I want to Improve the Education System | General Discussion

I am a college student who has been trying to figure out what to do with the life ahead of me, and one of the things I am considering is finding some way to improve the education system.

I am also an American, and while I am very grateful for our education system, seeing as some places in the world don't have very good ones (or none) and we didn't always have such a good one ourselves, at this point I still wouldn't call it... "great".

Satisfactory might be a better word.

Thus, I come to you fine people, my fellow dragon enthusiasts, for advice and discussion. Here are my questions for you:

1. What is the education system like where you live? Any complaints?

2. How do you think the system can be improved?

3. What do you think the system is doing right? Don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, after all.

4. What would make you excited to go to school every day? I mean really excited?

EDIT:

Since this has come up a lot, I'd like to clarify;
You do not have to be from America, or a certain kind of school, to comment here or for me to find your opinions and experiences valid. One of my mottos is "Gain experience and knowledge from all resources." As long as you are a human being and not some space alien posting here for a laugh (that would actually be kinda awesome xD) I will value your input just as much as anyone else's.

Also - Oh my gosh, such great ideas so far! I truly didn't expect such a good turnout. I'm busy with a behind schedule raffle right now, but once that's more organized I'll have time to really talk to you folks. Thanks for posting!

Rayla

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March 02, 2015 03:30:16

I am a college student who has been trying to figure out what to do with the life ahead of me, and one of the things I am considering is finding some way to improve the education system.

I am also an American, and while I am very grateful for our education system, seeing as some places in the world don't have very good ones (or none) and we didn't always have such a good one ourselves, at this point I still wouldn't call it... "great".

Satisfactory might be a better word.

Thus, I come to you fine people, my fellow dragon enthusiasts, for advice and discussion. Here are my questions for you:

1. What is the education system like where you live? Any complaints?

2. How do you think the system can be improved?

3. What do you think the system is doing right? Don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, after all.

4. What would make you excited to go to school every day? I mean really excited?

EDIT:

Since this has come up a lot, I'd like to clarify;
You do not have to be from America, or a certain kind of school, to comment here or for me to find your opinions and experiences valid. One of my mottos is "Gain experience and knowledge from all resources." As long as you are a human being and not some space alien posting here for a laugh (that would actually be kinda awesome xD) I will value your input just as much as anyone else's.

Also - Oh my gosh, such great ideas so far! I truly didn't expect such a good turnout. I'm busy with a behind schedule raffle right now, but once that's more organized I'll have time to really talk to you folks. Thanks for posting!

Last edited on Mar 02, 2015 19:13:42 by Rayla

Pardon if the following is kinda rambling, it's 8:30am and I have the day off cause of snow. I don't even know how much sleep I got!

1. What is the education system like where you live? Any complaints?
It seems to be entirely consisted of what people -think- we'll need to know, yet they've somehow forgotten what they themselves actually needed to know when looking for a job >_> The classes need more purpose. I'd be perfectly okay with math if, say, the teacher related it to building a house, building a dam, building a computer...But no! It's just 'here's 10 problem, do them'. Admittedly I think I've got it pretty good, but it does need to be improved.

2. How do you think the system can be improved?
More focus on specific topics combined with...stuff!...That relates it to the real world with some actual depth. Look at the above example.

For me, (going with another example here), I'd look forward to going to school if it was possible to relate -everything-, somehow, to a topic I was interested in. English is undoubtfully important, as is history - but we need to be realistic.

Someone out there has probably calculated the percent change that I'll use the little detail that Nasser's coup thingy was bloodless, or that the future active participle of some latin word and I haven't found that research but I imagine the number is very low. Actually I had to google that. See?! I've forgotten the information already. The test was like two weeks ago.

3. What do you think the system is doing right? Don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, after all.
My school at least has an 'Academy' that has a more specific selection of classes. Criminology, network administration, stuff like that.

4. What would make you excited to go to school every day? I mean really excited?
Enough of this required core classes, required language (latin D: *shudder*), required P.E for 3 years ridiculousness. They'd still be there but...! P.E would be learning how to more effectively move around a building or something, how to move around said building while carrying 60 pounds of equipment, or carrying a table because it's not in your job description but you really need that table. Everything would be more...actually related to what you'll be doing in the future :D!

TLDR: I'd like to learn stuff I'm going to use. I'm sure there -is- someone out there who would like to learn how to write an essay on the internal conflicts of Hamlet, but I'm also sure there are a lot who loathe it. I'd rather learn how to write a technical briefing.

Hopefully there was something useful in there >:D! I wish you the best of luck, the education system really could use it.

Curennos

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March 02, 2015 05:37:57

Pardon if the following is kinda rambling, it's 8:30am and I have the day off cause of snow. I don't even know how much sleep I got!

1. What is the education system like where you live? Any complaints?
It seems to be entirely consisted of what people -think- we'll need to know, yet they've somehow forgotten what they themselves actually needed to know when looking for a job >_> The classes need more purpose. I'd be perfectly okay with math if, say, the teacher related it to building a house, building a dam, building a computer...But no! It's just 'here's 10 problem, do them'. Admittedly I think I've got it pretty good, but it does need to be improved.

2. How do you think the system can be improved?
More focus on specific topics combined with...stuff!...That relates it to the real world with some actual depth. Look at the above example.

For me, (going with another example here), I'd look forward to going to school if it was possible to relate -everything-, somehow, to a topic I was interested in. English is undoubtfully important, as is history - but we need to be realistic.

Someone out there has probably calculated the percent change that I'll use the little detail that Nasser's coup thingy was bloodless, or that the future active participle of some latin word and I haven't found that research but I imagine the number is very low. Actually I had to google that. See?! I've forgotten the information already. The test was like two weeks ago.

3. What do you think the system is doing right? Don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, after all.
My school at least has an 'Academy' that has a more specific selection of classes. Criminology, network administration, stuff like that.

4. What would make you excited to go to school every day? I mean really excited?
Enough of this required core classes, required language (latin D: *shudder*), required P.E for 3 years ridiculousness. They'd still be there but...! P.E would be learning how to more effectively move around a building or something, how to move around said building while carrying 60 pounds of equipment, or carrying a table because it's not in your job description but you really need that table. Everything would be more...actually related to what you'll be doing in the future :D!

