“For all the slings and arrows hurled against the U.S. educational system, it is still empirically without a doubt the best in the world...”
And it could even be better if we actually taught kids how to read before 4th grade and taught them how to do arithmetic without a calculator before college.
But no, that’s asking too much of the ‘educators’, so we force parents to do it - either themselves or through after-school programs. The parents that cannot do that (either don’t have the money, or actually believe the ‘best in the world’ propaganda) wind up zombies for kids. The minorities, of course, get screwed the worst, as they often have no options for escape.
Other than that, all is fine here...
But they know how to put condoms on cucumbers.
We have absolutely **NO NO NO*** idea how well our nation's socialist system of school is doing or has done. Why?
Answer: Because NO studies have ever been done to determine how much is learned by the student due to **afterschooling** as compared to that knowledge acquired in the classroom.
Without this information, any judgments about how good or bad U.S. schooling may or may not be is complete supposition.
It is my anecdotal observation ( professionally working with several thousand families over 30 years in a field unrelated to education) that there is **NO** difference in the amount of time that academically successful students ( institutionalized or homeschooled) spend in formal studies in the **home**! Both of these families who successfully homeschool or institutionalize their children have the same value for education, similar home habits, well-functioning discipline practices, monitor friendships, take education trips and vacation, fill their homes with books and magazines, are quick to spot and resolve learning problems, and **control** electronic media use.
So?...If institutionalized kids and homeschoolers, who are academically successful, are doing the same things, and those families ( homeschooling or institutionalizing) with children with poor outcomes are not doing these things, then how can we credit socialist schooling with anything except wasting most of the child's waking day and a lot of tax dollars?
If all government schools were to close tomorrow, the **same** children who are getting an education today would get one tomorrow, because it is the parents and the child himself who is pulling together an education on their own in the home and from friends, family, and private tutoring. I conclude that our nation's socialist schools are merely sending home a curriculum and textbooks for the parents and child to follow.
Honestly....We, as taxpayers are paying up to more than $20,000 per year per child in some states and we ***DO NOT KNOW** if our socialist schools actually teach anything because afterschooling has NEVER been measured. Wow!
( Yeah! I am shouting. $11,000 to $25,000 per child per year is something to shout about, especially when institutionalizing the child in some of these hellish schools actually does more harm than good~!)
The Question here is not about who is the ‘Best’ in the world. And the phrase “world” is often misleading and it more often pretains to only a small continent called north America.
If Americans feel proud of their education system, then why are they feeling worrid about Indian education? Its only an acceptance that education is deteriorating in USA. You cannot always say that my fore father had a mansion so I am great. The world is changed and the world order is changing. Go with it rather than complaining. If USA education needs improvement, do it and compete with others rather than preaching that Americans are great!! That closes the room for expansion.
Yesterday America was great and today India or China is becoming great.