There have been some interesting questions here lately about ways to educate kids in different subjects, and it's interesting to see what parents are doing and spending to try to get the best foundation for their kids. I'm personally struggling with homeschooling (in a good way) learning how much work and $s it is to round out a good eduction foundation, and hoping to move to a better district one day to send the kids to school while continuing lessons and activities, so this topic is on my mind. An article just blew my mind, which I'll attach in the SWH.
Since we hold the future in our hands...My question is: Do you think social equality in schools could help the American school system? Apparently there are countries where "no child is left behind" for real. Do you think we should heed this advice? see article.
article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-...
@AV, true, the US is much LARGER, but it makes a good point that schools are largely state run, and each state is really no
larger than the countries who succeed at this.
@ Miranda, AWESOME point!
A.,
"A good public education for every child regardless of where they go to school or what kind of families they come from"? Now you're just talking crazy!
Yes--I agree with the article. For far too long in the US, the area in which you live dictates what type of education you will receive, what types of resources will be available, drives property values, and limits opportunity for many.
Sort of reminds me of health care....
Absolutely. Do you know that in wealthy school districts, the schools can operate on as much as double the funds of poor districts? How is that right or fair? School districts should not be funded by district property taxes, for starters. The schools that poorer children are often forced to attend are abominable, creating an extremely high dropout rate and giving them almost no opportunities for success.
Teaching to the test is almost universally loathed among educators, and the testing and accountability movement has been proven a failure. There was some legislation in Sept. of this year that allows school districts to opt out of testing accountability, but I don't know if it has been implemented yet. I recently talked to a teacher in Fla. who hates her job because of testing, and said that if she had kids, she would not put her own child in her school. She said that in 2nd grade the kids suffer from anxiety because of the tests, and she has almost no leeway for creative or fun teaching.
If we just dropped (almost) everything we are currently doing and adopted Finland's model, it would be a great start.
The aspect of this article that interests me is that one the one hand, "all Finnish schools are the same," but underlying that, it seems like these schools treat all Finnish children as individuals. We think of the United States as this very individualistic society, but our education system is painfully cookie-cutter. I'd so much rather have a school that treated every child, all children, as special and unique, than a system where a lucky few rich parents can send their children to a school that's special and unique. So, I don't know, I hope that's the kind of thought you were looking for.
I agree with a lot of the points made. I have chosen to send my children to private school because of the economic inequality of the public school in my neighborhood and they way in which that inequality has severely damaged the quality of education. I wish I could send my children to the local school, but I just can't.
I am always cautious, however, when the "next great thing" comes along in education. While there are many excellent point here about moving away from constant testing and competion and working towards equality, Finland and the U.S are vastly different countries. The massive gap between the poor and the wealthy, large, concentrated immigrant populations and low literacy rates are all huge concerns. I am also guessing there are not entrenched street gangs in the neighborhoods of Finland as there are in my community. Still, I think this article is a good starting point for how US schools can begin to think about new solutions to seemingly impossible to solve problems.
One of the issues I have with articles like that (be they comparing us to China or Finland) is that it's still apples and oranges. If Finland isn't as competitive by nature as the US, then it's not as simple as overhauling the US system to get rid of everything that isn't Finnish. And how does the country's spending line up? Do they have the same spending priorities? What would we have to change about our own budget and what would the consequences be (something Congress can never agree on)?
There are benefits to many other educational systems and I do think that NCLB is a joke (too much emphasis on a test and too little looking at what works and letting teachers teach - friend is a 30 yr veteran and so frustrated with the mandates from the district.They don't even trust teachers to make their own tests. Finals are all handed down from the district so heaven help you if your class didn't move as fast on the material as the next school). I think we shouldn't ignore the things that DO work, but just like how each of our children is different, so is each society. One size doesn't fit all and when you're talking millions of kids - frankly I wouldn't want that job.
It's the same thing as socialized medicine. My SS liked the idea a lot more before he experienced it. Or if you talk to Canadians about how they get up to a year paid maternity leave, you'll also realize that it's a % of income and many can't afford to take a year off. Etc. It's not cut and dry.
