Why is the American education system doing so poorly compared to other developed countries?
Why is the American education system doing so poorly compared to other developed countries such as Canada, the UK, Australia, Finland, and even Brazil? Why are students around the globe so much more knowledgeable than those of the USA? What has gone wrong?
Primary & Secondary Education - 13 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
elect a simpleton as a leader.........
2 :
1. No child left behind. 2. The smart people are not having as many children. 3. Dumbing down the class work to the lowest level student abilities. Need I say more?
3 :
Because the American education system is built wrong. There are too many administrators and bureaucrats that take funds away from teachers and students, and they make decisions without knowing how those decisions will affect the classroom.
4 :
B/c politicians are trying to run a school system they know NOTHING about. Teachers don't try to run the government...so why do the government think they can run schools. Most politicians have no background in teaching, and have no idea what it's really like to stand in front of a room full of students and trying to get them to learn.It truly is hard work, and it's not all the glory and greatness that movies makes it out to be.
5 :
Every state in the United states makes their own testing system. California for example makes a really hard test causing the scores to be low. If we made our tests a little easier our scores would go up. In turn making our overall education system look better. It's not that it's that bad... just state testing is made for above grade level and not all students can reach that.
6 :
Too much government involvement over policy and not enough involvement w/ finances. Also, there's the fact that a lot of parents simply don't parent anymore and because of laws teachers can't demand the respect they deserve.
7 :
I believe it is due to a number of reasons. One being that we're wimps. We're afraid our brains might explode if we exert them too much. We watch too much TV. Our mothers are off working instead of being at home with the kids. We try to get too creative with our education instead of teaching "straight-up" the old-fashioned way. Too many gimmicks and not enough meat!
8 :
Our government has systematically taken away funding for education year after year. There are no monies for teachers, or supplies. Art and music programs are virtually non-existent. class rooms are over full and the student to teacher ratio is a joke. Our children are still (for the most part) being taught by the rote method, which only works for certain people. Good teachers are becoming frustrated and disillusioned and quiting.
9 :
the us system puts alot of emphisis on creating a well rounded student. in other countries they focus more on specialized studies. if your gonna be an engineer you dont have to waste your time with music, and art, and literature, you just focus on math and science.
10 :
School programs being cut, overcrowded schools, shortage of teachers. We have a larger population of students than those countries and steadily growing.
11 :
We don't really encourage students to learn. Even the present administration is trying to hold schools and teachers accountable, instead of students themselves. We take all the responsibility away from students, then grease them up with these dreams of becoming Idols, actors, or pro athletes. Other countries also seem to have some national pride. Ours is limited to ribbons, wristbands, and bumper stickers. It's all such a f--ked up mess I can't even organize my thoughts. It's just America, period.
12 :
As far as i've heard its cos the majority of the time American education is based soleyly arund the US. In history we covered the American West, which was interesting as we live in the UK. Plus read something by Michael Moore that funding has been cut for libraries and books, meaning some schools lack in proper reading material or the reading material is really outof date, to the point where geography books still call Iran Persia and Iraq Mesapotamia (spelling wrong there,sorry). Not enough is put into education system. My old crappy secondary school gets over £1mill a year for improvements, and has been given £12mill to bring it up to new standards.
13 :
It's all about valuing education. Other countries view education as a privilege and recognize its value. Here, we all have a right to free education, and kids are required to attend school. When something is given to you so freely, you take it for granted. All our efforts to attempt to make kids learn is pointless without teaching them to want it for themselves. We are also more focused on teaching information than teaching concepts and critical thinking. No Child Left Behind has done nothing but enforce this. School are more focused on getting kids to pass their tests to avoid repercussions than actually teaching kids how to think. More knowledge is gained from learning how the think about a problem and knowing how to find the answer than filling our heads with a ton of facts and figures in case we happen to come across that particular question. If our kids come across a question they don't know, they wouldn't know how to take an "educational guess" because they haven't been taught how. I could go on and on, but I'll leave it at that.
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