Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Disinterested and uninvolved parents
Federal standards and rewards system which encourages schools to teach to the test rather than teach for knowledge, understanding, and mastery of a subject.
The erasure of facts in some subjects and the replacement with that which is "politically correct".
Stressing that children should feel good about themselves instead of actually learning in school. Self esteem being held in higher regard than knowledge.
Stress on cultural studies and social engineering instead of literature, history, math & science.
Tying the hands of teacher as to how much they are allowed to control the behavior of students in the classroom.
Absence of teaching of problem based learning and critical thinking skills.
and the list goes on...............
DAng you, you stole all my thunder..... Spot on....
Because as Americans, we simply don't care enough about education to invest in it. And by "investing" I'm not necessarily talking about money, but the time and energy we spend in teaching our kids the important subjects and activities that make them a well rounded person.
Parents need to step up to the plate and politicians need to get a clue.
Exactly right. Our culture values money and appearances over learning (for the sake of learning) and intellectual stimulation in general. It's the reason intellectualism is equated with "elitism" by a large swath of our population.
Location: Just transplanted to FL from the N GA mountains
3,997 posts, read 4,142,915 times
Reputation: 2677
How bout instead of listing the problems, we try to figure out how to fix it here on CD... No finger pointing, no "my way or else".... just possible solutions and the possible outcomes of the solutions. And are we talking about only our education systems through High School? It seems to me that our colleges and Universities are seen throughout the world as some of the best....
Which, in a way, is also a problem. The achievement gap in this country is atrocious. It shouldn't be that a child in rural Minnesota gets an infinitely better education than a kid in rural Georgia.
Interesting choice of examples for me, since I am from rural Georgia. The fact of the matter is, they don't get an infinitely better education. There are socio-economic forces at play for a rural kid in Georgia that typically do not apply to rural Minnesota, and the issue is drastically compounded by racial culture, and historical culture. When standardized test scores are the criteria, the gap between your rural white kid in Georgia, and your rural minority kid in Georgia is nearly the same as the point spread between Minnesota and Georgia as a whole.
My own children, for example(boys, aged 7 and 11) were born and raised in rural Georgia, and both score in the 99th percentile for children of their ages in the United States(I'd be happy to scan their test results for you, as I'm quite proud of them). They have outstanding teachers who really care about their students, and the school has won national awards. Likewise, their education is very important to me, and I supplement it as best as I can through educational trips, talks, and through studying the materials they bring home. But, I would be willing to bet, the average scores for this school would be lower than those of most rural Minnesota schools.
I know it is not a popular thing to say, but the test results between white and minority students are an issue, and I can't think of very many places with fewer minorities than rural Minnesota. Nor can I think of very many places with more minorities than rural Georgia. Not really fair to give the schools and the teachers all the credit/blame here.
I didn't know Minnesota was known for education. Could someone tell me more about what makes theirs so great?
Since we're talking about Minnesota, don't forget that URBAN Minnesota (The Twin Cities area of course) has a huge black population. And Georgia has a huge city, Atlanta, unlike most Southern states.
I didn't know Minnesota was known for education. Could someone tell me more about what makes theirs so great? Since we're talking about Minnesota, don't forget that URBAN Minnesota (The Twin Cities area of course) has a huge black population. And Georgia has a huge city, Atlanta, unlike most Southern states.
As of 2005, Minnesota population breaks down like this:
White: 90.94%
Black: 4.96%
AIAN: 1.63%
Asian: 3.86%
Here's Georgia as of 2010:
White: 59.7%
Black: 30.5%
AIAN: .3%
Asian: 3.2%
Minnesota has been known for great education scores for a long time. Many years, it tops the list, along with Wisconsin. Georgia is making improvements economically and culturally, but there are many reasons why the state is behind in this category. I just don't believe that it is fair to look at the numbers and make assumptions about the quality of schools when factors exist in one state that don't exist in another.
It has helped to make me a conspiracy believer. It's done by design and has been, very slowly for several generations. Dumbing down the youth, and encouraging immorality to have them oinking at the pleasure trough of life.
By the time everyone realizes that the constitution does not apply anymore we'll have a bunch of spineless folks that won't make a stand.
The dumbing down part is to have fewer entrepreneurs and a bunch of willing worker bees for the Regime, sort of thing.
I live in the Philadelphia area and am appalled by how uneducated most of the grown white people in it are. Not to be racist, but considering how white people in the USA were never slaves, and how many different countries and societies in Europe they immigrated from, Philadelphia paints a really ugly picture. On the other hand, most African Americans come from the same basic culture as one another, and that culture is disadvantaged, mostly due to discrimination. And sorry for this other stereotype but Philadelphia is a big city in the heart of "Yankeeland", not a small Southern town. So you would think white education here would be good.
I live in the Philadelphia area and am appalled by how uneducated most of the grown white people in it are. Not to be racist, but considering how white people in the USA were never slaves, and how many different countries and societies in Europe they immigrated from, Philadelphia paints a really ugly picture. On the other hand, most African Americans come from the same basic culture as one another, and that culture is disadvantaged, mostly due to discrimination. And sorry for this other stereotype but Philadelphia is a big city in the heart of "Yankeeland", not a small Southern town. So you would think white education here would be good.
Well, here's where you and I come together. First of all, I agree that the number one reason why African American scores lag behind is due to social and economic discrimination.
Second, your perception that "white" education would be any better in Philly than in a small southern town is just not right. What matters in education is: 1) Parents who care
2) Teachers who care
3) Proper funding
4) Proper support from local government
5) Proper support from the Federal Government
I assure you, these things exist just as much in small southern towns as much as anywhere else, perhaps minus some cultural reasons why #1 would be affected, hence the lower scores.
Did you know that Mississippi has the second highest percentage in spending on education only behind Alaska?
That being said, would you say that there is a difference between white and minority education in Philly?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
