Why is america slipping in education??

Question

Because the attention span is 15 seconds and the kids cant answer a question longer than that. They cant even get to the details of a question without having already answered it.

Answer 1

We're slipping in education because we're slipping in parenting. My kids got a damn good education because I made sure they had what they needed, paid attention and what the schools didn't teach them, I did.

Answer 2

First of all, more money never improves education. Good schools with real teachers spend less than one-third of public schools and the students learn a lot more. Second, in the 1950s, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, two teacher's unions in the United States, began. Public school teachers are paid on only 1) their highest degree (Bachelor's or Master's) and 2) the number of years they have been teaching. If one is excellent and the other is terrible, but 1) and 2) match, they get the same salary. In 1960, good teachers took early retirement seeing that the public schools would not be providing good education anymore as most of the incoming teachers had only one goal: MAKE MONEY ("Professor, it doesn't matter whether they learn anything." "That's right, it doesn't matter.")

Answer 3

All of the reasons listed so far, hit the mark, and you can see their combined consequences reflected in our foundering school system.

Having alot of experience with our public schools, after 2 sons getting through, and now a daughter just starting out...I have seen how military techniques are now common-place, and I can see clearly the effort to find & target the power-brain kids...and all the things these children do is not truly for themselves, but for stats for the school to claim the most monies offered by state & fed funds. Teachers are powerless, principals have to get those stats or lose their jobs...kids see the lack of common sense in all of it, and are becoming increasingly tired of participating.

The private schools, universities, vo-techs, have gotten increasingly more expensive to maintain their desired clientelle. And the need for employment to pay for such, both from family & student is decreasing in number & fair income.

Do the math....LOL

I'm not sure about the 15 sec. attention span...have you ever witnessed a child on a video game? It all has to do with retaining interest through common sense & creativity (kid's are pure come-on sense & use imaginations in every moment)...they have to see the need to know.

The Waldorf schools are gaining in popularity, which is going to provide the new epitome...they run a great system...check into it, you'll be amazed at the simplicity of design, the profitability on their own, as well as their comparison to present day wisdom-less learning techniques.

Answer 4

Our education system is lackluster in America because we don't have freedom of choice of where our kids go to school. The school has no reason whatsoever to improve.

Lets say you want to order pizza and based on where you live, you HAVE TO order from one pizza place only. Do you think they give a crap if they give mediocre service and product? Nope. They'll know you'll tolerate it and you'll shut up and like it too. You can't go anywhere else for pizza.

Competition pushes all institutions, both public and private, as well as individuals to do better and succeed.

Answer 5

YEP! That's a big part of it.

Another problem is that we've allowed the liberals to turn our schools into "feel-gooderies". Do you know that some schools have proposed doing away with the valedictorian position?!? Why? Because it's "unfair" to the little losers who skipped class and didn't pay attention, or just didn't put forth the effort. What about being *fair* to the kid who busted his or her butt to be #1?

With the state of education in this country, I would *love* to hear about teachers worrying about this. But no - they have *far* more important items on their agenda. Our kids are learning less and less, but teachers are more worried about what color ink to use while correcting papers. Apparently, red ink is too "tramuatic" for the little darlings. Purple is much better. What the...?? WHO CARES? Just TEACH!

And don't forget the parents. Good Lord - I'm really starting to believe we need to regulate who is allowed to breed in this country. The television is *not* a babysitter!

Answer 6

It's because teachers have no way to effectively discipline kids. If Junior gets out of line, the teacher should be allowed to beat the kid. There should be hard and fast standards to be achieved prior to advancement. I don't care if he's 23, if Junior can't quite handle long division, he stays in the 3rd grade until he can. Lastly, we need to worry more about reading, writing, and arithmetic and less about Junior's self-esteem. I'll bet mastering the above-mentioned long division would do wonders for his self-esteem!

Answer 7

Because we live in a nation where money and war are deemed more important. And if one tries to put the focus on education and not war or taxes then they are labled a liberal or told they hate America. Plus, it behooves certain politicians to have an uneducated citizenry. That is how they can get away with lying during an election. We pay a professional athlete millions of dollars and we pay a top-notch teacher next to nothing. Our priorities are screwed up in this country.

Answer 8

Because achieving results is no longer a focus, achieving documentation is.

Don't actually teach anything, just keep a record and perform testing to verify what you didn't teach.

It goes way beyond schools.

I also need to add that this is not something teachers have any control over - obtaining funding rests on everything BUT actual learning.....

Answer 9

Or it could be that we have several disadvantages other nations do not.

1st of all, America is the only industrialized nation to make high school attendance mandatory.
2nd of all, we have a massive illegal immigration problem that weakens our educational system from sustainability and well as statistically.
3rd of all, we have more regulation of education than most industrialized countries, with greater duplicity in regulation, and therefore too many chiefs and not enough braves.

Answer 10

we are inundated with children whose first language is not english and they come to school illiterate in BOTH. most of a teachers time in class is spent teaching reading so students can have half a chance and will score well on a test. where i live, i know an entire school district that does not teach science to elementary kids. dont have enough time. i live in a very large city. no one will come out and say it, but i will! it would be suicide if anyone in the education system said it out loud.

that is one of the main reason schools are so behind, especially in metropolitan areas. reading and vocabulary are the first steps to successful learning and success in school. period.