Making Schools Better For Children Alexandra Sifferlin Summary

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Alexandra Sifferlin wrote an article in the Time magazine on making schools better for kids. In the article, she describes seven major points of change in schools to make kids happier and healthier. The seven changes are as follows: ditch traditional homework, make recess mandatory, screen kids for mental illness, prioritize diversity, turn discipline into dialogue, let students customize their curriculums, and start classes after 8:30 a.m.
The article tells us that experts are trying to create policy changes in school since children spend such a large portion of their time there. Although this may sound like an excellent idea I have found two flaws in this reform of the school system. They are as follows. First the system they are changing …show more content…

One way to lower obesity rates is making recess mandatory. A second way is to start classes after 8:30 a.m. And the third way is designing cafeterias that encourage healthy eating. These ideas could lead to children becoming more active and eating more healthful foods; however the best place for children to learn about living a healthy lifestyle is at home.
The article also covers psychological ways to better the school system. The two ways the article suggest helping in the psychological area are screening kids for mental illness and turning discipline into dialogue. I agree in changing the way our society deals with disobedient and disruptive children. I also believe that most children with so-called mental disorders are a result of bad parenting and the bad situations the children go through. Our schools need to understand that the best place for children’s bad habit to be broken is at home.
This is why I agree with the change to ditch traditional homework. Children are spending so much time trying to figure out confusing problems for homework. This results in parents getting frustrated and yelling at the kids for being stupid. This leads to a very sad stressful situation for the child who may then be diagnosed with autism, depression, and ADHD because his thought process has been so tampered

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