Indeed. I've heard numerous 'horror' stories about American public/state education.... I've zero idea what *our* schools are like now, but back in my day (essentially about 1965-78) I thought they were OK for what they were 'designed' for - getting working class kids into low to medium level jobs with JEEP (Just Enough Education to Perform). My 'real' education only really came from age 18 onwards and through LOTS of reading.
One of my nieces got a full scholarship to a VERY good private school which sounded amazing. I was *so* jealous!
I think that education is probably *the* most important thing out there - if only it was done properly and funded enough to actually produce the results it could and should produce. What a waste of talent and potential. It's shameful really.
It's not the system so much as specific subcultures & populations being served. Gang violence has gotten so bad at one of the local high schools that they're switching to "online learning" for presumably the rest of term. A friend of mine worked for the city schools for about six years before deciding that she'd rather drive an hour and work at one of the rural county schools -- where she could teach and not be threatened every single day by students, where administrators supported staff, etc.
I'm certainly not in any position to offer solutions to the problems in education - and not only in the US but across the West - but I do think that chronic underinvestment in the schools themselves as well as widespread underappreciation of educators (and not just in pay levels) really isn't helping.
As with most things - especially with anything that's been going on for decades, generations or even longer - there are no easy magic-bullet solutions. If only!! Something needs to be done though even if its a complete root and branch/slash and burn start again scenario. There's lots of good ideas out there. A few long-running pilot studies might point in the right direction.
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Hope her experience is better than the "Taught for America" article writer..
https://wesleyyang.substack.com/p/taught-for-america
Indeed. I've heard numerous 'horror' stories about American public/state education.... I've zero idea what *our* schools are like now, but back in my day (essentially about 1965-78) I thought they were OK for what they were 'designed' for - getting working class kids into low to medium level jobs with JEEP (Just Enough Education to Perform). My 'real' education only really came from age 18 onwards and through LOTS of reading.
One of my nieces got a full scholarship to a VERY good private school which sounded amazing. I was *so* jealous!
I think that education is probably *the* most important thing out there - if only it was done properly and funded enough to actually produce the results it could and should produce. What a waste of talent and potential. It's shameful really.
It's not the system so much as specific subcultures & populations being served. Gang violence has gotten so bad at one of the local high schools that they're switching to "online learning" for presumably the rest of term. A friend of mine worked for the city schools for about six years before deciding that she'd rather drive an hour and work at one of the rural county schools -- where she could teach and not be threatened every single day by students, where administrators supported staff, etc.
I'm certainly not in any position to offer solutions to the problems in education - and not only in the US but across the West - but I do think that chronic underinvestment in the schools themselves as well as widespread underappreciation of educators (and not just in pay levels) really isn't helping.
As with most things - especially with anything that's been going on for decades, generations or even longer - there are no easy magic-bullet solutions. If only!! Something needs to be done though even if its a complete root and branch/slash and burn start again scenario. There's lots of good ideas out there. A few long-running pilot studies might point in the right direction.
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