TLDR: I'd like to learn stuff I'm going to use. I'm sure there -is- someone out there who would like to learn how to write an essay on the internal conflicts of Hamlet, but I'm also sure there are a lot who loathe it. I'd rather learn how to write a technical briefing.

Hopefully there was something useful in there >:D! I wish you the best of luck, the education system really could use it.

_{well....

i live in germany, so i don't know if this will be of any use to you - especially considering that i have absolutely no idea how the american system works - but i'll just. yeah.

1. What is the education system like where you live? Any complaints?

our basic education system is split into three schools one attends over 12 or 13 years.

years 1 - 4 are spent in the grundschule, where you learn basic things like reading, writing, math and the like.

then you transfer to sekundarstufe 1, where you spend year 5 - 9/10. there are so many forms of schools you can attend i cannot possibly describe all of them accurately. there are three basic paths you can take: hauptschule, which ends after year 9; realschule, which ends after year 10 and the gymnasium, which ends after year 10 as well, but is followed up with additional 3 years of school in sekundarstufe 2.

people who went to realschule and hauptschule usually begin an apprenticeship after finishing school, but they generally have opportunities for higher education.

sekundarstufe 2 lasts three years, and by the end of it one hopefully has acquired the abitur, so one can go to university.

also: private schools are pretty rare in germany, and are mostly attended by people who want to focus on a very specific things; there are, for instance, schools that focus on sports like golf or skiing besides the standard education. also people who attend private schools tend to be very rich and generally it's looked down upon as pretentious and elitist - that's my impression, at least. so really, people who attend private schools are a tiny minority, and it's not always better than public schools anyway.

home-schooling is illegal, by the way, and students have to attend school for a minimum of nine years.

also: not sure if this is relevant but we have to learn two languages other than german: english starts in grade 5 and it's a pick of either french or latin in grade 7 or 8. those are the standard ones though; i believe there are schools that offer other languages as as well, like spanish.

also i should probably mention that going to uni is either very cheap compared to the US or completely free, from what i understand. tuition fees were introduced a while ago, but i believe they aren't a thing anymore.

2. How do you think the system can be improved? / 3. What do you think the system is doing right? Don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, after all.

i haven't had problems with the school system at all so i'm honestly not sure. i just am... satisfied with it, so i don't really see the problems someone else might have with it.

4. What would make you excited to go to school every day? I mean really excited?

honestly? there is no such thing. after 13 years of school i can safely say that there is nothing that could possibly excite me every day. sorry.}

Patches

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March 02, 2015 05:51:31

_{well....

i live in germany, so i don't know if this will be of any use to you - especially considering that i have absolutely no idea how the american system works - but i'll just. yeah.

1. What is the education system like where you live? Any complaints?

our basic education system is split into three schools one attends over 12 or 13 years.

years 1 - 4 are spent in the grundschule, where you learn basic things like reading, writing, math and the like.

then you transfer to sekundarstufe 1, where you spend year 5 - 9/10. there are so many forms of schools you can attend i cannot possibly describe all of them accurately. there are three basic paths you can take: hauptschule, which ends after year 9; realschule, which ends after year 10 and the gymnasium, which ends after year 10 as well, but is followed up with additional 3 years of school in sekundarstufe 2.

people who went to realschule and hauptschule usually begin an apprenticeship after finishing school, but they generally have opportunities for higher education.

sekundarstufe 2 lasts three years, and by the end of it one hopefully has acquired the abitur, so one can go to university.

also: private schools are pretty rare in germany, and are mostly attended by people who want to focus on a very specific things; there are, for instance, schools that focus on sports like golf or skiing besides the standard education. also people who attend private schools tend to be very rich and generally it's looked down upon as pretentious and elitist - that's my impression, at least. so really, people who attend private schools are a tiny minority, and it's not always better than public schools anyway.

home-schooling is illegal, by the way, and students have to attend school for a minimum of nine years.

also: not sure if this is relevant but we have to learn two languages other than german: english starts in grade 5 and it's a pick of either french or latin in grade 7 or 8. those are the standard ones though; i believe there are schools that offer other languages as as well, like spanish.

also i should probably mention that going to uni is either very cheap compared to the US or completely free, from what i understand. tuition fees were introduced a while ago, but i believe they aren't a thing anymore.

2. How do you think the system can be improved? / 3. What do you think the system is doing right? Don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, after all.

i haven't had problems with the school system at all so i'm honestly not sure. i just am... satisfied with it, so i don't really see the problems someone else might have with it.

4. What would make you excited to go to school every day? I mean really excited?

honestly? there is no such thing. after 13 years of school i can safely say that there is nothing that could possibly excite me every day. sorry.}

Last edited on Mar 02, 2015 08:16:36 by Patches

I'm going to assume that you're talking about public primary school (K-12).

1. My parents were fortunate to be able to afford to send me to Montessori school for half of my education. I attribute a lot to my early education. Everyone else who was in my "cadre" of Montessori kids have gone onto college, not saying that it's a 100% or work for everyone... but it was good for us. After that, I got the joy of going to some of the lowest income public middle and high schools. Which were both nice on the inside. My high school was particularly good at getting grants and there were numerous opportunities for us (as students) since our teachers were getting supplemental money to run after-school programs. We got so good at meeting numbers and stuff that we got onto Times, U.S. Today, and some other magazine for BEST SCHOOL 5 EVERRRRR.

However, now that I'm about to be a college grad... I get to go back and work with the principle of my old high school. He's a total *** and super annoying. He takes a paternal look at how he gets the money and allocates it. He KNOWS what's best for the students, without even asking them. It's disappointing when I get to sit in on education meetings. He's really only pushing for STEM education, which is really good, but it's in a way of inciting students post-high school graduation. Like, look at allllllll this money that you'll make. Even though you have no concept of what income is.

2. So I'd like to tell him to sit back down and think about sending these kids to trade school if they have interests in STEM. He's constantly talking about "building a pipeline from [High school] to [College]" to get these kids through. And I'm just sitting there like.... yo, homie, you realize you're talking to the poorest high school per-cap in the city. How the hell are these kids going to pay for their education? They ARE smart enough, I won't deny that. But trade school is so much more of an economical safety net. And setting them up thinking that college is the only thing that will improve their economic standing is wrong.

