Those were literally the words out of the kid's mouth. I'm just saying America has always had more to offer than other areas in the world. It's not as simple as the pedigree. Don't get me wrong. We do have excellent world-class private-schools. The public education system is another story. It is infested with special-interest groups and isn't fair to compare a system with 100 million students to a small European country that has only a few million students in school. Especially considering the small populations have somewhat more control over their governments.
I agree that we have the most foreign students of any country. Doesn't mean anything to me. That argument is old. Go ask any German, French, Swiss foreign exchange student, they absolutely laugh at our college work. I've been around enough european exchange students to know what I'm talking about.
Corporations suck greedily from the teats of government and somehow manage to remove the teats from their mouths long enough to complain about Big Government any time their milk supply is threatened. I'm a volunteer tutor and the schools have become a massive profit feedlot for textbook publishers, educational testing services, processed food manufacturers/restaurants, technology companies, pharmaceutical companies, toy companies, social network companies, etc. The schools I've worked in have succeeded beautifully at creating reliable pools of ADD/ADHD consumers.
Agree with you. If you want to make big money, connections that are made at big schools will most likely lead to a bigger payday then people can get in other countries. Lets make sure not to mix up that it is only the connections that lead to bigger and better thing, not the actual course work itself. However the argument here is towards the public highschool/middle school education and how that part of our education completely sucks. Even though it carries on to the mid level state universities as well. Some of the bigger states schools have harder course work., but not as hard as a business school in Europe in my opinion.
My son got a perfect math fcat score, but takes 30 minutes to take out his homework from his book bag.
"...However, it is in the highest degree improbable that the reforms I propose will ever be carried into effect. Neither the parents, nor the training colleges, nor the examination boards, nor the boards of governors, nor the ministries of education, would countenance them for a moment. For they amount to this: that if we are to produce a society of educated people, fitted to preserve their intellectual freedom amid the complex pressures of our modern society, we must turn back the wheel of progress some four or five hundred years, to the point at which education began to lose sight of its true object, towards the end of the Middle Ages...." http://www.gbt.org/text/sayers.html I agree 100% [except in the sciences]. However, I would do things slightly differently, but definitely with a classical education bias. One day soon I will post what I think a modern version of a classical education should look like. One thing is for certain, it is not what is taught in schools. Neil Postman brings sayers up to date: <iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/19897055" width="500" height="363" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/19897055">Neil Postman on "Informing Ourselves to Death"</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/peterkfallon">Dr Fallon</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p> http://w2.eff.org/Net_culture/Criticisms/informing_ourselves_to_death.paper
This book is often quoted in Classical Education circles: "The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (Third Edition) [Kindle Edition]" http://www.amazon.com/Well-Trained-...7297013&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Well-Trained+Mind
In college? Probably not a whole lot, despite the underlying intent and premise! In life, thinking kills. It's the watching and doing that gets you where you want to go/be... God, I've got to get that Home Depot commercial out of my head..
There's something to be said for the idea that people have different learning styles - seeing, hearing, writing, doing... This is a variation of the one-size-fits-all approach, utilized because it's easier for the school system, not for the students... In addition to your idea, we need to consider the best way to reach a particular student. Otherwise, they'll continue to uninterested/uninspired/unmotivated because they just don't get it with that particular learning style. And we can't completely blame the kids because they really don't understand much of anything nor possess any real sense of self-awareness. The other big issue in today's schools is the overwhelming focus on classroom control. Which is ironic, because it's the education system that's decidedly anti-discipline. Parents are not allowed to discipline in an effective manner without running afoul of moral norms/recently enacted legal statutes. So what happens - undisciplined kids show up in the classrooms, disrupting the learning process. And the schools complain parents aren't doing their jobs. It's a vicious circle. You give to get. Not the other way around. Give discipline, get disciplined kids. Do not give discipline, get wild, unruly, disruptive kids.