Boring...sigh, sigh...Puff the Magic Dragon...The Times They are a Changing....

School/Education is a serious business, and these "alternative-school" ideas give me a pain. Sure, it's important to relate education to real life, and for teachers to "engage" their students - and if the teachers can't do this then they need to get a life. (Maybe teachers should have to spend at least a year working in the real world before taking up a teaching post, so they get their priorities straight beforehand.)

Teachers need to be role models, should be mature and capable of maintaining discipline, and need to be realists, not dreamers. Teaching is perhaps the very highest of professions, and should not be an "easy out" for those who can't make it in the real world. The greatest deficiency in our education system is probably the lack of salary recognition for this most demanding of careers. Appropriate salaries might attract the right type of academics for this demanding role - through greater competition. Instead, we have a shortage of teachers, some of whom are ultimately not well suited or well qualified. So, what do we expect?

Life is tough, so school has to provide a window to that future reality, and this involves self-discipline and a commitment to life-long learning. The sooner students get to accept that and get serious about their studies the better. Unfortunately, discipline in schools is a problem, and perhaps the only solution is to have separate classes for the serious students, career-based classes for the less academically inclined, and a third option for the problem students. I'm not suggesting to abandon the non-academic, but rather to provide greater one-on-one time to more effectively deal with their needs - separately, so as not to interfere with the development of the higher achievers.

We have to get serious in education and stop these one-semester "social studies" or "underwater-basket-weaving" courses (except perhaps for engaging the under-achievers), and devote appropriate time to the sciences, maths and language skills, etc.

Charity and community spirit are value-based, so what is the author on about?