Everyone else in the WORLD has strong, reputable trade schools that are on-par with colleges and universities. And I believe that's something that needs to change in America. Stop pushing for this stupid, imagined college experience that nobody since the 70s has experienced. Nobody can afford college, nobody can pay off college until they're about to die or will die because of their loans. But more importantly, we've held college up so high that... there are jobs 10 years ago that didn't require a degree THAT REQUIRE A DEGREE NOW.

3. The only thing that I can say about his "drive the sheep all into the same pen" approach is that... it does work. Students from my high school have been passing more and more advanced placement tests and we've got more enrollment in those classes. Doesn't mean that all of them like it or want to make a career of it though.

4. Ehhhhh. In high school it was nothing really. Or at least that I can remember. I think it was more of my friends than anything (I did get placed on a state list that was "concerned" for me since I was absent so much). In college it's having classes that are interesting and the professor really breaks down the education hierarchy.

TL;DR:
Screw pushing kids into college.
Build up trade schools.
Everyone wins.

DigDog

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March 02, 2015 06:05:13

I'm going to assume that you're talking about public primary school (K-12).

1. My parents were fortunate to be able to afford to send me to Montessori school for half of my education. I attribute a lot to my early education. Everyone else who was in my "cadre" of Montessori kids have gone onto college, not saying that it's a 100% or work for everyone... but it was good for us. After that, I got the joy of going to some of the lowest income public middle and high schools. Which were both nice on the inside. My high school was particularly good at getting grants and there were numerous opportunities for us (as students) since our teachers were getting supplemental money to run after-school programs. We got so good at meeting numbers and stuff that we got onto Times, U.S. Today, and some other magazine for BEST SCHOOL 5 EVERRRRR.

However, now that I'm about to be a college grad... I get to go back and work with the principle of my old high school. He's a total *** and super annoying. He takes a paternal look at how he gets the money and allocates it. He KNOWS what's best for the students, without even asking them. It's disappointing when I get to sit in on education meetings. He's really only pushing for STEM education, which is really good, but it's in a way of inciting students post-high school graduation. Like, look at allllllll this money that you'll make. Even though you have no concept of what income is.

2. So I'd like to tell him to sit back down and think about sending these kids to trade school if they have interests in STEM. He's constantly talking about "building a pipeline from [High school] to [College]" to get these kids through. And I'm just sitting there like.... yo, homie, you realize you're talking to the poorest high school per-cap in the city. How the hell are these kids going to pay for their education? They ARE smart enough, I won't deny that. But trade school is so much more of an economical safety net. And setting them up thinking that college is the only thing that will improve their economic standing is wrong.

Everyone else in the WORLD has strong, reputable trade schools that are on-par with colleges and universities. And I believe that's something that needs to change in America. Stop pushing for this stupid, imagined college experience that nobody since the 70s has experienced. Nobody can afford college, nobody can pay off college until they're about to die or will die because of their loans. But more importantly, we've held college up so high that... there are jobs 10 years ago that didn't require a degree THAT REQUIRE A DEGREE NOW.

3. The only thing that I can say about his "drive the sheep all into the same pen" approach is that... it does work. Students from my high school have been passing more and more advanced placement tests and we've got more enrollment in those classes. Doesn't mean that all of them like it or want to make a career of it though.

4. Ehhhhh. In high school it was nothing really. Or at least that I can remember. I think it was more of my friends than anything (I did get placed on a state list that was "concerned" for me since I was absent so much). In college it's having classes that are interesting and the professor really breaks down the education hierarchy.

TL;DR:
Screw pushing kids into college.
Build up trade schools.
Everyone wins.

I left school 15 years ago, so I can't really say much about the education system in my country NOW. But there are still some issues that are common in every school that are still very much prevalent:

* Lack of resources to support more talented children - lots of schools focus on trying to bring the less talented children up to speed, while completely neglecting the needs of the smarter kids, who often get bored being held back to the pace of the slowest child. This was a big problem when I was in school, and I know this is still an issue because a colleague of mine was forbidden to teach her child anything "extra" on top of the school's curriculum because the school wanted to keep all the kids at the same level. That's right - an intelligent child with a thirst for more knowledge than the school was providing was FORBIDDEN to learn any faster than the slowest child in his class. Schools need to accept that some children are smarter than others, and just as the slower ones need support to help them keep up, there NEEDS to be resources to keep the smarter ones mentally stimulated.

* "Victim blaming" of the victims of bullying needs to stop - when a child is emotionally or verbally bullied by other children, that recipient of bullying is often blamed. Teachers and counselors say they're "too sensitive" and should just ignore hurtful comments and behaviour from bullies. This is, for all intents and purposes, blaming the victim for the bullying... "they wouldn't be bullied if they weren't so overly sensitive..." when really the fault lies with the bullies. There needs to be a greater degree of discipline in schools so that when one child bullies another, be it physically or through Facebook or just yelling abuse at them across the classroom, it's the bully that's punished and not the victim. Schools not taking bullying seriously is what leads to suicides and high school shootings - no matter how trivial something seems to the teachers and counselors, if a student says "I don't like the way these other children treat me", it MUST be taken seriously.

Coldwater

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March 02, 2015 06:10:56

I left school 15 years ago, so I can't really say much about the education system in my country NOW. But there are still some issues that are common in every school that are still very much prevalent:

* Lack of resources to support more talented children - lots of schools focus on trying to bring the less talented children up to speed, while completely neglecting the needs of the smarter kids, who often get bored being held back to the pace of the slowest child. This was a big problem when I was in school, and I know this is still an issue because a colleague of mine was forbidden to teach her child anything "extra" on top of the school's curriculum because the school wanted to keep all the kids at the same level. That's right - an intelligent child with a thirst for more knowledge than the school was providing was FORBIDDEN to learn any faster than the slowest child in his class. Schools need to accept that some children are smarter than others, and just as the slower ones need support to help them keep up, there NEEDS to be resources to keep the smarter ones mentally stimulated.

