Is America's failing education system going to impact our economy in 10 years' time?

[tsugomaru]

Re: Is America's failing education system going to impact our economy in 10 years' ti

It seems ridiculous, but that's the reality. Some of the professors in the US might actually give a damn about teaching while others just won't put the extra effort into the subject they are suppose to teach. This just forces students to learn the material by themselves if they are serious about it.

~Tsugomaru

[RVL]

Re: Is America's failing education system going to impact our economy in 10 years' ti

I say school needs to be made much harder, and punishments twice as severe. Kids today are immature, puerile, unappreciative brats who don't care about anything that they are given, which DOES include education. Their incorrigible attitude only compounds the issue. If kids were made to realize what they were doing wrong and punished for it should they knowingly break rules, they might shape up. MIGHT. I've seen countless kids sent to the dean's office and punished, only to be back in the class in no time doing the same old things, obviously not having learned anything.

It's not so much necessarily that school needs to be harder, the expectations should be higher. Smart people ARE having some trouble with honor classes, as well as mantaining an above average grade. I agree that punishments should be somewhat more severe; if you miss a lot of homework assignments, you should be subject to getting a zero on all of those late assignments for not even doing it in the first place. Now, I sometimes don't know what to do for my homework, and even if I write it down in the binder the teacher may not have clearly explained it.... That's the one and only reason why I would miss a homework assignment. I actually put some effort in my work.

I do feel bad for the teachers that are overworked and underpaid. Teachers deserve to be paid upwards of 100,000$ for the hardest positions, like college. Maybe, if students were shown how they hurt their teachers with their laziness and lack of work ethic, it may touch them enough to motivate them to work harder. But very few kids seem to truly understand how they feel. I feel for them.

I remember having the best math teacher of all time in my middle school 6th grade year, and we all had a discussion on how student behavior effects his career. If the students in class aren't paying attention or are not behaving properly, and achieve poor grades, he would get fired just because the kids were acting stupid.

For the kids that do care, they make the future brighter for America and for the world. Unfortunately, the world is running out of these children, who are being replaced by overweight, unintelligent slackers with complacent, care-free parents. Who knows what'll happen. It may suddenly turn around as things reach their climax, or it may continue to descend until the nation collapses. As more people are birthed, more intelligent people enter the world. But many more slackers are born alongside him.

Well, it's not necessarily 100% true that overweight people are dumb. Some are just overweight because they lack physical exercise.

However, I do agree America should cut down of morbidly obese people.

FYI: When I googled Is Americas education system failing I saw an article about how much better private schools were than public schools.

[Bynary Fission]

Re: Is America's failing education system going to impact our economy in 10 years' ti

It's not so much necessarily that school needs to be harder, the expectations should be higher. Smart people ARE having some trouble with honor classes, as well as mantaining an above average grade. I agree that punishments should be somewhat more severe; if you miss a lot of homework assignments, you should be subject to getting a zero on all of those late assignments for not even doing it in the first place. Now, I sometimes don't know what to do for my homework, and even if I write it down in the binder the teacher may not have clearly explained it.... That's the one and only reason why I would miss a homework assignment. I actually put some effort in my work.

That's good. I hope you continue to do so. While raising expectations will encourage some students to work harder, many are completely unmotivated, and don't care whether they fail or not, regardless of expectations. Ultimately, it IS up the the student to decide whether he wants to get his education or not. But America's schools don't really help to motivate students anyways, so it is a double whammy in it's own right, with failures on both ends (For the most part, a few public schools really are good).

Well, it's not necessarily 100% true that overweight people are dumb. Some are just overweight because they lack physical exercise.

However, I do agree America should cut down of morbidly obese people.

FYI: When I googled Is Americas education system failing I saw an article about how much better private schools were than public schools.

I know not all overweight kids are dumb. I have spent most of my life slightly overweight (~5-10 pounds) and I'm very intelligent. Only recently did I lose those pounds. I now have a solid 16% body fat. But that's irrelevant. I was referring to the archetypal overweight, unmotivated slacker who typically isn't that bright. However, you are right. I should not use overweight kids as an example. My mistake.

