Is the school system flawed?

[Giftfromme]

The schooling system works exactly as it is intended to work: it produces a competent workforce. It also divides resources, so that the kids at the bottom (or left hand side) of the bell curve are afforded fewer oppurtunities, while the ones on the right are afforded more. The ones in the middle are "average" students, whatever that means, and they will help keep the economy ticking over. Now it doesn't mean that the kids at the bottom of the curve will get no where in life, but it means they have less chance of attaining a high station. Education is just a byproduct of this system, while sorting and resource division is the primary goal of school

 

[Soveru]

This is a problem endemic to pretty much any education system. I'd recomend anyone with an interest in this topic to watch <url=http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html>this and <url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LelXa3U_I&feature=relmfu>this

The problem is that schools are not catered for individuals, they are catered for the mass production of an educated workforce for the economy. On the large scale this works well enough but in the end, truly talented individuals are held back because of their peers whose strengths and interests may not be in academics.

Furthermore, the education system is pretty much a 12 year long university/college entrance exam. You're not learning anything. You just know them which is a subtle but huge difference. You just fill your head with information you throw out 5 minutes after your exam is over. At the end of the day, nothing is learnt, nothing is gained. Rote learning is a terrible terrible way to learn but it is the only way that schools teach because of standardised tests.

So is there a flaw? Yes. Is anyone going to do anything about it? Nope. Schools just want to look good and boast that they can produce students who have done extremely well in exams and parents will lap it up because our entire society has been trained to think that "Education = Good = Only way to succeed in life. The problem with the school system stems from a far deeper source than many would think.

 

[soren7550]

Derp? Did you like completely forget about the original post I mean all the problems you brought forward were solved before this began :S

We established that the example would be 6th grade and that most grades have enough students till fill 2 classes or in and around 20-30 kids each. So we already would have had 2 teachers and enough students. The only new argument you brought forward was that teachers would have to try things new which apparently is to hard? Teachers don't just start off having things planned from the get go I mean their first few years involve getting class schedule going and the second they switch grades or classes they have to do it again. In fact teachers are CONSTANTLY changing their lesson plans every year for new or changed material as well. It isn't like they would have to learn new things either they just have to create a new way of showing it :S

If your whole thing is about really old teachers who are set in their ways then they could you know leave the alterations to the newer teachers.

In Highschool it is more applicable than ever everything is already sorted to begin with. The applied/college kids are in applied/college because they need a more hands on approach which isn't really being provided. I mean it is literally already all set up all that needs to happen is plan out a new curriculum.

The original post solved none of the problems I brought up. In short, the OP says that the educational system is flawed, schools don't cater to the individual, there isn't much motivation for students to do better, and that if you're ahead of the pack but no one notices the student will feel held back.

And there is no way in hell an average school (in the US at least) can fill up 2 classes at 20-30 kids. Hell, you'd be lucky if you have a class with the kids numbering in the 20s (most often I had classes that numbered in the 30s, and it wasn't uncommon for several to number in the 40s), and even with all those kids crammed into each class, there still wasn't enough teachers to go 'round.

Through all my years in the educational system, all teachers, young and old, new to the system and a veteran, their teaching style never changed, no matter who they were teaching or what. And that's what I said before. Their teaching style. Not what they teach. If I had encountered a teacher that stuck with the exact same lesson plan year after year, I would have shot myself (it was bad enough that I had to learn about ancient Greece through several teachers. If the same one tried to keep teaching me the same thing year after year, I would have done more than just refuse to do the work).

And for your last bit, not really. When we were given the chance to choose our classes (which this situation was provided only once), pretty much everyone was told "Too bad, you're getting this instead."
Students get stiffed with what they want to take all the time in high school. There is no guarantee. And sorted? Hardly. If anything, high school is even more chaotic. If a whole grade's worth of students weren't give a gym class that was required for them to pass due to an oversight (which I saw happen), then I'd hate to see how an unorganized high school of yours looks like if you think what we have now is organized.
Now college, you're paying for that shit, so you damn well expect to get what you want.