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| Do you feel you recieved a well-rounded education? |
| Yes, I learned a little and had some fun. |
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66% |
[ 2 ] |
| No way. Babysitting pure and simple. Boring and pointless. |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| I assimilated all knowledge like Braniac. |
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33% |
[ 1 ] |
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| Total Votes : 3 |
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harlowethrombey
Joined: 17 Mar 2009
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 1:04 am Post subject: Comparing Students Internationally |
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Interesting article. Deals mainly with U.S. students but cites students they're compared against, including South Koreans so I put it in general discussion (maybe it belongs in off-topic, sorry, I dunno).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090518/ap_on_re_us/us_education_trash_talk
In summary: the much-maligned educational system is, first, not that bad, and second, its maligning is a way of lining a lot of people's pockets.
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While they're not in first place, U.S. students generally hold their own on international tests. They spend more time in school than the Obama administration would have you believe. And their college graduation rates stack up better than reported.
That is not to say the critics are totally wet, that the U.S. can't do better.
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The U.S. does trail the most high-achieving countries, mostly developed nations in Asia such as Singapore, Taiwan and Japan.
But the U.S. holds its own in the group that comes next, a group of developed countries that, depending on the test, includes England, Germany and Russia.
In fact, the U.S. has gained on some of its toughest competitors since 1995, making bigger strides in math than Singapore and Japan, and in science than Japan.
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Obama himself said in March: "Our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea every year. If they can do that in South Korea, we can do it right here in the United States of America."
The president is in luck: The U.S. already is doing it.
South Koreans do have a longer school year, measured in days. But Americans actually spend more time in school. The average U.S. eighth-grader has 1,146 instructional hours a year, compared with 923 hours a year in South Korea.
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Every year the sky is falling on education and, coincidentally, people that make their living as paid educational consultants and test tutors are making a killing. Oh, and the standardized testing business is a multi-billion dollar a year industry.
Citing western kids against Eastern kids, to me, just shows that these politicians are either ignorant of reality, or just lying.
Yes, SK and Japanese kids might do better on math tests because they spend upwards of 10 hours a day drilling math equations into their brains. They dont play sports, they barely have any friends, they never sleep, they dont have a clue how to interact with the opposite sex and practical application of those memorized facts is dubious at best. Oh, they're also pretty stressed out and miserable about the whole situation.
Yes, let's make our kids/school system more like that  |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 2:41 am Post subject: |
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I gave up all faith in standardized test results when I was told the following:
During the Iowa Basic Skills Test, watch which kids don't try. We will pull those answer sheets before we send the pile into the scoring center. No need to make ourselves look like incompetents.
The Principal
My principal was a good and bright guy, well-known enough around the state to get himself elected president of the state principals' association. No reason whatsoever to think he was the only principal who knew which side his bread was buttered on. |
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michaelambling
Joined: 31 Dec 2008
Location: Paradise
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| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 2:47 am Post subject: |
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Brilliant article and post--I always knew that the "sky is falling" hysteria about U.S. education was absurd and overblown rhetoric.
Yes, things are bad--many northern European systems are superior--but not as bad as most of the world. Plus, there have been major improvements since I was in school (in the eighties), when teachers would join bullies to make fun of weak/small/fat kids, and teachers were allowed to hit kids with sticks (they banned that the year before I joined school, fortunately).
I like Obama, but when he talks about education it's like listening to a Japanese engineer talk about good whiskey or how to pick up women (not prostitutes). |
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