Why do you think there is a breakdown in the education system in the United States, and how do you think it ca

Question

this is something i've been thinkin about

Answer 1

1.) Lack of responsibility and planning. Without having clearly defined goals and expectations, and clearly delineated responsibilities, any task requiring lots of manpower will fail. Imagine trying to build a building without the people involved talking beforehand to decide who will do what tasks. Many parents send their children to school and wash their hands of the situation, others make contact with the school, but don't follow up. The schools have expectations of the parents, and may even clearly state them, but don't actually communicate them (in the sense of confirming that the parent actually understands their end of the bargain). Same for the students: if it's not clear who is responsible for what between the parents and school, then students will often not see a reason to hold up their end.

2.) Cultural issues. Years ago, almost every group in America saw education as the path to improvement. Blacks saw it as the most important method to achieve parity with whites, immigrants saw it as the way to achieve everything they couldn't in their home country, and whites saw it as the path to rising out of (or avoiding) poverty. Now, there are plenty of public figures (especially for blacks) that see education as something bad - black kids who get told they're acting white by studying is a good example. Another example is that while companies use a college degree to screen applicants for many jobs, talented non-degree holders see that a college degree is no determinor of abiliy, so they blaze their own path to success (Bill Gates is an excellent example.

3.) Desire to keep the status quo: Teachers unions and administrators generally do not want change - so they often fight changes that even may be in their long-term best interests. A good example here is teachers that fight against merit bonuses and the ability to fire teachers at will - while in the short term, some teachers get screwed, in the long term, it would help dispel feelings that teachers are part of the problem rather than the solution. 1 bad teacher affects the workload of every successive teacher in a child's education.

4.) Teaching to the test: Standardized tests are not bad things, in and of themselves, except that districts, rather than substantially improve their performance across the board, cut corners by trying to teach to the test and trying to keep failing children from taking the tests. An example would be in Houston, where an assistant principal blew the whistle on the school district's methods of reclassifying children to avoid having them show as drop outs, or by holding them back in 9th grade for a second year, then putting them in 11th grade so they would avoid the 10th grade exit exam.

Answer 2

A number of reasons first off the classrooms are a big issue. You have students that wish to learn and students that wish to be the idiots they are striving to be in the same class. Also look at teachers, HELLO, they are still the most underpaid in any profession that caters to educating others.
Hate to tell you this most people do not put forth their best efforts when they feel they are not being paid to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. The school classes of studies in the US never really prepare a student for college courses either. Sure they can take college prep courses but even then this classes are lacking in some form or another.
I have had the honor of taking classes both here and overseas. I spent the first two years of high school overseas taking classes the next 2 in the good ole U.S. of A. I graduated with a 106 average in biology and creative writing and saw that falter to a c average in college cause some of the materials in those classes were uneccessary and left field of anything I was to learn in college. Some many things done right on some levels and man there is still so much that could be done to improve.
Year round school is a thing that should be implemented it keeps kids studying and keeps their minds fresh and will also help keep them from mixing with the wrong crowds. They will be just too busy to mingle with some of the riff raff that are in our school systems these days.

Answer 3

The classrooms r too large, a child can be having trouble and the teacher just doesn't have the time to help.
They also push things so fast
we need to slow down and take the time to learn

Answer 4

Unions, tenure and political correctness are the main problems in my opinion.
The teachers are afraid to discipline students, but mostly the parents don't seem to want to take responsibility for their children's bad behavior. They just want to threaten lawsuits and make excuses. It is a place for babysitting their kids. How many parents help out their children with homework or are involved with their kids activities?
The bad kids make it difficult for the good kids who want to learn