<p>This is probably the most serious thing I'll ever ask on here, but do you guys think the American educational system is a joke compared to other countries? I honestly kind of think we are, but idk if I should be complaining that we're easier.</p>
<p>I think this is an interesting question to ask but I’m not at all an expert on the different education systems around the world. I do think however that multiple examples of students not really caring about or having any value towards their education can be found all over the states. Whether or not it’s more common in the states is more of the issue in this case I guess…</p>
<p>It’s not if you try.</p>
<p>I agree , I believe that you will get whatever you put into it. I think the difference is that some student aren’t as self disciplined and value other things besides academics. Yet that could also be seen as a plus. In the US we tend to have more extracurricular activities to expand student’s interests whereas other schools may be solely focused on academics and national standardized tests.</p>
<p>There are a few things I like about this system, but there are some things I don’t. </p>
<p>*I don’t like how long we are in school. (12 yrs +4 yrs + 2-4 yrs for most people). I think there needs to be some alternative plans to reduce the number of years we are in primary and secondary school (i like the idea of 10-11 yrs+3 yrs + 2-3 yrs)
*Liberal arts education aka the fixation that we need to study some general topics before you specialize. Yeah, it’s important for a tech person to know how to write and an english major to know how to add, but I don’t like that this style of education carries all the way up through college. In some countries, you are generally done with broad based education after 1-2 years in high school.
*The amount of standardized testing we do. Yes, every country has some amount of standardized testing, but we seem to overdo it, especially at the high school level. In my four years of high school, I’ve taken 17 different tests. My cousins in a foreign country took half that. </p>
<p>*I do like the flexibility of the system. I still believe that people should decide early on what they want to do with their lives, but I have no argument against changing that opinion. If you’re forty and decide you want to pick up a degree in economics, go ahead and do it. You can’t really do that in most places in the world.
*It’s also easy to study more than one thing. If you love art, but understand that it’s not a practical subject to study by itself, you can tack that major onto something more fruitful and get the best of both worlds. </p>
<p>
That’s true to an extent, but other countries do have a upper hand in general. You can’t say “well if you try/are smart.” You have to look at the average kid. The average kid doesn’t put as much effort in or do as well as high achieving kids do. And the average kid in many other countries generally does better than the average US kid.</p>
<p>American education definitely needs fixing. I mean look at Finland: they’re one of the countries whose average students do better than the US, but yet have less homework than we do and stuff like that. </p>
<p>What are we counting “doing better” as? I think we need to establish the metric, as if it’s the global test scores that articles often cite then it’s generally because we have more average students being allowed to represent the nation in these tests rather than the select elite.</p>
<p>@foolish You have a point, but not every country only allows the most elite of students to go to school/participate in the studies. If you consider US education compared to other countries, it only makes sense that we don’t have as good of an education system as other countries. Other countries just have a better system and funding. </p>
<p>That said, while the American system could use some fixing, we have a lot more opportunities than kids our age in third world countries do.</p>
<p>Does the average American taking 0 Ap classes watching too much T.V. try as hard as an average person in China or Korea studying their butts off, I really don’t think so.</p>
<p>The U.S. spends more per student than any other country.</p>
<p>I think @foolish’s post is the most important in this entire thread. Oftentimes, countries will choose only the best of the best to partake in the global standardized testing that determines ranking based on subject - the United States doesn’t do that (at least not that I am aware of) - the practice would be the equivalent of the United States only allowing Phillips Academy, Stuveysant, and TJHSST students to sit for the exams, rather than a random sampling from the whole gamut of schools in this country. </p>
<p>But you know what really is a joke when it comes to American education? The cost of college. That’s a joke. A very sad, economically toxic joke, but a joke nevertheless. </p>
<p>@preamble1776 too many people go to college imo. in China only 7% of high schoolers can go to any college, and you have to be selected t go to high school of any caliber.</p>
<p>Having smart students participate in global standardized testing vs. having average people taking it is a flaw that makes the results skewed, but the issue is still there: the US is behind other countries. I don’t just mean in terms of ranking for a subject, but just overall on the education scale. Other countries have implemented better ideas for education. </p>
<p>This article does a pretty good job of explaining what I mean: <a href=“Opinion | Three Reasons Students Do Better Overseas - The New York Times”>Opinion | Three Reasons Students Do Better Overseas - The New York Times. Also, @wcao9311 the section about funding in that article is what I meant by funding; we might spend more on each kid than any other country, but not an equal amount for every kid. Basically, wealthier districts equals more than the poorer districts. Make sense; Northern VA kids are typically the wealthier ones, and they have the magnet schools and whatnot. Meanwhile, in Southern VA, where I’m at, there’s less funding because these school districts are poorer and there’s a huge difference from what NOVA kids get (and as a result, what schools they apply to and attend, etc.).</p>
<p>Compare our education to Britain’s high-class GCSEs and A-Levels. Very, very sad.</p>
<p>^ Idk, I skimmed over the A-Levels in Math for them (I admit though, I know close to nothing about it) and the topics seem just a bit over the reach of Calc BC. Considering many top math students take Calc 3/Diff Eqs/Lin Alg in High school here (which I am assuming are the equivalent of the top math students choosing to take A-levels in Math?), I would say it’s comparable. However, I am guessing that the flaw in my logic is that far fewer students are that level in the US than take A-levels in Math there.</p>
<p>What do you guys think about the way America teaches foreign languages versus other countries? Ever since I’ve joined this site, I think I’ve seen a few posts saying how the way America teaches foreign languages suck or something like that.</p>
<p>
Around 83,000 students [url=<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP_Calculus]passed[/url”>AP Calculus - Wikipedia]passed[/url</a>] the AP Calculus BC exam in 2013 (which is the most common way for high school students to get credit for Calculus II), and most of them were probably either seniors or didn’t have access to higher math classes. </p>
<p>And then you have people like me who do that as a freshie.</p>
<p>This is not the personal brag thread. Especially when your humblebrag is subpar. </p>
<p>“It’s not if you try.” And in this moment you managed to ignore every single institution of oppression in this country’s entire history </p>