"I think the world is run by C students."- Al McGuire
America is one of the richest countries, but doesn't have the best education system. Many people have an opinion as to why this is. These explainations range from lazy students, unprepared teachers, or the learning atmosphere. All of these might have small parts to do with this problem, but not all students are lazy, not all teachers are unprepared, and not all classrooms are inferior. Cookie cutter curriculums and
A very informative article called "The Decline of American Education" by Jiang Xueqin explains the problems and why nothing is helping the situation. She says that the reason for students being unwilling to learn is because of the hypocrisy in the school system. Some of the hypocrisy she describes is, "how school budgets are always the first to be cut in a financial crunch, how they have to cram for meaningless tests so their teachers can get a Christmas bonus and politicians can win elections, how adults discuss education reform without asking for their input." When the students feel as if they don't have a voice in their education, they look at it as pointless and futile. This problem causes a domino effect that causes the teachers to crumble which in return causes the whole foundation of education to crumble. A way to fix this problem would be putting the focus back on the students instead of worrying about the superficial appearance. What is really important is that every student has a connection with the teachers and actually want to learn with people they trust. It will be a very hard and slow process to change parents, teachers, and students' attitudes about learning as Xueqin explains, "Voters never want to pick up the tab, don’t want to be lectured on how to raise their children, and certainly don’t want to accept responsibility for their children’s failure." Once everyone moves on from the past and starts a clean slate for the future, society can be fixed and lead to the education system being fixed.
The Decline of American Education article
I agree with you that putting the focus back on the students would help fix things. Schools are always so worried about how they look overall. I also agree that students and teachers need to have a good relationship.
ReplyDeleteEducation is entirely curtailed to student performance, which is currently measured in part by standardized testing. The point of standardized testing is to test the knowledge of students and their ability to perform comparatively (they do not study for them and it does not affect their grade). One major benefit of standardized testing is that it allows for massive amounts of data to be collected and analyzed promoting better decision making for reform. It is also used to test the effectiveness of teachers and curriculums. Cheating on standardized testing, and incentive programs are the major concerns of Xueqin’s blog. Currently most teachers do not receive bonuses, and recently their incentive is to keep their job. Additionally, the opinions of children are not consulted because they are not mature or knowledgeable enough to have a valid opinion. If left in the hands of children, gym and recess would encompass the greater majority of the day.
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