Poll: Does the current school system actually work?

[dcheppy]

Private education is no better(in quality of material learned), just more expensive. (At least in higher education) Private schools merely look better on a job application/graduate school application, but your level of education coming out of them is no better than in a good state school. Even with a private education you're only going to get an entry level job. What really matters in a career is work experience.

Just going by ACT scores from my county the three big schools avg ranged between 20.8 to 21.5 the local christian school was 23. something. Of course that could be indicative of the caliber of students rather than of actual material.

Probably indicative of the parents. A parent who sends their kid to a private school is likely more involved with the kid's education.(There's an investment to protect) More parent involvment is equal to better grades.(According to the experts, of which I don't always trust) That's my take.

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

The united states education system is still back in the 80s, the system can't seem to comprehend that most people do not share the learning style that US schools are set up for.

 

[Steven Kyzburg]

Probably indicative of the parents. A parent who sends their kid to a private school is likely more involved with the kid's education.(There's an investment to protect) More parent involvment is equal to better grades.(According to the experts, of which I don't always trust) That's my take.

You're right there, parents helping and encouraging their kids help ALOT. I went to a rubbish comprehensive (was shut down last year) and got A's and B's for my GCSE's. My sister on the other hand goes to a grammer and is looks set to get similar grades to me. Is up to the pupil as much as the school sometimes.

 

[Iampringles]

In the UK, some things are really stupid.

I've learnt to live with it and go with the flow.

 

[PersianLlama]

yeah, NoVa means Northern Virginia, i forget not everyone knows this.

I live in Northern Virginia! What school? History is useful, you just may not be interested in it, but yes, all school systems are like this, you have to take classes you don't want to. Although some are actually quite useless.

Particularly Physical Education, seriously, what am I going to learn from playing basketball for an hour and a half every other day? Nothing.

 

[sequio]

Everyone I know got in their career choice through people they knew and not where they got their degree. As an impact on society, I see a lot of kids being institutionalized with no real thought for themselves. I remember back in one of my college classes there were people asking the professor for permission to use the bathroom.

 

[Rhayn]

For what it's worth, here in Finland we supposedly have the "best" school system, but I disagree.

The average finnish student is not mentally well, as recent events have proved. This is something that hasn't been really discussed until lately, with the massacres, but absolutley nothing is made to change that. A week after the lastest massacre everyone was like "ooh, gotta tell someone if your depressed", but now, quite frankly noone would give a toss if I came to the school looking extremly depressed.

And yes, I tested this. Whole day I looked depressed on all my classes, not one teacher asked me if I was alright.

Noone here cares as long as you produce good grades. In fact, I got a lousy grade in philosophy just because I had different views than the teacher. I was quite disgusted by this. Isn't thinking supposed to be supported rather than looked down upon?

Quite frankly, I think the current system in this country is completly fucked. I swear that most of the people that have a "good" grade in my school is a brainwashed zombie.

Edit; currently doing my last year in high school.

 

[TheJavaPirate]

For what it's worth, here in Finland we supposedly have the "best" school system, but I disagree.

The average finnish student is not mentally well, as recent events have proved. This is something that hasn't been really discussed until lately, with the massacres, but absolutley nothing is made to change that. A week after the lastest massacre everyone was like "ooh, gotta tell someone if your depressed", but now, quite frankly noone would give a toss if I came to the school looking extremly depressed.

And yes, I tested this. Whole day I looked depressed on all my classes, not one teacher asked me if I was alright.

Noone here cares as long as you produce good grades. In fact, I got a lousy grade in philosophy just because I had different views than the teacher. I was quite disgusted by this. Isn't thinking supposed to be supported rather than looked down upon?

Quite frankly, I think the current system in this country is completly fucked. I swear that most of the people that have a "good" grade in my school is a brainwashed zombie.

Edit; currently doing my last year in high school.

that sucks, at least your Finnish...

 

[Combined]

World History must be mandatory, damn it. It's one of the most interesting things in the world if thought correctly. And it can do good to you to, probably. Teach you mistakes they made in the past and so on.

Also, In Lithuania, the School system just sucks. There's no argument about it. Our schools are severely underfunded (The parents have to pay the school voluntarily to keep it in, at least, a mediocre state of deterioration.), no free periods, most are in an extreme need of repair, the school staff is severely underpaid (but most are qualified and very good at their subject), the students are treated like garbage, the Almighty Director (I.E. Headmaster or Principal) is king/queen and you have to listen to everything he/she says and the food costs a lot and is crap.

Also, there's much cursing, violence, drug use, smoking, drinking and underage sex that no one does anything about. And I swear, you can almost always hear people saying something about a kid who pulled out a knife in a fight and they had to call in the police who then beat him unconscious. Heh, Good times... I mean, Bad. Really bad.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

I kind of resent the question. Does the school system work? It's education, not a toaster. Here's a book, read it from front to back and learn it...

The notion that schools should somehow be capable of changing the minds of lazy apathetic stupid children is rediculous.

The only change I see it needing is a formal seperation between kids who give a fuck and the ones who don't because I would have been better off without all those other idiots talking and slowing it all down.

Also, some people would be happier at a trade school performing physical labor over a traditional education.. and that direction shouldn't be looked down upon or slighted either.

 

[GreenDevilJF]

Before I quit school, every class I went into seemed like 90% socializing and 10% learning. Not to mention most of my peers were stupid as hell.

