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Not the person that you are responding to but I made this point in my response to him. America's education system only cares about the results. I.E. how well ca

Not the person that you are responding to but I made this point in my response to him. America's education system only cares about the results. I.E. how well can he do on a standardized test, how good are his grades, etc. This leads to people taking the easy way out and just memorizing everything without understanding or thinking critically about what they are doing. These people aren't thinking for themselves and instead are just taking everything told to them as fact and regurgitating it when they are asked. This obviously leads to a problem when they become adults and need to make decisions on who is to lead them. Instead of coming to their own conclusion they will listen to their parents, preacher, neighbor, etc. All of whom might have come to their conclusion of who is the best leader faultily. In Addition: Just to give you guys an example of where this is being most blatantly done, literature classes. I remember in my lit classes that almost 90% of the class did not read the book. Instead they just took the spark notes and memorized key points taking nothing out of the text. As soon as the exam was over they forgot everything.

busyant 14y ago
Can you give me an example of a country that does it "right"? I'm genuinely curious, but I also suspect that twenty different people here would give twenty different answers to this question.
hack_edu 14y ago
The most common critique of the US system is the lack of focus on testing and measurable results. Bureaucrats and teachers unions have fought this push for decades and only now has it taken hold. Even if you are right that the American educational system now focuses too much on standardized tests, this focus pales in comparison to almost any other industrialized nation. And even then, this focus on testing is hardly even a decade old. Speak to a student from China, Japan, the UK, or Ireland and get back to me about focuses on standardized testing.
- msrpotus 14y ago
  But from what I've heard, their tests are more focused on demonstrating learning. The standardized tests I took (here in the US) were laughably easy and not always connected to actually learning anything.
  - learc83 14y ago
    >The standardized tests I took (here in the US) were laughably easy and not always connected to actually learning anything. Standardized tests are measured relatively. If you score in the top percentile the test was easy for you, but so long as there is enough variation in scores to classify students into percentiles, the test is hard enough, i.e, if 50% of students answer everything correctly it's too easy, if only 0.1% do then it's hard enough. >But from what I've heard, their tests are more focused on demonstrating learning. Chinese schools are notorious for their emphasis on rote learning, so I'm not sure where you're getting your information on their standardized tests.

busyant 14y ago

Can you give me an example of a country that does it "right"? I'm genuinely curious, but I also suspect that twenty different people here would give twenty different answers to this question.

hack_edu 14y ago

The most common critique of the US system is the lack of focus on testing and measurable results. Bureaucrats and teachers unions have fought this push for decades and only now has it taken hold. Even if you are right that the American educational system now focuses too much on standardized tests, this focus pales in comparison to almost any other industrialized nation. And even then, this focus on testing is hardly even a decade old. Speak to a student from China, Japan, the UK, or Ireland and get back to me about focuses on standardized testing.

msrpotus 14y ago
But from what I've heard, their tests are more focused on demonstrating learning. The standardized tests I took (here in the US) were laughably easy and not always connected to actually learning anything.
- learc83 14y ago
  >The standardized tests I took (here in the US) were laughably easy and not always connected to actually learning anything. Standardized tests are measured relatively. If you score in the top percentile the test was easy for you, but so long as there is enough variation in scores to classify students into percentiles, the test is hard enough, i.e, if 50% of students answer everything correctly it's too easy, if only 0.1% do then it's hard enough. >But from what I've heard, their tests are more focused on demonstrating learning. Chinese schools are notorious for their emphasis on rote learning, so I'm not sure where you're getting your information on their standardized tests.