* "Victim blaming" of the victims of bullying needs to stop - when a child is emotionally or verbally bullied by other children, that recipient of bullying is often blamed. Teachers and counselors say they're "too sensitive" and should just ignore hurtful comments and behaviour from bullies. This is, for all intents and purposes, blaming the victim for the bullying... "they wouldn't be bullied if they weren't so overly sensitive..." when really the fault lies with the bullies. There needs to be a greater degree of discipline in schools so that when one child bullies another, be it physically or through Facebook or just yelling abuse at them across the classroom, it's the bully that's punished and not the victim. Schools not taking bullying seriously is what leads to suicides and high school shootings - no matter how trivial something seems to the teachers and counselors, if a student says "I don't like the way these other children treat me", it MUST be taken seriously.

Last edited on Mar 02, 2015 06:12:10 by Coldwater

[quote name="Zavahier" date="2015-03-02 06:10:56"]I left school 15 years ago, so I can't really say much about the education system in my country NOW. But there are still some issues that are common in every school that are still very much prevalent: * [b]Lack of resources to support more talented children[/b] - lots of schools focus on trying to bring the less talented children up to speed, while completely neglecting the needs of the smarter kids, who often get bored being held back to the pace of the slowest child. This was a big problem when I was in school, and I know this is still an issue because a colleague of mine was forbidden to teach her child anything "extra" on top of the school's curriculum because the school wanted to keep all the kids at the same level. That's right - an intelligent child with a thirst for more knowledge than the school was providing was FORBIDDEN to learn any faster than the slowest child in his class. Schools need to accept that some children are smarter than others, and just as the slower ones need support to help them keep up, there NEEDS to be resources to keep the smarter ones mentally stimulated. * [b]"Victim blaming" of the victims of bullying needs to stop[/b] - when a child is emotionally or verbally bullied by other children, that recipient of bullying is often blamed. Teachers and counselors say they're "too sensitive" and should just ignore hurtful comments and behaviour from bullies. This is, for all intents and purposes, blaming the victim for the bullying... "they wouldn't be bullied if they weren't so overly sensitive..." when really the fault lies with the bullies. There needs to be a greater degree of discipline in schools so that when one child bullies another, be it physically or through Facebook or just yelling abuse at them across the classroom, it's the bully that's punished and not the victim. Schools not taking bullying seriously is what leads to suicides and high school shootings - no matter how trivial something seems to the teachers and counselors, if a student says "I don't like the way these other children treat me", it MUST be taken seriously.[/quote] THANK YOU. These were my two big issues as well. Because apparently they had to cater to the lowest denominator, who were usually the lazy do-nothings that didn't even want to learn anything anyway. Not the special-ed kids, but the lazy jocks who were convinced that they didn't have to do anything but throw a ball around. As a result, I just felt so unmotivated. Who wants to have to do the same grammar assignments we did the year before, in a new book. Or math problems that one could solve in their sleep. Or...OH WAIT WE NEVER GOT TO ANY OF THE ACTUAL MATH IN CHEMISTRY BECAUSE THE TEACHER WAS TOO BUSY SHOWING MOVIES OR HAVING TO REPEAT THE PERIODIC TABLE. *facepalm.* No, seriously, I didn't have any idea how to do most of the math in chemistry when I got into college because the teacher just didn't give a shit. And bullying? Hell, some schools didn't even take physical bullying seriously. People were allowed to yank a fucking stool out from under me, actually PHYSICALLY HURTING ME and I was blamed for being too sensitive. I pretty much gave up because I knew no one gave a rat's ass. In addition to those issues, I found nepotism in the school systems in my area was a big issue. It seemed that even when someone asked, no one would be told about scholarship or grant opportunities but the teachers' kids. Like seriously, only the teachers' offspring, the teachers' own crotch spawn were the ONLY ONES ever told important information like that. It took me actually threatening to report them tp the state because I was just so fed uo with their shit for them to give me information and help with the ACT. The only thing I remember my school system doing right was actually accomodating students with disabilities, even temporary disabilities (IE: an injury or illness that incapacitated someone enough that they needed accomodations).

Meezerqueen

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March 02, 2015 07:23:27

Zavahier wrote on 2015-03-02 06:10:56:

I left school 15 years ago, so I can't really say much about the education system in my country NOW. But there are still some issues that are common in every school that are still very much prevalent:

* Lack of resources to support more talented children - lots of schools focus on trying to bring the less talented children up to speed, while completely neglecting the needs of the smarter kids, who often get bored being held back to the pace of the slowest child. This was a big problem when I was in school, and I know this is still an issue because a colleague of mine was forbidden to teach her child anything "extra" on top of the school's curriculum because the school wanted to keep all the kids at the same level. That's right - an intelligent child with a thirst for more knowledge than the school was providing was FORBIDDEN to learn any faster than the slowest child in his class. Schools need to accept that some children are smarter than others, and just as the slower ones need support to help them keep up, there NEEDS to be resources to keep the smarter ones mentally stimulated.

* "Victim blaming" of the victims of bullying needs to stop - when a child is emotionally or verbally bullied by other children, that recipient of bullying is often blamed. Teachers and counselors say they're "too sensitive" and should just ignore hurtful comments and behaviour from bullies. This is, for all intents and purposes, blaming the victim for the bullying... "they wouldn't be bullied if they weren't so overly sensitive..." when really the fault lies with the bullies. There needs to be a greater degree of discipline in schools so that when one child bullies another, be it physically or through Facebook or just yelling abuse at them across the classroom, it's the bully that's punished and not the victim. Schools not taking bullying seriously is what leads to suicides and high school shootings - no matter how trivial something seems to the teachers and counselors, if a student says "I don't like the way these other children treat me", it MUST be taken seriously.

THANK YOU. These were my two big issues as well.

Because apparently they had to cater to the lowest denominator, who were usually the lazy do-nothings that didn't even want to learn anything anyway. Not the special-ed kids, but the lazy jocks who were convinced that they didn't have to do anything but throw a ball around. As a result, I just felt so unmotivated. Who wants to have to do the same grammar assignments we did the year before, in a new book. Or math problems that one could solve in their sleep. Or...OH WAIT WE NEVER GOT TO ANY OF THE ACTUAL MATH IN CHEMISTRY BECAUSE THE TEACHER WAS TOO BUSY SHOWING MOVIES OR HAVING TO REPEAT THE PERIODIC TABLE. *facepalm.* No, seriously, I didn't have any idea how to do most of the math in chemistry when I got into college because the teacher just didn't give a ****.

