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I don't think the US education system is as bad as everyone says. I think the metric that we use to judge our system against other countries is not accurate. Th

I don't think the US education system is as bad as everyone says. I think the metric that we use to judge our system against other countries is not accurate. The US has had a high level of economic activity and innovation for decades. I think that points to a strong education system. I think recent attempts to make our system more like Asian systems (more homework, more testing...) will do more harm than good. There is progress to be made, but I think trying to mimic other countries education systems is the wrong approach.

count 15y ago
Alternatively, it points to the economic irrelevance of anything more than a basic education to the majority of the production class. You don't need to know much to crank a wrench on an assembly line. Unfortunately, that type of work is slowly but surely migrating elsewhere, leaving a large body of work that DOES require higher education skills. I'd love to see if there was data showing education comparisons through transitions in labor types, say, from farming to manufacturing.
tokenadult 15y ago
The US has had a high level of economic activity and innovation for decades. I think that points to a strong education system. There is no denying that the United States is a largely prosperous, innovative, and peaceful place. This was true of the United States before school attendance was compulsory in any state, when many states made no effort generally to fund schools for all learners, and it is still true today. This is a legacy of founders of the United States who themselves largely learned without a public school system. http://learninfreedom.org/Founders_free.html http://learninfreedom.org/Founders_free.html Today, the United States still benefits economically in comparison to other countries because of a more honest and transparent system of governance and business regulation http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010 http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/... and because of general freedom in United States society. http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=15 http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=15 While K-12 schooling continues to be one of the top three state budget line items in many states (it is number one in mine) there will be legitimate concern about whether those hundreds of billions of dollars a year http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66 http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66 are being spent with the best effect they can. Having lived in another country for six years (and having brought up children there during the second of two three-year stays), and knowing many first-generation immigrants, I don't think it goes beyond the facts to say that the United States has a thing or two it could learn from administration of public schools in other countries, just as those other countries could in several cases learn from United States governance. It's best for all countries all around the world to be open to information first learned in some other country.
kenjackson 15y ago
This is a false comparison. You neglect that the US has had this time of innovation in a time when its education system was also considered the world's best. The problem is that people see US's economic power dwindling w/o a pipeline of educational dominance.

count 15y ago

Alternatively, it points to the economic irrelevance of anything more than a basic education to the majority of the production class. You don't need to know much to crank a wrench on an assembly line. Unfortunately, that type of work is slowly but surely migrating elsewhere, leaving a large body of work that DOES require higher education skills. I'd love to see if there was data showing education comparisons through transitions in labor types, say, from farming to manufacturing.

tokenadult 15y ago

The US has had a high level of economic activity and innovation for decades. I think that points to a strong education system. There is no denying that the United States is a largely prosperous, innovative, and peaceful place. This was true of the United States before school attendance was compulsory in any state, when many states made no effort generally to fund schools for all learners, and it is still true today. This is a legacy of founders of the United States who themselves largely learned without a public school system. http://learninfreedom.org/Founders_free.html http://learninfreedom.org/Founders_free.html Today, the United States still benefits economically in comparison to other countries because of a more honest and transparent system of governance and business regulation http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010 http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/... and because of general freedom in United States society. http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=15 http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=15 While K-12 schooling continues to be one of the top three state budget line items in many states (it is number one in mine) there will be legitimate concern about whether those hundreds of billions of dollars a year http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66 http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66 are being spent with the best effect they can. Having lived in another country for six years (and having brought up children there during the second of two three-year stays), and knowing many first-generation immigrants, I don't think it goes beyond the facts to say that the United States has a thing or two it could learn from administration of public schools in other countries, just as those other countries could in several cases learn from United States governance. It's best for all countries all around the world to be open to information first learned in some other country.

kenjackson 15y ago

This is a false comparison. You neglect that the US has had this time of innovation in a time when its education system was also considered the world's best. The problem is that people see US's economic power dwindling w/o a pipeline of educational dominance.