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Public schools and private schools are very different, from my limited experience I think the American public education system is heavily dumbed down to accommodate everyone. I knew a girl who went to a private school and their curriculum was a lot harder. Every year we would compete with private schools at a math competition and the private schools won every year.
Of course, that may have been because you were in an area where this was true.
My son's high school had national math winners in competitions. This is an regular public high school with a fairly large minority population.
Evanston Township High School seniors Benedict Brady, Justin Liao and Graham Straus, junior Zane Kashner and freshmen AJ Brown and Simon Lequar placed in the top 5% nationally in the 2015 American Mathematics Competition on February 3, 2015. The students have been selected to participate in the 2015 American Invitational Mathematics Examination in March.
In addition, Benedict Brady and Simon Lequar have been selected to join the 2015 Chicago "All-Stars" American Regions Mathematics League Team, which will compete nationally against other regional teams in June.
My current district just came in 2nd in the Nation in the academic decathalon and the individual winner from that high school had the highest total points ever in the competition. This is a regular public high school with a relatively large minority population.
Texas’ highest scoring team, Pearland High School, Pearland ISD, coached by Robert Layne,
Scott Crossno and Corey Cogswell, was the highest scoring open enrollment public school in the
nation. The team was also the large school division silver medalist.
Honestly I can't think of a single life skill I learned by graduating HS and i grew up in NY NJ MD IL Nothing applicable like a basic finance course, basic course on nutrition. It's no wonder our most lucrative industries have to compete with people from the third world like India routinely. Our education system is HORRIBLE. It doesn't engender any practical or theoretical skills, critical thinking, rhetoric.z
Well, schooling doesn't work for everyone.
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I can't htink of how much better our country would be off we if taught hard or technical skills in high school and put as much emphasis on them as the humanities.
Technical courses are expensive, requiring special classrooms and equipment. Accordingly, they've have been de-emphasized in order to spend the money on high stakes standardized testing. Billions of taxpayer dollars are shifted from schools to testing companies annually. All that just to tell us that some students test better than others. We already knew that.
People who are claiming today's education system is dumbed-down need to get into the schools and see what is really happening - what is being offered to kids today is of a higher level than ever - more college courses, more AP courses, more technical education courses than ever before. Kids start learning Algebraic Thinking in kindergarten. Sure, not every kid is in the highest class for a variety of reasons. But kids today can get through Differential Equations in many high schools - that is Years above what used to be offered. Kids can graduate from our local high school with two full years of college credit.
So does that mean kids who take that track probably don't take a class on how to balance a checkbook? You bet. It is assumed if they're smart enough to do Calculus they can figure out how to add and subtract and can read a website on basic financial literacy.
Do most schools offer a basic Financial Literacy class anyway? Yep, but it can be called different things and is sometimes spread in different courses. Our local school has several courses that offer this information - Consumer Math, Introduction to Business, etc.
Do our schools today teach skills? Yes, for students who choose to take skill-based courses - such as - computer programming, web design, robotics, catering, auto mechanics, wood shop, metal shop, manufacturing fabrication - and many just at one local high school alone.
A great education is available at the vast majority of America's public schools. Many people simply do not take advantage and then try to blame 'the system' for their lack of competency.
Guess what? If you choose to take an easy road in school, you can probably get a diploma without retaining a lot of valuable information. That's your fault, because for the vast majority of America's kids, the opportunity was there. Some just blow it. So own up and quit trying to act like someone or something else is responsible.
i didnt get the take-away from the film that they were promoting charter schools. although they did focus alot on the achievements in the harlem and d.c. charter schools.
Within one-three years once we removed God from the public schools in 1962/1963, our test scores have been decreasing. As our Jewish Rabbi's would say, coincidence is not a kosher word.
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Originally Posted by manimgoindowndown
Honestly I can't think of a single life skill I learned by graduating HS and i grew up in NY NJ MD IL Nothing applicable like a basic finance course, basic course on nutrition. It's no wonder our most lucrative industries have to compete with people from the third world like India routinely. Our education system is HORRIBLE. It doesn't engender any practical or theoretical skills, critical thinking, rhetoric.z
I can't htink of how much better our country would be off we if taught hard or technical skills in high school and put as much emphasis on them as the humanities.
As a teacher if I put critical thinking questions on a test I will be beat over the head by a dozen parents for not giving the answer in class. I get "How were they supposed to now THAT?". It's all about grades here not learning. I wish I would have realized that before getting into teaching.
I think that is very sad. Again, a lot of this problem are the parents. They think teachers are supposed to do it all. Teachers are not graduated babysitters, they "teach." As anything that is taught, one then has to apply what they have learned. I would love to see more teachers like you who would put critical thinking questions on a test. That is showing the student understood the material and knows how to apply it.
This current generation is going to be in for a rude awakening when they go to college and enter the workforce. Mommy and daddy cannot go to the college/workplace and raise hell that their kid failed/got fired.
Honestly I can't think of a single life skill I learned by graduating HS and i grew up in NY NJ MD IL Nothing applicable like a basic finance course, basic course on nutrition. It's no wonder our most lucrative industries have to compete with people from the third world like India routinely. Our education system is HORRIBLE. It doesn't engender any practical or theoretical skills, critical thinking, rhetoric.z
I can't htink of how much better our country would be off we if taught hard or technical skills in high school and put as much emphasis on them as the humanities.
You can thank Republicans that constantly cut funding for education.
How can you expect teachers to teach "extra stuff" to kids, when they get paid peanuts, are always under the threat of layoffs and their budgets is constantly being cut.
I went to school in Venezuela when I was a kid.
Every year after 5th grade we had some .... technical class
5th grade - Basic electricity
6th grade - Basic typewriting
7th grade - Cooking
8th grade - Basic accounting
9th grade - Electricity
American education is bad because most Americans still have poor attitudes towards education in general.
Anti intellectualism in America is as old as the country itself. This is a country where any dumbbell country boy with an eight grade education, two bits of grit and a pot of gumption can become a millionaire with a little luck and a lot of elbow grease.
For quite some time this was close enough to being true. Most who worked hard, no matter how educated could at least afford a house and a car and probably keep working until they were dead. With global competition and an increasingly high tech and automated society that narrative doesn't really ring true anymore. Of course hard work is still required, but the uneducated are now at an extreme disadvantage.
Thus it follows that American attitudes towards the importance of education have not completely caught up with reality. People still prioritize sports over homework, math is this terrible, mysterious thing that only a select few are blessed with the ability to do, science is a grind for the nerds, anything that requires more than a few minutes of effort, or any amount of memorization is seen as 'rote' that needs to be abolished for more interactive, 'fun' things. This kind of thought usually doesn't even come from the kids, it comes straight from the parents.
I once fostered a kid who could not tell me who was on the one dollar bill.
Students who were applying for work at the university could not tell me what local municipality they lived in for tax purposes. They handed me their checkbook and asked whether it was a checking or savings account so they could fill out their direct deposit form.
So yes, basics need to be taught at some level.
They need to be taught at home by a parent/guardian as the school system is not responsible for that. Is the school responsible for the kid's clothing or is that on mom and dad? Is the school to provide Christmas presents? How about a 56" plasma TV and FIOS?
All of that is on the home and training they receive there. If they are not being trained at home the rest of society should not be held responsible for it. Liberals think society is responsible for everything in one's life.
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