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The Failing Education System
Posted by Dukepro25 • 7/28/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: education
It seems like education across the board is pathetic.
Not only elementary, middle school, and high school education, but college as well.
We as adults are getting wholesale education at retail prices.
Any corner that can be cut is cut.
We don't get the education we deserve and we‘re paying full price for it.
Adults are paying University prices for Community College education.
What are your thoughts on the matter?
Am I off target with this one?
User Comments
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Education is overpriced... Yeah IF you've got the money to go to school for four years, there is NO guarantee you'll get a job when you graduate -
No doubt the education system is failing. Around here, the communities with money have better schools and the communities where they are poor suffer. It's all one city, the schools should be the same across the board. I really don't know what has to happen to fix it. I'm not in the education system. What I do find interesting is that city teachers make better money than some of those in the suburbs.
Part of the issue is that some of the teachers are only in it to have summers off...meaning they are there for the wrong reason and don't really care about their kids.
A lot needs to change. But where do we begin?-
I think teachers are a small part of the problem.
Yes, we need decent teachers, but it's the system that is failing us, not the teachers.
If the teachers aren't making the grade, they need to find better teachers, but it's the administration and the policies that need to change.
There is a lot of pressure on the shoulders of teachers these days.
They are more surrogate parents than anything. Parents have just as much responsibility as Teachers to make sure their kids are getting the best education possible.
We are losing our teaching force, because we expect them to deal with all these problems. That, and the administration doesn’t respect them, the parents don’t respect them, the kids don’t respect them.
They are expected to run a day care, that’s all the administration cares about. Get the kids home safely.
If we are running low on decent teachers, it's because of us. -
that is true. they do have too much. I have a cousin who is a teacher in a really bad area. Most of the kids don't speak english, they have security outside her door because of riots, she has to be the one to repeatedly call parents to let them know how the kids are. She stopped telling parents when the kids were doing something inappropriate because the kids would come in with bruises. She teaches 11 year olds. How scary is that?
Part of the issue, though, at least here, with bad teachers, is that they are tenured and they can't just chuck 'em.
The administration is an issue. The division of funds is an issue. And uninterested parents are an issue...lost of problems, which are very challenging to rectify.
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You are not off base at all, Duke. Don't get me started on the schools
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lol
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I'm with Anok.
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You hit the bullseye!
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I'll hop in and add my 2cents...
Teaching a group of kids is an art. You have to be able to attract and hold enough of their attention and respect that they can learn something.
Once upon a time teachers were allowed to enforce discipline in their classes. They're not any more and kids tend to run amok more than they used to, because they can.
Parts of our culture believes that it's uncool to be smart or among the achievers (that's what a couple of white teens told me as an excuse not to study.) Certain media glorifies this.
Parts of our culture consider it a sort of badge of honor not to participate in "the system."
Standards are constantly watered down, partly as a response to the above.
So combine low standards, bad attitudes, no discipline, the "Oh those poor victims..." attitude...
It's a wonder that some kids do as well as they do.-
let's not forget the delightful idea of No Child Left Behind....
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Yes, id did seem to be a good attempt at establishing some standards. Too bad it wasn't much followed up with.
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The new generation of teachers is the problem. These are the same ones that hire people to write their term papers and do all the research for them. The children suffer. I applaud all of the "old school" teachers. But the new teachers (30 and under), shame on them.
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I wouldn't generalize like that.
I'm sure there are wonderful teachers who are swamped and overwhelmed with our "New Generation" mentality about school and education. It is not the teacher's job to baby sit our kids. They should be teaching them.
I think it's a shame that we have to have security in our schools.
Teachers shouldn't have to fear the students and what they are capable of.
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No Child Left Bored Silly
Is it a coincidence that there's an epidemic of ADD and ADHD at a time when public education has been forced to focus on standardized test preparation?
Please note: I'm not saying that ADD and ADHD aren't significant disorders in some cases. However, I suspect that the average kid who's being put on Ritalin or Aderall (sp?) these days simply has a learning style that's inherently in conflict with rote learning. I, for instance, was in school when things weren't nearly as bad as they are now, but nonetheless had an incredibly hard time with a forced cookie cutter curriculum. College, however, wasn't so bad. Then, in graduate school, I managed to get a PhD with less trouble than most people I knew. Why? Because I was allowed to work independently rather than being force-fed facts by somebody at the front of the room. If I'd been born a few decades later, in time for NCLB, I probably would have ended up dropping out when I turned sixteen. -
Actually, the notion that grade inflation has to do with liberal ideas about "self esteem" is a myth (at least at the college level).
In fact, it's a product of the corporate university, which views students as customers (even if no one in the university admits that) and is more concerned about customer satisfaction (the customer who gets A's is much more satisfied than the customer who gets D's) and keeping the customer in the store (flunking somebody out=no more tuition) than educating anyone.-
Yes. My husband's a University professor & so long as someone's tuition is paid, they can virtually do no wrong; cheat, get failing grades, etc., etc. If tuition's paid, they get a pass, period. Ah, the future doctors (etc.,) of Amerika!
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Garbage in, garbage out. -
Hi drjay1966
I think part of the ADD/ADHD "problem" is that it's a result of all the above. Eliminate discipline, standards, and expectations and you're left with very little to control high energy kids.
Especially kids raised in the current media generation. Ritalin becomes the answer for schools desperate is exercise control over kids, most of whom are just being normal kids.
Homeschooling is on the rise for a reason. I'm also a big fan of Charter schools. They seems to be getting superior results.
My thoughts about college are that it's a much better place to learn because everyone wants to be there. No one is forced. That wanting is very important for a good learning environment.
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