Thank God...they don't all want to be engineers

Relax American kids, I was wrong. They don't all want to be engineers when they grow up.

Comments

[Debbie]

I'm very concerned about the state of American education. I've been a public school teacher for almost 20 years. I've seen my kindergartners come in knowing more and more about (what I consider age inappropriate) TV shows, computer games, Wii, PSP2, sex, and divorce. They know less and less about interpersonal relationships, cooperation, respect, appropriate behavior and how to use their minds.

Teachers are required to teach what Boards of Education deem appropriate. Often our input seems to be requested and then ignored. We aren't allowed to hold children accountable for mastering the material we present. We must pass the students who aren't ready because we don't want to warp their little psyches. We have violent children in our classrooms because they must have the "least restrictive environment" available - which adversely affects the other 99% of the students in the room. We cannot impose "harsh punishments" nor can we effectively discipline most students because parents tend to take their children's sides no matter evidence to the contrary.

You talk about merit pay for teachers - how about merit pay for parents?

When you were in India, did you see students running around the room, cussing out the teacher, destroying school equipment? Probably not.

You are right. American education is NOT meeting the needs of the children. But neither are parents and administrators.

We need to focus on what we want and take steps to attain it.

Your article said our students have more self-confidence than students in other countries. I've read several studies which confirm that statement, while adding it doesn't matter if the students are correct about the "answers" they are confident about. We, as parents and teachers, have been so concerned with building self-confidence and self-esteem that we have forgotten that children have to EARN their own self-confidence.

We heed to start requiring more from parents AND students. We need to figure out what we want students to know at each level of education and hold the students and parents accountable for this learning. In New Zealand, I understand that children start school on their fifth birthday. When they have mastered a certain set of skills, they advance to the next level. It may take three months for one child to master the skills; it might take a year for another to make the same advances. There is no shame in the pace of the progression. It's just accepted that you have to master the requirements before you move on. Kinda like our one room schoolhouse where the "greatest generation" received their education.

Requiring appropriate behavior from children would also help all the students learn to the best of their abilities. We've taken spankings out of school and had to replace them with metal detectors. We've taken "letter grades" and "flunking" out of our schools and replaced them with "social promotion” and “self esteem.”

When did the system work better? When teachers and parents were in charge and treated children like children? Or when we let the kids run the show?

We cannot return completely to ALL the old ways. But we sure could use common sense and revamping of the “new ideas” that just don’t work. You have to get the students’ attention and make it worth their while to achieve definite expectations. You have to make it worth the parents’ efforts to make school achievement worth the effort for the students.

[Monica Mills]

Debbie,
You and I are at opposite ends of the K-12 spectrum, and yet we are in total agreement over the sad state of the American education system. I have taught 12th grade economics and American Government for almost ten years and I can only teach a fraction of what I used to. Every year the curriculum that I am able to get through with today's students dwindles even more. I teach in a large, culturally diverse school with lots of blacks, Hispanics and poor whites. There are very few Asians at this school. Despite a state-of-the-art facility and an army of ESOL and ESE teachers and aides, it is astounding to witness what my students cannot and more tragically, WILL NOT do. Every day I see students who are proud of their ignorance and have little but disdain for education. I am very concerned for the future of America as we have known it in our lifetime. Change is definately in the air and I believe that average white and black students will be displaced by Asian and Hispanic students who are hungrier for education. I cannot see my students living the advantaged life that their parents have provided for them. You know a country is in trouble when the up and coming generation will not live as comfortably as the previous one. The best standard of living will go to the group that works the hardest for it. I am stunned at the complacency of the American public. I can't believe that corporate America has not recognized the increasing lack of sharp, motivated, well mannered and polite employees. The standards for everything in this country are on the decline. Service and quality are lackluster. I try to stay positive. I tell myself that change will occur. And at the same time, I encourage my own two teenagers to think globally - that in all reality, they will have to work in India, China or the middle east to earn the salaries they need to raise a family. America is headed into dark days. Americans will lose what they have achieved because there are others in the world who will work harder for the dream.