A Glance at Public Education Today
by Why we need to change public education.
There are bad teachers. All teachers are not meant to teach, or are in it for the wrong reasons. A teacher has to be many things to their students – teacher, adviser, counselor supporter. Some cannot do this. The same can be said of administrators. They become so desensitized to the everyday grind of dealing with the problems that they become oblivious to the all too obvious reality around them. They do not have the sense enough to even back their own teachers. They are more like politicians than educators.
Testing is another major factor. Can students be given any more tests? In the course of the year, in addition to unit tests that are given, students have four additional tests: the high school exit exam, end of course exams, psat, and maps testing (language and math proficiency). Educators are constantly under the gun with high stakes testing, and their scores determine what they teach, and if they get to keep their jobs. The trend is education today is differentiated instruction. It uses alternative assessment methods to test students’ knowledge on content. Now, the states are going to give them pencil/paper state exams, but teachers are giving them alternative assessments in the classroom. The dichotomy simply doesn’t make sense. How can students be prepared for traditional assessments, when teachers are increasingly being told not to use them? Schools themselves are big part of the problem.
As a technologically advanced society continues to grow, education faces many problems. Community and parental involvement needs to be highly advocated and even required. States like Arizona are currently trying to establish what they are calling “traditional” schools. These schools would require parents and students to sign contracts. The contracts would stipulate that parents must sign homework on a nightly basis, that both parent and student must perform so many school community service hours every year, and parents must volunteer so many hours a year at the school and students must adhere to a strict code of conduct. Not following these guidelines could result in expulsion or not being able to attend the following year. Society, and within the society, the educational institution, needs to rethink the way in which we go about educating the children of the U.S. We are failing our children, at home and at school. Accountability needs to be set not only for schools, but for students and parents.
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Post CommentRask Balavoine
On June 8, 2008 at 12:59 am
Scary stuff. The rot hasn’t set in that much in Ireland, just in some few schools and it probably won’t get too much further, but a form of parent contracts certainly helps, holding parents responsible for children’s behaviour etc.
Surautomatism
On June 8, 2008 at 6:03 pm
What people need to do is not only visit an American school but to visit a foreign school. Anybody who’s been to a school in France, China, Japan, and most of Western Europe knows how much better their education system is than ours.
burned out teacher
On June 8, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I, too, am disappointed in our school system(s). I’ve taught for about 8 years and have also taught in Japan. I do not agree that the system in Japan is better—just different. There, students were also sleeping in class, and they did not tend to ask questions because of cultural implications that would suggest the teacher did not explain the materially well. Anyway, despite my efforts, class there was far from dynamic and engaging (because I was teaching conversational English in an academic setting which placed great emphasis on writing skills). However, I did appreciate the fact that students tended to take more responsibility for their learning. And they also spent 10 minutes at the end of every day cleaning their classrooms, hallways, etc. This, if implemented in the U.S., might give more of a sense of ownership in the school. We do, as suggested above, need to learn from other places to try to get our schools up to snuff.
dood2020
On September 5, 2008 at 1:33 pm
It’s ironic for a teacher to write an article about the failing educational system, and, from experience, the attitude of students is pretty much the same in the USA as well as in Europe. Kids sleep, go to school high, stoned or drunk, don’t do any work, have no respect at all, etc.
Disregarding that, less people have trouble getting through school in the states as in some european countries, could be interpreted as: it’s harder/better in Europe. Or just too complicated.
What i do have a really big problem with, with the US educational system is its self-centeredness. Many many people have no idea about our planet. General knowledge is pretty much evolving around the states, not the world. Not only geography-wise, but also language wise….