As the popular phrase goes, “The youth is our future,” and over the past few decades the US has steadily declined as the super power of the world, which I would argue is mostly due to our failing public school system. According to recent research, the US ranks 18th in the world for reading, 22nd in science, and 28th in math, with countries like Belgium, Finland, Canada, Japan, and even Poland ranking higher. Being the supposed ‘world leader,’ you would think that the US would be first in not only education, but also everything from engineering to medicine. Of course, that is if the US was actually the ‘world leader’ as most Americans’ believe, but the truth is, it is not. Sorry to pop everyone’s bubble, but the U.S IS NOT THE WORLD LEADER ANYMORE AND WE DO NOT HAVE EVEN CLOSE TO THE BEST SCHOOLS IN THE WORLD.
Now that we’ve settled that misconception, lets get back to the source of all our problems, or at least most of them; EDUCATION. You hear politicians, like President Bush and others, constantly talking about closing the achievement gap between social classes, improving reading, science, math scores, and most importantly not leaving any “child behind.” These things all sound great, especially considering the statistics, but they are missing the big picture. While the U.S spends billions of dollars to make sure “No Child is Left Behind,” based on standardized testing in the areas of math, science, and reading, other countries are looking at the big picture when it comes to education. That picture, is their country’s future and how they are going to teach their children to one day be world leaders, not just reciters of mostly pointless memorized facts. I’m not saying that reading, math, and science are pointless, what I am saying, is that what we are teaching on those subjects and how we are evaluating a child’s success is wrong and not beneficial to our future. Being able to draw the periodical table, or list all the Presidents, is not going to help our children think critically about real world situations, or analyze the global economy. While other countries are teaching their children to be global citizens, who understand not only how their country runs, but also how other countries’ economies, political systems, and cultures function, U.S children are stuck memorizing pointless facts that they will forget the second they leave their standardized test. We must teach our children to think outside of the box and not just be able to recite a theory, or policy, but actually be able to apply that information to the real world. Hands on learning that gives children the opportunity to think creatively and analytically about a subject must replace rigid standardized curriculum that is outdated and not designed to prepare children for the real world. Most importantly, there must be an emphasis on analyzing and understanding both national and international current events at all grade levels.
If the US continues to encourage isolationism remanent of the Cold War along with a school system judged solely on the basis of standardized testing and fact based learning, it will continue to fall behind not only in education, but in all areas of development.
1 comment:
I agree with you that standardized education is not the answer. I am also frustrated by the lack of effort shown by students at the University level to get the most out of education. It is both the system and the society. American youth is not as concerned with getting a good education because it is not emphasized as strongly as in other cultures. There are other routes to success. When you look at countries who have more recently entered the first world or who are still in the development process, you see kids who would give anything to go to school. That is because it is there only route to a better life. Here, youth can survive by living of daddy's money or by taking a vocational job that doesn't require university training. Perhaps another solution is to focus on emphasizing the importance of learning to improve future success. And when it comes to culture and history, we're screwed. We don't have a rich enough culture for kids to be interested and/or proud to study it and pass it on.
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