What is wring with the American Educational system

[Flintlockecole]

I may not know what an American school look's like but when I spent my six months of hell in one of these Canadian ones I swear half the people couldn't read stuff that was written for first graders.

 

Yep. And colleges/universities are being forced to add more remedial classes, as the incoming freshmen, that supposedly graduated from high school, don't have the basic skills they should.

 

I attribute most of the problems to the societal shift leading to "no one is responsible for their own actions", and "it is bad for their fragile egos to fail"...... Guess what, when you get out into the real world, and start going to work every day, you WILL be responsible for said work, and if you screw it up, your boss isn't going to consider what it may do to your ego when he bawls you out for screwing it up. And you might just get fired, if you screw up bad enough. School seems to be the exact opposite. No one fails, for the aforementioned reason, and also, because funding is based on student performance..... so, if you fail a student, that affects your funding. Where is the sense in that??? The government, in their desire to 'help', has just given teachers/administrators every reason to pass kids that don't deserve it, and to retain kids that severely compromise the learning environment. (bullies being right up there on the list....) The whole "no child left behind" gig seriously gimped our education system.

I'm the first person at the restaurant I work at to not quit the job within the first week in almost four years, the head chef almost s*** himself when I said I'm responsible for what I do. It's a terrible world we live in. Hell most if not all my "Schooling" came from my great grandfather, If I ever have children I'll never send them to grade school it's just pathetic what goes on in there.

[Keanumoreira]

I was fortunate to be raised in some of the best schools my district and Florida had to offer, all A + schools dedicated to the children and still going strong. To be honest, I don't know what it is like to have a poor educated enviornment, as our schools were always well run, supervised, hygienic, and everything you would expect from a school that should function correctly. However, I do know the strains on all the schools educational systems throughout the Nation. A good education is all about dedication and oppertunities, and unfortuneatly, budget cuts have stripped away some of the oppertunities to succeed (Classes in this case, even those for kids who need extra help with Math and Reading), which we can use to further better ourselves. We have to work harder to ensure we don't fall behind and demands are always high for more improvement and progress. Luckily for me, these problems didn't become severe until late into my educational requirements for the system, but the younger generations are going to no doubt suffer from this. Edited July 30, 2011 by Keanumoreira

[grannywils]

I may not know what an American school look's like but when I spent my six months of hell in one of these Canadian ones I swear half the people couldn't read stuff that was written for first graders.

 

Yep. And colleges/universities are being forced to add more remedial classes, as the incoming freshmen, that supposedly graduated from high school, don't have the basic skills they should.

 

I attribute most of the problems to the societal shift leading to "no one is responsible for their own actions", and "it is bad for their fragile egos to fail"...... Guess what, when you get out into the real world, and start going to work every day, you WILL be responsible for said work, and if you screw it up, your boss isn't going to consider what it may do to your ego when he bawls you out for screwing it up. And you might just get fired, if you screw up bad enough. School seems to be the exact opposite. No one fails, for the aforementioned reason, and also, because funding is based on student performance..... so, if you fail a student, that affects your funding. Where is the sense in that??? The government, in their desire to 'help', has just given teachers/administrators every reason to pass kids that don't deserve it, and to retain kids that severely compromise the learning environment. (bullies being right up there on the list....) The whole "no child left behind" gig seriously gimped our education system.

 

HeyYou, I was right there with you until you added that line about "no child left behind". Excuse me, but that program left all children behind in my humble opinion. Not that it made much difference, since they were already so far behind (as pointed out in the earlier part of your post) that not much was going to save them anyway. If anything I would also agree with some of the other posters who mention the deprioritizing in our society of teachers in comparison with (for example) sports figures or entertainers. And Marharth mentions that the reasoning behind that is the income generated by said figures. However, this just exemplifies the shortsightedness of our society in general. Our youth is our future. They should be competently equipped to not only generate income for themselves and our country; but it would behoove us to care enough about their knowledge base to prepare them with the best we have to offer and to be willing to pay the best possible wage for that preparation.

[Kuraikiba]

Hmm... No child left behind...

 

How could they be left behind? I wasn't aware they had FOUND the kids the lost the previous four generations...

[HeyYou]

I may not know what an American school look's like but when I spent my six months of hell in one of these Canadian ones I swear half the people couldn't read stuff that was written for first graders.

 

Yep. And colleges/universities are being forced to add more remedial classes, as the incoming freshmen, that supposedly graduated from high school, don't have the basic skills they should.

