In class this week we heard a lot about the negatives of charter schools. I was just wondering about the positive side to these schools. It seems crazy to me to be angry about a school that is all for promoting learning in a manner that the children find interesting. I also see many positives to not have a teacher's union in the school. I feel like we've focused more on the negative effects than the positive and in order not to be biased we should look at both. People say that charter schools do not do any better on tests than normal public schools, but aren't we be hypocritical when we say this? Aren't we against testing and against looking at how tests affect schools? Isn't it apparent that testing is not an adequate representation of the school and its ability to teach and its students ability to learn?
I feel like if charter schools allow teachers to teach the way they want and students are having fun learning this way, then why not make all public schools this way. It seems pretty obvious that parents are happier with the long term effects.
http://www.greatschools.org/find-a-school/defining-your-ideal/192-seven-facts-about-charter-schools.gs?page=all
this is a link that talks about 7 things a parent should think about when choosing a school for their child, particularly related to charted schools.
It is really interesting to see how you looked at the positives of charter schools. In class we focused a lot on the negatives of charter schools, so I feel like I cannot help but think of all of the negative things. I wrote my own blog on the idea of standardized testing in charter schools, and your post has made me think about how we are a bit hypocritical. We want to criticize charter schools because they are not performing any better on standardized tests than public schools, but yet it's as though we are offended that public schools are criticized by test scores. We are doing the same judgement on the charter schools that the districts do to public schools.
ReplyDeleteYou do bring up a good point in how charter schools are allowing teachers to teach how they want and in a way students will enjoy it. At the start of the semester, we talked about how we thought creativity needed to be reinforced in the classroom. Maybe with the design of charter schools, creativity is being implemented in schools again and are getting students interested in education.
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ReplyDeleteI like seeing both sides of discussion on charter schools. I think I am mostly attracted by the freedom that teachers have in teaching "their" way in comparison to the more restricted standards we often see in public schools. I would like to see charter schools influence the classroom dynamic that public schools tend to have. It would create competition that would also spur growth and improvement in the educational system.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad someone else decided to look more into the positive than the negative. I too agree that charter schools are doing a pretty good job if the students, parents, and faculty members are all happy and satisfied with how it is running. Everyone learns at a different pace and style and having charter schools just expands the options children have when it comes to choosing how they want to learn.
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