128shot said:Note-our universites are still top rated.
our highschool is what sucks, so people end up having to pay extra and learn what in 3 months they were suppose to learn in 12 years.
not to mention HS is controlled by political players instead of education figureheads
128shot said:Note-our universites are still top rated.
our highschool is what sucks, so people end up having to pay extra and learn what in 3 months they were suppose to learn in 12 years.
not to mention HS is controlled by political players instead of education figureheads
bandaidwoman said:Yes, it's amazing how many people come to the United States for the superior college and graduate programs.
I'm a product of Asian schooling until college when I moved here. And yes, I was doing calculus math by 10th grade of highschool,(spoke and wrote in four languages) yet when I was a chemistry major in college then entered a graduate program in chemistry and research etc.etc. , American educated chemistry grad and undergrad students were not disadvantaged in any way.
In fact, I contend something about the American education allows for more free and creative thinking. Although, I do hate how the American system is so monolinguistic....... but I would not trash the educational system when I see such quality thinkers in the graduate programs who are a byproduct of US education. (Of course I can only speak for the chemistry graduate programs and medical school post graduate researchers)
I can tell you that hours of grueling homework and advanced learning of science and mathmatics that is taught (back in Malaysia and Taiwan and Japan where I studied) do not necessarily mean they taught us how to think creatively and freely,....and most of all independantly.
In fact, we were taught not to question the teacher (It is a sign of profound disrespect). I had superior mental tools compared to my felllow Americans (many in my program were by products of public education) but I had to undo my learning that was very much rote and unquestioning and had to learn to be more creative and learn that I could challenge ideas that should be questioned (This is especially true in medical research.) I felt my American counterparts had the advantage of this type of thinking (which is more productive once the tools have been mastered) . The public school system is broken and needs to be fixed, but I don't think modeling it after the Asian system is necessarily a good idea.
Anyhoo, despite much criticism (and contempt) about the public educational system in the US, it somehow produces outstanding undergraduate and graduate level students whom I still work with to this day. (Overall, I do not see any differences in the quality of my research team regardless of their country of primary education.)
Thank you for this interesting post.
My son goes to a private school. He is in kindergarten and it was mandatory when he entered that he know all of his letters and numbers.
He has homework every night. Most of his assignments are reading small books. They are already adding and subtracting. He struggles a bit with reading, but math comes easy.
They are also learning Spanish as we learned ENGLISH letters and numbers in K.
I work with him every evening with flash card etc.....My husband interferes and says that is too much for a child his age "let him be a kid". I believe we are behind and want him succeed very well in life, but I also have mixed feelings. ANY IDEAS? I have been told he will burn out before college and resent education.
alphieb said:Thank you for this interesting post.
My son goes to a private school. He is in kindergarten and it was mandatory when he entered that he know all of his letters and numbers.
He has homework every night. Most of his assignments are reading small books. They are already adding and subtracting. He struggles a bit with reading, but math comes easy.
They are also learning Spanish as we learned ENGLISH letters and numbers in K.
I work with him every evening with flash card etc.....My husband interferes and says that is too much for a child his age "let him be a kid". I believe we are behind and want him succeed very well in life, but I also have mixed feelings. ANY IDEAS? I have been told he will burn out before college and resent education.
alphieb said:Thank you for this interesting post.
My son goes to a private school. He is in kindergarten and it was mandatory when he entered that he know all of his letters and numbers.
He has homework every night. Most of his assignments are reading small books. They are already adding and subtracting. He struggles a bit with reading, but math comes easy.
They are also learning Spanish as we learned ENGLISH letters and numbers in K.
I work with him every evening with flash card etc.....My husband interferes and says that is too much for a child his age "let him be a kid". I believe we are behind and want him succeed very well in life, but I also have mixed feelings. ANY IDEAS? I have been told he will burn out before college and resent education.
alphieb said:Thank you for this interesting post.
My son goes to a private school. He is in kindergarten and it was mandatory when he entered that he know all of his letters and numbers.
He has homework every night. Most of his assignments are reading small books. They are already adding and subtracting. He struggles a bit with reading, but math comes easy.
They are also learning Spanish as we learned ENGLISH letters and numbers in K.
I work with him every evening with flash card etc.....My husband interferes and says that is too much for a child his age "let him be a kid". I believe we are behind and want him succeed very well in life, but I also have mixed feelings. ANY IDEAS? I have been told he will burn out before college and resent education.
