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U.S. Public Education.
ntcrawler
Member Posts: 329
I hear a lot of people talk down about the public education system in the US but imo it really isn't that their not teaching our/your kids, It is the kids who are not paying attention. I consider my self fairly smart when it comes to reading and writing but I didn't even give most of my attention to school but I did more so then a lot of my peers. Right now most students barely pay attention in school or even do their work half the time and then you hear people asking why their kids don't know where the US is. It is pretty uncool to be good in school if your a boy and for girls it can go both ways. Is this the systems fault? It could be but I sure wouldn't know what to do to change it from there but I think if parents spent more time working with their children and had a closer relationship with their teachers we wouldn't be so far off.
Any one else agree or have any other things to add?
Comments
Is this supposed to be irony? I find it ironic.
Now with 57.3% more flames!
I hardly pay attention in class... Lets just say its boring and I only had a 2 week summer vacation so im kind of burned out about that. And last year it was only a month of summer vacation...
In my opinion schools need to focus on the right subjects and get back to the basics of education.
Like math, science, history, geography, english, government, economics, philosophy and such.
Those are present in schools now but not as much as they should be. You can find many kids in school that play football or dance and such, but very few who know how our government works or know the the basics of the scientific method.
Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit
The thing is that I did learn the basics of the scientific method and how our government works. Some schools still need work and maybe I just got lucky but i really think the problems lies with the students and parents. I do agree with you though that there should be more emphasis on philosophy.
Cut me a break, I said fairly smart.
What I am about to say probably won't be well recieved because it contradicts a popular stereotype. Anyway, I believe that a big part of the problem is schools with large student bodies.
I went to a relatively small school in a small town. I can tell you that we couldn't get away with screwing around in class. And if you were falling behind the teachers would take note of it and try to do something about it. When you can't get lost in the crowd it creates a whole different environment.
Even the least intelligent kids in my school learned how to read and write. And if anyone in my school had been unable to find the United States on a map or do basic math they would have been ridiculed mercilessly.
The thing is that I did learn the basics of the scientific method and how our government works. Some schools still need work and maybe I just got lucky but i really think the problems lies with the students and parents. I do agree with you though that there should be more emphasis on philosophy.
I went to a football school, where there was much parent involvement, in football that is. What is probably needed is both a new focus for the school and parents becoming more interested in the right things for their children. But it is really hard to changes parents ideas of what is good for little johnny. Many parents like to live through their child and care more about them being a football player/cheerleader then how well they grasp the fundamentals of rhetoric or if they even know how to find the volume of a solid in revolution.
I understand what you are getting at, but it is no easy feat.
Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit
The thing is that I did learn the basics of the scientific method and how our government works. Some schools still need work and maybe I just got lucky but i really think the problems lies with the students and parents. I do agree with you though that there should be more emphasis on philosophy.
I went to a football school, where there was much parent involvement, in football that is. What is probably needed is both a new focus for the school and parents becoming more interested in the right things for their children. But it is really hard to changes parents ideas of what is good for little johnny. Many parents like to live through their child and care more about them being a football player/cheerleader then how well they grasp the fundamentals of rhetoric or if they even know how to find the volume of a solid in revolution.
I understand what you are getting at, but it is no easy feat.
Huh your talking about me or someone else? If me than jusst to let you know no one bullies me at school despite what impression my other thread gave you. And if your talking about me only having 2 weeks of summer vacation that was due to home school last year and they gave me way too much work like 3x more than what they do at school and I had too much trouble finishing it.
New Rule: Leave the children behind! At least, that is, until they learn something. A new survey finds that only half of America’s high schoolers think newspapers should be allowed to publish without government approval. And almost one in five said Americans should be prohibited from expressing unpopular opinions. Hey, let me tell you little darlings something: this is my livelihood you’re screwing with now! So either learn the Bill of Rights, or you don’t deserve Social Security.
Now, to those of you who think I am over-reacting, yes, I understand that being in high school is still very young, and no one really cares what kids say anyway. It’s not like priests are dating them for their brains.