 

I attribute most of the problems to the societal shift leading to "no one is responsible for their own actions", and "it is bad for their fragile egos to fail"...... Guess what, when you get out into the real world, and start going to work every day, you WILL be responsible for said work, and if you screw it up, your boss isn't going to consider what it may do to your ego when he bawls you out for screwing it up. And you might just get fired, if you screw up bad enough. School seems to be the exact opposite. No one fails, for the aforementioned reason, and also, because funding is based on student performance..... so, if you fail a student, that affects your funding. Where is the sense in that??? The government, in their desire to 'help', has just given teachers/administrators every reason to pass kids that don't deserve it, and to retain kids that severely compromise the learning environment. (bullies being right up there on the list....) The whole "no child left behind" gig seriously gimped our education system.

 

HeyYou, I was right there with you until you added that line about "no child left behind". Excuse me, but that program left all children behind in my humble opinion. Not that it made much difference, since they were already so far behind (as pointed out in the earlier part of your post) that not much was going to save them anyway. If anything I would also agree with some of the other posters who mention the deprioritizing in our society of teachers in comparison with (for example) sports figures or entertainers. And Marharth mentions that the reasoning behind that is the income generated by said figures. However, this just exemplifies the shortsightedness of our society in general. Our youth is our future. They should be competently equipped to not only generate income for themselves and our country; but it would behoove us to care enough about their knowledge base to prepare them with the best we have to offer and to be willing to pay the best possible wage for that preparation.

 

You aren't thinking that I was endorsing No child left behind were you?? That is most certainly NOT the case. I think it was one of the stupidest things our government has done to the education system. (and there are quite a few to choose from.....)

[grannywils]

HeyYou, oh I did misread it then. Good, then I pretty much endorse what you said :thumbsup: (Not that you were breathlessly awaiting my endorsement); but just thought I'd mention it. :tongue:

[marharth]

The reason the no child left behind act was a bad idea is because it supported standards based education, which is one of the issues with our system.

[HeyYou]

HeyYou, oh I did misread it then. Good, then I pretty much endorse what you said :thumbsup: (Not that you were breathlessly awaiting my endorsement); but just thought I'd mention it. :tongue:

 

Whattaya mean? Of COURSE I was waiting for it. :D

[LadyMilla]

Well, I have no direct experience with the American educational system (and after reading through these posts, I must say I am inclined to consider myself lucky), but I found a good read a few years ago that may give some food for thought:

 

James W. Loewen - Lies my teacher told me

 

It's about history taught in high school in the US. This book focuses on the criticism of how history is taught but the author wrote another book where he presents his solution, and he even wrote an updated textbook that does not try to glorify the past to instil patriotism based on a whitewashed version of past events.

 

This is a quote from one of the comments on Amazon.com (rebuking the 'most helpful critical review' claiming that the author does not offer a solution):

"Dr. Loewen has actually written a replacement high school textbook for Mississippi; "Mississippi: Conflict and Change" (1974). He tried to bring it into circulation, but was denied by the state textbook purchasing committee. The case was brought to supreme court where he won his case. Reference for the court case: Loewen v. Turnipseed, 488 F. Supp. 1138 (N.D. Miss. 1980). His textbook was taught in the Mississippi public schools for several years."

 

Apparently, there are attempts to fix the system and there are roadblocks that try to thwart those attempts. The question is: why? Lack of money? Political or business interests?

 

[Lisnpuppy]

I honestly think that the biggest issue with why American education lacks is because its a general American trait to not find education important.

 

Think about the "American Dream" of making good in bad circumstance. How many stories have we heard and have had glorified that talk of 'Mr. Smith who is now a millionaire. He started this huge business and only has a forth grade education!" You remember these? This kind of thinking started long ago and has just continued on.

 

I believe that many American's view people with advanced degrees and a great deal of education as either "untouchable" or as arrogant and pompus. Think about peoples reactions to folks with many advanced degrees. Who needs that fancy book learning?!! LOL

 

Ultimately good education requires a strong commitment. People need to believe its one of the most important things, be willing to make the sacrifices to get education improved and remember...we give our children up to teachers all day long for a third of the year. These folks have a MASSIVE effect on our kids. We need to make sure they are the best. I firmly believe teachers need to be held accountable but not merely as reflected by standardized testing which does not show the entire picture. I also think teachers (along with police and fire fighters) need to be paid very well. Their jobs are important and often thankless. You get what you pay for folks...every time.