Working in the Education System
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011The US education system is not what it really was previously. In 2006 the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment ranked the US 35 of 57 in Math, 29 of 57 in science; scoring way behind other civilized world. In Europe the education system has a tendency to nurture a student’s abilities and interests, working them towards careers or universities. Education in the US is no longer about preparing children for his or her future, it’s about preparing them for mediocrity. Federal program’s like No Child Left Behind result in misrepresentation of the educational standards of society at hand which distracts from the issue. It doesn’t attempt to reform the system, but focuses on mediocrization through standardized testing.
The education programs in america spend too much money training teachers to teach instead of teach. Our educators are educated to perpetuate the idea of the acceptable quantity of knowledge instead of to enlighten kids with critical thinking. No more are youth taught to question, to revise, to higher their predecessors, but to attain the bare minimum required by outdated modes of thinking; student’s lose out on a broader learning, an understanding around the globe and a drive to better the evolution of society. Students who are not taught to question their learning won’t ever question the words, the implications, of their environment.
The problems of today, the oil crisis, global warming, limited resources, etc. will affect not our lives, however the lives in our children, our grandchildren, but it is as much as us to organize our progeny to resolve problems that our political and economic leaders cannot even manage to discuss civilly. It’s as much as our generation, however the task of preparing young adults to consider critically falls mainly in to the hands of teachers. A few lucky students who are classified as “gifted” or who choose to take AP classes get a brand of teaching that prepares them for a lifetime, for their futures, for realistic human interaction, however the great majority of students in America are wasting their time on busy work, memorization, and curriculum according to state or nation-wide standardized testing.
By just as one education major, a student is developing the abilities they need to change thinking, whether within the classroom or perhaps in the curriculum. The data an education major attains can be applied not just specifically to the education system, but to political, journalistic, or psychological fields. Although just as one education major won’t solve all the problems of the system, creating awareness may be the initial step in correcting the inconsistencies within the education system, the inconsistencies in the considering the masses.
Widespread change has to begin somewhere, educators possess the gift of circumstance. Receptive students can absorb and expand upon, or if necessary, overturn, the considering their teachers, but with no broad, aware learning and thinking process critical thinking becomes more difficult to nurture. My goal as an education major is to increase awareness and to encourage students to question the norms of society rather than blindly accepting them.