Your thoughts on education?

[Jan_Hus]

It's no secret that the education system in the United States is Schizophrenic at best, and downright backwards at worst. I know we are a worldwide community, but I wanted to see what everybody's thoughts were on education and the educational systems in your various countries?

 

[Oh Long Johnson]

In the US, Common Core is cancer and its inevitable death has been way slower than it should be.

 

[Wallace]

The American ideal of a college-educated middle-class is rapidly disappearing. Academia is approaching bubble status.

 

[Sexy Rexxy]

In the US, Common Core is cancer and its inevitable death has been way slower than it should be.

In the US, schools were cancer way before common core was introduced. The environments and most of the teachers simply aren't suited to the task.

 

[Wallace]

In the US, schools were cancer way before common core was introduced. The environments and most of the teachers simply aren't suited to the task.

A lot of the recent Department of Education changes (common core, NCLB) were also naked cash grabs by Pearson Education and other purveyors of textbooks and testing materials. They're the ones who are coming out ahead here, not the schools.

 

[The Giver]

The real problem is that becoming a teacher in the US just isn't worth it. It is hard work, viewed as relatively low prestige socially, and you don't make shit.

Teachers are earning about 20 percent less than other college graduates who are similarly educated. Even after you adjust for the difference in the calendar work here, in 30 states a teacher who has a family of four is eligible for several sources of government assistance, including free or reduced-price lunch for their own children in school.

Source

The upshot here, in my mind, is that we can't be surprised that we have a shortage of teachers (and an even greater shortage of good teachers) when becoming a teacher is just so damn unattractive financially; you end up working extremely hard to be so poor your kids qualify for free lunches.

And obviously this has a massively negative effect on the education system more broadly

 

[Jan_Hus]

The real problem is that becoming a teacher in the US just isn't worth it. It is hard work, viewed as relatively low prestige socially, and you don't make shit.



Source

The upshot here, in my mind, is that we can't be surprised that we have a shortage of teachers (and an even greater shortage of good teachers) when becoming a teacher is just so damn unattractive financially; you end up working extremely hard to be so poor your kids qualify for free lunches.

And obviously this has a massively negative effect on the education system more broadly

This is true, fortunately benefits tend to be pretty good and they'll pay back your loans in some states.
*source* I'm currently in school to become a high school teacher

 

[The Giver]

This is true, fortunately benefits tend to be pretty good and they'll pay back your loans in some states.
*source* I'm currently in school to become a high school teacher

Yeah, I guess my point is just that it isn't gonna be worth it for a lot of people who might otherwise consider going into teaching.

Like, earning on average 20% less is no joke. And I'd imagine if you were considering teaching High School science or math, you'd be sacrificing well over 20% of your potential earnings if you choose teaching over industry.

 

[Cosmos]

A lot of the recent Department of Education changes (common core, NCLB) were also naked cash grabs by Pearson Education and other purveyors of textbooks and testing materials. They're the ones who are coming out ahead here, not the schools.

Yeah, I feel like we should really discuss how much of a blatant scam the textbook industry is, particularly in colleges. They've managed to stay ahead of the used book business by either 1.) publishing a "new" edition every 2-3 years or 2.) requiring online codes that can't be reused.

 

[Jan_Hus]

Yeah, I feel like we should really discuss how much of a blatant scam the textbook industry is, particularly in colleges. They've managed to stay ahead of the used book business by either 1.) publishing a "new" edition every 2-3 years or 2.) requiring online codes that can't be reused.

My diversity in education (vomits into bucket) was 300 dollars. I paid 300 dollars for a textbook, that was basically tumblr incarnate

 

[Jan_Hus]

Yeah, I guess my point is just that it isn't gonna be worth it for a lot of people who might otherwise consider going into teaching.

Like, earning on average 20% less is no joke. And I'd imagine if you were considering teaching High School science or math, you'd be sacrificing well over 20% of your potential earnings if you choose teaching over industry.

My ultimate goal is to teach medieval literature in college

 

[DuskEngine]

Yeah, I feel like we should really discuss how much of a blatant scam the textbook industry is, particularly in colleges. They've managed to stay ahead of the used book business by either 1.) publishing a "new" edition every 2-3 years or 2.) requiring online codes that can't be reused.

idk anyone who doesn't pirate textbooks; I have no idea how the industry manages to stay solvent

 

[Jan_Hus]

idk anyone who doesn't pirate textbooks; I have no idea how the industry manages to stay solvent

Tests mainly, I know Pearson has their hand in both the PRAXIS and PLAT

 

[The Giver]

Yeah, I feel like we should really discuss how much of a blatant scam the textbook industry is, particularly in colleges. They've managed to stay ahead of the used book business by either 1.) publishing a "new" edition every 2-3 years or 2.) requiring online codes that can't be reused.

