The education system is failing American children. The education I received in public school, kindergarten through graduating high school, is monumental compared to the education that my younger brother is receiving now, only six years later.
All of my life, I had amazing teachers, who encouraged me every step of the way. They were patient, they were kind, they were personal, and they treated me like I mattered, sometimes even like I was their own child. They sincerely enjoyed their jobs. Where have all of those wonderful educators gone? They sure aren’t the people standing in front of classrooms today. In only six years, they have all managed to disappear. I guess they all gave up, became burnt out, frustrated. The “teachers” I see in my old classrooms today are bitter, intolerant, and can barely make it through the day without strangling a child, it seems. Bottom line: they don’t care anymore.
It’s not just the quality of the instructors that’s lacking. It seems that the standards in public schools today are heading to hell in a hand basket. When I was in school I was placed in all sorts of advanced classes, where the curriculum fit the description “advanced”. My brother attends the same so called “advanced” classes but the subject matter is hardly advanced at all. Now the advanced classes are over run with children who don’t yet have the aptitude to be in them. Those children inevitably fall behind, which is no fault of theirs, and slow down the class. They are basically set up for failure. All students are getting the shaft in this situation. This defeats the whole purpose of advanced classes, and the whole learning process, and it’s probably all due to some budget cut. All children, and for that matter all people, learn at a different rate, it is a fact of life, and they should be accommodated.
I know that education is more important in some parts of the country than in others but I’m sure this is not isolated incident. I’m sure this situation is common to many cities and states in the United States. I don’t have any facts or figures to prove my claims, only my personal experience. I think one major obstacle for education is the budget. It’s too low. Maybe we should stop giving so much money to adults who refuse to help themselves and start giving it to the children who have every reason to succeed in life.
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2 comments:
I agree that the standards in public schools are rapidly decreasing. However, I do not agree that the problem lies entirely with the teachers. The educational system is failing all involved--students who rely on it for their futures AND the teachers who devoted their lives to enriching the lives of their students.
In a system so dependent on TAKS, standardized testing such as AP and IB, the goal has become test success, not education. Teachers' contracts are based on student performance. School ratings are based on student performance. In some cases, funding and budget decisions are based on student performance. In my former high school, scores in math and science are far below those in language arts and social studies. So, which teachers were given a $2000 per year stipend? Those who have demonstrated their expertise and ability, or those whose students did not achieve up to the (granted low) standard? That's right! The math and science teachers received a stipend as an incentive to increase their scores instead of giving a reward to the teachers who had a 100% passing rate among their students. In another attempt to raise scores, the local administration implemented a "canned" curriculum known as C-Scope. After the first year of a regimented curriculum and higher pay, guess what happened? Math scores dropped, science scores remained stable, and language arts and social studies scores improved.
In a system with its priorities so misplaced, it is not surprising that many promising teachers have chosen to leave the system. Of course the greatest losers are the students--and the greater society that will have to retrain the system's graduates to perform any meaningful task in the workplace.
Both your and "Government of the people? Lol"'s statements were correct. Public education is something that needs considerable revamping. So many good teachers can't stand having to teach for TAKS. The fact that their pay depends on their students test scores may seem fair, but in reality it's not.
While it may be true that failing test scores can correlate to failed teaching skills, many times bad grades are because of the student, not the teacher. Bad scores could be because of lack of interest in school and education, or simply a fear of tests - because yes it's true that some students don't do well in a structure testing environment - as well as different ways and paces of learning.
To show how messed up at least one school district has become: I had the most amazing pre-AP and AP chemistry teacher in high school - Mrs. D, let's say. She, and one other Mrs. E, were considered the best science teachers, and Mrs. D was not only the sole AP chemistry teacher, but was department chair as well. Mrs. D put in all her love and dedication in teaching us what we needed to do well in chemistry and any future science class we possibly chose to take. Because of that, many of my friends became science majors.
However, to prove how the system is flawed - she was demoted from department chair because she refused to treat the regular class like morons, and thus teach solely for TAKS. The school board wanted her to teach only the necessary information to get her students to pass TAKS with good scores, but she refused. Mrs. D nearly quit, but when Mrs. E retired, Mrs. D stayed because she honestly worried about how the students' education would fare without both of them.
In fact all my AP teachers are unhappy with the direction of the school board and system. Some want to quit, some already have. When the good teachers run away, that's when you have a problem. I keeping asking myself why students realize this, but not the school boards.
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