Yes, private schools are often 10x better than their public counterparts, simply because they expect more out of a student, and they are better at motivating their students. I know this from experience. I went to a Christian private school in 5th and 6th grade in New York, and a private school in kindergarten. If you got < 72% on your assignments, it was an F. I always had straight As, as I am motivated to succeed and do well in life later on. but anyways, the schools do not have government intervention. The students there were brighter, more motivated, kinder, and the teacher was probably the absolute best I've ever seen. Too bad many people can't afford to send their students to private schools.

I've always thought that if the government were to either

A) Learn off of private schools in terms of education and motivation, or

B) Get the hell out of America's public schools

America's education system would not be such a failure. After all, they even let companies advertise in schools in return for funding, as they cannot provide adequate funding for many schools. Many of the things they give out [the companies] are lies or twisted truths. For example, there was an example in which Procter and Gamble gave funding to schools in return to pass out pamphlets containing information about them and their products. Some of the text read "Procter & Gamble's products do not harm the environment". BS. Other companies force kids to watch a set amount of advertising daily from X company that pays them. I know Coca-Cola did this. It's so sad. These schools should be some of the best in the world. But they aren't. The only schools that usually provide any decent education are private schools and colleges.




~Bynary Fission

[RVL]

Re: Is America's failing education system going to impact our economy in 10 years' ti

There's also another reason for America's failing public schools, actually... I remember a year ago I heard on the radio only 50% of public school students graduated from high school.

Also, there's a thread about rap music being a bad influence on children. I understand not everyone listens or cares about it, I dont, but many children have been influenced by rap, please look at the quote below.

I do think that rap music (specific rap music, of course, not all) enforces a VERY negative stereotype about successful black people.

Rap artists and sports stars are the most predominant examples of rich black people. By virtue of their position, they are idolized by kids. What do they teach, though? Being successful includes lots of drugs, lots of money, lots of sex, and lots of violence. Engaging in that violence and even getting murdered is honorable to rap music. The rappers frequently live their songs, thus encouraging younger people to do the same.

What's the result? Widespread use of ebonics and otherwise horrible grammar, widespread lack of respect for authority, almost no family values (what's the ratio of black single mothers to married parents again?), and a striking disparity in violent crime rates.
The people who have all those problems? Embodying rap music. That's tantamount to success.

There's a serious problem with recursion in the black community. Whom do kids have to idolize? The upstanding, successful black men and women like Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice? No, they're deemed "not black" by the black community! Bill Cosby is berated and discredited when he tries to suggest that the status of black culture is in a troubled spot, and that other black people are to blame for it! Sports stars? Okay, you've got your Michael Jordans and others in there who try to make a difference and do, but you also have the Kobe Bryant rapists and the Michael Irvin druggies and whoremongers.
Then you have the rap stars, who are a huge part of the black community as a whole. These people are, for the most part, societal vortices. They spiral down and away from anything that is sensible, decent, or worth encouraging and bring down anyone around them, too.

And these are the people who are idolized. Those kids who successfully live the rapper life only continue to reinforce the stereotype that successfull black people are thuggish, sex-craved, and have no respect for authority or education.

On my bolded words, younger people seem to live with the rap music, so as a side effect, they use horrible spelling and grammar because they are influenced by rap/hip hop. This could be another reason why the students in high schools are like "Yo wussup homies" because the rappers usually act like that, and they frequently swear. These kids influenced by rappers seem to care more about having a gang and making a rap group than having a good education.

EDIT: Haha I found my notice on the floor and it stated that in my region the supervisor of the public schools were taking away an elementary school and redistricting 7 schools. Increased Lunch prices, activity prices, and transportation rides will take place next school year. It even stated the school's budget was really low. Also, the notice said that this type of movement will damage Elementary school programs, which aren't that important but it is still quite horrible.

