Our Education Systems Are Failing

@Aurone (4755)
United States
November 5, 2009 10:36am CST
I was lucky in my education. I went to some smaller unknown schools in my state of Arkansas that gave me a good education for relatively low cost. I also grew up with the viewpoint that everyone appreciated their education like I did and that everything got the excellent high school education and college education that I did. Now, as an educator, I am finding out that, that is not the case. I am watching one of the best education systems in the US deteriorate right in front of my eyes. Its sad, and something needs to be done before its too late. We need to reorganized the priorities of education and start spending enough money on education that we can draw people who are the best in their field to teach. We need to stop educating people from other countries only to deport them months after--if we educate them we should invite them to stay in the country so we can benefit from the education we have given them. There are so many thing wrong with our education system it would be impossible to list them all here. I saw this article today and it needs to be seen by all, because even though its about California's education system, it could be California today and the rest of the US tomorrow. Take a moment and read and then leave me a comment about the state of education in your state or country. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-bleich4-2009nov04,0,1193621.story (not a referral link)
3 responses
• United States
13 Nov 09
our schools are toying with the idea of grading teachers-and they should.we have the highest pay and the worst scores.obviously something is majorly wrong with that picture. i credit my grandmother for not being as dumb as a stump. she was a teacher herself but she actually taught instead of demanding yet more money with no results like most of them here. our books were so old when i went to school (no funds left to buy new) kennedy was still alive,and not yet president! they were horrifically non-pc by today's standards.i sure hope they've gotten new since.
1 person likes this
@Aurone (4755)
• United States
13 Nov 09
egads, and I thought my school was bad. My sister and brother who were 4 years younger and six years younger respectively, had the same books I did in class. And they were not new when I had them. I teach and sometimes I don't think we get paid enough. We make less than a $1 an hour if you average in all the time we spend preparing and grading and etc., but there should be a way to fire bad teachers too. I believe the whole system needs an overhaul. In college, students don't even want to learn they just want to pay for a degree. I think students' attitudes also need an adjustment as well.
1 person likes this
• United States
21 Nov 09
definetly. i know some 20 something's that hate going to college,i always tell them "do you know how lucky you are to recieve an extended education nowadays?" i used to get my bro's books too (4 years up) he'd always leave me little messages somewhere in the books-that was kind of funny,tho he shouldn't have been doodling in the books
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
6 Nov 09
Many schools are underfunded; but, it doesn't matter how much money you throw at the problem if the money is mismanaged. My school district just lost 3.5 mil in funding because they lied about how they were going to use the funds. When we originally approved the extra funding (through property taxes), we were told the money was going to be used over a 7 year period to make "capital improvements" - repairs to existing facilities, build extra classrooms, replace school desks and lockers, etc. And, we were told that it was just a temporary need - that once this had been accomplished the "override" would no longer be needed. This year (2 years before the override expires) the school district came back and said they need the override for an additional 7 years. The reason they gave for this is that the money has not been used for the "capital improvements" it was supposed to go for - those things have still not been done. Instead, the money was used to give everyone employed by the school district raises and to pay for "retreats" for the faculty. And, of course to continue the increases in salaries and the retreats the taxpayers have to keep coughing up the extra money. I think you know where the taxpayers told the school didtrict to go. They destroyed the trust of the community - the money did not go where it was suppossed to go. Do the teachers deserve raises? Yes, but, that money was not for that purpose. Did they deserve "retreats"? No, they could have gotten together in the school during the vacations and accomplished the same things without the extra expense of traveling out of town. So, they now have 2 years to figure out how they are going to manage without that money. Just as we have corruption and mismangaement in government, we also have it in our school systems. This needs to be addressed before we keep throwing money at the problem.
1 person likes this
@Aurone (4755)
• United States
7 Nov 09
True. I agree. I believe the education system as a whole needs to be reoraganized from kindergarten through college.
@kush20006 (515)
• India
5 Nov 09
it is not talk of only american education system the education system of the whole world is being affected by the external influence likewise take the example of india institutes are there now butr no of children n quality professors are less thus resulting in poor education at higher costs thus failing the economy of country completely