I am currently writing an essay for one of my classes which asks me to evaluate how I think my education prepared me for my participation in a democratic society. In turn, I have written about 11 problems I have with our public education system.
WARNING: This is very lengthy and not at all gramatically correct. This was more stream of consciousness. I have made no attempt to organize it so much may not flow. You may be advised to read just the UNDERLINE parts.------------------------------------------------------------------
My problems with high school (public school).
I have many issues with our public school system. Things that direly need to be changed. Putting no structure into this I am going to attempt to list my issues with the school system and illustrate with some examples.
1.
My first issue with our school system is that it teaches students that what is important is memorization. Now to some degree memorization is helpful. In early years learning to memorize words and how to spell them is certainly helpful and effective in teaching because at that age kids are to learn the basic fundamentals (ie: the alphabet, how to spell, how to read). But as education goes on memorization shouldn’t play as fundamental of a role. Students should be learning how to critically think on their own. MOST of my tests were multiple-choice tests which if you memorized the study guide correctly you could pass the test. But this required absolutely no true comprehension of the material and no critical thinking. This required short-term storage and left no lasting implications. This includes fields such as history, science, literature, and probably everything except athletics. This is a major problem in the public education system.
2.
Lack of one-on-one teaching. In public school there is NO requirement for one-on-one teaching. So unless your parents are really involved with your schooling the child has little direction and guidance. Inspired by Senator Krueger’s story about his education at Oxford I see this as very important. How can a teacher know how to teach his students if he has no idea where each individual student is at, and understand each students background and experience. What I would suggest is that the teachers would be required to meet with each student 2x every month. Which if your in the typical classroom there would be about thirty kids in a classroom, all a teacher would have to do is meet with 2 kids everyday for about 30 minutes each and it would easily cover it. One-on-one teaching I think should be essential in our education system to make sure the kids have clear guidance in what they do. To make sure the kids have some guidance.
3.
Failure to teach what is really going on. What angers a college student more than finding out that once they come to college, a lot (read: most) of the things they learned were incorrect or not the full story. For example, learning in English that what the teacher wants is this rigid essay of: topic, thesis, intro, 3 body paragraphs + 2 supporting examples, and a conclusion. Or the famous: “Tell them what your going to say, say it, then explain what you just said.” I was told that numerous times in high school only to find out that in college the teachers don’t want that at all. What about history? Well come to find out that Columbus wasn’t such a great guy, and a whole entire field of history that we are never taught. Things that I am still learning (or rather, relearning). Come to understand that teachers want you to be able to critically think about the course material that we are learning, and memorization…eh, not so much.
4.
Not allowing for individual creativity. With a required course curriculum that all students have to take, and no focus on one-on-one teaching, there leaves little room for individual creativity. How can creativity prosper when students have no real choice in the classes they have to take (with exception to electives)?
5.
Failure of parents to guide the kids in learning. I understand that this isn’t a direct issue with the schooling system, but nonetheless a huge hindrance in kids academic growth. Both my parents worked a lot. Both of them were gone when I woke up, and not home until about 3 hours after I had already gotten out of school. Both of them were tired when they got home and one of them had to grade papers while she was at home b/c she’s a schoolteacher. Parents are very busy earning money to provide for their family’s back at home. My parents never made me do homework. They’d ask if I had homework to do. Sometimes I’d lie and say I didn’t. There were ways to get it done during lunch before class or right before school started and often I opted to do that. The 1966 Coleman Report found that “under the current American educational system the home is, except in the case of extremely good or extremely bad schools, the decisive influence on academic outcomes.” Home appears to be the dominant influence in kids education, so if kids parents do not play a very prominent role in teaching their kids, guiding their kids, and showing them the importance of their education, the kids more than likely won’t get a lot from their public education.
6.
Kids left behind. E.D. Hirsch uses a brilliant analogy in his book “The Schools We Need & Why We Don’t Have Them” using a quote from the Bible to make analogous what happens with kids who fall behind. The quote is Matthew 13:12 which says, “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall hath more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath”. This illustrates perfectly what happens with kids who possess little knowledge when they first arrive at school lack the relevant experience and vocabulary and do not have the mental foundation to understand new things. Thus they fall further and further behind. This gap is ever increasing as the kids around them who do comprehend the material can then use that material to grapple new ideas and adapt to new challenges. It is the enabling function which shows that relevant prior knowledge is essential at every stage of learning and why without it its almost impossible to learn something new. All newly learned material draws from what we already know. We have to relate it to our own experiences and ideas.
7.
Core curriculum is not the same. The parliament of Norway said, “it is a central tenet of popular enlightenment that shared frames of reference must be the common property of all the people—indeed must be part of general education—to escape avoidable differences in competence that can result in social inequality and be abused by undemocratic forces”. This need to have some basis for what the nation is taught is central but their exists no national curriculum here in the U.S. Also, the idea that there exists a coherent plan for teaching content within the local district, or even within the individual school, is a gravely misleading myth. Most people accept it as truth that there is a local curriculum.
8.
Standardized testing. Known also as the TASS test. Teaching kids to pass this standardized test was the goal of most teachers. Most of the test was aimed at elementary Mathematics and basic writing. And in our classes we devoted most of our time to preparing for this. We were not learning new ideas. We were learning how to pass this one test. We spent so much time preparing for this one test which was alleged to assess our intelligence.
9.
Not conducive for independent thought. Coinciding with schools gearing towards memorization, standardized tests, and lack of individual creativity this creates an environment that allows for very little independent thought. One of the most primary goals if not the goal of education should be to teach a person to think for his or her self. This is rudimentary. But the truth is public education does very little to promote independent thought outside of maybe the honors program. And with social pressures all around students to conform and the “need” for kids to feel accepted it makes it all the harder to actually sustain independent thought about life.
10.
Public Branding. Labeling kids as a certain kind of person does a lot psychologically to the rest of the group. For example, labeling a kid ”slow-learner” places the idea in this kids head that something is wrong with him. That he doesn’t quite match up to the rest of the group. Labeling kids as GT (gifted and talented) and placing them in special classes can make other students feel inferior. The fact that they cannot meet up to these higher standards.
11.
Lack of standards for hiring teachers. Not much more needs to be said about this… Coaches…
