There are more problems than standardized tests in the American education system.
When I was in school, I never had a geography class. Whatever I learned of the shape of the world, the nations, the mountain ranges, rivers, oceans and deserts, I learned on my own time from PBS and the local library.
Children today have a wide spread attitude that learning is terribly uncool. It's lame to learn. That doesn't make it any easier to get them to learn anything.
I've read an account of Richard Feynman's work with a textbook review board. I'm not going to go dig it out right now, but sheesh...if that's the standard of textbooks in use in schools, it's no wonder we're in trouble. And that's down to school boards ordering the first thing off the list, or the book shilled by the salesman with the best expense account, or who has the best sales speech even if he has the worst book. In one case that Feynman recounted, a salesman presented for consideration a book with blank pages. It hadn't actually been fully compiled and printed yet.
Parents expect that teachers and schools should do it all; not only teach, but install a work ethic, discipline and thirst for knowledge. Good luck. Teachers are overworked and underpaid. And besides, there are some things kids learn better from their parents than from strangers, however professional and well-meaning the strangers are.
A kid goes to school. Teacher says, "Work hard, learn as much as you can, and you'll have a better life."
The kid goes home. Mom and Dad sit in front of the tv all evening; they mention homework only in passing. They do not send the child from the tv to do homework. They do not check the child's homework. Do you think the kid is really going to take school work seriously? (And yes, I understand that not all parents are like that; but some are.)
At this point, the problems faced by American educators are too far-reaching and too wide-spread to be fixed simply or very quickly.
And I think we really ought to budget pay raises for every teacher in the country; long overdue.
When I was in school, I never had a geography class. Whatever I learned of the shape of the world, the nations, the mountain ranges, rivers, oceans and deserts, I learned on my own time from PBS and the local library.
Children today have a wide spread attitude that learning is terribly uncool. It's lame to learn. That doesn't make it any easier to get them to learn anything.
I've read an account of Richard Feynman's work with a textbook review board. I'm not going to go dig it out right now, but sheesh...if that's the standard of textbooks in use in schools, it's no wonder we're in trouble. And that's down to school boards ordering the first thing off the list, or the book shilled by the salesman with the best expense account, or who has the best sales speech even if he has the worst book. In one case that Feynman recounted, a salesman presented for consideration a book with blank pages. It hadn't actually been fully compiled and printed yet.
Parents expect that teachers and schools should do it all; not only teach, but install a work ethic, discipline and thirst for knowledge. Good luck. Teachers are overworked and underpaid. And besides, there are some things kids learn better from their parents than from strangers, however professional and well-meaning the strangers are.
A kid goes to school. Teacher says, "Work hard, learn as much as you can, and you'll have a better life."
The kid goes home. Mom and Dad sit in front of the tv all evening; they mention homework only in passing. They do not send the child from the tv to do homework. They do not check the child's homework. Do you think the kid is really going to take school work seriously? (And yes, I understand that not all parents are like that; but some are.)
At this point, the problems faced by American educators are too far-reaching and too wide-spread to be fixed simply or very quickly.
And I think we really ought to budget pay raises for every teacher in the country; long overdue.