The Public School System... - in America or UK, wherever, how would you reconstruct it?

[escapegoat]

I really don't think this is a liberal-conservative thing at all. I have lived in blue states, and very red states, and sort of middling states, and the schools are pretty much garbage everywhere, in pretty much the same ways. It's an "Americans of all stripes tend to be positive-thinking, narcisssistic anti-intellectuals" thing.

Lake Woebegone, basically. It's a joke for a reason. No one wants to think that they have kids who aren't above average, and who really aren't trying, because what is constantly modeled to them is that it's the schools job to make learning "fun" and "engaging" (and therefore easier), and if something doesn't come easy they just don't have that "talent," and that technology will just soothe over any missed spots, and that the real skills are all social-networking and athletic-leadership skills. And, so you should never have to endure anything hard or boring or old-fashioned or excessively abstract. And anyone who ever asks you to endure difficult material, who does not grade on a curve, is just doing it to be mean.

 

[Draza]

Integration was a mistake

 

[vertexwindi]

From my personal experience, you just can't seem to do very much outside of the very strict regulations they put on educators, at least for high school educators. There's way too much red tape. I get why you'd not want every fuckup to stand in front of children but if we allowed the teachers to shake up the system a bit more instead of only focusing on competences, we might actually be able to get teenagers to enjoy learning.

I assume that problem is very different in America though.

 

[Draza]

Here's one way to improve the public school system

 

[John Titor]

Jesus Christ, this.

Have you see this?

They blew 60 million bucks on a badly constructed high school stadium.

The hell? My school's stadium wasn't even that big. Is 18000 seats that necessary?

 

[Wallace]

The hell? My school's stadium wasn't even that big. Is 18000 seats that necessary?

It's Texas. High school football is serious business, especially if its a feeder school for some of the big names in college football.

 

[AnOminous]

If I could change one thing instantly, double the salaries of all STEM field teachers.

If I could do another thing right after that, laugh in the faces of the shitty teacher unions that have prevented this from being done for decades.

 

[Pickle Inspector]

Add basic personal finance to math classes.

 

[magikarp]

Add basic personal finance to math classes.

I actually took a Career Math class in my senior year of high school. We learned how to do taxes, how to write and balance checks, shit relating to hourly wages, retirement funds, it was really helpful and definitely made things easier when I transitioned into college and became more financially independent.

I feel pretty bad for kids who didn't have it as decently as I did in high school. It wasn't perfect but classes like that put me in the right direction.

 

[Ceci]

Education in the states isn't just an issue of the school themselves, but of the culture as well. Unfortunately, lots of American kids just don't give a fuck about their education, they go to high school to slack off for 7 hours and smoke weed. Countries like Japan and Korea have high student averages on tests because their cultures promote academic success way more than it ever was in the states.

 

[Pickle Inspector]

Education in the states isn't just an issue of the school themselves, but of the culture as well. Unfortunately, lots of American kids just don't give a fuck about their education, they go to high school to slack off for 7 hours and smoke weed. Countries like Japan and Korea have high student averages on tests because their cultures promote academic success way more than it ever was in the states.

I wonder if doing something as basic as publicly posting exam or even test results in highschools like they do in Japan might encourage students to do better, although for others I'm sure it'd be triggering since they're so used to the 'Everyone's a winner' mentality.

 

[RadicalCentrist]

Plenty of money already goes into the public school system in America. In fact, the USA spends the most on education in the world. What happens is that bureaucratic organizations siphon most of the money and funnel it into related businesses, like textbook suppliers. If you really want to improve education, you need to cut the bureaucracy to a meaningful size and focus on subverting various political organizations that profit of the tax funds, such as teacher unions.

Considering nearly everyone agrees on having a better education, the true problem is that lawmakers are usually in bed with the profiteers.

