What's Wrong with American Education?

. I was recently talking to some of my friends, and we were deploring the fact that our education system seemed so ineffective. Rather than simply plug my own views here, I thought I'd ask as many of my friends as would spare the time, to tell me what they thought the problems were. Unfortunately, only two of them responded. (Nobody likes writing assignments, right?) One of them wrote right back. "What education? I don't see any going on, to be honest," she said. She is not directly involved in education, and only sees its effect in the younger people with whom she works: "And where does some of the information and opinions given come from – does learning stop when you walk out of the classroom door in the summer? Were you given the freedom – or, did you demand the freedom – to question what you were taught? Did you challenge ideas, or did you blindly accept, because it was easier and took less energy?" Here is a summary of her assessment of the education that she's seeing:

1. Poor language skills, writing skills, mechanics (spelling, punctuation)
2. Eager acceptance of wild ideas; uncritical attitude towards information and opinions
3. Religious interference with teaching science
4. That external tests (Federal and State administered) steer the curriculum
5. Too many students per teacher
6. Poor preparation of teachers; teachers are poorly educated themselves, and propagate their ignorance.
7. Guns and violence in the classrooms create an atmosphere unfriendly to learning

The second response was from a friend who was a teacher, who is battling their school principal, who is determined not to allow any sorts of enrichment activities. She writes: "The only way we can take out kids on any field trips is if we raise the money ourselves, so there has to be a fund raising component of the job as well as the teaching component. That's another thing wrong with American education, and maybe the most important one. I'm sure even from the beginning it was obvious that funding schools with local property taxes would only perpetuate the inequities of the society."

1. Teachers (and Principals) are trained with a lot of education theory rather than actual education content. The theories are a matter of fashion, in this year, out the next. Substantive education on subject matter is considered unimportant.
2. There are too many public-school principals who were athletic coaches, and not really academics in any way. (My own principal thinks that homework should not be given at all.)
3. The only way I can teach the material is to make the kids stay after school and work with me, because they do not get that kind of reinforcement at home.
4. The only way kids will get better at math is to do math. The principal does not get this.
5. Teachers are responsible for fund-raising, for extra programs. This is not the case in richer school districts; money for extra programs is readily available there, obviously.

My own opinions:

1. Education appears not to be a value in society; a diploma is.
2. There is no national curriculum; state curricula vary widely, and often reflect extreme agendas.
3. Teaching is not taken up by the best, since the profession is not respected. So the teaching profession is populated by an odd mixture of idealists and bumblers.
4. Political pressure is applied not to embarrass poorly performing students, who are often minorities.
5. Mathematics education is particularly weak, because many teachers have been badly taught as children themselves.
6. Finally, there appears to be a common view that education is something that benefits me and my family. It is a community effort only for the sake of convenience, because I just don't have the money to start my own school.

Disparities in resources: As you can see, the causes of difficulties with education emerged to transcend cultural and social effects, and are actually political in nature. The education system is set up so that richer people live together, poorer people live together, and schools in the richer districts have better resources than schools in the poorer districts. Education as a value: Unlike in the Third World, where education is considered something useful in its own right, here it is seen as a minor stumbling-block. In big Corporations, for instance, it is the lower echelons that must be educated and trained to actually do the work. The higher-paying upper-echelon occupations require less education. The more a youngster realizes this, the less incentive he or she has to get an education, which dooms him or her to a middle-level occupation. Furthermore, students are often cheered up by the family if they come home with bad grades, by telling them that good grades are not important after all. In the pursuit of self-esteem, (academic) success in school takes a back seat. In addition, teachers are vilified for giving the bad grades in the first place. Support at home: In the poorest inner-city homes, students understandably find little support for doing homework, etc. Some of the most wonderful inner-city youth projects include spaces for students to simply sit and do homework quietly. But even in middle-class homes in the suburbs, there is often little support for students with their homework. Some parents are so exhausted when they return from work that they simply cannot help. Some parents do not know the material. Some students are overwhelmed with extra-curricular activities that trump the homework. Most of all, doing homework seriously is simply not a priority in many homes. Education as a social activity: There are two radically opposed points of view concerning education. View 1: I educate my child as well as I can, because I want him or her to have the edge when competing with others for employment. View 2: I educate the entire younger generation, because among these kids might be someone who finds a cure for cancer (or finds a way that I can own and operate a dozen cars without harming the environment.) It's not that those of us who hold View 2 have less faith in our offspring. I firmly believe that those individuals who are more evolved can see that community-orientedness is a winning evolutionary strategy, whereas individualism is not. Education does enable solving the problems of society, but it also makes life richer, makes work more meaningful, and makes leisure more interesting. Being interested in a better life for the children of one's neighbors to the degree of being willing to fund it is an enlightened condition to be in. In these days of economic hardship, only this attitude will help us survive with sanity and optimism intact. Archimedes