Monday, September 20, 2010

State of the Classroom

Well, that was a nice weekend break, but now I suppose I must get back to the ol' grind.
Education is something that has bothered me for a while, especially the state of it in the USA. Now, we've all heard the stories of all the countries that outrank America in education based on standardized tests, and to me, that is completely unsatisfactory. I was lucky enough to have a good education in one of the better districts in the country, but many cannot afford this luxury. I hear all the time on the news about teachers complaining or striking for better pay, more benefits, etc., but the condition of our students says they deserve otherwise. When it comes down to it, is it not mostly on the teachers that we rank so poorly? To some extent it is the system, curriculum is decided by the state, hours decided by the district, but the teachers are the ones in the classrooms, teaching our children, and they are ultimately responsible for attending to all of them, and making sure they succeed.
In many other countries, the children are pushed harder in their education, such as more hours in the school day, more days in the school week, and after-school classes to teach them further. In America, this is nowhere near the case. School is about slacking off, doing the minimum to get by, and getting away with it. If we ever want to fix this country for good, the most logical place would be to start at education, because it is the most basic thing necessary for people to improve themselves, and the world they live in.

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for a detailed thing about how the education system seems to be in America, here in New Zealand the education system isn't that great to be honest.

    School hours are probably the same being from 830am till 3pm. More and more kids here are leaving school at an earlier age because the qualifications authority here and NZ curriculum is just shocking.

    I think one of the most important things we need to teach children/teenagers is that you don't need a good education to be successful in life. You need to learn how to be an entrepreneur and learn to create businesses instead of working for other people. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with having an education, but I think there's something wrong with trading time for money.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's better for the state to have few high-class schools and students while the large majority of the people receive shitty education. USA is run purely on the wishes and demands of many gigantic corporations, it's the siblings of the CEO's and other key players of those corporations (and maybe politicians etc) who receive an "elite" education to command the poorly educated masses like sheep.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PS, I don't think that the people in the US are genetically inferior to any other. It's the state itself that doesn't wish to improve the conditions of the public schools etc. Check that shit up, some schools use books and curriculums that can only be described as ancient. Just my two cents.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've always had issue with public education. Those who want to learn are punished for it in most places...if not by the teachers, then by other students, and the few teachers that care enough to stop it don't dare to.

    ReplyDelete
  5. i cant say we have it good here in br

    ReplyDelete