 

[Wallace]

Plenty of money already goes into the public school system in America. In fact, the USA spends the most on education in the world. What happens is that bureaucratic organizations siphon most of the money and funnel it into related businesses, like textbook suppliers. If you really want to improve education, you need to cut the bureaucracy to a meaningful size and focus on subverting various political organizations that profit of the tax funds, such as teacher unions.

Considering nearly everyone agrees on having a better education, the true problem is that lawmakers are usually in bed with the profiteers.

On a related note, I would like to cordially invite Pearson Education to eat an entire bag of dicks.

 

[Crunchy Leaf]

Public employee salaries are already disclosed in my state, are they not in others?

Whenever I see people whining about how much public schools suck, I assume they're either 15 or grew up somewhere incredibly shitty. I went to a public high school and it was pretty good. Partly because it produced alumni who grew up to be successful and then donated lots of money.

The problem with American education is poverty and anti-intellectualism. You can add shop and econ and Jesus and Ayn Rand, and it won't help.

 

[escapegoat]

Considering nearly everyone agrees on having a better education,

This is not really true. People approve of the idea in theory, but no one actually wants to have to put in the effort it would actually require.

People want the schools to be "better," in some vague way, but no one wants to actually sit around and do the homework with the kids. No one wants to hear that they will have to pull more time out of thier asses to accomplish it. No one wants their kid to be challenged in a way that will bring their GPA down. Etc.

 

[RadicalCentrist]

This is not really true. People approve of the idea in theory, but no one actually wants to have to put in the effort it would actually require.

People want the schools to be "better," in some vague way, but no one wants to actually sit around and do the homework with the kids. No one wants to hear that they will have to pull more time out of thier asses to accomplish it. No one wants their kid to be challenged in a way that will bring their GPA down. Etc.

Funny you should say that. Home-schooled students have supplanted public school students in metrics all across the board, including academic performance and test scores. Considering the education level of the parent isn't important, and the taxpayer spends $11K per student vs a parent spending $600 on their kid. So parents who actually do care are by far the best teachers. Of course, the biggest question is whether this is due to the decline of public education or are people actually using the wonderful learning potential of the internet.

As a limited time shitpost bonus, have a Harvard entrance exam from 1869. Notice the bare minimum requirements of: Latin, Greek, and knowledge of Virgil and Caesar's Commentaries.

 

[DrunkJoe]

A big start would be dismantling the grip unions have on our public schools. Cut the salaries of admin and increase the salaries of good teachers. Also most importantly parents need to fucking care. They just don't care in the same numbers as past generstions.

 

[The Demon]

Education in the states isn't just an issue of the school themselves, but of the culture as well. Unfortunately, lots of American kids just don't give a fuck about their education, they go to high school to slack off for 7 hours and smoke weed. Countries like Japan and Korea have high student averages on tests because their cultures promote academic success way more than it ever was in the states.

they also have some of the highest suicide rates in the world

 

[sperginity]

Law is not on the poll, but I think every kid needs a basic education in the law. I mean a practical education so that it doesn't cause kids to become litigious ninnies, like emphasize what a gamble court is, how often judgments go unpaid, how much it costs to get a lawyer, how much better rich people do in the legal system, etc. The average person is totally unaware of when their boss or landlord is breaking the law, or when a search is illegal. People don't know how divorce works until they get one, or how to check if their business dealings are legal. Most people who have a medical malpractice case don't know it and just bankrupt themselves, letting shitty doctors maim lots more people. It's crazy. An informed citizenry would seriously cut down on the number of scumbags abusing their power. Having high school kids sit in on small claims court for a day would be hugely educational, for instance.

 

[sperginity]

A big start would be dismantling the grip unions have on our public schools. Cut the salaries of admin and increase the salaries of good teachers. Also most importantly parents need to fucking care. They just don't care in the same numbers as past generstions.

How do you measure who is a good teacher though? All we really have is standardized tests, and when the pressure increases it just makes teachers cheat on behalf of students. Dismantling the union might help or hurt, cant say for sure until a better measurement is in place.