BigChilds said:I am writing a paper for my Govt. class and was hoping to get some input from the forum.
Why as a nation are we so far behind countries like China and Japan when it comes to schools, we have a lower pass rate, higher drop out rate, and it is quite obvious that we are behind as our jobs are being outsourced?
What can we as a nation do to improve our schools?
Any ideas would be helpful
Thanks
Australianlibertarian said:I say this from a an Australian perspective. But there are many issues facing the Australian education system at the primary and secondary levels, that are similar to the American system.
I'm 21 and feel that my generation does not have the same grasp of the English language in the same manner as my parents' or grandparents' generation.
In part I blame a system that was more interested in teaching creative writing at the ages of 10-12, instead of teaching grammer, spelling, and phonetics. All of this is based on an idea, of generating creativity. Ha! Creativity is something that you either have or you don't, it is not something that can be taught. And without the proper tools how can you ever express that creativity?
I used to love English, but instead of writing poems, learning about great works of literature, my final years of English became more of a subject revolved around 'analysing' the meaning of various media articles. That's fine if the subject was called 'media analysis'.
The English language is a wonderful language, that is rich in depth, and has a unique ability to be flexible. (refer to German grammer, Ha Ha!) I just wish that English education could get back to the basics of the language and encourage students to treat it as their greatest assest. English classes should not become subjects were students endlessly pour over newspaper articles to find out the 'true' context of the article.
alphieb said:I am 32 now, but I remember in high school English we used to read old English poems and try to analyze the meaning. Each student would take turns saying what they viewed it to mean. It seemed kind of pointless to me as who could read the mind of the poet. I think what the teacher wanted was to promote independent creative thinking. I agree with the last poster, creativity is a talent that you are either blessed with or not. It is just like some people are good in math and some are not.
libertarian_knight said:See I don't buy that at all. I think most people can be decent in just about all areas. Including creativity and mathematics. There is nothing magical about the human brain. Creativity just like mathematical appitude come from practice. In fact, I watched a documentary about the brain, and a woman had a stroke, went from neurologist to artist as a result, and she mad little stained glass sculptures of brains. The powers of logic and creation are in people, they just have to use it. Now, of course, a person less interested in creativity, will not endeavor to practice thier art, and thus may not be very good at using a particular medium of creation. A person less interested in math, will be less inclined to solve problems when bored.... I mean I was the kind of dork that would make up differential equations just to solve them.. heh
And yes, some people are rather "innately" adept at given skills, prodigies of the arts or sciences. And others are passionate about them, which allows them to study and practice longer than most of us. Average people however can be good at most things, if they desire to, and practice (assuming no neurological or sensory defect prevents them).
The English language is a wonderful language, that is rich in depth, and has a unique ability to be flexible. (refer to German grammer, Ha Ha!) I just wish that English education could get back to the basics of the language and encourage students to treat it as their greatest assest. English classes should not become subjects were students endlessly pour over newspaper articles to find out the 'true' context of the article.
bazlyx said:I agree 150%! The first most important thing that English teaches should be how to read and write efficiently! In Jr. High I had a good English teacher who'd focus on grammar, writing and reading. Little or no poetry nor article analysis was required and I did well. Come high school and I get an English teacher who only liked old Victorian Novels, content analysis and poetry! We'd write about subjective stuff and get a 'B' because she saw it differently! She'd criticized your papers structure but never spent class time to go over the correct way to write.
Now my possible career choice depends that I'm a good writer and I must say I'm still lacking. The basic college English courses helped me a lot but I still have a ways to go and I'm behind other studends who had a very strong English department in HS.
As a result I'm taking personal time to study on writing structure and plan on taking a non-required course in technical writing to bring me up to speed.
My point: Learning many new words, grammar usage, and writing structure is 10x more important as subjective analysis - in the real world.
Che said:The reason we are so far behind is because public schools are funded by the tax dollars that come out of a particular neighborhood. The rich neighborhoods will get fine schools with every course imaginable, while the poor neighborhoods will get crappy schools with 1 teacher for 100 kids.
Since this system continues to function, the rich are able to score well on tests from the material they learn at their good schools, while the poor are left in the dust and continue to not be able to get ahead.
If all schools had equal funding everyone would be able to succeed and get rich. Not just the few lucky ones we have at this point of time.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?