American Education System is Bad?

Question

I heard the American education is horrible. It's not my opinion that's just what I heard. If this is indeed true, what classes are we missing? I'm guessing we should be taking more math classes and science classes.

Answer 1

i don't think it is bad, im a junior in high school taking calculas, and i don't think other countries are any better than that. Besides, in high school it isn't up the the system, it is up to the students to take more challenging courses, enven though most just slack off.

Answer 2

We aren't missing ANY classes other than not teaching EVERY child to READ - how can a child do math, science, social studies, reading, etc. if he can't READ?????

It's not class we're missing; it's that we are not teaching the classes correctly and to the extent that the information is actually LEARNED before the students are passed to the next level.

Answer 3

It depends on what you're talking about.  I'm a teacher in the USA.  I know that we don't spend enough time on education.  We get derailed by a lot of social issues that we bring into the classroom.  

The biggest reason that we look bad when compared to other countries is that our philosophy is to educate everyone to a college entry level.  And we test everyone, even high-functioning special education students.

In other countries, students who are not academically inclined are routed toward other types of programs that teach trades and skills.

When you look at international tests between Americans and other countries and compare our top students to their top students, we are number one by a landslide in the areas of math, science and reading.

One big (perceived) problem is the discipline issues in the schools.  In America, we take a certain amount of "back talk" and "criticism" from our students that would not be tolerated in other countries.  It is often said that "Americans invent the world, and the Japanese improve upon it."  This meaning that many of the new inovations in the world are "born in the USA", so to speak, but they are "stolen" by the Japanese and improved upon.  Social scientists attribute our grand ability to invent to the "freedom" in our schools.  We give our students the ability to question and rebuke in order to teach them to evaluate and apply knowledge. It helps free them from fear of failure and teaches that there is more than one way to achieve an answer.  No one is going to rebuke them for being "wrong".

This can be "bad" at times; many students do not know how to debate within boundaries, which is what we are trying to teach them.

Answer 4

I lived in another country when I was young, we chose our major in the 10th grade.  As a science major, we already concentrated on Phys, Bio, and Chem then.  To respond to the post above, we science major had calculus in 10th grade, it is standard for everyone.  We knew integration before graduating from high school.  I took the international version of SAT when I was in my 8th grade and got 780/800 on math. In other countries, students are instructed to learn and do things when they are young, they don't and can't really complain.  So, they accelerate faster.  It is much more competitive, and not everyone can go to college.  The atmosphere is very different.  Kids in US have too much freedom because there are more opportunities here, and they take it for granted.  Now a lot international scholars at the same age compete for the positions in the US.  If the kids in US want to survive, they have to change their attitude to correct the situation.

US itself also hurts the students becuase they try to make things different to other countries.  Most science subjects have that stupid unit conversion thing, all other countries don't even have that chapter.  So, students in US have to put extra work when they go to college.

Answer 5

American Education is not necessarily bad, but it isn't the greatest. I looked up the ranks some time ago for best schooling systems world-wide and Singapore is number 1 in best education systems. And I was surprised (a little) to see that a lot of schooling systems in Asia are actually the most top ranking. Of course though, America still has some of the best colleges.

I don't think we're missing any classes. I think we get the right amount of knowledge that we need to apply in America. Other places just have better options because their societies differ from ours.

I really hate it though how the US uses a different metric system from everyone else. It would be nice if everyone was on the same page.