And bullying? Hell, some schools didn't even take physical bullying seriously. People were allowed to yank a ******* stool out from under me, actually PHYSICALLY HURTING ME and I was blamed for being too sensitive. I pretty much gave up because I knew no one gave a rat's ***.

In addition to those issues, I found nepotism in the school systems in my area was a big issue. It seemed that even when someone asked, no one would be told about scholarship or grant opportunities but the teachers' kids. Like seriously, only the teachers' offspring, the teachers' own crotch spawn were the ONLY ONES ever told important information like that. It took me actually threatening to report them tp the state because I was just so fed uo with their **** for them to give me information and help with the ACT.

The only thing I remember my school system doing right was actually accomodating students with disabilities, even temporary disabilities (IE: an injury or illness that incapacitated someone enough that they needed accomodations).

@DragonLovell

First off, I've got a few things to say,

1) I'm an American foreign service brat, so I'd like to point out that I've only been in the American school system for a year and a half, and thus may not have the best grasp of what it's really like.

2) Because of the city in which my parents need to work, I live in a really great school district, and can't speak for those across the country.

Onto the questions!

1. What is the education system like where you live? Any complaints?

It's really good. My (middle) school has a ton of clubs like Model United Nations, Debate, Math Counts, Science Bowl, Science Olympiad, Quiz Bowl, and then a bunch of non-academically inclined clubs as well.

The education in of itself is wonderful, and the teachers are phenomenal. However, because my school is in the area of a mathematics and science high school, a lot of families move to the area to go there. The children they bring along with them has read the Count of Monte Cristo by age 8 or is in AP calculus in the seventh grade (no joke... he was in my history class and was driven to the local high school to take it with the 11th graders). Thus, the average student is in all-honours or GT (gifted and talented program), and in Algebra, Geometry, or Trigonometry (7th or 8th graders), as well as some sort of music program (band, orchestra, or chorus). This affects a lot of students' idea of self worth, since they're being compared to the top one or two percent of the U.S. It's quite horrible.

In seventh grade, it's not that bad. In eighth, however, my school doesn't even offer general education for Social Studies, English, or Science unless a student has an IEP (Individualized Education Program). The students that previously took regular classes are now thrown in with those in Honours, causing problems for both groups of students. My friends that are in Honours classes tell me about how they're being held back because of these students, and my friends that were thrown into them without wanting to are seriously struggling and making bad marks.

It's also an extremely competitive area. A friend of a friend's daughter is now attending a state school, and the parents were asked if that was her safety school. Kids as young as the seventh grade are expected to have a general idea of where they want to go to college - all of which are either Ivy League or universities such as Berkley or Stanford.

TL;DR: Extremely competitive, the expectations of students are astronomical.

2. How do you think the system can be improved?

For starters, the stigma that comes with taking general education classes needs to be erased. It's disgusting, and needs to be something of the past.

Also, bullying is a big problem at my school amongst students. Not getting every question right during science bowl, or not getting into science olympiad or math counts if you tried out is a huge disgrace, and kids make that known. It's terrible.

TL;DR: Gen Ed is seen as stupid, bullying is an issue.

3. What do you think the system is doing right? Don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, after all.

It does do an excellent job of catering to the students that do enjoy more academic activities, and do well under stress and in competitive situations.

As someone that doesn't enjoy sports, but loves music, school, and more academic activities (ayy MUN), it's a great school for me. I thrive in competition, and live for the pressure of pushing myself to the limit. Not everyone does, though, and it's unfortunate that our school can't offer different things to them.

TL;DR: It's a really great education program, and I really am grateful for it.

4. What would make you excited to go to school every day?

Not needing to worry about how the bleep I'm going to manage SAT prep this year, and all of my classes over the summer and in high school, haha.

TL;DR: Just read the damn response. You cannot seriously expect a summarization of like 25 words.

~

Anyhoo, I hope that helped!

~
xx
V.S.

VigilanteSnail

0

92

699

3501

March 02, 2015 07:39:39

@DragonLovell

First off, I've got a few things to say,

1) I'm an American foreign service brat, so I'd like to point out that I've only been in the American school system for a year and a half, and thus may not have the best grasp of what it's really like.

2) Because of the city in which my parents need to work, I live in a really great school district, and can't speak for those across the country.

Onto the questions!

1. What is the education system like where you live? Any complaints?

It's really good. My (middle) school has a ton of clubs like Model United Nations, Debate, Math Counts, Science Bowl, Science Olympiad, Quiz Bowl, and then a bunch of non-academically inclined clubs as well.

The education in of itself is wonderful, and the teachers are phenomenal. However, because my school is in the area of a mathematics and science high school, a lot of families move to the area to go there. The children they bring along with them has read the Count of Monte Cristo by age 8 or is in AP calculus in the seventh grade (no joke... he was in my history class and was driven to the local high school to take it with the 11th graders). Thus, the average student is in all-honours or GT (gifted and talented program), and in Algebra, Geometry, or Trigonometry (7th or 8th graders), as well as some sort of music program (band, orchestra, or chorus). This affects a lot of students' idea of self worth, since they're being compared to the top one or two percent of the U.S. It's quite horrible.

In seventh grade, it's not that bad. In eighth, however, my school doesn't even offer general education for Social Studies, English, or Science unless a student has an IEP (Individualized Education Program). The students that previously took regular classes are now thrown in with those in Honours, causing problems for both groups of students. My friends that are in Honours classes tell me about how they're being held back because of these students, and my friends that were thrown into them without wanting to are seriously struggling and making bad marks.

It's also an extremely competitive area. A friend of a friend's daughter is now attending a state school, and the parents were asked if that was her safety school. Kids as young as the seventh grade are expected to have a general idea of where they want to go to college - all of which are either Ivy League or universities such as Berkley or Stanford.

TL;DR: Extremely competitive, the expectations of students are astronomical.

