Tweet
First of all, the statement in the title is true. There is no getting around it other than ignorant worship for the flag and country--Americans are dumb. Our kids consistently score lower on pretty much any test than those in Europe. It's just a "fact" in that you could probably find data to oppose it but it's so commonly accepted it would be like being a flat Earther. For the sake of this thread don't try to oppose it.
I'm not saying Americans are inherently dumber, there's nothing in our genes that lowers our IQ. But it's pretty obvious, we are not as smart as other nationalities in the developed world. Why?
I think it has to do with three major things. I might be wrong, but here they are:
(1) There are less American teachers per student than European teachers per student. Individual attention always produces better results. A classroom of 15 has more individual attention time than a classroom of 25.
(2) Education is not uniform across the United States. Unlike in Europe, where despite differences per country things are generally alike as long as you stay in the border, every state in the US has different educational standards, different minimums, requirements, certifications, tests, you name it. And the situation this makes is that the education system is totally different between some places, and how things are measured is ruined. For example, an all-A student in Arkansas may well be only a B or C student in Massachussetts. Even within the Natural State, individual school districts have different rules in place, and I can assure you an A student from one of these super-tiny high schools will do poorly at a large school.
(3) Europeans are exposed to more things than Americans. Education isn't just a simple formulaic equation. Culture and willingness to understand, accept things plays a part in it too. A European kid has much more access to cultural materials as well as different cultures than his own. There are no different cultures in the United States. People throw around the South, New England, California as having different cultures, but we really don't, and since desegregation even the Deep South has been tamed, you rarely hear proper Southern accents any more, or anything like that. Besides, differences across the US are not the kind that foster understanding--we all have the same manners, the same religion, the same history. Culture in the US consists of watching TV. Few children see the arts or grow up with people that are different from themselves.
So what can we do? Throw money at education, institute more federal regulations, fund the arts into areas where it would not normally be afforded, areas with children at-risk for failure, for example. It won't be easy but it won't be fixed if we put our fingers in our ears or blindly discount ideas from across the Atlantic.
I'm not saying Americans are inherently dumber, there's nothing in our genes that lowers our IQ. But it's pretty obvious, we are not as smart as other nationalities in the developed world. Why?
I think it has to do with three major things. I might be wrong, but here they are:
(1) There are less American teachers per student than European teachers per student. Individual attention always produces better results. A classroom of 15 has more individual attention time than a classroom of 25.
(2) Education is not uniform across the United States. Unlike in Europe, where despite differences per country things are generally alike as long as you stay in the border, every state in the US has different educational standards, different minimums, requirements, certifications, tests, you name it. And the situation this makes is that the education system is totally different between some places, and how things are measured is ruined. For example, an all-A student in Arkansas may well be only a B or C student in Massachussetts. Even within the Natural State, individual school districts have different rules in place, and I can assure you an A student from one of these super-tiny high schools will do poorly at a large school.
(3) Europeans are exposed to more things than Americans. Education isn't just a simple formulaic equation. Culture and willingness to understand, accept things plays a part in it too. A European kid has much more access to cultural materials as well as different cultures than his own. There are no different cultures in the United States. People throw around the South, New England, California as having different cultures, but we really don't, and since desegregation even the Deep South has been tamed, you rarely hear proper Southern accents any more, or anything like that. Besides, differences across the US are not the kind that foster understanding--we all have the same manners, the same religion, the same history. Culture in the US consists of watching TV. Few children see the arts or grow up with people that are different from themselves.
So what can we do? Throw money at education, institute more federal regulations, fund the arts into areas where it would not normally be afforded, areas with children at-risk for failure, for example. It won't be easy but it won't be fixed if we put our fingers in our ears or blindly discount ideas from across the Atlantic.
retards.
Comment