The identity crisis of American education

[beachmouse]

California results are not relevant to the discussion here, which is Florida charter schools. If there was an actual interest in Tallahassee in improving charter schools, I'd be all for it, but the current system of charter school oversight in Florida is not that great even before you start invoking the dead student card.

 

[hkem1]

"The least number of class hours per week in the developed world, and the best results"

Oh, and they have a three month summer vacation.

If we want to be among the best, then we should copy the best in the world.

The key to the success in Finland seems to be the teachers. There are some key differences between Finland teachers and U.S. teachers that should be noted though.

In Finland, the teachers all have masters degrees in their subject field. In the U.S. many teachers have to use the textbook to look stuff up.

In Finland there are very strong teachers unions -similar to the U.S.- but they face much less hostility.

In Finland the teachers have much more freedom in what they teach, not so in the U.S.



YouTube - The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World's Most Surprising School System

Robert A. Compton Presents Two Million Minutes The 21st Century Solution

There are demographic differences that would make it practically impossible to create as good of a system as Finland. But by using their examples we can learn that many things we are doing are going in the wrong direction.

Of course, who says we need to be like Finland, or even have an elite primary and secondary school system?

 

[Matt J]

Well the graph is from visual economics. They cite the CIA world fact book.

Loans, Financial Infographics, Savings Accounts & CD Rates - VisualEconomics.com

I suppose if you believe that visualeconomics.com is a conservative propaganda spreading machine hell bent on destroying American public education, then you don't have to take their word for it.

But American education spending vs. the rest of the world is not really my point. My point is that we need to decide what the purpose of our education system is before we should devise better policy or spend more money.

Never said anything about propaganda, those were your words. Perhaps your intent slipped through in that last post.

 

[scooterbug44]

I posted about the actual content and intent of our education system - and it was ignored and lost in squabbling about statistics and funding.

Seems the norm in any discussions about US schools.

 

[30ashopper]

The Failure of American Public Education | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty

Great read on the historical progression that has brought about our wonderfully mediocre government run public education system. Reform it seems, isn't a new concept, we've been trying to fix the system for decades, with few positive results. The author points out some key problems, specifically -

1) Rigid personnel rules and regulations
2) A civil service system
3) Monopoly control
4) Centralized decision-making

The question is are we ready to finally tackle some of these issues and really experiment with new solutions, or or are we going to "simply put another round in the chamber, foolishly believing that the newest fad will succeed despite the failures of its predecessors."

 

[hkem1]

I posted about the actual content and intent of our education system - and it was ignored and lost in squabbling about statistics and funding.

Seems the norm in any discussions about US schools.

And while I have been involved in the squabbling on this thread, that was kind of the point of the original post.

 

[Matt J]

Why not give the Montessori concept a try on a much larger scale. So far it's worked for hundreds of thousands of students.

 

[30ashopper]

Why not give the Montessori concept a try on a much larger scale. So far it's worked for hundreds of thousands of students.

Isn't that grade school only? I don't think applying a method of teaching where "the teacher views the child as having an inner natural guide for his/her own optimal self-directed development" would work with high schoolers.

 

[poppy]

Isn't that grade school only? I don't think applying a method of teaching where "the teacher views the child as having an inner natural guide for his/her own optimal self-directed development" would work with high schoolers.

Yet Republicans feel this is the ideal business environment. ;-)

 

[Matt J]

Isn't that grade school only? I don't think applying a method of teaching where "the teacher views the child as having an inner natural guide for his/her own optimal self-directed development" would work with high schoolers.

No, it can go right through high school. In fact a friend of mine continued on when I went to public high school. He has since gone on to get his PHD in Biology from Harvard and now teaches at the University of Alabama. I remember as kids he had a great interest in all things living and that was encouraged. With most kids the trick is not to force things on them, but teach them that other subjects must be mastered to further their core interest. In this instance it introduced him to reading, writing, math, science, etc. all while still focusing on the core interest. He's expecting a new born in September and they have already decided that when the time comes their child will go to Montessori.