2. How do you think the system can be improved?

For starters, the stigma that comes with taking general education classes needs to be erased. It's disgusting, and needs to be something of the past.

Also, bullying is a big problem at my school amongst students. Not getting every question right during science bowl, or not getting into science olympiad or math counts if you tried out is a huge disgrace, and kids make that known. It's terrible.

TL;DR: Gen Ed is seen as stupid, bullying is an issue.

3. What do you think the system is doing right? Don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, after all.

It does do an excellent job of catering to the students that do enjoy more academic activities, and do well under stress and in competitive situations.

As someone that doesn't enjoy sports, but loves music, school, and more academic activities (ayy MUN), it's a great school for me. I thrive in competition, and live for the pressure of pushing myself to the limit. Not everyone does, though, and it's unfortunate that our school can't offer different things to them.

TL;DR: It's a really great education program, and I really am grateful for it.

4. What would make you excited to go to school every day?

Not needing to worry about how the bleep I'm going to manage SAT prep this year, and all of my classes over the summer and in high school, haha.

TL;DR: Just read the damn response. You cannot seriously expect a summarization of like 25 words.

~

Anyhoo, I hope that helped!

~
xx
V.S.

puffpuffpuffpuffpuffpuffpuffpuffpuffpuffpuffpuffpuffpuffpuffpuffpuffpuffpuff

FR +9

@DragonLovell

One unique perk of living in Louisiana is TOPS. I don't know how familiar you are with this or if there are equivalents in other states. Basically it is a state scholarship for Louisiana public colleges and universities There are different levels of TOPS you can get based on GPA and test scores.
Essentially the state paid for my undergraduate degree, I never had to take out any loans.

I also feel strongly about the use of technology in the classroom. I attended a highschool which integrated laptops into the curriculum my sophomore year and it was amazing in some classes and a hindrance in others. In college I had many professors which banned computers in their classrooms altogether which seemed archaic.

Those teachers who think this 'darned new technology is dumming America' make me sad because we as students have access to more information and in a wider variety of meda than ever before and that is a truly amazing thing. Technology could add so much to the education system if teachers and students were trained to use it effectively. /rant

Delamire

169

80

641

1423

March 02, 2015 08:02:02

@DragonLovell

One unique perk of living in Louisiana is TOPS. I don't know how familiar you are with this or if there are equivalents in other states. Basically it is a state scholarship for Louisiana public colleges and universities There are different levels of TOPS you can get based on GPA and test scores.
Essentially the state paid for my undergraduate degree, I never had to take out any loans.

I also feel strongly about the use of technology in the classroom. I attended a highschool which integrated laptops into the curriculum my sophomore year and it was amazing in some classes and a hindrance in others. In college I had many professors which banned computers in their classrooms altogether which seemed archaic.

Those teachers who think this 'darned new technology is dumming America' make me sad because we as students have access to more information and in a wider variety of meda than ever before and that is a truly amazing thing. Technology could add so much to the education system if teachers and students were trained to use it effectively. /rant

I could go on about all the things the education system has done wrong, I don't even know where to start.

First off, it's a proven fact that today's American education system is meant to prepare students for irrelevant jobs. It was created during WWI and WWII to prepare students for factory jobs where they would be sitting and doing the same monotone work day in and day out. Factory jobs are still there, of course, but there's so many more options as well and with a lot of factory work being replaced by robots and so hard on a person physical labor wise they're not the greatest things to try and train an entire set of people for.

Secondly, the education doesn't teach us anything particularly useful. I never learned how to pay taxes, about current world events, how to budget my income, about 401K or retirement plans, investing, and all the other stuff that would be super useful to know as an adult. In addition what they do teach us can best be summed up by this one little comic I saw. It's a bunch of different animals like an elephant and a monkey and a fish in a bowl and a cat and the guy says something like "to keep everything even you'll be graded on how you climb that tree". Clearly the elephant and the fish can't climb the tree, and so they're going to fail the test and think they're stupid. You can't treat every human being the same, and you can't expect them all to be good at everything.

Which brings me to my third point. What they actually do teach us is pretty much summed up by the show Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader. If you ever watch that show there's a lot of stuff in there the adults can't answer, and it's not a show of these kids being smart it's a show that the stuff we learn when we're 9 or 10 is stuff we'll never use again or remember later in life unless we decide to become trivia champions or it applies to our field of study for a career.

Fourth point; homework and recess times. Studies have proven that homework is ineffective and causes undo stress on students and America is one of the few countries left that still gives more than an hour or two per night to its students. As for recess, the way it worked where I grew up was in elementary school we got 15 minutes for lunch and 15 minutes for recess, when we got to middle school it was a 30 minute lunch break and we could go outside if we wanted to so we had the choice between sitting inside and eating the whole time or scarfing down our food and going out to play and in high school it was simply a 30 minute lunch break with no time to go out and play and if we tried to play in the lunch room we got yelled at. You can't just magically expect teenagers to want to sit down, shut up and eat lunch after 13+ years of being allowed to go outside around lunch time to play and work off their energy if they want to.

Point five - qualifications of teachers and how the students are treated. Now I admit, I had some absolutely fab teachers, but the vast majority were either 'meh' or absolutely awful. While they did have to have a teaching degree to actually teach most had gotten theirs 10-15 or more years prior and were no longer up to date with how current education systems worked. The school my cousin teaches at requires them to take a course (that the school pays for) every 5 years to catch up to current education standards so they can stay on top of new teaching methods and stuff like that. As for how the students are treated, I was utterly surprised at how much teachers were allowed to get away with where I live. I remember being verbally, mentally and emotionally abused by many of my teachers simply for being who I was. I liked anime and manga? I had more than one teacher call me a nerd and tell me to read a 'real book' and get away from that 'kids stuff'. I was actually reading a book? 'Too bad it's fantasy, that'll never get you anywhere'. A lot of stuff like that which generally made me feel terrible for the things I was interested in.

