Comments on: Stupid in America (how we cheat our kids)

By: Homeschooled Homeschooler

Homeschooled Homeschooler — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:13:17 +0000

I don’t know much about schools in other countries, but I do know about the students who are coming out of the schools here in the US. I also know about the homeschooled students here in the US (the ones who had parents who actually taught their children, not just let them ‘teach’ themselves).

From what I’ve seen, the academic standars have greatly decreased over the years. It is not all the teacher’s fault, nor is it all the school’s fault. Some obviously has to do with the person doing the teaching, some obvioiusly has to do with the way the public school system is set up, but a vast majority of it has to do with what parents are doing to help the situation.

Are parents keeping close tabs on what their children are learning? Are they paying attention to where their children are hanging out and who they’re hanging with? Are parents involved with any aspect of their children’s lives?

Some are…and those few probably have a better chance at coming out of the public shcool system with any semblance of education. If the parents whould step up to the plate and do their parenting, then some of the problems that the schools are facing with the unruly children would cease to exist.

I was homeschooled, my parents didn’t do the greatest job in the academic area, but they did an excelent job in the area of respect and discipline. They taught me to be a hard worker, and to respect those in authority regardless of how idiotic they may seem at times. They taught me to be honest, and have integrity.
It was partially my parents fault with the academics in my home being messed up like it was simply because they had their hands full with other things and chose not to check my homework daily…it caused me to choose to lie to them rather than to do it, because I had no motivation in and of myself to do it.
I wasn’t totally screwed in the area of academics, obviously…but I could have done much better than I did. As you can see, I am a much better speller than the majority of students these days, and more so even than some of my peers of the same age as myself.

Most children are going to have the same laziness issues as I had. If they don’t have their parents motivating them to achieve goals and set them even, then they will simply not do it.

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but discipline and correction will drive it far from him. Parents have a huge part to play in the development of their children, including the academic development, but many seem to let the schools take on the entirety of their education instead of doing their part to teach their children.

I understand that some parents are in a situation that makes it difficult to do so, but many more are not, and could take it upon themselves to be involved in their children’s lives.

So, what I’m getting at, is that it is not just our school system or the teachers in it that are the problem, it is also the parents and the children who should take responsibility and work towards a better future for themselves, their children, and their grandchildren.
Private shools probably show much better statistics partially because they require the students and the parents to all be involved together in and with the school.

Forgive me if it comes off harsh, but it’s a harsh reality check that may spark parents to take back the role of parent in their home, and quite possibly raise the education level once again in these United States of America.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:40:20 +0000

John, I worked with Nathan for half a year and I can assure you he’s a very good teacher.

By: john mckay

john mckay — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 05:03:18 +0000

Nathan, maybe yer just a bad teacher.

By: Nathan Bolduc

Nathan Bolduc — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:32:17 +0000

I taught in Taiwan for seven years before returning to the US last year. While in Taiwan I taught at a public high school, and I also taught elementary students in a private buxiban, as well as adults. Since I have been back in the States I have taught Philosophy at a community college and have been a substitute language arts and social studies teacher for middle and high school. Let me tell you the difference between students in the two countries is stark. For the most part the education system here has failed many students. In my college philosophy class I had many student that couldn’t even write grammatically correct sentences, they were lazy, they wanted me to give them the answers, and complained that the material was too difficult. The material far more simple than the material I studied at the very same school 15 years before.
What I have seen at the public schools so far is enough to convince me never to send my kids there. In general the students are not challenged any more. The kids spend half the class doing work and the rest of the time they want to play games. On any given day I have more students show up without a book or pencil than I did in 7 years combined in Taiwan. It’s a problem of attitude in US culture. Students come to school wearing flip-flops, dressing like bums, with no respect for authority, no desire to learn. They all think they will achieve the same standard of living as their parents with little or no work. They are more concerned about their ipods, DSs, and PSPs, that anything else. When my students in Taiwan finished their work they would do homework from another class or read a novel. So for none of my students here do that. They run around the class like idiots. I even teach in the suburban schools, the inner-city school my mother teaches at is worse by far. It has changed a lot here in the last ten years. It’s very scary. Many of the teachers I have talked to here feel that they are helpless. The system in Taiwan might produce little worker bees, but here we are producing fat little couch potatoes. And everybody talks about critical and analytical skills students learn here, which is what I used to think, but from what I’ve seen this year I have changes my mind. The students here have less of an understanding of their history and their political system than do their Taiwanese counterparts, and far less knowledge about the world outside of their own country. If you don’t have the basic building blocks from which to form an opinion, then your opinion will be poor and uninformed. There are some bright spots here though, the catholic school my friend’s sixth grade daughter goes to has the sixth graders doing work that you would have to wait until high for in the public schools here. They study algebra, Greek mythology and have to do at home research.

By: owshawng

owshawng — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 21:42:18 +0000

I think Taiwan’s educational system teaches people to be parrots. They repeat whatever they learned, but they don’t know how to analyze anything very well. I also thought they were pretty lacking in the creativity department. I went to grad school with several Taiwanese. All were good at reciting the facts of whatever we read, but ask them to interpret or give an opinion and they tended to perform not as well as the mediocre students. They also told me they were never trained to analyze, only memorize and recite. My wife is Taiwanese and has the same opinion too.

Unfortunately I think US schools are daycare for older kids. Once you get outside of honors and level 1 classes, the classes seem to be more like holding rooms with teachers going through the motions and the kids killing time or disrupting the class.

By: Patrick Cowsill

Patrick Cowsill — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:15:04 +0000

I have no qualms with sending my daughter to Taiwanese schools. In my opinion, the kids learn the basics better here in Taiwan (especially in math or the sciences).

University seems to be a different bag. Right now, I am completing a master’s degree in Taiwan, and am finding I am getting less out of it than I did completing an undergraduate degree back home. Western education seems to be a lot better at the university level.

By: David on Formosa » Links 8 October 2007

David on Formosa » Links 8 October 2007 — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 23:30:40 +0000

[...] Doubting to shuo and Michael Turton have different viewpoints about Taiwan's education system. [...]

By: v

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 18:53:44 +0000

i was in the orthodontist’s office with my two children and picked up the 2007 yearbook of my hometown. i saw in it some of my old teachers (i’m 42) were retiring. there was the math teacher who was so bored that he often when off track to talk baseball. there was the social studies teacher who tried to scare the crap out of me… all i could think of was ‘thanks union for giving my hometown 30 plus years of mediocrity’. then there was the art teacher i had in elementary school who now was at the high school. he was absolutely fantastic. i had him when i was 10 and i still remember his class vividly at 42. all i could think was ‘what a legacy he is leaving behind’. i was lucky to have him. what public schools teacher soon learn is that it doesn’t matter if you do more or less than expected- everyone is treated the same- except in the eyes and smiles of the students. that is what differentiates the good from the mediocre from the bad. that for some teachers is their greatest motivator: their ‘merit pay’.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 13:25:19 +0000

Cindy, you’re right. This 20/20 investigation had a clear aim- to get people to support vouchers. I found it on the popular page on del.icio.us.

To answer your question, Sweeden has a very popular voucher system, and Ireland also has system in which students can choose their school, public or private, and tax money pays the teachers of those schools. England does not have a voucher system, and attempts to create one were crushed fairly recently. As for anywhere else in Europe, I have no idea. Maybe other commenters can tell us.

By: Kaminoge

Kaminoge — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 11:52:02 +0000

More than those in Taiwan, Cindy. I don’t know about you, but my high school history teachers didn’t care if we got the dates wrong. They made us write essays on the reasons why things happened.