Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 61 (9209 total)
1 online now:
Newest Member: The Rutificador chile
Post Volume: Total: 919,503 Year: 6,760/9,624 Month: 100/238 Week: 17/83 Day: 0/8 Hour: 0/0


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   Homeschooling
Rahvin
Member
Posts: 4069
Joined: 07-01-2005
Member Rating: 10.0


(1)
Message 31 of 51 (550073)
03-12-2010 1:33 PM
Reply to: Message 30 by ZenMonkey
03-12-2010 1:20 PM


Re: Reasons why US schools can be lousy.
3. Cultural anti-intellectualism in school. When was the last time you heard of a high school holding an awards ceremony for kids with high SAT scores, or a pep rally before a science fair? For many Americans, competition in sports is admirible, but competition and celebration of achievement in academics is elitism.
It's not jsut in school - it's present throughout the entire culture. Intelligence is something to be reviled, while being an "Average Joe" or an athlete are idolized.
We have other issues in school, too, but the anti-intellectual cultural influences are a massive hurdle. Quite literally, many of the kids do not care about school at all. I don't even know what the root cause of this attitude is - we all like to blame parents, but I can say from experience that parental attitude is often insufficient to combat other influences.
School standards differ wildly from state to state, as well. I know that I learned things literally years earlier than my ex-stepdaughters did (I grew up in CT, they grew up in CA).
Efforts to improve our schools have been counterproductive in many cases. The No Child Left Behind Act was an attempt to bring the glory of the Free Market to education, with schools competing for resources and having funding cut if they didn't pass the tests. This led to teaching to the tests, rather than a comprehensive education plan and took valuable time out of the normal curriculum...and then de-funded the schools that arguably needed help the most.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 30 by ZenMonkey, posted 03-12-2010 1:20 PM ZenMonkey has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 33 by Flyer75, posted 03-12-2010 3:43 PM Rahvin has not replied
 Message 34 by dwise1, posted 03-12-2010 4:40 PM Rahvin has not replied

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024