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On the new SHS-themed websites: “I think the blogs are a great way to make jokes about how unique Saratoga is, but it’s important not to be cocky about it. As long as it remains a joke, I'll be a fan.” — 2011 alumnus Nick Renda
U.S. education falling behind those of other countries
By Grishma Athavale | October 29, 2009
The U.S has been perceived upon as a country of hard workers, overachievers, and gifted people all having a vigorous work ethic. Americans work approximately 40 hour work weeks, compared 35 for the French and a measly 30 hours for the Germans. In addition to this, Americans only get an average of four weeks of vacation, whereas the French get the month of August to recover from their ‘hectic’ work weeks, causing Americans to dub the Europeans as a bunch of lazy people. There is some bias and exaggerations to these statements, but overall Americans do work more than other Europeans—the same can’t be said however, for the nation’s youth.
Unfortunately, the vigorous work ethic and strive to learn has not rubbed of on the nation’s children. American children have school for only 180 days year, compared to the 195 days in Germany and 200 in East Asia. Furthermore, they only have about 2-3 hours of homework per night and are not pressured by society to take extra classes after school; a fact that appalls nations such as Japan and India, whose children take after school classes regularly to help them with their studies.
Americans also have the shortest school day, a mere six and half hours, all packed into the morning and early afternoon. Countries such as Denmark and Sweden boast a staggering 40 to 50 hour school week, making some American education reforms re-think they way the write guidelines for the nation’s schools. This morning to early afternoon school schedule gives children the opportunity to engage in some extra-curricular activities, such as soccer, tennis, or art. This is good, since the child can venture out and find something that he or she is good at, however the benefits of this are only short-term for they don’t really help the child progress further academically. The U.S needs to lengthen the school day to emphasize the fact that fun and games aren’t everything, and children should engage in something educational after school, to help them in their studies.
When summer rolls around in early to mid June, all the material that is learned over the year is quickly forgotten as the lack of practice takes effect. The three month stretch serves as an ‘education eraser’, as the typical student forgets about two months of material, a phenomenon called “summer leaning loss”. American scholars noticed however that this isn’t true for all American children. Children coming from poor families tend to do worse academically because of weak family bonds and are therefore more susceptible to learning loss. Richer kids, on the other hand, improve, for their parents send them to camps and classes to stimulate their minds, and encourage them to do something productive over the summer.
It’s no wonder that this three month stretch makes American children perform so poorly on international education tests; coming behind China, Japan, and India. These countries work harder on their children than America, do, even though they spend less on education. This embarrassing statistic shows the United States just how ineffective our education system really is, and should make the boards of education realize that our country is in dire need of an educational reform if it want to compete and match the caliber of children form other countries, notably East Asian ones.
Over the past several years, reforms have been made to several hundred schools across the country. These schools, part of the Knowledge is Power Programme (KIPP) start the school day at 7.30am and end at 5pm, and have more instructional days than the average American school. These fortunate students get 60% more education than the average American child. The county’s economy is also tied with education. A recent report from McKinsey, a management consultancy, emphasizes that the ghastly performance of the country’s school children has caused more devastation on the economy than the recession. Barrack Obama has urged school administrators to “rethink the school day”, arguing that “we can no longer afford an academic calendar designed for when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home ploughing the land at the end of each day.”America needs to ‘buck up it’s act, if it want to remain the most powerful and influential country in the world, by ensuring the education of its future generations.
Comments
Western people are more laid
Western people are more laid back and like to enjoy life, you can't compete with the asians. Larry @ bladder infection symptoms
With HUGE cutbacks in the
With HUGE cutbacks in the educational system in Pennsylvania for instance, extra curricular activities such as art, music, home-ec, and the like, even languages, may be eliminated, to teachers being let go.
I suggest that parents contribute to their children's education, a tuition if you will, based on income (1040's) and maybe other expenditures such as medical costs (individualize it somehow), or purchasing of textbooks/supplies - something! If parents put their $$$ into it, even if minimal, I would think they would expect a higher return on their investment, via their own kids, than perhaps they do now. And/or, have the student do some "labor" within the school, or from other earnings if they have a part-time job, to make their own contribution. Easy Street is vanishing, so . . .
In this country, discipline is becoming a lost art; standards are lower, and some parents think their kids can do no wrong, making a classroom situation difficult for the teacher, and while there are issues on both sides, a basic respect for authority should be able to be expected. And while this is allowed to continue, this country as a whole, sinks lower and lower into educational illiterateness with the end work ethic of "pay me, but don't ask me to do much." Money talks, we all know that. Put some additional burden on the parents beyond taxes and older students able to contribute, I bet there will be different results. At least I would hope so.
I am also for continued education during the summer, and this is where other educational opportunities could be incorporated that can't be fit in during the regular school year -- those things that are now on the chopping block and which help to make a well rounded individuals. Education should be thought of as a total education including those areas beyond the hard academics, especially for those students that do not fit into the academic "mold". These students should have other learning challenges they can look forward to, as well as possibly learning other skills that would make them employable. Other jobs that don't require a college education are just as important, and an educational system should encourage and help students find their niche. Another example would be to change the English program to really learn how: 1) to read -- with comprehension -- articles, newspapers, documents, financial agreements, leases, and the like of which they will encounter, 2) to being able to speak to a minimal degree about what was read, and definitely in various situations with other people; and, 3) to writing in different capacities, from the letter, to the resume, to the term paper. I would have Literature, for example, as an Elective. Bottom line: what will help a student more?
And for those teachers that protest their 9-month 'year' turning into a 10-month or more, work forum for them; welcome to the rest of the world where most get 2-4 weeks vacation max. At least, start indoctrinating the new graduates in education that this is the way of the future! I agree that three months off for basically a non-agricultural society is way outdated for both student and teacher alike.
