Yes, as a student I would like a reform of the educational system. I think we need smaller class sizes and more funding toward special education services.

When I was a teacher, I taught English, math, and life science at various times to kids that ranged from grades 6 to 12.

The biggest problems I saw were:

- 1 - Overcomplication of the educational process. We took something basic and turned it into an unnecessarily expensive Rube Goldberg device.

Except when learning to use particular tools, digital technology does not actually help kids learn better. Sure, computers are required for learning to use computers, but they provide no advantage over pencils when learning to write, think scientifically or learn about history.

Fancy textbooks that specify the particular state's standards or standardized test requirement in a list at the beginning of the chapter make the textbooks more expensive, and add nothing to the ability of the kids to learn.

The most valuable aspects of the curriculum is skills development, and that requires nothing fancier or more complicated than practice and repetition. It is not exciting, but it is time-tested and proven to work.

- 2 - The curriculum is almost exclusively based on the assumption that the students will go to college, or (in some schools) go to a voc/tech school

Face it, if all you are qualified for after 13 years of "free and appropriate education" is more education, then everybody wasted their time. The students know this.

Most behavior problems are curriculum problems, either because it is too advanced, too easy, or just plain irrelevant to what the kids want to do with their lives. The students are not being given a sense that they are getting the tools to do something defined or important to them, so many do not bother to learn what would seem to any rational person like useless trivia.

We need to make the curriculum more oriented toward both hard and soft skills that are about DEFINED life goals, whether professions, trades, capabilities that students want.

The generalized college prep crap needs to be reserved only for those kids who have no concept of who they are or what they want to do, but are in the top third of academic performance or ability.

- 3 - We move all students through the process too fast for many, and we have given up on the need for mastery. We need to teach fewer skills per year, spend more time on practice of those we teach, and retain kids at grade level (hold back, flunk) kids who fail to master the skills.

Most skills have prerequisite skills, and those who have not mastered the precursors to their current curriculum are at such a disadvantage that they cannot be successful. Moving these kids along regardless of failure leads to continued and often perennial failure, discouragement, self esteem issues, behavior problems, and wasted money and time.

We spend billions of dollars per year on standardized tests that actually tell us whether the students learned the subject matter/skills, but we do not use that to tell us whether the kid goes on to the next grade.

As a result of this, I had students in my 9th grade English classes who did not know when to use there, they're, or their, or your or you're. This is in the 3rd grade curriculum. That meant in addition to trying to teach 9th grade English, I also had to teach 3rd through 8th grade English.

I had students in my 8th grade algebra classes who did not know their multiplication tables or how to add fractions, which are 4th grade curriculum. Algebra is much harder for those who do not know the basic relationships between numbers, and impossible for those who cannot perform more complex arithmetic.

Those students would have been better off if they had been held back until they learned the required skills and subject matter.

I feel we need to get back to basics and place more emphasis on the 3Rs, reading, writing and arithmetic.

Of course the sciences and other specialized subjects are highly important, if not vital parts of the curriculum but too many pupils are leaving the education system with very poor literacy and numeracy skills.

There are a lot of things taught that don't need to be, and lots of things not taught that need to be. Times tables are useless, yet basic psychology and an understanding of power dynamics are essential for success, for example. Further, there are few acceptable physical outlets for male aggression and rough-and-tumble-play which is essential to healthy male development. Moreover, strict adherence to curricula mean that rote learning rather than functional understanding is the learning objective, which is the opposite of what would be useful. Finally, people are mostly taught what to think rather than how to think and are given little opportunity to critically evaluate the learning materials.

Does the US educational system need a full rework?

I have a lot to say about this topic--and, will begin here, for now:

The way the current "education" system is set up is that of a large-scale, "mandatory", mediocre day-care center for parents to have kids attend. The primary goal is to to pass the time 'safely', without major incidents occurring, secondary is assimilation into the given order of things, third, if any real learning takes place, that is simply a bonus, though not a requirement--also, if too much real learning occurs, that will conflict with (2) and is therefore not allowed.

If they (accurately) labeled themselves as a government mandated 'day-care center', I would not be taking as much issue with it (though, there still would be a lot to criticize)

We don't have an education system when students experience discrimination due to disability, skin color, or clkass.