What is the biggest problem with Education in the USA (Please state your age with your response)?
363121
I am 51 and I think that, first of all, our educators are not given NEARLY the pay they deserve for what they are expected to do.  and secondly, in many places, instead of expecting the students to work UP to standards, the education system LOWERS itself to the level of the lower grade of student.. I saw this all over California..  with such a huge influx of immigrant children.. legal and otherwise, the school systems stopped expecting the students to strive to higher and higher achievements and simply settled for getting them through the grades.  EVERY child, then, is cheated.  I moved out of the state so that my young daughter would gain a good education.
708535
I think you're right.  The education paradigm is about making the slowest learners "feel good" about themselves while ignoring and belittling those who excel.  A modern BA/BS degree is what a high school diploma once was.  Universities are complaining about having to dedicate more resources to remedial programs to get (American) students caught up to the point they can pass minimum math and science requirements at those institutions.  Our students continue to decline in scores across the board while teacher's unions demand more money.  Am I the only one seeing the disconnect there?
43653
You could argue, it's not directly the kids, rather the influence of many factors upon them.\n\nSome would be:\nLess restrictive upbringing. The trend these days seems to be to let kids do whatever they want with very little or no punishment, this is hopeless for instilling responsibility.\n\nInformation age. You don't have to work to find anything - it's on the internet, or you text a buddy or you call on the cell - people can get lazier.\n\nIn the US - education quality has declined - relates to responsibility and sense of self-worth.
816563
Without a doubt, the quality of education offered in American schools has plummeted in the last 25 years.  Parents from all walks of life, presented with failing grades by their undereducated children, reacted by forcing schools to lower their standards.  The result has been new generations of young people who, as adults, lack even fundamental knowledge of science, mathmatics, and linguistics.  It does not bode well for the future of science and technology, let alone education, in America.\n\nThe causes are manifold.  Parents, both working long hours, who are less and less involved in their children's lives.  High standards of living causing entertainment to be more valued than work.  Lack of role models.  The Internet.  Reality television.  Computer games.  Hollywood.  Consumerism.  Your evaluation is as good as mine.\n\nBush is not the product of such an average American household.  He's from a driven, ambitious, wealthy family, and an older generation, which valued knowledge, and whose collective work ethic still drives our economy. \n\nStill, you have a point.  He is more representative of the younger  generations coming into adulthood now, than he is of his own.  The political machine that put him into power was more responsible for his success than he was.  Once there, in the limelight, his shortcomings became glaringly obvious.  Was his re-election a result of his appeal to the younger crowd?  I doubt it.  They do not turn out in large numbers to vote.  Their poor education also fails to teach them about the importance of good government, and civic responsibility.\n\nI'm afraid Bush was elected, and re-elected, for reasons that have far more to do with American's fears and biases, than for his intellect or capabilites.  We, and too much of the rest of the world, will suffer the result for some time to come.
363432
Education is a privilege; just as is driving, having a job, or owning a house.\nSchools in America are available for anyone who can muster up the minimal effort required to attend; yet there are many who consider it a burden to do so.  It really isn't that hard to get an education anywhere in the Western world.  Go to the places I've been in the Third World; the people there routinely risk their lives to get what we take for granted.\nNo one has a "right" to force others to provide an education for anyone.\nPerhaps if we Americans concentrated more effort on our responsibilities (including doing our best in school), and took less for granted, rather than creating new rights du jour every day out of thin air, we would do better at things that require an education.
535737
Go to school and get a license to reproduce and multiply. No, seriously, I am 29 years old and have 2 kids and it is still hard at my age. I am the oldest of 4 kids and the oldest of 29 cousins. I grew up with kids everywhere and I still feel in above my head at times. Kids are having kids because they are seeing sex as a substitute for love when what they need is love, education and support from their parents or guardians. I think all schools should have a required set of courses on parenting and budgeting. I know there are some that do and I am not saying that it will solve all the world's problems, but this Home Econ. crap I took in school 12 years ago doesn't cut it. They need to realize that things are happening a lot younger now and the education needs to be started earlier and needs to be stepped up a few notches. We are required to have so many credits in English and Math and all that, but what about real life skills??? The schools that exist to help pregnant teen mothers are great, but what about the fathers (if they are involved)? They send these soon to be mothers off to another place and the guys continue ina  regular educational environment. It takes two, so everybody needs to be educated. It's sad to watch a parent slap their kid around or yell at them or ignore them. Kids are so smart and they will go thru life thinking that the way their parents act is the way they should act. It will just keep going until everybody in the world is cruel and hateful. Kids are an amazing joy and blessing and they do not deserve to be brought into a world where they can't be cared for properly. I have to stop, or else I can go on for hours.
786514
I understand your frustration.  I have taught high school for 8 years and it is very discouraging at times to see the situations that exist in the classroom.  First of all, there is a mandate that Special Education students be mainstreamed into the general classroom population.  I have had a class of 34 students with 9 Spec. Ed. students (this is becoming more and more typical).  There are supposed to be teacher's aides to help in classes like that, but school budgets are spent so unwisely, at times, that there is no money for a teacher's aide for every teacher with a significant amount of Spec. Ed. students (who either have a learning disability, a behavioral disability, or an emotional disability).  This leaves the teacher and the students at a disadvantage.  Teachers now use more time on class management than on class instruction.  And, it's not just because of Spec. Ed. students.  For some reason many students like to "dumb down" on their own as to not be ridiculed by their peers for being too smart, a nerd, or a "lame".  School administration look at teachers with disdain and often let go of teachers with too high of a failure rate, so many teachers, when presented with a class or classes that do not produce on the expected level then create a curriculum that they feel the students have a chance to pass, even if it does not prepare a student to be on level.  Our educational system is in deep need of reforms that work, not just reforms that look good on paper but have no substance or effectiveness in the classroom or to the students.  I try to prepare students for high school and beyond, whether they are college bound, interested in vocational training, or ready to work once they graduate.  Teaching is a many tiered profession (teacher, counselor, mentor) if children are to be educated properly.  I worry about the same things you do, but I also know that the big decisions about education often do not rest upon  teachers' shoulders, but on an administration that is often too long out of the classroom to remember or know the things that work and the things that do not.  I only hope that it gets better before it continues getting worse.