But the younger generation is supposed to rage against the machine, not for it. They’re supposed to question authority, not question those who question authority. And what is so frightening here is that we are seeing the beginnings of the first post-9/11 generation, kids who first became aware of the news under an “Americans need to watch what they say” administration, kids who’ve been told that dissent is un-American, and therefore justifiably punished by fine, imprisonment or loss of your show on ABC.
President Bush once asked, “Is our children learning?” He did. He did. “No, they isn’t!” And so a more appropriate question might be, “Is our teachers teaching?” In four years, you can teach a gorilla sign language. Is it too much to ask that in the same amount of time a teenager in America is taught what those crazy hippies who founded this country really had in mind?
Now, I know the “morals and values” folks want us to take time out of the school day for prayer and the Ten Commandments and abstinence training, and to learn at least two theories of evolution, the one agreed upon by every scientist in the world, and the one that involves naked ladies and snakes.
But lest we forget the people of Iraq risked death and danger to send a simple inspiring message: “America get out of our country!” “But also, that we want the freedoms that you Americans take for granted.”
Now, I didn’t mind being on the losing side of the last election, but as a loser, I guess I have some unpopular opinions. And I’d like to keep them. I’d even like to say them right out loud on TV. Because if I just sit here every Friday night and spout Bush Administration-approved talking points, that is not freedom or entertainment. It’s Fox News!
billmaher.tv/
The most important part of reading is reading between the lines.
I was using the term "little johnny" as a generic kids name, not refering to you Jonny Helfire.
Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit
idk, higher emphasis on football in the south and midwest and baseball up in the NE is a part of the whole American values deal.
Honestly, nerds don't pick up chicks, why do we have any incentive to be smart? What five year old looks 13 years down the line at what college s/he is going to apply to or what career path s/he is going to take? How many people with an IQ of higher than 140 you know can get laid? [just kidding]
www.draftgore.com
Gore '08
I know you are kidding but there is truth to the whole, "want to get laid and not learn" thing in schools, even adults do this.
But I also think that anyone that values "getting laid" more than the cultivation of knowledge and its application in the world they live in, really does give new meaning to the word plebian.
How is humanity supose to evolve when people like that keep reproducing.
As for what American values should be, read Pyrites post.
On a side note, My IQ is below 140 but I consider myself a nerd of sorts.
Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit
My property taxes are $14,000. a year; the schools in my area are are state-of-the-art...yet my children never spent a day in them! Why? Integration, that's why.
Integration has turned our state-of-the-art schools into cesspools...it's a god damned outrage!
Could you explain a little more. Integration as in racial integration or what?
don't u wish u could send that 14 grand of a privet school or at best at least half of it...dude i fill for ya,we get vouchers for privet school and hey rock,but just keep votin for those demacrats and get more of the same. hahaahha
and this is for PYRITE....dude don't u know TED KENNEDY wrote the education bill,the only part BUSH had in it was teaches and students get tested...
As a student in high school (go away predators) I can honestly tell you the reason the majority of kids are dumb when they come out is because they could care less about learning.
On another note, there is one year of world history, rest is US history, that's why no one in the US knows anything about the outside world.
Somtimes school teaches material that we've been taught previously, which does get repetitive and pointless at times.
But yea, if your failing at school it is more than likely that the problem is with you, not the teachers or the school. And if it was the school and you actually cared about your grades, you'd probably take it to the school board to get fixed.
Depends on the school as well. I went to 4 different schools in my high school career(if you call it that) and each one had lots of extra classes the other ones didn't. One I went to had guitar, another Brit Lit and another had multiple levels of world history.
don't u wish u could send that 14 grand of a privet school or at best at least half of it...dude i fill for ya,we get vouchers for privet school and hey rock,but just keep votin for those demacrats and get more of the same. hahaahha
and this is for PYRITE....dude don't u know TED KENNEDY wrote the education bill,the only part BUSH had in it was teaches and students get tested...
