Parents: Is the school and education your kids receive better than what you got years ago? (SAT, university)

[questioner2]

Everyone likes to complain about the schools today, and say our educational system in America is broken. Sure, it could be improved but in my case I see better schools in my hometown than I had in the same community 30 years ago. I can not get over the number of programs and activities kids get today and it seems to me the teachers are more qualified than my day.

Is this true in your community? Is the quality of education in your kids school better than what you had when you attended back in the good old days in your community?

[GracieJJ]

Generally speaking, public schools of todays are not so good.

Is the reason, my kid is enrolled in a private military school. They got good academic programmes with sports, they enforce discipline by demerits and encourage good behaviour at all times, to Everyone!

The school is equally governed & run by Catholic Nuns - Independent teachers - Military personel. K-8 and one of a kind in the country.

Coupled with parents who mould everything round their kids, i say, is a good way to ensure success in the kids education and well being. Nothings foolproof ofcourse, but i like to think we cut out some odds of him/them failing. Our 2nd child will be following in his elder sibbling soon enough.

[CHICAGOLAND92]

It's not that schools are worse, it's just that some students don't care, IMO.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by CHICAGOLAND92

It's not that schools are worse, it's just that some students don't care, IMO.

Add parents to that comment and you are on the money with a lot of the problems today. I think we are still suffering from the 'feel good' generation where everything has to be equal and we can't make anything too hard because it will hurt Johnny's self esteem.

I don't know that schools are any better or worse they are just different. I see our kids doing things in middle school that we didn't do until high school--mainly math related but other subjects as well. I think our schools are probably 2 years ahead of what we did growing up. I think the advent of the home computer has helped that in some respects. Doing a long, typed research paper in middle school isn't that big of a deal because a few clicks of the mouse and you have what you need. I KNOW my 12 year old DD types faster then I do.

Things are more hands on learning then when I was in high school. We pretty much sat in lecture rooms and listened to teachers talk. DS15 had a science lab pretty much 3 times a week or more, more field trips for research, etc.

I also think that being in Minnesota makes a big difference because when I hear about issues going on in other areas of the country we simply just don't have a lot of the problems here-lack of parental interest, high drop out rates, high teen pregnancy rates, major violence in schools, etc. Not that there aren't SOME issues but when you hear about 50+% dropout rates, etc. our school has a 98% rate to go on to post-secondary education and about 95% of that going to a 4 year college/university.

[Sgoldie]

I believe the schools here are better than when I went. First of all I was part of the baby boom and apparently they forgot to plan for the eventuality. We had split sessions in high school and I was out of school by eleven o'clock. Not much time to learn anything. Fortunately, I was self motivated.

The other thing is that there was an extreme shortage of science teachers, and so we, as girls were asked if we planned on a career as a nurse, and if so we were allowed into classes that were reserved for the boys. Our counselors asked what our future choice would be if we were to work and was limited to nurse, teacher, or secretary and these were the tracks we were shoved into. Things are so much better today in that regard.

Granted we were probably a lot more respectful, and at times clueless, much more so than today. The most I learned was from some pretty tough teachers. We also had those who were slackers. The opportunities the kids have these days is wonderful. Now, if they would only appreciate things and make the most of them.

[Ibginnie]

I do believe that there is a different kind of teaching today. When teachers have to "teach to the test" our kids suffer.

When I was in school (graduated high school in 1975) they not only taught the subject matter they taught you how to think. Deductive reasoning, common sense and logic were as important scholastic pursuits.

With that said, I have to say no, my kids did not get a better education than I did.

BTW I was a high school math teacher. I taught way below grade level compared to what I learned in high school.

[InformedConsent]

The education my kids are receiving in public school is significantly inferior to the education I received in public school.

We supplement a lot outside of school to provide the pre-existing knowledge structure that is required in order for today's trendy 'discovery' learning to be even marginally productive.

The following article from Educational Psychologist provides a good analysis on why the currently popular constructivist instructional methods yield poor results. Those methods ignore what is known about the way humans process information and learn.

An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching: http://www.cogtech.usc.edu/publicati...ller_Clark.pdf

[GypsySoul22]

No, I think we learned more when I was kid. My son is in 4th grade and has learning difficulties. He still can't write a decent sentence. I am a certified teacher (but I don't teach now) and find it very frustrating that he gets work that seems disjointed and has no real connection to life skills.

People need to know how to read and write properly to function. These are skills they need to teach at school.

I like the idea of using multimedia and various methods to teach but I do think schools have gotten away from basics in some attempt to be 'touchy feely' and 'teach just so kids get good marks so the schools get more money from the state.'

It's scary.

[ara^bess]

They push more academics and less common sense. When I was in high school, girls had to take Home Economics....how to bake biscuits, sew ourselves a book bag, learn to take care of a baby, and balance our checkbooks. Boys took Agriculture....how to fix cars, build a book shelf, feed a cow, and find a job.

Now, they can all do trigonometry but don't have enough sense to make a grilled cheese.

[paramour]

The quality of my child's school is significantly better than the education I received at his age. However, he also goes to a private school because the quality of our area's public school system is considerably worse than what I received growing up in a rural, not so great location.