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from the telecommuting-isn't-just-for-adults-anymore dept.
For several years, public school students in Virginia who do not have particular courses (e.g. Advanced Placement or Honors courses) offered in their brick-and-mortar classrooms have had online courses available to them.
The Virginia Department of Education announces
The [...] Virtual Virginia program will pilot a full-time, online high school for the 2015-2016 school year. The pilot--available to as many as 100 students on a first-come, first-served basis--will offer all required core academic courses and electives necessary to earn a Standard or Advanced Studies diploma.
"We are excited to offer this opportunity to high school students, especially those with the potential for thriving in a non-traditional instructional setting", Superintendent of Public Instruction Steven R. Staples said. "This expansion of the nationally recognized Virtual Virginia program provides more choice and flexibility to students seeking a high school diploma."
Students in the full-time pilot will be enrolled in their local public school but will receive instruction through Virtual Virginia. As with all Virtual Virginia courses, instruction will be provided by teachers with Virginia certification. Local schools will ensure that students in the pilot have access to technology, textbooks, special services and other necessary materials at no cost.
[...] Courses are delivered through Virtual Virginia's secure, web-based environment, and, like traditional classroom instruction, will include readings, discussion forums, written assignments, media, student presentations and projects, case studies, simulations, lab assignments, models, and opportunities for student collaboration.
The coverage by the Center for American Progress notes
Twenty-six states offer virtual or distance schooling on some level but few--Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming--have full-time programs statewide, according to a 2014 report(PDF) from the Evergreen Education Group.
Original Submission
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2015, @07:35PM
STEM is all rote memorization if you count processes too. Writing, speech, and other liberal arts fields require other skills. What does it matter if you can accomplish a task? Write an award winning essay, improve the thermal efficiency of an ICE on the fly, debug assembly code. If you could not do it before class and could do it after, what sort of skill it is does not matter at all: you became educated.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Wednesday June 17 2015, @08:05PM
STEM is all rote memorization if you count processes too.
But you can have deep understanding of how and why it works, which is what is missing. Instead, it's taught as, "Do this, this, and this, and then you'll have the right answer." Not to obviously, but that's what it essentially is.
Please don't defend rote memorization, or you're part of the problem.
What does it matter if you can accomplish a task?
Because without coming to an understanding of how and why all of these things work, you'll remain a mere user and will likely never be able to innovate in important ways. And doing something other than just mindlessly memorizing information will probably help your critical thinking skills develop. Why we're so obsessed with creating people with a factory worker mentality I don't know.
If you could not do it before class and could do it after, what sort of skill it is does not matter at all: you became educated.
Then we define education differently. I am not after mere skills or the ability to make money, but an academic understanding of the world and universe around me. That's important, and exactly what is discouraged.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2015, @01:05AM
Understanding is a skill. Deep understanding is found through repetition of analysis, or "rote memorization" as you amusingly repeat over and over while using it to describe different things. You are defending your position with a paradox. Perhaps your education did fail your desire for critical thought.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Thursday June 18 2015, @02:13AM
Understanding is a skill.
For a certain definition of "skill".
Deep understanding is found through repetition of analysis
Understanding is not gained merely by repeating a very specific process over and over ("Do this, this, and this, and you'll get the right answer."). It's possible that when repeating a process, you ask yourself why it works, but that is a separate issue. You are essentially comparing a very broad activity (trying to discover why and how something works) with merely memorizing information through repetition. The sort of rote memorization in schools is a mindless activity and does not encourage understanding; it actively discourages it.
In public schools, you get problems asking people to find the missing side of a triangle 10 times over, for example. That is rote memorization and does not facilitate any sort of understanding.
You are defending your position with a paradox.
There is no paradox here; that's nonsensical.
I'm not sure why anyone would question the idea that our school system is a horrendous abomination at this point. Are you willfully ignorant?