44875
Is America's educational system poor?  Yes.\n\nIs it the fault of the teachers' unions? No.\n\nThere are a lot of factors taht come into play, but a recent study that was down shows that all attempts by states to ensure teacher quality (e.g. requiring degrees, tests, etc.) actually correspond to DOWNWARD trends in student performance.
1014540
The total ignorance of our lawmakers about the importance of education and the educators that make it happen. As a teacher I am disgusted with the lack of monies given to our educational systems and the amount of @#%$&* we as teachers are expected to perform to meet their requirements, yet we are paid chicken feed. I am a single mom and only JUST have my head above water financially and work my toucas off to educate my students. It's a travesty!
1017915
The problem I have encountered in my kids high school is a lack of content in classes that are not Honors or AP level.  The coursework provides little homework and the projects are lame.  Nothing is learned.  Add content or drop the class from the school!   More kids need to be academically stretched and challenged!
600443
As pretty513 has just confirmed - many Americans are quite dumb. I have no idea whether this is the fault of the education system. The UK's education system isn't great at the moment, but I came through it being able to spell and use correct grammar. Going by the spelling and grammar of many of the Americans on here, I think their education has failed them somewhat.
858648
Better education - education that focuses not on how well you do on a standardized test, but in thinking and reasoning through a problem you are presented with.  Education should also include a firm grounding in other cultures and on a variety of religions in order to counter the insularity and intolerance that has led to the current international situation.  We've got a lot to be proud of and our own unique heritage, but we've also got a superiority complex that isn't entirely deserved and which leads to a lot of conflict.\n\nBetter health care - I know that a lot of people think that it's socialism to provide universal health care, but if you think about it, who's benefiting by the current system?  Hospitals are going bankrupt because poor people can't pay thousands in medical bills.  People are dying or needing expensive long-term care for conditions easily treatable in their early stages - but that were not detected because the patients had no insurance and therefore could not get the checkups that could have saved their lives.  Their families are going bankrupt trying to pay for the medical care to save their lives.  Businesses are losing millions because of workers who are either missing or working sick.  The only ones making money are the pharmaceutical companies, and they're making a killing while taking us for all we're worth and then some.\n\nHigher minimum wage.  A person who works hard for 40 hours a week should not have to be on welfare to feed their family, and should be able to take their children to the doctor for their school shots without having to wonder how they're going to pay for food for the next week.\n\nThat's just the top three.  But take care of those, and you've taken care of a whole lot of the problems that are plaguing our country.
72835
Education, YES!!  Education benefits the young children of America.  By not offering education to everyone, we create an underclass of lower educated people who will have to live off the government in the future.  Essentially, it is an investment.  Do we spend the money now and create a society that has the job skills needed to survive, or do we support them when they are older and can not find a means of support?\n\nHealthcare is another issue.  Illegal immigrants deserve the same rights as everyone else.  No more and no less.  Since the average American does not receive free care from the state, neither should immigrants.  No offense to all of the immigrants out there, but fair is fair. \n\nIf the United States would stop spending money to bomb Iraq, the government could possibly provide health care and education to all of us.
452724
On the contrary.. the country will continue its downward plunge. Education, for example, has been downgraded in standards to meet the levels of illegals who are flooding our schools with free education. The United States, even at this present time, is being competed against by countries such as India and China whose school systems ares devoted to edukcation in the true educational subjects.. not subjects devoted to sex education and other such nonsense. The United States has already started to feel the pinch of being a country that cannot compete in technology, and the other essentials that keeps a country strong.
437127
I don't mean to depress you even more, but it isn't just Science and math.  Go check your school district's scores and whether they met their AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) according to Pres. Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.  (You can generally do this on your state/district website).  American children are lagging behind in virtually all subjects. \n\nI am a teacher in a low-income urban school.  The majority of my students recieve free lunch, free transportation to school, with many of their parents are on welfare.  My students may not come to school with pens or paper, but their outfits look great and they all have cell phones or two-ways.  \n\nStatistics have shown that children who come from these areas come to school much less prepared then their middle and upper class counterparts.  Imagine a 6 year old coming to school with little prior communication with others, a 600 word vocabulary - compared to a child who went to nursery school, preschool, whose parents teach and talk to them, with a 6000 word vocabulary.  The class disconnect and general deterioration of our society has caused these issues. \n\nNo one can agree on how to fix them, which only delays improvement.  Then we can't find good moral people who teach well.  \n\nWe don't value education in American society.  We want material items and we want them immediately.  A book doesn't blink, play the latest Mp3 or text message you back.  Kids cannot start off with that type of stimulation and be taught to love a good quiet book, then discuss it intellectually. \n\nblah, blah blah... No Child Left Behind takes a stab at these issues - but in the wrong way (much like most of what Bush does).  If you haven't read it.. please do.  If you don't know what AYP or the new standards are - then become familiar with them.  Anyone in America who will be affected by the product of our schools should be outraged at what our kids cannot do!
593691
Education shouldn't be dumbed down to answer to the demands of a generation that has been abusing so many things now. Students need to work harder if they really want to get something out of it. I mean, we go to school to learn. Many seem to be forgetting that nowadays.
377896
Lack of language class , lack of text in schools or lack of being taught from an young age .