Today's education system in the US seems to be a bit lacking. From some brief research I was able to learn the we are pretty low on the totem pole when it comes to overall education when compared to the rest of the developed world. I'm sure partially due to the fact that while other nations have increased their spending on education the US has actually cut spending. This aspect alone could prompt a long diatribe on the national budget and federal spending in general, but I won't go down that path today. I'm more focused on the 'how' of the current system. The methods of teaching and the stick and carrot methods used to encourage better results.
It seems today, and even when I was in school it was already headed this way, that students are being taught to the test. Which is an absolute horrible way to teach. In effect giving the students only the instruction that will be covered in the test, and drilled in memorizing dates and snippets of facts. And in the science based classes memorizing formulas and not really worrying about the actual application of them, just enough to figure out the correct answer. In an age now, when all these things are available to damn near anyone on a whim, wouldn't it be more prudent to not have students memorizing? But show them how to apply these things and stimulate critical thinking and problem solving. The availability of knowledge is only gong to become more and more easy to come by as time goes on. Hell, at this point I'm pretty certain that you could gain a decent grasp of advanced math, world history, and even electrical engineering from Youtube.
It seems today, and even when I was in school it was already headed this way, that students are being taught to the test. Which is an absolute horrible way to teach. In effect giving the students only the instruction that will be covered in the test, and drilled in memorizing dates and snippets of facts. And in the science based classes memorizing formulas and not really worrying about the actual application of them, just enough to figure out the correct answer. In an age now, when all these things are available to damn near anyone on a whim, wouldn't it be more prudent to not have students memorizing? But show them how to apply these things and stimulate critical thinking and problem solving. The availability of knowledge is only gong to become more and more easy to come by as time goes on. Hell, at this point I'm pretty certain that you could gain a decent grasp of advanced math, world history, and even electrical engineering from Youtube.
The point is that we're stuck in a mode of instruction that severely limits the potential of today's youth. And the current model of schools being rewarded or punished financially based on standardized testing. Leading to students being taught only what is on the test to try to bring those scores up. That's not saying that there are not teachers out there that try to go beyond and actually instruct students on the how and why of their specific subjects, but those teachers are few and far between.
Do I have the answers on how to shift things to provide a better education to the students of today? No. But I'm sure that there are people out there who have put the relative thought into it and have some damn good plans on how to implement it.
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