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...and my guess is that you are one very angry person, who is determined that they are 'right', and anyone who disagrees is wrong. And I'm going to just leave it at that.
Not so much angry as distressed at the quick and shallow dismissal of public schools in on-line forums. There are a lot of great things happening in education, and I do feel drawn to defend my friends who work their asses off every day to give their students an education that will prepare them for world they will inherit from us.
Not so much angry as distressed at the quick and shallow dismissal of public schools in on-line forums. There are a lot of great things happening in education, and I do feel drawn to defend my friends who work their asses off every day to give their students an education that will prepare them for world they will inherit from us.
Understand that my 'quick and shallow dismissal' of the state of our public schools has absolutely nothing to do with the teachers themselves. They have very little to do with the curriculum that is being taught, and teach what they are told to teach in the way they are told to teach them. It doesn't matter how long my kids have been in/out of school, what matters is the difference in the school system between several decades ago, and now. Check up on where the U.S. school system stands in relation to school systems in other countries...we've dropped like a lead balloon. This isn't to say there aren't good public schools scattered here and there across the country, but they are few and far between- and the majority of them are a sad, failed lot. Again, not due to the teachers...but to those who are in charge of what is being taught. There isn't the emphasis placed on a really good education in this country anymore, not like there once was. It's wonderful that your kids have received a great education, but I'm going to guess that they are the exception, rather than the rule.
We may have been given a very brief introduction. Quite honestly, I think many Americans of all ages would be more familiar with them due to the NFL's use of Roman Numerals for the Super Bowls.
It is what it is. It's a matter of style. I concede that the Hindu-Arabic numeral system that we use today is better than our Roman one. That's why it's been largely replaced. It's impossible to argue otherwise.
What would be the purpose of learning Roman numerals? I'm 30 and never learned it through school, but I can read some of it. I don't know all of the bigger numerals.
Understand that my 'quick and shallow dismissal' of the state of our public schools has absolutely nothing to do with the teachers themselves. They have very little to do with the curriculum that is being taught, and teach what they are told to teach in the way they are told to teach them. It doesn't matter how long my kids have been in/out of school, what matters is the difference in the school system between several decades ago, and now. Check up on where the U.S. school system stands in relation to school systems in other countries...we've dropped like a lead balloon. This isn't to say there aren't good public schools scattered here and there across the country, but they are few and far between- and the majority of them are a sad, failed lot. Again, not due to the teachers...but to those who are in charge of what is being taught. There isn't the emphasis placed on a really good education in this country anymore, not like there once was. It's wonderful that your kids have received a great education, but I'm going to guess that they are the exception, rather than the rule.
No, you are wrong. Education today is not so much worse.
Here are a couple of things about education in the 1950s vs now
I went to school in the 1950s and early 60s. There were very few schools offering AP classes. Also, the NAEP was not given back then, so we don't have the data to compare internationally from those years. NAEP assessments have been conducted periodically in reading, mathematics, science, writing, U.S. history, civics, geography, and other subjects, beginning in 1969. I think that test is US only. PISA was first conducted in the year 2000. The TIMSS was first given in 1995.
America’s students have improved in math and science over the past 20 years – but remain behind students in many other industrialized nations. The United States ranks 35th out of 64 countries in math and 27th in science, according to a cross-national test known as PISA. Although the U.S. spent more per pupil than many countries in 2012 ($115,000), its students performed the same in math as those in Slovakia, which spent $53,000 per student.
But.......
Students in Massachusetts, one of the highest performing states, are on par with students in Japan in math.
In science, students in Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin are behind students in Singapore and Taiwan only, but are equal to or ahead of students in the other 45 countries in the TIMSS.
The World Economic Forum ranks the United States as number one out of 131 nations in global competitiveness, using primary and higher education as part of its calculations.
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