Sixth point; how much the students were allowed to get away with. Sure my high school had a 'zero tolerance' policy for bullying but they never enforced it. I was bulled right in front of teachers and when I looked to them for help I got a lot of "I can't do anything about it" or "What do you want me to do about it?" from them. One actually tried to defend me because two other girls in my class were bullying me and she had them suspended for throwing paper wads at me when I went up to go get something from the printer, but she got in trouble because apparently throwing paper wads isn't grounds for suspension even though she'd given them 3 warnings for bullying me prior and it hadn't made them stop. When they came back to school earlier than they should have because the principal lifted their suspension and started right in on bullying me again the same teacher kicked them out of the classroom, failed them for what of her class they had completed and had them transferred to another class but again she got in trouble and that was really all she could do. She stuck her neck out to try and make things better for me and wound up in a lot of trouble for it and had to move to another school when the semester was over because the staff didn't want to deal with her 'needlessly causing trouble' for other students.

Final point, and more of a pet peeve than anything. The required classes and tests vary from state to state. I was denied a sort of leisurely senior year that most get because I moved states and had to go to a new school my senior year. They told me that even though I had sex ed as part of my gym classes I still had to take a health class, I had to take 12th grade government even though I took 11th grade government in my home state. Creative writing didn't count as an English course so I had to take English 11 and 12, and accounting wasn't a math course so I had to take one of those too and of course wilderness survival wasn't a science course so I had to take a 'real' science course. And I had to have 4 years of a language so I had to take 2 language courses my senior year. Plus instead of 6 classes a day they had 8 which meant less time in each classroom and 2 extra classes worth of homework to do each night.

The American school system is basically built to strip your identity, teach you to sit down, shut up and listen to adults who are usually unqualified and don't give a dang about their students as long as they aren't disrupting the classroom so the they can force the required knowledge down our throats and get paid for it. And they aren't paid enough to do it either, and have to struggle for every dollar because the government keeps cutting funding. The only solution is to tear it down and rebuild it from the ground up, make it uniform across the states as far as required courses and what they teach, and find the freaking funding to pay the teachers properly and not make them fight via the unions for every dollar they get. Teach things that matter like proper sex ed and current events and adult things. Take a hint from other countries with successful education systems. That's really the only way the American system will ever be any better than it was when I was there, because that was 7 years ago and according to friends with younger siblings now in high school it's still the same as it was then and isn't likely to change much unless something drastic happens.

Sigilmancy

0

2314

March 02, 2015 08:28:51

I could go on about all the things the education system has done wrong, I don't even know where to start.

First off, it's a proven fact that today's American education system is meant to prepare students for irrelevant jobs. It was created during WWI and WWII to prepare students for factory jobs where they would be sitting and doing the same monotone work day in and day out. Factory jobs are still there, of course, but there's so many more options as well and with a lot of factory work being replaced by robots and so hard on a person physical labor wise they're not the greatest things to try and train an entire set of people for.

Secondly, the education doesn't teach us anything particularly useful. I never learned how to pay taxes, about current world events, how to budget my income, about 401K or retirement plans, investing, and all the other stuff that would be super useful to know as an adult. In addition what they do teach us can best be summed up by this one little comic I saw. It's a bunch of different animals like an elephant and a monkey and a fish in a bowl and a cat and the guy says something like "to keep everything even you'll be graded on how you climb that tree". Clearly the elephant and the fish can't climb the tree, and so they're going to fail the test and think they're stupid. You can't treat every human being the same, and you can't expect them all to be good at everything.

Which brings me to my third point. What they actually do teach us is pretty much summed up by the show Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader. If you ever watch that show there's a lot of stuff in there the adults can't answer, and it's not a show of these kids being smart it's a show that the stuff we learn when we're 9 or 10 is stuff we'll never use again or remember later in life unless we decide to become trivia champions or it applies to our field of study for a career.

Fourth point; homework and recess times. Studies have proven that homework is ineffective and causes undo stress on students and America is one of the few countries left that still gives more than an hour or two per night to its students. As for recess, the way it worked where I grew up was in elementary school we got 15 minutes for lunch and 15 minutes for recess, when we got to middle school it was a 30 minute lunch break and we could go outside if we wanted to so we had the choice between sitting inside and eating the whole time or scarfing down our food and going out to play and in high school it was simply a 30 minute lunch break with no time to go out and play and if we tried to play in the lunch room we got yelled at. You can't just magically expect teenagers to want to sit down, shut up and eat lunch after 13+ years of being allowed to go outside around lunch time to play and work off their energy if they want to.

Point five - qualifications of teachers and how the students are treated. Now I admit, I had some absolutely fab teachers, but the vast majority were either 'meh' or absolutely awful. While they did have to have a teaching degree to actually teach most had gotten theirs 10-15 or more years prior and were no longer up to date with how current education systems worked. The school my cousin teaches at requires them to take a course (that the school pays for) every 5 years to catch up to current education standards so they can stay on top of new teaching methods and stuff like that. As for how the students are treated, I was utterly surprised at how much teachers were allowed to get away with where I live. I remember being verbally, mentally and emotionally abused by many of my teachers simply for being who I was. I liked anime and manga? I had more than one teacher call me a nerd and tell me to read a 'real book' and get away from that 'kids stuff'. I was actually reading a book? 'Too bad it's fantasy, that'll never get you anywhere'. A lot of stuff like that which generally made me feel terrible for the things I was interested in.

Sixth point; how much the students were allowed to get away with. Sure my high school had a 'zero tolerance' policy for bullying but they never enforced it. I was bulled right in front of teachers and when I looked to them for help I got a lot of "I can't do anything about it" or "What do you want me to do about it?" from them. One actually tried to defend me because two other girls in my class were bullying me and she had them suspended for throwing paper wads at me when I went up to go get something from the printer, but she got in trouble because apparently throwing paper wads isn't grounds for suspension even though she'd given them 3 warnings for bullying me prior and it hadn't made them stop. When they came back to school earlier than they should have because the principal lifted their suspension and started right in on bullying me again the same teacher kicked them out of the classroom, failed them for what of her class they had completed and had them transferred to another class but again she got in trouble and that was really all she could do. She stuck her neck out to try and make things better for me and wound up in a lot of trouble for it and had to move to another school when the semester was over because the staff didn't want to deal with her 'needlessly causing trouble' for other students.

