It has been a disaster from the start, but it got worse and worse with time. I remember reading that the schools would give the children iPads and other things just so they would sign up for that school. Basically they would bribe the children to get the parents to send them so that they could make more money. And that’s only the top of the iceberg …
(PS: I changed the title from “free school” to “charter school” which is the correct english name for what is described in the article.)
Rote learning - anything. That’s 50% of the time currently - which can then be used to shorten school days with the same. We’re living in a world where information is available at our finger tips - and that won’t suddenly become less so.
Every generation suffers from the same faulty thinking. “Because this is the way it was for me it must be the right way also for my children”.
(Cursive writing was a waste of time already when I went to school in the late 80s)
Rote learning can be helpful for some things, if just to give an idea of what information is there and how to process it.