My wife (X-wife now...but we're getting back together! Maybe!don't u wish u could send that 14 grand of a privet school or at best at least half of it...dude i fill for ya,we get vouchers for privet school and hey rock,but just keep votin for those demacrats and get more of the same. hahaahha
and this is for PYRITE....dude don't u know TED KENNEDY wrote the education bill,the only part BUSH had in it was teaches and students get tested...
My wife (X-wife now...but we're getting back together! Maybe!I'm sure your kids were very social and fitted in fine in college.
Change my mind so much I can't even trust it
My mind change me so much I can't even trust myself
don't u wish u could send that 14 grand of a privet school or at best at least half of it...dude i fill for ya,we get vouchers for privet school and hey rock,but just keep votin for those demacrats and get more of the same. hahaahha
and this is for PYRITE....dude don't u know TED KENNEDY wrote the education bill,the only part BUSH had in it was teaches and students get tested...
My wife (X-wife now...but we're getting back together! Maybe!we run a in home business so that was not a option, but bless u,and your numbers are growing at monumental rate, and by the way u have just become a target for the teacher unions and the big fat dumm bureaucracy.i realy hope u and wife get back together
Holy %#&, and you consider yourself smart, $%&* me, talk about defending the US education system. Bring it on down now.
Damn byotch dat aint no friggn moon fool, dat be a friggn space station byotch.
Our schools try to teach on such a broad range of subjects that it's no wonder that our school systems are failing so miserably in basic areas like reading and writing. We try to teach sex ed to second graders for an entire semester when we should be teaching them to develop their reading comprehension (i'm biased towards English by the way, since it's my major and what I'm good at). The problem with our education system is that it lacks focus. It tries to be too politically correct with all of its multi cultural celebratory nonsense.
Now, with all of that said...some people are dumb, we all know that. You can't force people to be intelligent, nor can you force them to apply themselves in school, which is why the No Child Left Behind act is the bane of all teachers. I do have an issue with the way we quantify the success of our schools though. Standardized tests are...say it with me....useless and counter productive. The end result with national standardized testing is that you have a bunch of cookie cutter teachers having their creativity stifled while little Johnny STILL doesn't care about The Great Gatsby.
My solution: get rid of standards, and start having objectives. The objective of elementary school: to prepare as many children as possible for high school by teaching them the fundamentals of math, science, english, and history. The objective of high school: to prepare as many young adults as possible for college by giving to them a broader message regarding all of those basic subjects, while furthering the process by narrowing their field of study according to what they are interested in so that they don't switch majors 5 times once they hit college. (yet another problem, it takes too damn long to get done with school in America) When you have standards, you get too specific in what the teachers must teach, and they end up stifled as a result, which is why more than half of all first year inner city teachers quit after their first year. How do we make sure the kids know what they need to know? Develop a test that better examines the cultural and ethnic diversity in the classroom. Meaning a test that recognizes that a kid in California isn't going to get the same education as a kid in New York. Right now we're giving the same questions to kids in Oregon as we are kids in Arkansas, and that's just plain stupid. Cultural variations play a HUGE part in what is important and relevent to a young student, and our current system fails to recognize that.
Your argument is like a two legged dog with an eating disorder...weak and unbalanced.
Holy %#&, and you consider yourself smart, $%&* me, talk about defending the US education system. Bring it on down now.
How about a more constructive response.
I agree with all that. I don't think our public school system can be perfect because of the basic fundamentals of how it works, but those are definately steps that would help improve it.
At the root of it I think the public school system needs competition. Monopolization can never equal excellence. Unfortunately I believe our education promotes socialism at least in college and that's where our teachers come from. Even in regular public schools, kids are walking into a socialistic institution every weekday...perhaps they start thinking that government must provide us with these services otherwise there is no other viable alternative for them. Little do they know if taxes were seriously reduced how the economy would explode, buying power would increase, people would keep far more of their money, private schools would be in demand, private schools would compete, public schools would then have to compete...ect.
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"When Saddam flew that plane into those buildings, I knew it was time to kick some Iranian ass!"
-cheer leading, flag waving American