The United States is often seen as the world leader in many aspects of life. Throughout the world many different people see the United States as the leader in economy, technology, and democracy. However, one aspect the United States constantly trails behind is, unfortunately education. Whether it is K-12 education, or higher education, the United States is constantly ranked behind countries that are not as wealthy. Unfortunately, throughout time, they still have not improved, but many would argue that education has declined over time. For the United States to improve its educational mishaps, it must address the issue of the methods that are used in classrooms, the teacher vetting process, and improved funding for underperforming schools. One of the most important issues for the educational system in America, is the relationship between the teacher and student inside the classroom. In the American system of education, in K-12 schooling, many teachers act as if they are all knowing and always correct. They have this overarching authority over the classroom. The teacher has supreme authority, and the students are mere subjects towards that teachers’ authority. As Paulo Freire put it in “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education”, “Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor” (216). Freire describes the act of depositing the information and not letting students comprehend the information that is being
America used to thrive on its education system and that is why it became one of the greatest nations in the world. Education is the backbone of our country, and we must give high priority to improve its current condition. Unfortunately, in the past couple of decades, the education system has been regressing. It has been on the decline and not as effective. The quality of education in a country has an influence on GDP growth, social cohesion and social well being in general. In order to improve the quality of education in the U.S., the following must be taken into consideration: the structure of our education system must be reanalyzed, we must compare and contrast our education system to systems of other countries with higher rankings, and finally, there must be a solution.
Nowadays the United States is not known for their educational system. Countries like South Korea, Japan, and Singapore have surpassed the United States buy large margins, in terms of educational success. While other countries are constantly revolutionising their education system, the United States’ education system has not changed in decades, leaving the U.S. unsuccessful. The U.S. continues to fall behind these same countries that are thriving. Due to the fact that the U.S. education system not developing as time went on, leaving them now with a multitude of flaws. The gap between the educated and non-educated, along with the length of how long students are in elementary and high school, are two consequential problems in the United States’ educational system that need to be addressed.
Education in America is not as valued nationally as the current culture wants the societies of the world to think. There are occupations that are valued above educators, but our civilization wants to imply that our educational system is well advanced and tries to emphasize that we are a country of well-educated people. Unlike in Leonid Fridman’s “America Needs Its Nerds,” and Benjamin R. Barber’s “America Skips School”. Everywhere in this country we hear the government say how our schools are the future of this country, but if we listen carefully we will hear little in our civilization over education financially and how poverty mixes in with this issue.
There was a time when America’s education system was top-notch according to the culture and society. With time, a myriad of things has changed, but unfortunately what has not evolved is the American education system. The country is still following a system which was not designed for the current global economic climate. Equality, as positive as it sounds is not as sufficient when it comes to education. The system treats students equally yet expect a similar culmination and outcome. Every child has his individuality and distinct abilities; one cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. Conversely, a few of the prominent reasons why the education system is failing are overcrowded schools, the rise of technology, and following the same old school hours.
The United States used to be ranked higher amongst other countries when came to education. People came from all over the world to study here. Unfortunately, for the past years it have been ranked in the twenties amongst other countries based on standardized testing. Now its time to revamp our education system, but the question is where we should we look. Based on student performance, the only countries that have proven that most components of their system works is Finland and Korea; Finland being ranked one and Korea ranked two. In order for the U.S. education system to move in a positive direction we must make significant changes in the structure of our system. First we need to raise the qualifications for becoming a teacher because in some states you don’t even have to attend and educational school; all you have to do is pass a test. Secondly, we need to expand the time of school so that teachers have more time to teach the kids and the students can have more interaction with the teachers. Although this is where we need to look, we don’t need to adopt their entire system.
The United States spends more money on education each year than any other country in the world, yet the education system is not thriving. Three decades ago, America was the leader in the quality of high school diplomas, yet, students in the U.S. rate 31st in math literacy and 23rd in science in comparison to the rest of the world. (Federal Reserve Bank of New York) The country that is famous for being the most advanced and innovative country in the world is yielding a generation that is falling behind in the global education race. Public K-12 education is worsening simultaneously with the growing competitiveness of universities. Part of the problem is that teachers are not being paid sufficiently, and many find themselves being laid off. College is getting exponentially more expensive each year. These are only a couple of the issues that the american education system faces today, but the list carries on.
