Stupid America ??? ( please read the article at the question )?

Question

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338

My question :

how can America be more competitive ???

how can we encourage every American student to be as competitive as most immigrant students are ???

in my country , Mexico , every student had to take a test to be able to study at the school of their choice , those which were not able to pass had to try another which would usually be of lower level or one which was far form their home , i know for a fact that most Mexican schools do not receive as much resources as the American schools do but i am very proud to say that we usually perform better . however i live today in America and i wish the American school would do better , so i was wondering would a method like what i descrived and what the article descrives be put in place in America ???

how can we spend less and do much better ???

what are you thoughts about the article ???

ESL classes are offered in every Mexican school just as an aditional note ..

i wanted to add that this question is not meant to be offensive but construtive so please if u answer please provide some ideas ...

thank u

thanks for the corrections , yes we could do much better ...

thanks to the first three answerers just as an additonal thought i wanted to add that the dream of most Mexicans is not to come to the USA but to find a job in Mexico . sadly until now Mexico has been able to produce half million jobs under Fox when it is a known fact that Mexico needs one million which is calderon's main objetive .

the question is about the American education by the way ... the article is clear about what its going on in America and the world , please read it ...

Answer 1

Perhaps there are advantages to testing into high school, but there are also some big disadvantages. If you jerk around in jr high you have pretty much screwed yourself--you can't get into the h.s. of your choice, and therefore you can't get into the college of your choice. And at which age are kids the most irresponsible and confused? Hey, junior high!!
One good thing about the US is that we believe you always have a chance to improve your situation. If you dropped out of high school you can still get your diploma. If you didn't go to college at 18 or 19 you can still go, at any time of your life. Entrance into college does not depend on where you went to h.s. and employers are not prejudiced for or against any particular university. Well, maybe they are impressed by some schools, but it always boils down to that individual's performance.
I have worked in Japan and China for the past several years and this is what I see--kids in jr high and high school that are studying night and day, so tired that all they do on the weekend is sleep. They don't have jobs, they don't help around the house, they have very few extracurricular activites. Their studies are little more than cramming in whatever is necessary to pass the high school and college entrance exams. How much of that information is retained a year later?? And their studies involve little or no creative or critical thinking.
In China I see students who have studied so much in high school that they don't know what to do w their free time in college. . .and afterwards in life. . .they take jobs and work overtime everyday and they say they like it. . .it's just a wrongheaded rush towards more money, and more money, but what kind of life is it, really?
I think very intelligent students thrive in this system and are able to juggle many classes and activities, but other kids are so oppressed that they just give up. Some can't even deal w going to school at all (Japan).
Maybe changes should be made in the American system, but we need to make sure that as few kids fall through the cracks as possible. We need to give people every possible chance they can to succeed. And I believe that it is in America that great things are invented, by creative people and critical thinkers.

Answer 2

I'm Understanding what you mean but, for having a country of 300 Million and having a 99% Literacy Rate is No Easy Task, just an example, yes, the United States needs to reform there schools but, Education is the responsibility of the state and to compare the United States which has Public Education everywhere to Mexico whose Public Education is barely functioning is absurd and yes, we do have those Tests, its called the SAT's but, before the age of 18 we put all of our children on the same level, we dont make them take a test to go to a good school, how that system works is a bit biased to unfortunate children who might not have the resources to study for the Mexican Education Life Changing Test

Answer 3

I live in Texas. I know many on one of the local school board. I asked them about the problems within the local school.

The problem that I was told of within the local school districts is that unlike Mexico where the tests are given in Spanish - here everything has to be in both English and Spanish. Doesn't sound like a problem? Well, evidently several hispanic groups thought so because they swore that the tests were geared only to non-hispanics. So now instead of the concern being on literature, spelling, math, science - the tests were re-vamped so that more hispanics could pass. Suggestions of racism was brought up. Think about that for a moment - instead of getting the children to learn at the level already in place - the level was lowered. Performance had no place to go but lower.

That is a problem. The general knowledge that was the standard even 20 years ago is not even attained now because of such.

There are several other reasons as well - but since you posted this in "Immigration", I kept my reply to topic and within the topic of the area.

