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Education in America


Yuki

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School is really important: Reading, writing, arithmetic. But what they tend to do is teach you reading, writing, arithmetic…then teach you reading, writing, arithmetic again. Then again, then again, just making it harder and harder just to keep you busy. And that’s where I think they messed up. There should be a class on drugs. There should be a class on sex education. No, REAL sex education class, not just pictures and illogical terms…There should be a class on scams, there should be a class on religious cults, there should be a class on police brutality, there should be a class on apartheid, there should be a class on racism in America, there should be a class on why people are hungry, but there not, their class is on…gym….Their class is like Algebra. we have yet to go a store and said, “Can I have X Y + 2 and give me my Y change back, thank you.” You know?…Like foreign languages. I think that they are important, but I don’t think it should be required. Actually, they should be teaching you English, and then teach you how to understand double talk, politician’s double talk. Not teaching you how to understand French and Spanish and GERMAN. When am I going to Germany? I can’t afford to pay my rent in America! How am I going to Germany?

—Tupac, Age 17 On the Topic of Education, 1988.

Tupac gets me okay. Thoughts?

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I live in England, and while the education doesn't have many problems, I will say it is BORING.

When was the last time I had a science experiment? Oh yeah...

We got science experiments in Brussels ALL DAY ERRYDAY, but that's because the school puts more money in science and renovation than music. And there's all this pressure on these 3000 or so kids, and I see all these european sections, the portugese, the dutch, the french, the english, roughhousing or fighting or making fun of other people from those sections. So overall, could be worse, but with all these kids, it's chaos.
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We got science experiments in Brussels ALL DAY ERRYDAY, but that's because the school puts more money in science and renovation than music. And there's all this pressure on these 3000 or so kids, and I see all these european sections, the portugese, the dutch, the french, the english, roughhousing or fighting or making fun of other people from those sections. So overall, could be worse, but with all these kids, it's chaos.

Kids.

Fuck my life.

All the people at my school are just...

*faints*

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As always, our take on American education is this:

- It is good, in the sense that students are encouraged to explore their interests by selecting a few subjects and learning them to deeper levels as compared to the British system. So you'll have maybe five subjects with reasonable depth as opposed to maybe eight with shallower syllabi as per the British system.

- It is also bad, in the sense that students may not be matured enough to know what subjects to choose. In this respect, the British system is better, because for instance, if you wanted to study science, physics/chemistry/biology/maths are all mandatory, but a lesser depth than the American system. And maths includes algebra/calculus/geometry and statistics all together, not separately.

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Now that I have time to respond:

How can an opinion be wrong?! That's what an opinion is!

Doesn't mean I have to agree with it. Hence why I called it garbage.

Attitudes like this are why we're falling behind in education. No one is motivated. They deem what they're learning in school unnecessary, which is absurd. To say that you don't need Algebra just because you'll never see it in the form you're shown in school is...[insert insult here].

Honestly, America may be dishing out factory education, and we're still ahead of most of the world. Now if we could fix this attitude, and start treating teachers like their position matters again, there may be hope for this nation.

Students should learn because they want to, not because they have to. To be honest, I'd love it if the US only took the top 10% into highschool, and sent the others to trade schools. (Where some will end up making more money than those who went to highschool).

</offtopic>

I may agree with Tupac on the fact that students should be exposed to the full brunt of history, at least starting in 5th grade. For those of you who've read the book "Lies my History Teacher told me", then you get what I'm saying.

tl;dr To say you don't need school is to say you don't need a job, don't need to work, etc.

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- It is also bad, in the sense that students may not be matured enough to know what subjects to choose. In this respect, the British system is better, because for instance, if you wanted to study science, physics/chemistry/biology/maths are all mandatory, but a lesser depth than the American system. And maths includes algebra/calculus/geometry and statistics all together, not separately.

This generation has a big bunch of kids in Britain who can't decide ANYTHING. Well, at least there are the few that actually can have a brain to decide things.

Well, maybe it's only my high school in Britain that has that problem. Then again, there are some from our local schools who act exactly the same...

And the teachers keep boasting about our school having excellent grades and levels as a whole. Seems more like a seperation of walking supercomputers + normal kids (of which there are few, and then there are the idiots who inhibit about 85% of our school, no matter what year, group or form, who do pretty much nothing and forget instructions from the teachers about 5 seconds after they've said them.

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This generation has a big bunch of kids in Britain who can't decide ANYTHING. Well, at least there are the few that actually can have a brain to decide things.

Precisely - if a kid has even a vague liking for science and is given exposure to all its branches equally, it may be better than them rashly choosing classes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A lot of education is taught by stupid people honestly, Haven't you ever noticed the majority of teachers probably got their degree only by cheating? Very few people these days barely work what we define as 'hard' anymore.

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Nah, the education system has become lopsided in favor of the student. Standards are lower than ever and we're still afraid to fail kids. Even though they show no motivation, pay no attention, don't do homework, and do shitty work, all they have to do is whine and complain and tear up and parents are all up in the school to see what's wrong with the teacher.

No Child Left Behind has only worked in a select few cases and in other it puts pressure on a lot of teachers who aren't doing anything wrong and don't get any support whatsoever.

Way back in grade school and middle school, I didn't think I was smart, just normal. Until compared to the other kids. School is easy. We just have a shitton of priveleged kids who don't give a damn and get a grade curve for tests after they all fail miserably.

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