American adults educated in the '50s ranked second compared to other countries. In the '90s they ranked 14th. Have any idea of why the drop occurred, or where they rank today?
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2 votes
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22% | |||
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0 votes
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0% | |||
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6 votes
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67% | |||
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1 vote
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11% | |||
Sorry, but I think it's mostly because of gov't-run schools, and because the teachers that have graduated from our colleges in the last 40 years have not had to take the amount of English, writing, history to graduate that they did in the first 50 years of the last century.
You must be a member of the group Politics to vote on this poll.
Wow I didn't know you did polls .... Great question.... and you already know my answer... LOL
And I did agree with your conclusion... but as you know I also feel the elected also failed...
So far 8 people voted...
And yes you lean right... but like I said in my reply that I also include government as part of the cause as well.
You get some rest Murph... BTW you created that back in November... LOL
You and I come from a different generation dear...
It's not an insult... because we met, and now I get to explore what's on your mind...
Bring your helmet...
Greg P.
Your statement here, "The result, a greatly varied educational standard across this country that now has more to do with political agenda than a sound education that encourages critical thinking, fact interpretation, tolerance and respect," sure hit the target. Especially the critical thinking bit. Fact interpretation, we need more of that, but a watchful eye on who is deciding the correct interpretation of the facts.
Greg P.
http://www.theatlantic.com/na...
From the article:
"And while Americans love to talk about competition, Sahlberg points out that nothing makes Finns more uncomfortable. In his book Sahlberg quotes a line from Finnish writer named Samuli Paronen: "Real winners do not compete." It's hard to think of a more un-American idea, but when it comes to education, Finland's success shows that the Finnish attitude might have merits. There are no lists of best schools or teachers in Finland. The main driver of education policy is not competition between teachers and between schools, but cooperation.
Finally, in Finland, school choice is noticeably not a priority, nor is engaging the private sector at all. Which brings us back to the silence after Sahlberg's comment at the Dwight School that schools like Dwight don't exist in Finland.
"Here in America," Sahlberg said at the Teachers College, "parents can choose to take their kids to private schools. It's the same idea of a marketplace that applies to, say, shops. Schools are a shop and parents can buy what ever they want. In Finland parents can also choose. But the options are all ...
http://www.theatlantic.com/na...
From the article:
"And while Americans love to talk about competition, Sahlberg points out that nothing makes Finns more uncomfortable. In his book Sahlberg quotes a line from Finnish writer named Samuli Paronen: "Real winners do not compete." It's hard to think of a more un-American idea, but when it comes to education, Finland's success shows that the Finnish attitude might have merits. There are no lists of best schools or teachers in Finland. The main driver of education policy is not competition between teachers and between schools, but cooperation.
Finally, in Finland, school choice is noticeably not a priority, nor is engaging the private sector at all. Which brings us back to the silence after Sahlberg's comment at the Dwight School that schools like Dwight don't exist in Finland.
"Here in America," Sahlberg said at the Teachers College, "parents can choose to take their kids to private schools. It's the same idea of a marketplace that applies to, say, shops. Schools are a shop and parents can buy what ever they want. In Finland parents can also choose. But the options are all the same."
I think it may behoove us to follow Finland's example and give it an honest shot.
Greg P.
It has become harder to educate kids since the 1950s. Since people move more and schools have gotten bigger, people do not feel accountable for kids in their own communities. People seem to want low taxes even if it means cutting the quality of services. Recently with the attacks on teachers (ironically by some of most overpaid and totally useless government employees -- congress), it is amazing anyone wants to work at a school at all. Classes are bigger, parents are working more and doing less with kids at home (in terms of regular behavior, manners, and general supervision), People expect more of schools, not only in terms of what kids need to participate in the work force, ...
It has become harder to educate kids since the 1950s. Since people move more and schools have gotten bigger, people do not feel accountable for kids in their own communities. People seem to want low taxes even if it means cutting the quality of services. Recently with the attacks on teachers (ironically by some of most overpaid and totally useless government employees -- congress), it is amazing anyone wants to work at a school at all. Classes are bigger, parents are working more and doing less with kids at home (in terms of regular behavior, manners, and general supervision), People expect more of schools, not only in terms of what kids need to participate in the work force, but also in terms of skills that parents used to teach them: driving, cooking, basic hygiene. There are even people that want public schools to include prayer instead of teaching religion at home or through their religious institutions. You have parents who side with their kid against the teacher when their kid cheats or fails, and at the same time, teachers have very limited ways of dealing with kids that don't make the grade academically or behaviorally. As parents and as communities, we have absolved ourselves of all responsibility for educating our own children, while at the same time short-changing, and even vilifying those who try to educate our kids for us.
Now onto education. I grew up in the late 50's to early 70's and I am one of the worlds worst spellers. Everyone is good at some things and bad at others. I can't spell and I can't type well. Now my best 3 subjects were math, english and history. But that was a lifetime ago. I refuse to put all the blame on the teachers. But cutting funding is no help at all. This is an ideological difference between the two of us. Other countries do put in more time and longer school years. Homework, I had an open class at the end of the day and I always did my homework then. As for consolidating schools, our area has. My sons school is made up of 3 school districts as was my old highschool. Most of the schools in our area are consolidations. Maybe we need to focus on what is being taught and how much of it should be taught. Maybe it's better to change our curriculums then a whole system. I hope you're doing well. Hows things down south?
We do have an ideological difference on the school thing. I don't think the teachers are all wrong or all right. I think the colleges have stopped teaching all that they should and given up some things that used to be required to get an education degree - things are way too specialized maybe.
As far as funding goes, we are funding bunches and bunches of money now and we are not seeing much in the way of improvement in our ranking in the world. So may be you're right, we need to teach in a different way. Or maybe we need to spend their first three years really pushing them in reading, writing, and good old fashioned arithmetic instead of new math or whatever. And maybe we have gotten away from "encouraging" our children as parents to sit down, turn off the TV, video ...
We do have an ideological difference on the school thing. I don't think the teachers are all wrong or all right. I think the colleges have stopped teaching all that they should and given up some things that used to be required to get an education degree - things are way too specialized maybe.
As far as funding goes, we are funding bunches and bunches of money now and we are not seeing much in the way of improvement in our ranking in the world. So may be you're right, we need to teach in a different way. Or maybe we need to spend their first three years really pushing them in reading, writing, and good old fashioned arithmetic instead of new math or whatever. And maybe we have gotten away from "encouraging" our children as parents to sit down, turn off the TV, video game, whatever and put in the time on the homework or studying because that's way more important than whatever the kid wants to do. You grew up around same time I did. Homework and study was pretty much king around our house - get it done or no fun on the weekend. Grades tank a little - no fun on the weekend, and lots of restriction for goofing off and not applying ourselves. So who knows? Did I like it? Not in the least. But what I did like was when I put in the work and the grades came back A's. I like the feeling of pride I had. And that's probably why today I still feel the same way, and those annoying at the time little things my dad and mom used to say, "Do what you have to do whether you want to or not" - "Get up, get dressed, comb your hair, put on your makeup," whatever, "and you will do better during the day" - or "Now go out and succeed and excel." Funny part was it does work like that, at least for me.
So I got off on a tangent and the guys laying new duct work are at last about done, now have to go write a really big check and go back to work to make up the stupid money. But will be warm and toasty and cool and comfortable depending. Keep me posted on playoffs.
On a lighter note, am waiting to hear about the football game.