The United States is lagging behind the rest of world in terms of our educational system. We seem to put more emphasis on sports while we cut teachers, defund programs, and neglect making improvements to our schools. This point is highlighted at the very beginning of the article by pointing out the fact that on a critical thinking math test, countries such as Shanghai and Singapore scored the highest while the United States ranked thirty-first. We must acknowledge the disconnect in our education systems to see how we can improve our teaching methods. Most of the top ranking countries put education over everything else which can put overwhelming pressure on its people, but they still value the fact that education equals
I can really look back at high school and say, “what did I learn?” and “how is it helping me today in life?” Because it really hasn’t helped at all. Being in my second year out of high school I can honestly say I’ve learned more on my own and on the fly then what I learned in school. Everything I learned was just to turn in assignments and pass tests to pass school but really have me learn the curriculum. A student who has a straight F can have an exemplary IQ and a student who just turns everything in can be a lot lower. Jack Schneider said, “Everything in American education is broken”, he further explains that, the educational system simply stopped working, its aged, declined, and broke but also felt like the system certainly didn’t need to changed. In the Article the Schneider is very skeptical about supporting the topic. The Author does not completely support the topic because of his skeptics.
Our school system is one of the most praised things in the United States of America. At a very young age we put our children in school to educate them and make them intelligent. We see these children as our future doctors, lawyers, and business men. The United States of America gives quality education with experienced teachers whose goals are to make the children our future leaders. We don’t only educate these children with book smarts, but we
The American public educational system is filled with an assortment of problems. Most students are graduating with less knowledge and capability than similar students in other industrialized countries. Classroom disruptions are surprisingly common, and in some classrooms, nearly continuous. The public education system is having difficulty adjusting to the no child left behind act. The No Child Left Behind(NCLB) is a landmark in education reform designed to improve student achievement and change the culture of American’s schools.
America’s education system has recently been a concern for many people. A recent international test “shows the U.S. trailing behind educational powerhouses like Korea and Finland.” (The Atlantic) In addition, the U.S. was 26th out of the 34 countries who took the International Student Exam; considering the U.S. has the world’s largest economy, this rank is abysmal. If the U.S. wants to improve their education rankings, they are going to have to look at countries who are currently seeking success. Two of those countries, Finland and Korea, approach education quite differently than the U.S; nevertheless, their methods seem to be working for them.
Since 1983 public education has been an issue in America. The system has been constantly changing every year with reforms. This constant change has been driven by the American people’s perception that education has declined and something should be done about it. First there was an increased emphasis on basic skills, making school years longer and more graduation requirements. Second, many began focusing on increasing teachers professionalism. Third, they began restructuring many things such as how the schools were organized and how the school day was structured etc. Now today the most of the American people believe that not enough money is given to public schooling. They associate academic improvement with the money the school is funded.
Education in the United States is a very crucial part of a person’s life. Going to school opens doors and facilitates the pathway for future individual achievement and economic success. Formal education is a conscious effort by human society to convey the skills and modes of thought considered essential for social functioning.
Over the course of many years the education system that we are all accustomed to today has faced much criticism. Many of these critics believe that the teachers are not helping these students really comprehend what they are learning. These teachers are more focused on having their students memorize the information, rather than really having them understand the knowledge they are receiving. Many others believe that both the teachers and the students should be learning from one another, instead of the teachers being this dictator that completely controls the class. This is where the “banking” concept of education comes in, “Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor” (Freire 318). In this system, the teacher teaches and the students
Have you ever wondered why our country is ranked low in comparison to other countries when it comes to education? Our country is said to be the best country in the world; yet when one takes a closer look on our system, defects are bound to be found. Take a look at our education for instance. We have the least productive schools in the nation. The truth is that the board of education has dumbed down the system due to a decrease in testing averages.