<p>@geo113 I guess we have had very different experiences, at my highschool, and middle school there was a small portion, (20-25%) that tried to do well. The majority of the students were very unmotivated. I would tutor kids after school in math and english, and 1 out of 20 would try, the rest resented being there, and were more focused on socializing.</p>
<p>In regards to parents, I should rephrase that a little, I’m not saying they didn’t care, they just didn’t care enough to take any sort of active role in their children’s education. Out of those who didn’t care/try most had parents who didn’t pay any attention to their grades. The more affluent school that I am zoned for has a similar problem, more students are uninterested in learning, and just aren’t motivated. To them school is a chore, something they have to go to. This lack of motivation IS a problem.</p>
<p>“You do realize that CC is such a minute portion of the population. Most kids who come here are looking for an answer and once they get it, they are gone.”
That is why I started my statement with ‘while’, it is an indication of something that is an exception or out of the norm. Also my evidence that an online based system would not work is purely a logos based statement. (I began the entire post with ‘My $0.02:’ an indication of an opinion-centric post rather than one based upon facts)
My reasoning explained:
In SK the highly motivated students work extremely hard, with parents who push them extremely hard to do well. The online systems cater to all levels of students and provide varying levels of education based on payment.
In the U.S as I’ve outlined above, students are generally less motivated, less eager to learn, and the culture is not nearly as much of a meritocracy. Parents are generally less demanding, with only a few ‘tiger moms’.
Adapting the SK system to the U.S would inevitably fail because only a small segment of the population would truly be engaged in such a system. In order for such a system to work a larger percentage of the population would need to be actively seeking the services so that teachers would be given a large amount of feedback. Online teaching has begun to take a role in the U.S but mainly at the collegiate level, where students are generally more motivated. (MOST of us go to college to do better and learn, not to party which is an indication of motivation)</p>
<p>Furthermore in response to the idea that online services would make students care more, what evidence is there? In fact online services such as GrowingStars have been around for years, but they haven’t caused any large changes in the American system.</p>