[Bynary Fission]

Re: Is America's failing education system going to impact our economy in 10 years' ti

Rap music is a bad influence, and to a severe degree I might add. I know this from personal experience, and I'll tell you why. Listen to this. In 8th grade (Last year), I went to a magnet school. It was a school with it's basis on Aerospace/Aviation and technology. But it presided in a ghetto filled with mostly Mexican and Hispanic people, followed by blacks. The school's race distribution was a staggering 70% Hispanic and 15% black. The rest was white, Asian, and other. And let me tell you...8 out of every 10 kids I knew listened to gangster rap and hip-hop. And it showed. The kids at my school were extremely vulgar, easily angered, violent, and many were failing at school. Some did drugs. This was even present in the predominately white Magnet population there (The Magnet kids are the special group of kids that applied to go there and utilize the special programs there, and to get in you had to have a few requirements, like a 2.5 GPA or higher). Mainstream rap does idolize all of the aforementioned things. I have listened to a little myself, to see what it was like. It was torture. I have failed to understand how ANYbody likes it..though I can see why they like it.

But rap is not the only thing that is dragging schools down. In fact, I'm not sure rap actually has that significant of a role in failure and dropout rates (Though I'd love to see a statistic showing the correlation. I'm not doubting it exists, I'd just like to see one), but the trash on TV helps demotivate our kids, and lets not forget the excessive video games, s*itty teachers, and overall lack of motivation. The problem has been allowed to grow and fester for many, many years. The problem will not be easy to fix, nor will it be swift. But if we don't stop now, we may soon cross the Point of No Return.




~Bynary Fission

[Relambrien]

Re: Is America's failing education system going to impact our economy in 10 years' ti

And let me tell you...8 out of every 10 kids I knew listened to gangster rap and hip-hop. And it showed. The kids at my school were extremely vulgar, easily angered, violent, and many were failing at school. Some did drugs. This was even present in the predominately white Magnet population there.

This is true pretty much anywhere, as far as I know. The majority of students in my area, which has an ethnic distribution similar to the national average, are similar to what you describe. It seems like a greater percentage of black students listen to rap than white students, but both numbers are quite high. Drugs are common (a good number of students at my school, which is a charter school, do drugs), people in public schools tend to fail classes, etc.

What I'm curious about is whether rap followed or lead the American culture. Did people turn to rap because students were getting, in general, more violent/vulgar/etc? Or did the trend appear because students turned to rap?

[andili]

Re: Is America's failing education system going to impact our economy in 10 years' ti

I remember 2 years ago, I was in a school filled with students that fought a lot and get pregnant before they finish middle school. I'm Asian, there were only 5 other kids that are Asian and 3% white (they already adjusted them selves the culture there) the rest are mostly Black and Hispanic. Before I moved there, I was in a "well-mannered" and organized school; this school in contrast had laziest and stupidest people I’ve ever met. The first time I witnessed a fight, I cried immediately after I got home, I just couldn’t handle the huge adjustment. I’ve never in my life seen people fight so seriously, especially when more people started ganging up against one person. I do not hate people that listen to rap, it’s their choice, and after being there for a while I actually listened to some R&B myself. Kids in the school I’m attending right now also listens to rap/ R&B, but they are willing to learn.
As for the classes, the teachers doesn’t even take a good look at my tests, they just give me 100% on everything. Seriously, if the teachers had been more responsible things would improve at least a tiny bit. I remembered once the English teacher showed a video about high school violence, the scene where the kids fought; the entire English class got out of their seats and cheered! The teacher doesn’t even stop the video and say something. They hardly think before they act, they are also very straightforward. If they liked someone, they would tell him or her right away. One kid became obsessed, he followed me to the girl’s bathroom, then later he went on my bus and looked for where I live. Doesn’t he know that was way overboard? The students have reached to a point where the answers are right on the board, and they still needed help.
It really depends on the area, the school I’m attending now has Hispanic and Black people as well, but they are very mature and understand how to handle situations instead of using violence.