Quote:
Originally Posted by jimjamuser
From the little that I know about it, the Europeans keep their secondary schools and maybe even college SEPERATE from their sports programs. Which take place in separate sports clubs. In the US there is a quasi combo of the Europe and US methods of dealing with sports. An example would be the Bollitari Tennis Academy (now involving other sports) where tennis was the MAIN emphasis of the Academy. Tennis was taught and practiced in the morning and in the afternoons the kids went to a nearby grade or high school. Their education was secondary to their Tennis skills progress.
In another post, I talked about how the US moved AWAY from Vocational education in high school toward all College Prep type schools. This began about 1980 when the "powers that be" decided that vocational education cost a lot of money and they would have to raise property or other taxes to pay for vocational. This may have NEVER been studied, BUT, I personally, feel that this was a big turning point from both an economic and a psychological point of view !!!!!
Economically, it saved tax money for the top and middle economic strata, while punishing the lower US economic strata. It and the increasing population made for large class sizes (like 30 kids) which made it increasingly hard for teachers to teach and hard for the marginally prepared lower-class students to learn. Boys being less mature than girls and having more difficulty being over-active were hurt most by the large class sizes. They also had more behavior problems and were disciplined more.
......to be continued
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From a psychological point of view, the maturity of boys tends to be at all social strata about 2 years BEHIND girls for K through 12th grade. The girls are mature enough to not resist the desk CONFINEMENT for long periods. Boys get "antsy" and act out. For boys, lunch recess, gym, and after-school sports are their FAVORITE parts of the school day. Today a large % of boys not having sports as an outlet (a safety valve) will "act out" by joining GANGS. And ALL of these psychological forces on BOYS are exacerbated by LARGE CLASS SIZE. I would EVEN suggest that US schools are set up to DE-EMPHASIZE the male qualities while emphasizing female qualities.
So, I would conclude that by stopping Vocational Education that the US has caused unintended negative consequences and has been SHORT-SIGHTED (aka penny-wise and dollar foolish). And it ripples through society and the US economy. The US economy could be MADE more RECESSION-PROOF by better analysis and improvement of primary and secondary education. Why does Taiwan make the highest level of computer chips in the world? Why did the US RELINQUISH the top spot in science and technology? IMO it began in 1980 when US children were SHORTCHANGED IN SCHOOLS !