Answer 4

Quit trying to nationalize education.It doesn't work. Do away with the dept of education and let the local areas handle their own educational affairs. not only do you have the states regulating, but throw in the Federal government, and thus you have just created a 3 tier bureaucracy.(1. Local level 2. State level 3. Federal level) eliminate any two of these and you'll see positive change overnight. the idea is to shrink politics in education, not make it bigger. When you think bigger is better, look to the opposite side as well, the true answer lies past both. Number(3)

Answer 5

That's the point the article was making at the end. Why do we want kids to be more competitive than they already are? If schools became competitive, the varieties of marketing strategies to attract their payload would only reduce the level of education they'll receive- using tax payer's money to make commercials!
Everyone is different (I do not tire of stating this!!!), therefore they will all learn at their pace. If an adolescent finds education like a drug, and want to overdose on it, they can force their parents to get off their bums, get a better job or better education, and be able to send them to a private school where discipline and educational benchmarks are exceeded. A bum is usually a bum because he/she wants to be, through stubborness or informed decision (there's a bum in Toowong, QLD, Australia, who's an ex-lawyer who lost his family and decided on that lifestyle and claims he is happiest of all). People will become whom they are meant to become whichever path they choose to follow.
So, if you enjoy the thrills of knowing more each day of this magnificient, multifaceted, multi-perspective world we live in, go for it! Your path will cross with the 'others', rather sooner than later!
On a side note, motivation to excel comes from the home's influences more than the school's (By home it includes friends, neighbours, family, TV, radio, etc. etc.).

Answer 6

We might be able to be more competitive if we didn't have so many illegal immigrants in the country who enroll their non-English speaking children in our schools, causing the teaching levels to drop while teachers have to spend too much time with the non-English speaking students. Maybe if there were not so many illegal immigrant students crowding into our schools when their families are not working in jobs in which they pay their share of taxes to help fund the education system that they are using.

In Mexico, perhaps you would be having an even much harder time providing education to your people if you were flooded with non-Spanish speaking illegal immigrant students who caused the levels of education to drop while the teachers had to spend more time on the non-Spanish speaking students? Perhaps, standards would be further dropped if Mexico had to provide SSL classes for all those non-Spanish speaking students, at no cost to the illegal immigrant students and their families?

You say Mexico needs to provide one million jobs? Ha! Try maybe 12 million or more jobs - so that all the illegal Mexicans presently in the USA could return to their own country to work. No, an extra one million jobs will no where near fix the problem of unemployment in Mexico!

Also, why would ESL classes be offered in every Mexican school? That sounds like a certain inaccuracy, your stating that!

As well, I do not believe that most Mexican schools outperform most USA schools. I'd like to see where you got that little tidbit from!

Anyways, in answer to your original question, I think it would go a long way to bring up the standards of US education and allow more competitiveness of our students if ALL illegal immigrants were deported from the country today.

Answer 7

I don't think you meant to offend Americans however I think you are going to get a lot of mean letters. It needed to be phrased differently so you would not offend people. What can be done in America to improve the schools? See what I mean.

Many things are being done in America today to better our schools. There is Head Start which enables children that otherwise would not receive excellent day care in a learning environment a chance begin learning at an early age. There are alternative schools and every county has a learning center which for free teaches anyone who wants to learn. They are prepared for a GED test and then shown how to apply for college or technical school. In Georgia, where I live there is Hope Grant which will pay the entire cost of college for students who have earned this award with good grades. There are Pell Grants and many other grants available for anyone who wants to go to college. In America there is always a way to be educated if a person wants to be.

I'm glad there is good education in Mexico but why is the country so poor that most people want to live here to work and get ahead in life. Mexico needs to offer its people job opportunities so Mexicans don't have to come to Georgia and work in chicken plants to live.

Answer 8

it's describe, not descrive. nice education. any how, my 13 year old is a straight A student, she plays basketball for her school, for the last 6 years she's been playing, scouts are already watching her. and she is getting all the books she can on the human body, she's going to be a Dr. my 10 year old is a straight A student, she's going to be a nurse. my 7 year old is also a straight A student and she going to be a veterinarian. and all my kids go and went to public American schools. lay that mess on someone else, i don't buy it.

Answer 9

the way that you might do things there might not neccessarily work. I do agree that better methods should be taken because kids these days do not take things serious enough. All they think is that right now my parents are going to take care of me whatever i dont care about school. just wait until they get out in the real world and wake up.

Answer 10

USA education system isn't the best in world but if U.s citizen want to get higher education the options are plentiful

1.) Adults can go back to high school and get a GED.
2.) your never too old to go back to College.
3.) Community College are cheap as hell to Attend govt will provide the aid for you to go to college.
4.) technical school are a option.