have so much media and so much to read that it's information overload. Some students are reluctant to learn because they feel like they cannot keep up with it all. Back then, again late 1800's, people could get away with having only a high school education and that was enough, today, even a college education isn't enough. My grandmother told me that all she needed for many of the jobs that she worked was a high school diploma, and that was all that she had was a high school diploma, but now, a high school diploma isn't enough. People have to have far more than that. Learning in the late 1800's and early 1900's required just knowing how to read, write and do simple arithmetic, knowing simple skills, but today, knowing simple skills isn't enough. People have to know simple skills, and they have to know how to type, use the computer, fix a computer (what we all live off of computers), know how to use the internet, and just knowledge of computers. I had to learn how to use computers in elementary school, and that was the days of the DOS computers, now we have Windows and Linux.

The other day, I went to my son’s school for the parent teacher meet…most of the subject teachers had the same complain that their hands were actually tied by the various rules and regulations on child welfare, the various committees that look how kids are treated at school, child support and counseling against teacher-phobia…I mean we all were wondering as to is it really possible to inculcate the values of good mangers, discipline and respect in children amongst all such policing on teachers! We all say how our kids are the future of our nation, yet its just amazing how they behave with their teachers…I mean we were so scared of our teachers but we also knew that it was normal to be scared of teachers, we were expected to fall in line (and not try and put our side of the story) and a few slaps were actually OK!

Hiya scg, Me too I think that Teachers then were more applied and paid attention to even the slowest of learners. Well there were always some that learned quick, others not and the ones that had no motivation for a while till the Teacher managed to finally get them going in the right direction. They were able to give them a better education a more sense of closeness working together as one even if no one was able to keep up with the top ones. I still prefer the older method over the new ones there is something missing for me in those methods of what they teach now. I am going by how my Sons have been taught in these Schools.

Very difficult to do in the UK now, where class sizes are in excess of 30, and schools have thousands of pupils. Village schools here are a rarity.

We would be better off if teachers were allowed to teach, and not required to "teach to the test" but actually allowed to teach for the joy of seeing students learn. Class sizes are fairly small here. One advantage of multiple grades in one room was that students who were ready to learn more advanced material could pick it up from what was being taught to other students. I think learning could be more accelerated then.

There are advantages and disadvantages in both the systems.The advantage in a one room school is the teacher could understand and teach according to the needs of each student.The students were instilled all the good features you've mentioned about.The modern education has certain students who don't much care about School education and don't pay adequate attention.But teaching methods have advanced to take into account the needs of slow learners and others.There is also audio visual method through which many learn better.I feel both have their positives and negatives.