Also worth noting that in some disciplines like Physics and Mathematics, the only difference between editions is the problem sets (sometimes they literally just rearrange what problem is what number). The idea being to create practically no new content, absolutely no new useful content, but still force kids to buy the newest editions in order to be able to do their homework.

 

[Overcast]

I've noticed a few of my college professors seem to be a bit on the extreme side.

One of my teachers was implying that Bush's presidency increased the amount of rape in the U.S, another one had a Wanted poster with Christopher Columbus on it stating he caused the death of an entire civilization.

And my current professor talked about how she was taking her daughter through a drive through at McDonald's. She was getting her a happy meal, the employee asked if she wanted the boy or the girl's toy. She talked about how pissed she got and how she wanted to get that employee fired or sue him.

Over a fucking McDonald's toy...

 

[Cosmos]

Also worth noting that in some disciplines like Physics and Mathematics, the only difference between editions is the problem sets (sometimes they literally just rearrange what problem is what number). The idea being to create practically no new content, absolutely no new useful content, but still force kids to buy the newest editions in order to be able to do their homework.

It's not just STEM fields either; I'm a sociology major and many of my "new edition" textbooks basically admit that nothing important was added (in the "what's new" section, to be specific).

Honestly, I feel like this shit should be illegal or at the very least regulated. It's such a blatant scam.

 

[Jan_Hus]

I've noticed a few of my college professors seem to be a bit on the extreme side.

One of my teachers was implying that Bush's presidency increased the amount of rape in the U.S, another one had a Wanted poster with Christopher Columbus on it stating he caused the death of an entire civilization.

And my current professor talked about how she was taking her daughter through a drive through at McDonald's. She was getting her a happy meal, the employee asked if she wanted the boy or the girl's toy. She talked about how pissed she got and how she wanted to get that employee fired or sue him.

Over a fucking McDonald's toy...

Heh. My medieval lit professor, (basically communist Jesus) he's cool, had some choice four letter words for these types of professors. He basically told the gender studies crowd in class that "the death of academia and higher Ed will come from your department, is it any wonder that nobody wants to major in English or history anymore?" I need to go back and visit that man sometime. our last discussion was about how the current crop of gender studies Marxists would be the first against the wall in any revolution by the lower class

 

[DuskEngine]

http://gen.lib.rus.ec/

 

[AnOminous]

Also worth noting that in some disciplines like Physics and Mathematics, the only difference between editions is the problem sets (sometimes they literally just rearrange what problem is what number). The idea being to create practically no new content, absolutely no new useful content, but still force kids to buy the newest editions in order to be able to do their homework.

A lot of times they just switch up page numbers and move shit around so you can't use the assignments from last year because the page numbers don't match.

And my current professor talked about how she was taking her daughter through a drive through at McDonald's. She was getting her a happy meal, the employee asked if she wanted the boy or the girl's toy. She talked about how pissed she got and how she wanted to get that employee fired or sue him.

I hate when rich privileged scum harass poor people just trying to do a job. This entitled cunt thinks McDonald's employees aren't told exactly what to say in every fucking interaction they have with the public, probably because she never, ever had a job doing anything productive in her rich, coddled life.

 

[Jan_Hus]

A lot of times they just switch up page numbers and move shit around so you can't use the assignments from last year because the page numbers don't match.



I hate when rich privileged scum harass poor people just trying to do a job. This entitled cunt thinks McDonald's employees aren't told exactly what to say in every fucking interaction they have with the public, probably because she never, ever had a job doing anything productive in her rich, coddled life.

Right? Probably explains why my old professor (everybody called him ole' Ray) despised these people. He came from abject poverty, son of an illiterate sharecropper in backwoods North Carolina. (I really mean backwoods, 25-30 miles from his nearest neighbor, up in the mountains) His family could barely afford food, had no indoor plumbing. He got out of that environment by, as he puts it, "reading Alfred the Great," and some smarmy asshole calls him "privileged" for being male and being white. He finally managed to go to UNC chapel hill on a medievalist scholarship, back when the humanities was actually respected.