What do you think about the US Education system in light of this?

Question

The results of a National Geographic Education Foundation survey of US adults between the ages of 18 and 24 were recently reported in Education Week (May 10, 2006; www.edweek.org). A few “interesting” findings…

60% of respondents could not identify Iraq on a map of the Middle East;
75% could not locate Indonesia, and most did not know that Indonesia is predominantly a Muslim nation;
Less than six months after Katrina, 33% could not locate Louisiana on a map;
65% could not locate the United Kingdom on a map
Only 25% identified Chinese Mandarin as the most widely spoken lang uage in the world.
And, most telling…

While 60% of respondents viewed use of computers and the Internet “absolutely necessary” in today’s world, only 33% thought it absolutely necessary to know where other countries are located.





ExchangeEveryDay is a free service of Exchange Magazine. View this article online at ChildCareExchange.com

Answer 1

The Federal government has decided that the only skills that matter are reading, writing, and math. Science and social studies are still taught, but placed far on a back burner.

The more the Federal government raises the bar for expected reading fluency, math higher-order problem solving skills, and written expression, the LESS teachers will cover science and social studies, except as ancillary materials for use in reading and writing instruction.

Remember when we were expected to memorize maps and then write labels on blanks? Not happening much any more, because it does not improve reading fluency or comprehension.

Remember when we were expected to memorize people, places, events, and dates? Not happening much, either, for the same reason.

Remember when there were always about 4 or 5 kids who were going to repeat the grade as you moved up, because they, oh, FAILED? Retention is penalized by the federal government. If the school retains the students, they run the risk of losing funding.

Remember when state testings were used to decide the student's future, instead of the school's?

Answer 2

I don't think this reflects on the American Education system at all. There are TONS of things we learn in school, and if asked, years later, we are very likely to have forgotten, depending on whether we have used that information again. For example, you begin your question:
"The results of a National Geographic Education Foundation survey of US adults between the ages of 18 and 24 were recently reported in Education Week (May 10, 2006; www.edweek.org)."
Now, English is most likely your native language, yet I could point out that your first sentence is written in passive voice and would be better rewritten in active voice. Who cares? No one. Who else would notice? Probably no one. However, I am an English teacher, so I notice these relatively unimportant things.
If you ask a geography teacher to identify points on a map and he/she couldn’t, I'd say something was wrong. There are also many more professions that require that people know points on a map, and those people would be able to.
Any day of the week, we could quiz John Q. Public on any subject and get relatively disappointing statistics. Why don't Americans know where other countries are located? It is not because they haven't been educated; it's because they don't care enough to remember.

Answer 3

As a public school teacher who is making SO MUCH MONEY and getting SO MANY DAYS OFF and NOT TEACHING STUDENTS ANYTHING I suggest "Jenny" come SHOW ME HOW TO DO THE JOB ADEQUATELY AND EXPLAIN HOW I PAY FOR MY CONTINUING EDUCATION CLASSES ON HER IDEA OF AN ADEQUATE SALARY.

Why don't you quit judging others when you so obviously know NOTHING about the subject.

To answer the question, The American public, and probably a lot of other "publics" have chosen to focus on other issues. There are so many other things of interest to younger people that remembering things such as what you mentioned just doesn't rate very high. People that age, especially if they aren't working, are into partying, establishing careers, having and raising families. They also are disillusioned (read apathetic) about world issues. Case in point: I had a foster child (18) who had been living in another situation for the past 18 months. She recently asked if she could come back to live with us. When something was mentioned about the tsunami, she had no idea what we were talking about. In her situation, she wasn't reading a newspaper, she wasn't watching the news and the people she was living with just weren't into current events. I also think there was quite a bit of drug and alcohol use. Who cares about anything when you are stoned all the time?

Answer 4

Consider that the U.S., like Italy and other such countries, has a very high rate of immigrants, whereas the best schools--reportedly in Finland--have the lowest rate of immigrants. If a child moves from Mexico tomorrow and attends a school in the U.S. today where a standardized test is being given, that child has to take the test, regardless of the fact that she knows no English.

Educators get ill with people who say that American students aren't getting a good education when these factors and others, like parents not making their children attend on a regular basis and businesses and government with their own personal agendas, interfere with students being taught. On top of that, geography was taken out as a mandatory subject. Go figure!

Answer 5

I agree so much with lovepinkpuffies.

You can thank NCLB for all this crap. Since this mess started, schools now have to teach what the government TELLS them what to teach. So now, many things that need to be taught and learned are not.

One parent told me that her child was worried because she was having trouble in a certain class. The teacher actually said, 'don't worry about that, it won't be on the NCLB test !!!!!!!!

Answer 6

I think parents have become slaves to consumerism to keep up with the Jones...and shoving every piece of worthless garbage down their kids throats, such as a worthless cell phone,
or the internet(which is great tool, but also great for being lazy)

Answer 7

This is because of the lousy, worthless, overpaid, cry baby public school teachers we have here in the United States. The Democrats keep giving them more money and more benefits to work at a part time job while our kids can't do anything. Just look at all the spelling and grammar errors here at yahoo answers. This is all thanks to the worthless, over paid public school teachers. FIRE THEM ALL, GET RID OF THE TEACHERS UNIONS, AND REPLACE THEM WITH NON UNION TEACHERS WHO CAN BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE IF THEY DO NOT PERFORM.

Answer 8

Our school system is slipping, but at the same time a high percentage of our students are in school to have fun with friends. WE must turn this around or our nation will be in serious problems.

Answer 9

Wow, public education is bad? Who knew? ;-)

I have yet to see a standardized test that checks for geographical knowledge - until it is, it will end up being an "optional" study :-)

Answer 10

silly....why do u think there are so many immigrants in the US...i agree that the lower level education is at its best..but the higher level is to different and very point oriented...lower level means preschool..higher level means o levelsand above.