American Education

[SantaMonica1369]

This goes slightly off philosophy, but it's still at least intellectual discussion.
How do you all feel about American education? Why? Is it saveable?

It worries me.

[vajrasattva]

I think it is in need of improvement but at the same time it can be great for those of us who take advantage of it.

[Didymos Thomas]

It's all what you make of it.

You always have the option of ignoring the teacher and reading a good book.

American education is all kinds of messed up. Not that any country is perfect, but there is so much we could do to vastly improve our education system, and at the same time save money. Of course, this will never happen as politicians are addicted to funding, damn results. Just look at the War on Drugs or War on Terror.

[the thinker]

I think it's great that so many people have access to an education, but some of it leaves something to be desired. Though, you have to think about it...high schoolers today are learning stuff that, 20 years ago, no one even had an idea about.

The weird thing about education is that parents will say "Oh, wow, that's the coolest project ever!" and the kids will say, "it's stupid, it's just more work, I don't want to do this." Well, not always, but 90% of the time (at least in my experience.)

[urangutan]

I cannot comment directly on American Education but I think across the globe, the education systems are "befuffled" beyond repair. Maybe this response is to broad and maybe it is just simply wrong.

All we seem to do is teach the children and expect them to learn, knowing how to learn is not sponging up moisture in a cloth.

I like to use mathematics as an example. Why do so many children turn away from it and you can give all the excuses you like but the reason is that it has no projected life. That is to say, why we have math, where maths is going and what can be done with maths. Not unlike chemistry, where the teacher will thrill the class with every new compound to interest the students, maths shows nothing when there is so much to explain. Oddly what good is Chem if a student turns away from Maths. Mathematics needs that explaination. Where and why we have zero, basic algebra is the root to formulaeic equationing and where this can apply.

There is more to education than mathematics but I don't think I am moving in the wrong direction.

[de_budding]

Originally Posted by urangutan

I cannot comment directly on American Education but I think across the globe, the education systems are "befuffled" beyond repair. Maybe this response is to broad and maybe it is just simply wrong.

All we seem to do is teach the children and expect them to learn, knowing how to learn is not sponging up moisture in a cloth.

I like to use mathematics as an example. Why do so many children turn away from it and you can give all the excuses you like but the reason is that it has no projected life. That is to say, why we have math, where maths is going and what can be done with maths. Not unlike chemistry, where the teacher will thrill the class with every new compound to interest the students, maths shows nothing when there is so much to explain. Oddly what good is Chem if a student turns away from Maths. Mathematics needs that explaination. Where and why we have zero, basic algebra is the root to formulaeic equationing and where this can apply.

There is more to education than mathematics but I don't think I am moving in the wrong direction.

Like I always say, we have to teach them to learn first.
Dan

[VideCorSpoon]

Simply, an American education is adequate. I remember in my first chemistry class I had an Pakistani lab partner who had already done biochemistry and organic chemistry before she left high school… and was already married for a few years and she was 18. It’s not that the American education is worse than foreign schools, it’s only that foreign educations are more demanding and rigorous because they feel they need to try twice as hard to be considered half as good. It’s like an existential dilemma.

If any of you have a cable television, switch on the Indian Bollywood music videos and watch a few of them. They blatantly glorify being a chemist or an engineer in leisurely mediums the way we see "brintney spears getting a smoothie with D&G sunglasses" OMG!!! D&G!!! That was like so last season!. Also keep in mind that in the middle east, women in particular can only pursue a few dozen professions, and most of those are advanced sciences like chemistry, engineering, and medicine.

In America, the bigger you pocket book, the better the education you can receive. It is sad but true. Capitalism has a symbiotic relationship with the education system here. American schools are paltry when public, expensive when private, and corporate in nature. But foreigners still come to America for advanced schooling, even though it is so expensive. So American schools cannot all be bad.

The push for foreign students to be “the best” is deadly though. In Japan, it is not uncommon to hear of children committing suicide because they could not pass middle school entrance exams. It is rough to be a foreign student. Also, one of my friends said he had to wait a few years to enter a European university because there wasn’t enough room because the education was free. So capitalism in the American school system has its advantages if you are fortunate… namely the haves and the have not’s.

[urangutan]

VideCorSpoon, that only compounds the problem with education world wide. The idea that you can buy an education, die for an education or simply miss out on an education due to the number of applicants, is to say the least ridiculous.

I guess I am using Australia in this instance, I don't imagine that the rest of the world has Social Security like us. When a father of four can avoid working because he will be paid benefits to a greater sum than his income, while we have an educational fund shortage is ridiculous. I am sure you can note the problem in your own country.

When the teachers of any real quality, quit the profession because the standard of education drops below the requirements, is ridiculous.

When there is a final grade that is believed to show that an education has been acheived and this is the bench mark, an education itself seems ridiculous.

Real education is more than this and in fact is nothing like this.

[Afallucco]

American education itself is not in as bad a shape as many believe it to be. The unsuccessful nature of much of the American education system is largely due to the lack of discipline in schools and at home.

[Didymos Thomas]

Afallucco, I have to disagree with you about the state of our educational system. However, you are absolutely right when you sight discipline as the primary problem.

Disciplined students will study - period. But it is difficult to promote disciplined students when the educators are incapable of teaching their subject. Even when the teachers are capable, government requirements tie their hands and do not allow capable teachers to run their classrooms effectively. There is a reason why teachers have been so universally infuriated by No Child Left Behind and similar state initiatives.