Can School's teach more Effectively?

Education has never been perfect, and has not even defined what is effective teaching is. I am no expert on teaching or have the experience to understand the difficulties. However, I feel that questioning effective teaching and schools is important for our next generations and our own children. Where and how will they best learn and grow? My hope is to question and understand the philosophy of education.

My Educational Background

In order to create your own philosophy of education, look at your past experiences of education. As we look at our educational background we can see our biases and how our desires came to be. 

I attended public school from Elementary school until half way into middle school I switched to a home school program. Being in that program was the best 2 years of my life. I went from having few friends to many. While at home we spent the time reading good books and learning in a way that made sense to me at the pace I needed. The other half of the time I went to a campus and experienced what I was learning hands on. For example, we were able to go on a pirate ship and experience what it would have been like in the time to be on a pirate ship, we went snow shoeing to look for biology related terms, and trips to a local newspaper and journalism buildings to improve our writing skills. We did not take any tests for grades and only test we took was state  standardized tests. 

At campus we also experienced a large amount of social activities and interaction. We were exposed to dances, musicals, drama, art, shows, family gatherings, and etc. The school was like one big happy family! 

The time came however to graduate as it was only a K-8th grade school. I found myself deciding that I wanted to face the high school experience and bounce back to the regular public school, which slapped me in the face. I found myself getting bored and home sick for my dear home school. In high school we were thrown old out dated textbooks full of cuss words and graphic doodles. Tests were graded high and the test anxiety was filled in the air as my neighbors around me whispered test answers in desperation to each other. The voices of the teachers drowning us students in their dull lectures, causing us to glance out the window to find something anything more interesting. Of course many times met with the disappointment of accidentally glancing at the clock to realize it's only been the first 10 minutes of class. Looking out the window I was also reminded of the tall fences and gates surrounding the school, reminding me of the prison I was stuck in for the next 7 hours. I found myself buried and suffocating in all the busy work and test preparation. I found myself caring more about just getting my work done, having the answer, and getting a good grade on a test than actually understanding what I was supposed to learn and apply it into my own life. I felt just plain stupid. 

After High School I became a student at BYU-Idaho when the strangest thing happened. It turned out that my first semester I only took one class that required tests as a grade. Instead the ways my teachers evaluated me was to ask what the grade I deserved by the end or on my assignments, how I went above and beyond my projects and apply what I learned into my life, and many projects to demonstrate I understood what I learned. I found myself better retaining the material and having a love for school that I once had. But how was this possible? I had always viewed myself stupid and slower than my fellow peers in class and was now wondering why all the sudden i felt so smart.  I realized that it wasn't my fault. Everyone learns things differently and at a certain pace, school systems are built to teach a one way curriculum and for the rest of us to slowly catch up and struggle because it is difficult to meet the individuals needs of every student. through these experiences I have dedicated myself to understand and dig deeper into methods, beliefs, and philosophy of education, and to question especially public schools methodology.

What's Wrong with School?

http://elsegundomiddleschool.edlioschool.com/ourpages/auto/2011/9/2/46739993/Wolk-Why%20Go%20To%20School%20.pdf

In this article by Steven Wolk the topic he addresses towards school busy work is astounding. I relate and agree with many things in this article. These days students are so caught up in just having the answers and filling in the blanks that students fail to actually understand what they are learning, care about it, or even apply it into their own lives.
I would like to digress and tell of a constant experiences I faced in my high school classes. Many times the teachers would tell us of an activity and claim that it would help us apply the concept we learned from the lecture, many times they would be with large groups or class efforts. The students found themselves scanning over the instruction sheets and activity props and whispers echoed the room saying, "Do you know what were supposed to be doing?...not a clue""Let's just follow that person they are smart." "I really don't want to do this. Why are we doing this? How does this relate?"I heard and would often myself say these words in my confusion. By the end of the activity and class time I found my peers and I more confused about the concepts than before we did the activity. Wasn't the sole purpose of the activity was to learn how to apply the concepts we learned? Then why did we learn nothing? Why did the activity make us care even less?
Why Should you give a care about how a subject is taught?
While many of educational school systems and teacher methodology are effective for many students and provide success, it doesn't mean the system is perfect. We are all flawed human beings and many aspects of education since the beginning were already flawed at the start. My intention is to question effectiveness because I believe we can do more to effect future generations of students, teachers, and better positively effect our world.

The Three Levels of Education

I believe in schools their are 3 levels of education: Good, Better, and Best. 

I believe most public schools are at the better level. They provide amazing amounts of information, diverse subjects, and teachers that work long hours to help their students grow. However, I believe their is much more that can be done for the training of teachers to help them develop a stronger philosophy that can help students carry the things that they learn throughout the rest of their lives. The political goal of education is to help develop students to be outstanding paying citizens with career success so that people can better contribute to the economy. If we really want students to be outstanding citizens with strong morals, values, and have personal and family responsibility; then we need to train them to be the BEST they can be. The future generations deserve that kind education. The real question, is how?
What do you think?