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Americans have a certain reputation for being stupid internationally. After careful comparison, it is obvious that the American public school system is very easy compared to other countries especially Asian countries.
It's what people want. Look at all the threads about taking higher math out of school. Look at the number of parents that want kids to have less homework.
It fosters "equality" of outcome which is what some people really want when they talk about equality of opportunity. It's consider "unfair" when students who make little to no effort receive lower grades than those who work hard. It's also "unfair" that different kids have different academic abilities. Instead of striving to educate all kids to reach their highest potential, education seems to be about making sure outcomes are "fair". Only way to do that is catering to the lowest common denominator.
First, I don't agree with the original premise. I say this as someone who constantly looks at our international rankings and the disparities that may exist as a consequence of our system; I don't think that the system is "dumbed down." There are all sorts of criticisms that could be leveled, but "dumbed down" isn't one of them. In fact, we are unique among many Western nations in our expectation that all students take some sort of higher level class. Most schools, including my own, are constantly pushing students to take college level courses or courses in advanced STEM fields. Well over half of the student body at the school in which I teach take pre-calculus prior to graduation, and this is in what most would call a poor school system.
The general level of education in the United States is grossly misrepresented, and people buy into it because specious arguments are sometimes the most appealing. Do I have many students performing well below grade level because of failings earlier in their career? Sure. Are some of the things they don't know disconcerting? Absolutely. But you are deluding yourself if you don't think this is a problem almost anywhere around the world. In the United States we have our lows, highs, and middles, just like everyone else. The objective reality is that the United States remains one of the most educated societies in the world, though with some serious philosophical flaws.
America's education system was always one that was meant to underwrite industry, not the other way around. Our motivation has been, and will like always be, the inculcation of capitalistic and puritanical values, and as a nation we are struggling to adapt a system that was ideal in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the exigencies of the digital age. It isn't a problem of rigor, it is a problem of philosophy.
I don't agree with the original premise either. Public education has, if anything, become more rigorous since I went to school in the 70s. My kids took courses I had as a junior or senior in high school while they were still in middle school.
The public school system works just fine in many areas of this country. Now, we need to keep special interests and politicians from messing with it.
Americans have a certain reputation for being stupid internationally. After careful comparison, it is obvious that the American public school system is very easy compared to other countries especially Asian countries.
Welcome to the education forum! Do you have something to back up the obviousness of our easy system? As other posters have pointed out, America educates ALL of it's students, that's not the case in most Asian countries. My kids also took much harder and more comprehensive classes than I ever did.
I think the reason we get such different answers is because the actual answer to all questions is "yes." Are our best students being asked to do more? Yes. Are we also pulling the average down so that no one can fail? Yes. In order to have over 50% of all students take advanced math, and have them pass it, you have to bring down the level of material content to less than it would have been had only the top 25% of all students taken the course.
And it's that pulling down the average that most people are talking about. We're setting the bottom half up for problems by our unreasonable belief that anyone can accomplish the same outcome, regardless of innate talent. We have no problem understanding that top athletes perform better than average "joes." But say the same thing about top academics and you'll get a mini rebellion.
Welcome to the education forum! Do you have something to back up the obviousness of our easy system? As other posters have pointed out, America educates ALL of it's students, that's not the case in most Asian countries. My kids also took much harder and more comprehensive classes than I ever did.
Not only do we educate all the kids, but some states play with achievement figure by not giving the SAT test to all kids.
Here's an example:
North Dakota leads the nation in SAT scores. 1816! Great, right? But that only reflects the scores of the 162 seniors who took the exam. 2%. Average SAT Scores by State (Most Recent)
It's what people want. Look at all the threads about taking higher math out of school. Look at the number of parents that want kids to have less homework.
What you see if what people created.
Our education system is a supply and demand system. We supply what the public demands and that ain't much. I wish I'd never gotten into education. I became a teacher to raise the bar but the bar is a limbo bar and the name of the game is how low can you go.
The problem with education in this country is that we do not hold students accountable for learning what we teach. So we have to keep teaching it OVER AND OVER AND OVER because they don't remember it from before. This isn't the case in Asian countries where students are expected to know what they were taught before. Until we start holding our students accountable for learning it doesn't matter what we do because nothing will change.
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Why is the Education system so dumbed down?
