Why is education so poor?

In this time of a down economy and high unemployment, the stat that of those with college degrees only 4% are unemployed and at the peak unemployment that % was about the same, should tell all those with the brains to get a college degree, TO get a college degree. But either the numbers do not convey that message, OR there are not so many with the brains to get a degree.

 

The Somalian Govt....what there is of a govt. takes a hand off approach to education.

I've heard that anyone can have a gun also.Any kind of gun.

Maybe you should give it a try.

 

That was semi-helpful.

 

Somebody has to do the jobs that you don't need a degree for. Otherwise you are just getting a degree for no reason. If you made everyone get a degree, it wouldn't help society any, and it would probably be detrimental with all the extra wasted time.

 

Maybe that would help, but education still sucks even if the students and parents do have the motivation.

 

WHO is that "someone?" INDIVIDUALS that do not want to be unemployed, will get a degree. There will always be the lazy asses that will poorly do the jobs that don't require a degree. I wonder what the actual unemployment rate is among those that are highly proficient masters of their jobs that require no degree. I'm betting it is not much different from the rate for college grads.

 

I would take the American approach over the European approach any day. It is a fairer system for the students.

 

NUMBER ONE REASON: They made education a federal issue. so the locals and states pay money up to the feds, it gets laundered around a bit and given back to local schools. its a horribly inefficient system, especially when each state, hell each county has different needs. Not only that but obviously the federal govt has a very difficult time regulating every little public school in the country. that kind of micromanaging is just a recipe for disaster. we need to put education back into state and locals because locals care more about their school than a federal government ever would!

 

I highly doubt that, please explain the "American system" which is grossly underperforming and costs a lot of money when compared with "the European approach".

It is madness to put every single student and drop them in the same type/sort of school and give them the same sort of education. Utter madness!

Again, I ask you why you think the American system is somehow "fairer" for the students.

 

There isn't going to be any law requiring non college qualified people for attending vocational training.

Look .. What is the point in having these kids go to college for four years and they spend the whole time there without a clue THINKING employers are falling over themselves just waiting for them to graduate so they can hire them when the opposite is true?

And if they have to go to post grauduate school or vocational technical school AFTER they graduate college in the first place?

 

I guess it depends on what's fair. I think it might be more fair to students to track them into programs that more fit their abilities, rather than continually trying to hammer round pegs into square holes, then wonder why our students and educational system is failing.

That being said, the European approach would never work in the US. "Disparate impact" would doom it from the start.

 

Even if everyone had a college degree, you're going to have to have some people make the food for you at Burger King. Even if everyone had a college degree, some people have to drive garbage trucks. Even if everyone had a college degree, you're going to need construction workers. A college degree does absolutely nothing to help people perform these jobs, yet someone has to do them.

 

There is no such thing as society vs. the individual. If society is improving, that means the majority of individuals are improving.

 

But that is exactly how round pegs are made.

 

Society is a concept. Individuals are people. If PEOPLE improve, society may benefit. People do not benefit from society, society benefits from improved people.

The difference between rational thought and liberalism.

 

Nothing wrong with the USA public education. The results of dropout factories and dumbed down consumenrs who are allways at odds with eachother is what America should be. After all, these American masses are easier to manipulate. And if they think they are smart, that is all that matters.

 

And this is what happens in times of high unemployment, when there's high competion even for the most menial of positions. Imagine spending four years doing a BSc and applying for a job as a taxi driver because it's the only job available.

 

And Conservatives are afraid they are no longer special.

Tick-Tock Tick-Tock Tick-Tock

 

That's the reason that a lot of people shouldn't be going to college. Probably half of the current students shouldn't be there because academically, they can't do college level work. That's why colleges need so many remedial courses -- down to basic algebra -- people who in past generations wouldn't be in college now are. If those students would go to a trade school and learn auto-repair or welding or carpentry or some such, they'd have a skill and a decent wage, rather than $100,000 in debt and no useable skills.

We have a lot of OWSers in just that position and they're stuck because of the college bubble. We have so many college grads that unless you're on the honor roll or your university and were doing a hard subject, you're basically going to be doing a low wage low skill job that you could have gotten without college -- only now you owe $100,000 to the bank.

College in the US today is basically a very expensive 4-year rumpsringa for most kids. Not about anything more than hedonism and delaying adulthood for 4 more years.

 

I think the motivation will cause the needed changes. Right now, a lot of decisions are made by school boards with little input from parents. The parents quite literally cannot be bothered to attend school board meetings in which the textbooks are being discussed, teacher pay is discussed, or other such topics. Quite literally, if you aren't doing something controversial, you could pick any textbook you like, and no one will care enough to attend the meeting. I could vote to make 3rd grade textbooks official for 6th grade in most districts and unless it gets picked up by the media, no one will be the wiser.

If parents are afraid of low standardized testing sending their kids to taxi school, you can bet your bippy they'll be at those school board meetings demanding good books and demanding the removal of bad teachers.

 

This link claims the average class size in South Carolina is 14.4 students per teacher.

http://teaching.about.com/od/ProfilesInEducation/a/South-Carolina-Education.htm

 

We gave that up, for the most part, in the late 1980s/early 1990s. The deal made in many school districts (like the one I worked for in the 1990s) was that high schools would stop teaching voc ed, and the students would go to tech schools after high school to learn those things. Not sure what the high schools got out of it, but the high school I worked at had excellent facilities for voc ed (full auto shop, etc.) (albeit about 4 or 5 yrs out of date), but only taught a handful of courses in voc ed.

 

Products of the US government compulsory indoctrination program...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHtDF-z77wk&feature=player_embedded"]Lunch Scholars - YouTube[/ame]

 

So, you can suggest a better system? (And how scientifically-sampled were the kids in the video anyway? It appears you let the presentation sway your mind too completely.)

 

I would prefer NO government involvement.

Home schooled kids receive 30% higher grades in standardized tests than government schooled kids.

"Public schools" are daycare/indoctrination centers that provide only enough information for kids to get a factory job. Now that there are limited factory jobs, kids are encouraged, through legislation and industry "standards," are required to have a college degree (it doesn't matter what it's in as long as the "student" went into debt for life to the state). The "education" received at these "schools of higher learning" is generally biased toward progressive agendas.