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What's Positive About Schooling?

Name: Allison

Comments: It would be so refreshing to have some positive messages. Does anyone have anything positive to say about a school today?

Schooling Positive Whats

Well I was looking to read what was being said about it but all you did was ask the question, so we are still waiting. What time I had in school there was good, sometimes we had the slack time but other than that it was fun times too because of friends.

What's Positive About Schooling? Caribbean / Tobago & Trinidad

I have taught at three schools so far- a secondary comprehensive, a new SEMP school for students who score less than 30% in SEA and now a traditional government secondary school. At all three schools there were 'good' students- if not academically inclined at least well behaved. It's just that based on the proportion of 'good' to 'bad' , a school gains a reputation. I have taught some kids who are labelled as troublesome or slow and I have realized that a little care and patience go a long way. They all need encouragement and some of them don't get any love at home. The teacher has to provide a nurturing environment. All children can learn- this has been my experience in 5 years of teaching.

Schooling Positive Whats

What SEMP stand for? I was not aware of special schools for kids who didn't do well in exams (besides the Junior Secondary Schools)

Schooling Positive Whats

I think SEMP stands for Secondary Education Modernization Programme. In order for the government to build new schools to facilitate universal schooling ( I would not call it education) it took a loan from IDB. There are conditions to be filled and so everything was implemented under SEMP . Yes there is streaming using the SEA results and students scoring under a certain cutoff point tend to be sent to these new schools which have a lot of resources and equipment under the programme. The first year or two is spent doing remedial work- taught by retired primary school teachers mostly. The school I taught at had 12 and 13 year olds who did not know the alphabet and needed to learn simple arithmetic. Honestly I used to feel to cry for these kids. I teach business/accounting so by the time I met the students in form 4, those who couldn't cope had dropped out. Sadly, despite the obvious deficiency in academic readiness, the students still have to write CXC after 5 years like everyone else. The year I was there, 1 student passed englsh and nobody passed maths. A dozen or so of the literate ones passed business and social studies. Once a minister visited the school and he challenged the whole school to tell him what was 9 X 7 and nobody could answer although he offered $100 reward. And yet things continue as they are...

What's Positive About Schooling?

Nabi, thanks for the explanation. It sounds like a program that many kids could benefit from, nevertheless just the fact that we have teens who don't know the alphabet or simple math tells me that these type of projects are not the real solution for the real problem these kids have. The Education system here is not impressive but let me stay quiet since this is supposed to be a thread bout positive schooling.

What's Positive Schooling

I am not teaching in a Secondary School but I think that a previous person has SEMP all wrong. There are no SEMP schools as far as I know but remedial schools. SEMP I believe covers all Secondary Schools. I know a few people in Secondary Schools and they all talk about SEMP.
The positives about schools is that there are children who are being educated and interacting with their peers. School is about learning and a lot of people forget that learning is not just ABC's and 123's but about social interactions and learning about other cultures and traditions. I didn't know anything about the Muslim or Hindu faith until I went to school. This allowed me to respect and understand these religions. Some of best friends today went to school with me. We must still see the glass half full before we throw it away.