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Although American colleges are overall the best in the world (and the reason I came here in the first place), my impression of the K12 education system is that

Although American colleges are overall the best in the world (and the reason I came here in the first place), my impression of the K12 education system is that it's pretty abysmal. I went to school in a tiny Eastern European country and came out knowing 2 foreign languages, Calc 1 level math, a decent amount of European and World history, literature, geography, chem, physics...I was pretty well-rounded. I was pretty shocked to get accepted at an Engineering college here and to see my American peers fail out the first year because they couldn't pass Trig/Algebra, not to mention the abysmal level of spelling, not knowing any literature....and then there were others who were just brilliant. The same country had managed to produce both kids who could kick my ass on one hand and barely-functioning illiterates on the other. And both would have been "straight A" students in their respective schools. So there's something really wrong with education in this country. Not saying that DeVos would fix it, I doubt that, but it's already pretty fucking terrible for too many kids.

Florin_Andrei 10y ago
Seems to me like an inequality-driven issue. In other words, it's caused by the prevailing political paradigm in the country. The various departments, along with the whole government, just embody the prevailing paradigm. But it's pretty common in this country to shoot the messenger. (X) Whereas the real problem is with some of the political and social beliefs shared by vast numbers of citizens. --- (X) - "guv'mint is baad! down with it!" No, government is what you all make it. It's a reflection of the contents of your shared mentality. If you think it's bad and you want to fix it, start with a look in the mirror.
- Spivak 10y ago
  Reducing what should be a meaningful discussion about how to structure an education system that produces good outcomes overall, is resilient to regional inequality and family circumstances, gives students room to grow, gives adequate help when needed, and can be responsive to the needs of local communities to "my opponents are stupid" is exactly how we got into this mess of a political divide in the first place.

Florin_Andrei 10y ago

Seems to me like an inequality-driven issue. In other words, it's caused by the prevailing political paradigm in the country. The various departments, along with the whole government, just embody the prevailing paradigm. But it's pretty common in this country to shoot the messenger. (X) Whereas the real problem is with some of the political and social beliefs shared by vast numbers of citizens. --- (X) - "guv'mint is baad! down with it!" No, government is what you all make it. It's a reflection of the contents of your shared mentality. If you think it's bad and you want to fix it, start with a look in the mirror.

Spivak 10y ago
Reducing what should be a meaningful discussion about how to structure an education system that produces good outcomes overall, is resilient to regional inequality and family circumstances, gives students room to grow, gives adequate help when needed, and can be responsive to the needs of local communities to "my opponents are stupid" is exactly how we got into this mess of a political divide in the first place.