Archive for October, 2011

Working in the Education System

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

The 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more are youth taught to question, to revise, to higher their predecessors, but to attain the bare minimum required by outdated modes of thinking; student’s lose out on a broader learning, an understanding around the globe and a drive to better the evolution of society.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.

Canadian Education System Overview

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

The Canadian education system is extremely similar to that of america during the elementary and senior high school years, but it differs in its greater focus on state funded education in the college and university level of study. The education of the Canadian youth is the responsibility of the individual provinces, and, because the authorities doesn’t regulate every factor of instruction, regulations vary amongst the different regions; however, every province in Canada mandates school attendance until at least 16 years of age, and Ontario and New Brunswick maintain compulsory education laws for kids under 18 years old.

Generally, provincial schools divide students by age into primary schools, secondary schools, and colleges or universities. The main school division encompasses kindergarten, elementary school, intermediate school, middle school, and junior-secondary school, but no province actually includes all these sectors; basically, the primary school, like a general term, describes every grade before ninth grade throughout the entire country, and enrolment within this segment is required by law in each and every province. The secondary school may be the successive division after the primary school, which is usually considered a transition between compulsory early schools and colleges or universities; graduation generally requires 4 years of study. Most of these schools concentrate on preparing the students for immediate immersion in the workforce or accumulating these phones environmental surroundings of post-secondary institutions.

Unlike America where the terms are utilized interchangeably, Canadian universities and colleges are distinct entities with entirely different foci. While colleges are generally two or three year vocational programs that grant certificates or diplomas in various fields, universities are research facilities that grant four year degrees in multiple different educational majors. Out of all Canadians between 25 and 64, approximately 53 percent have earned some type of post-secondary diploma, degree, or certificate, making Canada a world leader in the provision better education; this is so because the colleges and universities remain highly subsidized by the government in every province.

Though a large number of secondary school graduates attend excellent universities in every province, the very best and brightest make an effort to attend one of the Group of Thirteen, a league of Canada’s thirteen most prestigious universities. The most popular from the thirteen schools include the University of Toronto, the University of Bc, the University of Waterloo, and McGill University; additionally, due to all these schools’ prosperous alumni and prolific research facilities, each member of the group manages enormous budgets from financial endowments and federal grants when compared with other provincial universities. Although the endowments of those schools cannot match the ones from the American Ivy League colleges, these institutions represent probably the most financially prosperous schools in most of Canada, plus they can match the most opulent universities of Asia and Europe.