I love this
I love this
I think if you examine it,
I think if you examine it, closely the decline in educational quality started the day politicians stuck their big noise in education. (I also link it to the death of classical education here in the US.)Irena from cheap web hosting
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I like this article very
I like this article very much, but their was one thing that you did not mention.
China, India, and Japan and all those other countries that you mentioned do not participate in no child left behind. At the end of each year they test their students and only the top 20% of each grade can go on to the next grade. That is why they are smarter, not only because they work harder, but because they only take the smartest and the best students to have the best possible scores on test. That is why most of their countries populace is unemployed.
I like the article however,
I like the article however, it as is much of the media coverage on "struggling schools", failing to acknowledge that Asian schools choose to educate a fraction of their populations. How is this an equitable comparison?
However, Japan doesn't
However, Japan doesn't "choose" who should get an education. The only reason why not as many attend school is because after grade 6 (which their schools go from k-6, 7-9, 10-12, then college) a tuition is required to enter and there is also an entrance exam they must pass.
And also, if only half their population goes to school, what does that further say about our education system in America? How sad is it that half of a countries population can out smart all of America's?
Test comparisons are made
Test comparisons are made based on the average score. If all of our students take the test and the average score is 60% we look bad but if only the top 50% of their population takes the test and the average score on the test is 80 % they look great. The media is comparing apples to oranges.
I want to know what the score would be if they also tested all of their youth.
oo
this is a great article.
this is a great article. thank you for posting it and i look forward to reading many more of your articles in the future.
I'm in school right now, for
I'm in school right now, for I already knew that there were academic problems. This ties in on how our future will be like. When they learned about different teaching techniques it actually improved some of the ways people were learning such as me. The government is disbursing to schools,but don't seem to be taking action except for new equipment and schools that are failing.
i didnt know tht our school
i didnt know tht our school days were so short but now i think of it i was always at school at 6 am and didnt get done at school till 8 pm monday through friday because i was in extra-curricular activities. I was very involved in my school.... Student Council, FCA, Football, Baseball, Band, Choir, Weight Lifting, and Rehearsals for school so i was much busier than the average student. I think it helped that my mother was a teacher though.
I don't care about the
I don't care about the grammar issues of this article it is written better than many of my high school students could do. I think Americans should be ashamed of the education system we have and the fact that we do not put enough money into this system yet take away money to spend in other areas. As a teacher I see many students every day and wonder how will this country survive, students and parents have a lack of value for education and teachers. If it wasn't for teachers most people would learn nothing, then where would this country be? Also, teachers are not paid enough to deal with many of the problems that we face on a day to day basis, of course, this would depend on where one works as to what all the factors would be. I am ready to start my own education system. Something must be done to fix this problem!
Case- in- point, review the
Case- in- point, review the comments below! Text messaging has contributed so much to our society! Thank you cellular phone companies for helping to dumb down America!
I also like this article, it
I also like this article, it was helpful in my assignment in sociology, ive always thought we were lower in academic levels than other countries. Arabian, and chinese people work harder just so that they may come over here and take all of our jobs and sell us their items at very high prices and i think we as americans need to learn as much as we can to do better in life or we will end up the immigrants...AMERICANS GET IT TOGETHER, teachers need to act as if they are teaching to better students not just a way of income!
Not only the teachers, the
Not only the teachers, the parents play an important piece in this educational puzzle process. Is a team .. I'm tired to hear the blame in teachers and in the government. And the parents? And society in general?
I can't believe what I am
I can't believe what I am reading. Education in the usa is getting worse has been a publicized fact. Now that has it proven, measures to fix need to be taken. Grants, scholarships are the only way to have a successful career.
Yeah,but i had heard about
Yeah,but i had heard about that a few months ago in several news outlets.According to my opinion,it would not be a long time until US raises the standards and catches up with every other country that is performing well already grants .It is just a matter of time before all that happens
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You have a very inspiring way of exploring and sharing your thoughts. It is very uncommon nowadays, lots of sites and blogs having copy pasted or rewritten info. But here, no doubt, info is original and very well structured. It is just an amazing piece of work, which motivates me to read more and more of your posts via my chat software. Awesome!
Extending the school day
Extending the school day would only give more instruction, not improve upon the quality of instruction being provided. Furthermore, it would do nothing in regards to the utter lack of creativity in schools today. While your sentiment is appreciated, it is ill-informed and does not examine the full scope of America's education concerns.
I agree with the comment
I agree with the comment above. Even if the school day would be prolonged, it would not necessarily improve critical thinking, creativity, and self motivation in students. If the quality of teaching stretches only to the extent of "what's written on the syllabus", as many teachers do, this is only encouraging students to memorize like robots for a test and after a test nobody remembers basic concepts. This country is degrading!
I want to add that the emphasize on sports rather than arts, music, and humanities is disappointing. The after school football practice is good for exercising, which does get more blood flow in your brain and muscles. But how about learning about who Mozart is, who is Rembrandt, why was Beethoven death and how did he write astounding music? Besides, it is scientifically proven that music and art develop creativity and flexibility to think broadly in other areas such as math and science.
America has a long way to go! This is one of the reasons why home schooling is so popular and I support all the families who decide to home school their children.
I think this is because the
I think this is because the U.S.A. spends so much money on entertainment
...Is this not the most
...Is this not the most fitting comment for the article above?
ME TOO! haha, but i'm from
ME TOO! haha, but i'm from canada
If one wishes to publish an
If one wishes to publish an article about education, it would be preferable if there were no mistakes in spelling or grammar. Just another example of our poor education system, I guess.
I totally agree with the fact
I totally agree with the fact that we need education reform, but simmer down there just typos. Lol
True, true.
True, true.
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