Not Just US Kids - US Adults Don't Measure Up Internationally, Either

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by marie5v

When were we number 1?

As bad as we are, one of our states has to be number 1.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by marie5v

The oddest thing I find about these kinds of articles is the assumption that the USA *should* be number 1 in all things educational, with no attention to being no. 1 anywhere else, like say eliminating poverty and hunger in our own country. As if education - our own style of it, in fact - is both the cause and solution to all our other ills, and therefore we need make no effort to resolve anything else. Writing 5 paragraph essays and doing standardized math problems will surely fix everything for our poorest citizens.

What I find interesting is we talk about how poorly we're doing and DON'T emulate the countries who score better than us. We have this delusion that our way is the best way in spite of us not scoring well. Why are we reinventing the wheel? Doesn't it make sense to do what those who are successful do?

[redroses777]

Originally Posted by marie5v

When were we number 1?

In any case, I teach students from all over the world, and I am absolutely confident that the US is way ahead of most countries, developed or not. However, we emphasize different things. We obsess over perfection of an antiquated spelling system to the point where kids can't learn to read in a reasonable amount of time because the system is too complex. The process is much easier in countries where the words are spelled according to how they sound, and there is only one letter per sound. We waste tons of time teaching essay writing, when most countries around the world completely disregard this. We DON'T teach grammar and punctuation, even though we complain piteously and continuously about how bad all the grammar and punctuation is. We waste years of students' time teaching "social studies" in a way that makes little sense to the rest of the world (in my state kids currently spend an entire year studying the country of Mali, and another studying the eating habits of little known Native Americans). But they get only the most cursory introduction to the current government and legal system, and almost no education in anything beyond the USA.

On the other hand, international students are even more ignorant than ours, not counting maybe three or four Western European countries. I have had international students insist that they don't use periods because their language doesn't have any (but it does). Most don't even understand the concept of citing a source, and their cheating is so pathetically obvious that I wonder if they think I am stupid.

Although, I think these studies measure the US inaccurately. In a lot of places around the world, poor students don't go to school. They go work in the factories at the age of 10 and therefore aren't tested on many international tests. The poor kids here in the U.S. often don't have parents who give a damn about their education and therefore struggle in school.