I would say it needs changing but I don't have any particular change in mind.

 

[EXPLICITasian]

you never actually need to know most of what you learn in school... Am i going to need to know how to use imaginary numbers? Fuck no, that being said the thing the school system teaches us is 1) how to learn 2) the social skills we need to know in our daily lives.

Simply practicing english will help you display yourself better and be more interesting (unless you're focusing more on the grammar part, which is good to learn, but in my view not nearly as important as being creative). Simply practing math will help your problem solving skills and reasoning. Being in a school teaches you about life, how to fit in, how to stand out, how to communicate with others... it actively affects the way we all socialize.

There was this study I read in which teachers were told that certain students were smarter than all the other students (in reality they had the same overall IQ's) a month later these kids were found to have an IQ 15% higher than the other children (due to being more challenged and having more attention focused on them). This proves that when teachers make assumptions about students it affects their teaching ability, and fucks up the whole system for everyone else... same would be said for kids teachers think are retarded (otherway around of course).

Early eduaction is the most important place to teach how to socialize correctly (not bully each other, and learn to not make cliches... this of course is really hard for any achool system to accomplish and sometimes has adverse reactions, but I'm not a child expert so I couldnt exactly say how this could be done...)

on another note: you said that history has no place in school, which is rather rediculous. History teaches us the mistakes of others, and the successes of others and how that can be applied today... the saying holds true "history is bound to repeat itself"... of course there are limited job oppritunities that apply directly to history, but almost every non-labor job needs it applied in some way... say management, running a business, and the military (especially the military, that's how you learn tactics, strategies, and logistics).

 

[Datalord]

The best way to fix the school system is quite simple
GET THE PARENTS TO F*CKING PRESSURE THE KIDS
thats why asians always seem to do better, their parents pressure the children into doing better. Not everyone can go to harvard andget a PhD, but ever kid in the USA could graduate from high school with a gpa above 3.5, the way they have lowered the difficulty in this country's school system

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

The best way to fix the school system is quite simple
GET THE PARENTS TO F*CKING PRESSURE THE KIDS
thats why asians always seem to do better, their parents pressure the children into doing better. Not everyone can go to harvard andget a PhD, but ever kid in the USA could graduate from high school with a gpa above 3.5, the way they have lowered the difficulty in this country's school system

If the parent doesn't see the value of the education then neither will their kids. Look at it this way, the parents are uneducated making a combined income of 20K a year, total shit. But from the kid's perspective he's got a skateboard, food, shelter, used clothes... things seem fine since he's not living the struggle to pay rent.

From his perspective, life without an education is fine.

 

[Megacherv]

My school system needs to be changed. It's like our own mini dictatorship with such things like mixing all the year groups up between forms, forced charity work, propaganda braodcasts and making us all like each other or else. I wish I was making this up

 

[AuntyEthel]

I was schooled in South Africa. Many people I've met while travelling assume that I had some backward education in the bush, but I've found that our education system taught us more about the world than other countries do. I'm not saying everyone from America is like this, but they produce amazing examples like this [http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww].

 

[God's Clown]

Well while I was in High School, I did practically nothing. I never did homework, because in my honest opinion, when I am at home, it's my time, not school time. I managed a B average by getting A's on tests. Most of these tests I would just look over the material that is going to be on the test 5 minutes before the test.

So I'd say either my High School was overly easy, which is likely, or the school system in general just sucks.

 

[D_987]

The title made me think of writing a massive sociology essay about how the current school system is fundementslly flawed and does not properly teach people the skills requried to get top jobs.

Then I read your post...yes all schools are like that.

 

[Marv21]

I think the school system is flawwed not because of the classes it teaches but the teacher who teach the low-end classes.

Me- a Honors english and Ap World student, I don't like to take all the hardest classes, so I get caught in what i call, Retard Math(It would move at a lighting pace but all the students refuse to learn, and the teacher sux) and Retard but not rly retard sciene(5 students who disrupt the class and refuse to learn). I offically think I'm being held back in both of these classes by students who aren't truely under the influence of the teacher, and I personnally would join 11th grade math if I could, but the School system puts me at such as disadvantage that it would be very hard to get into 11th grade math.

The science is fine, but math...the fundamental learning is being frowned upon by students who won't choose this subject as a means of finacial security in the future. It is incredibly stupid to have my high school with is the top 2% of the nation to have such a poor math class were 62% of the class are failing, that is not 2% behavior to me.

 

[D_987]

I kind of resent the question. Does the school system work? It's education, not a toaster. Here's a book, read it from front to back and learn it...

The notion that schools should somehow be capable of changing the minds of lazy apathetic stupid children is rediculous.

The only change I see it needing is a formal seperation between kids who give a fuck and the ones who don't because I would have been better off without all those other idiots talking and slowing it all down.

Also, some people would be happier at a trade school performing physical labor over a traditional education.. and that direction shouldn't be looked down upon or slighted either.

That?s called a "Self-fulfilling prophecy".

Simple terms:

. Child acts badly
. Teacher notices this; recognises this child is "naughty" and treats them differently -
possibly by punishing them more frequently.
. Child realises they are being "picked on" and does not work as a result.
. Child fails academically. The prophecy is fulfilled.


That?s the basic theory anyway. Obviously it?s all down to individual cases, and then there?s the whole "hidden curriculum" aspect.