Education is not being taken seriouly in the U.S.

[Xikrai the Risen]

How most college professors teach you is how it should be. But it's so hard because pre-college, there is larger variety of students. So, they try to teach general education. Standardized tests are just the easy way out with so many students. Yes, there could be improvements of course, but these tests are just a way for them to evaluate us easily and give us something to work for. No, they're not gonna be a real measurement of your knowledge, but you're busting your a** for these tests to get somewhere more worthwhile later. High School and below is to make you look good on paper and get you into college, where you can learn things to help you in whatever your desired career. You learn more practical things, for your intended field. Anyways, I know longer know what I've said here, but it made sense at some point I think.

Anyways, another thought. There are sometimes where there get to be so many people you have to tack stuff on to separate one from another. It's why GPA, class standing, PT scores and such affect where I go in the Navy as an officer. Well, basically if I get to choose what community I go to. Sure, there are some qualities that have nothing to do with me being an officer, but they gotta choose us some how. That also made more sense in my mind I think, but it is relevant, I think.

Ok, I'm done. It's late and I'm just ranting incoherently.  

[Yvaine]

Sentama Lin

It really depends on what work is given. Call me an idealist (though I'm speaking from a college experience that taught courses this way), but if students were given a workload that was challenging enough for them, and relevant to their interest in the subject area, the students would do them simply because they are interested. Giving students a gawd-awful amount of busy work accomplishes nothing, and only gives headaches for the students and the teachers (personal experience as a teacher's assistant for Calculus, as a student, and as a Music Teacher In Training).

Most importantly, there has to be a clear reason for the work given to students. Meaningless work is meaningless, and isn't realistic since all work in the real world has a purpose for the group that the students work with.

I agree completely. That's why I decided to home school my children, and found a curriculum whose primary stated objective was to foster the desire to learn and to express oneself clearly. I always felt rather short-changed on those two during my own schooling, and if the internet is any indication I wasn't the only one.  

[Cevadeva]

I agree with the fact that America has become "stupid". There is no motivation for students to be the best. If they were those honors students that want to move forward then that's a different story. Really, the kids in America are so spoiled and baby-ed that they don't get the motivation of striving for the best unless something happens. Really I don't have that much against the educational system, but it's the "Oh, just try your best insert name and you will do fine. biggrin " We all know that's a freaking lie. And from what I've seen the only way students try to be their best and succeed is if they have witnessed something happen from not trying, extreme parental/self- motivation, or they were those smart students and they want to be like that again.

The reason America has become "stupid" is the lose of interest and motivation. Students need that at an early age or they will have a good possibility of being a screw-up. Again I have witnessed/experienced these things happen in real time.  

[Shiiko-chan13]

I agree. If at least 20% more students studied as hard as the students in Japan did, then all of us would have bright futures.  

[Celestial Burden]

I'm going to agree with he general statement here that students in America are becoming lazy. More often than not itseems that education is left up to students and that in order to recieve a good education the students have to seek it out themselves. Speaking as a student that went through juniour high in advanced academic classes and got good enough grades to get into a city wide magnet school. All of my classes are, by default, honors level classes. That said, I'm still lazy and I still find that a good deal of the work isn't challenging enough. There's no real way to get an education in this city without trying for it, as a lot of the schools have become nothing but crime centers. Lunch periods, even at my school, have become black markets, and there are LARGE gang presences in all of the schools.

Education, despite being the most important thing in life, is becoming a joke, and something that you have to look for now. You won't find it easily, more often than not it's something that you have to spend endless amounts of time at home acquiring for yourself. Teachers now want nothing more than to get their jobs done quickly, because their paychecks aren't big enough to deal with some of the insane behaviour in schools and none of the students want to try. THey have no motivation.  

[Milk and Holy Water]

The reason that American education is so terrible, in my opinion, of course, is because universities are run like businesses. Profit is far more important than providing education to the citizens of the country. This honestly goes for most counties, as there are very few (if any) places where advanced education is provided for it's citizens as a basic human right. It isn't any one aspect of the way universities work, either, it's the very nature of higher education institutes. Even so-called public universities are little more than for-profit corporations.  

[Phaeton 2]

^Oh it isn't just the college level systems. Public schooling is run like a business too. It's all about quotas. Things supposedly ran smoothly till the proficiency test started having larger and larger numbers of retakers. When that happened, the dropout rate started to rise.

A friend of mine consistently went on tirades about how the teachers here in Vegas didn't care about the students. Thinking back, most of it was true. If I could regurgitate information on tests to a C level, I moved on and the machine continued. It probably wasn't any of my business but the D-F students weren't necessarily reprimanded or confronted when their grades weren't doing so well. It was just, "Take this useless piece of paper to your parents, tell them you're failing and have them sign this and bring it back." A couple of my old friends are High school dropouts. A couple more, college dropouts.

I couldn't help but think, Why am I memorizing all of this, what good does it do? Not getting hassled and/ or beaten for getting above D grades in school was a good enough reason for me to do so as a youth, but it isn't a good view to have on education.  

[GuillotineGirl]

Dr Fischer

I'm newish and I don't want seem like I'm interrupting the cosmic flow, but I need discussion. Anyway to start things off I'm pissed of that America has become this vast pit of stupidity. Anyone else?[/quote
I have no clue what you're talking about! I admit, some Americans ARE stupid, but that's because they choose that options. They're too lazy to give a crap about their own future. THOSE are the dumbasses of our generation.

 

[Shram]

Soccer383

Dr Fischer

I'm newish and I don't want seem like I'm interrupting the cosmic flow, but I need discussion. Anyway to start things off I'm pissed of that America has become this vast pit of stupidity. Anyone else?[/quote
I have no clue what you're talking about! I admit, some Americans ARE stupid, but that's because they choose that options. They're too lazy to give a crap about their own future. THOSE are the dumbasses of our generation.

I am an old ATG member =]


Actually the school system around the world needs a work around, the standard system doesn't work for me or my brother and plenty of people need "extra" help in school. most are just like the rest they jsut don't fit the system and nobody is taking the time to fit.
most of all in countries like the US

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