Final point, and more of a pet peeve than anything. The required classes and tests vary from state to state. I was denied a sort of leisurely senior year that most get because I moved states and had to go to a new school my senior year. They told me that even though I had sex ed as part of my gym classes I still had to take a health class, I had to take 12th grade government even though I took 11th grade government in my home state. Creative writing didn't count as an English course so I had to take English 11 and 12, and accounting wasn't a math course so I had to take one of those too and of course wilderness survival wasn't a science course so I had to take a 'real' science course. And I had to have 4 years of a language so I had to take 2 language courses my senior year. Plus instead of 6 classes a day they had 8 which meant less time in each classroom and 2 extra classes worth of homework to do each night.

The American school system is basically built to strip your identity, teach you to sit down, shut up and listen to adults who are usually unqualified and don't give a dang about their students as long as they aren't disrupting the classroom so the they can force the required knowledge down our throats and get paid for it. And they aren't paid enough to do it either, and have to struggle for every dollar because the government keeps cutting funding. The only solution is to tear it down and rebuild it from the ground up, make it uniform across the states as far as required courses and what they teach, and find the freaking funding to pay the teachers properly and not make them fight via the unions for every dollar they get. Teach things that matter like proper sex ed and current events and adult things. Take a hint from other countries with successful education systems. That's really the only way the American system will ever be any better than it was when I was there, because that was 7 years ago and according to friends with younger siblings now in high school it's still the same as it was then and isn't likely to change much unless something drastic happens.

Alright, I'll bite, just because I had a terrible high-school experience.

1. What is the education system like where you live? Any complaints?

I live in one of the areas that has Junior High instead of Middle School (so Elementary goes from 1 to 6, Jr. High 7-9, and High 9-12). The biggest issue I had with how the school system was set up in my state is the Seminary classes (if you are unfamiliar with it, it's a religious institution class that doesn't count for credit). It created this major rift between the students who weren't part of that religion and those who were, it almost created this 'exclusive club' feel.

The second thing has already been said, twice. I was an honors student, always ahead of about 90% of my graduating class, but I pretty much stopped learning things in school at around mid-junior high. There is such a lack of support for the kids on the upper end of the spectrum, I went through terrible teachers (any time a new teacher turned out to be really good, the administration sent them to teach the 'extra help' classes), bad counselors ("I can't help you find Academic scholarships, that's not my job"), and just bad class planning on the school's part (like, I had to take beginning statistics after I had already taken and passed AP BC Calculus just because I apparently had to take another math class but nothing else would count).

Third thing for me was the focus on sports, which is a bit more of a personal opinion. My High School football team did not win a single game while I was there. The other sports didn't fare much better (except boys soccer). Even so, all fundraising that was hosted by the school went to the fields or the locker rooms even though our award winning drama department was still using 60 year old equipment, and our Debate team and one of our JROTC sections had to pay their own way to Nationals. My two teachers for Art and Digital Media had to pay out of their own pocket for any sort of supplies.

2. How do you think the system can be improved?

Better Honors classes and support, smaller classes (I think my school's average class size was around 40?), a greater focus on the arts (seriously, kids need to know it's okay to like art or theatre, and that it can be successful if you go about it in the right way), start school hosted fundraisers for things other than sports, and offer a greater diversity of elective classes.

3. What do you think the system is doing right? Don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, after all.

Contrary to what an earlier poster said, I quite like conceptual math and science. It's a lot easier for a general class to understand, as I've been in math classes that use chemistry for examples and about half of us didn't understand. Other than that... I can't really think of anything good.

4. What would make you excited to go to school every day? I mean really excited?

During my senior year I actually looked forward to going to class, I was only a part time student since I spent half of my day at a university. So the high-school half of the day was just spent in art/media classes. So I think this would come with a greater diversity of electives. If a class makes you realize that 'this is what I want to do with my life' it becomes something to look forward to, instead of slog through.

Astrologian

411

140

561

2859

March 02, 2015 08:34:28

Alright, I'll bite, just because I had a terrible high-school experience.

1. What is the education system like where you live? Any complaints?

I live in one of the areas that has Junior High instead of Middle School (so Elementary goes from 1 to 6, Jr. High 7-9, and High 9-12). The biggest issue I had with how the school system was set up in my state is the Seminary classes (if you are unfamiliar with it, it's a religious institution class that doesn't count for credit). It created this major rift between the students who weren't part of that religion and those who were, it almost created this 'exclusive club' feel.

The second thing has already been said, twice. I was an honors student, always ahead of about 90% of my graduating class, but I pretty much stopped learning things in school at around mid-junior high. There is such a lack of support for the kids on the upper end of the spectrum, I went through terrible teachers (any time a new teacher turned out to be really good, the administration sent them to teach the 'extra help' classes), bad counselors ("I can't help you find Academic scholarships, that's not my job"), and just bad class planning on the school's part (like, I had to take beginning statistics after I had already taken and passed AP BC Calculus just because I apparently had to take another math class but nothing else would count).

Third thing for me was the focus on sports, which is a bit more of a personal opinion. My High School football team did not win a single game while I was there. The other sports didn't fare much better (except boys soccer). Even so, all fundraising that was hosted by the school went to the fields or the locker rooms even though our award winning drama department was still using 60 year old equipment, and our Debate team and one of our JROTC sections had to pay their own way to Nationals. My two teachers for Art and Digital Media had to pay out of their own pocket for any sort of supplies.

2. How do you think the system can be improved?

Better Honors classes and support, smaller classes (I think my school's average class size was around 40?), a greater focus on the arts (seriously, kids need to know it's okay to like art or theatre, and that it can be successful if you go about it in the right way), start school hosted fundraisers for things other than sports, and offer a greater diversity of elective classes.

3. What do you think the system is doing right? Don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, after all.

Contrary to what an earlier poster said, I quite like conceptual math and science. It's a lot easier for a general class to understand, as I've been in math classes that use chemistry for examples and about half of us didn't understand. Other than that... I can't really think of anything good.

4. What would make you excited to go to school every day? I mean really excited?

During my senior year I actually looked forward to going to class, I was only a part time student since I spent half of my day at a university. So the high-school half of the day was just spent in art/media classes. So I think this would come with a greater diversity of electives. If a class makes you realize that 'this is what I want to do with my life' it becomes something to look forward to, instead of slog through.

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