America actually has a pretty good education system

[Al B. Sure!]

I feel like haven't been teaching long enough to give a qualified answer. There is no one simple answer. The current state of education in the U.S. is a result of combination of problems that encompass sociological, cultural, and economic factors.

I will try to project my thoughts as someone teaching in a underachieving high school within a poor neighborhood.

Let me tell you the differences between a good school district in an affluent neighborhood and a poor school is like night and day. The curriculum of the standard U.S. government class I am teaching is like something out of middle school. When these kids graduate, they are simply not prepared for the real world job market.

As a teacher, I can only do so much. For example, there are students who flat out refuse to do homework and no amount contact with the parents seems to help. Many parents simply aren't involved in the lives of their children and as a consequence, there is no real incentive to do well. Sometimes the parents are just plan bad but more often than not, these students come from families with financial stress, a sick parent, or other domestic problems.

Yet the failure of education, I think, is just one of many problems decline of the community and shared identity. Everyone is in their own technological ideological bubble searching for self-actualization. There is little faith in the institutions of government. Yet who can blame them? They've seen their standards of living stagnate for thirty years. There is also a strong undercurrent of anti-intellectualism in this country. These aren't problems you can fix overnight. They're a result from decades of development.

Increased funding of schools might help but the problems in education reflect a much deeper problem within the nation.

What would help, more than anything, is if the working class or those in the bottom 50% of this nation were able to earn living wages with their education and cared enough for their nation or community to assert themselves in positive way. Perhaps if we encouraged kids who would not normally go to university to learn a trade or skill. There also needs to be greater emphasis on math and science. In the current school I teach in, there are seniors who don't even understand simple concepts from an Algebra II class.

Fixing education will require tectonic societal shifts. Unfortunately, nations that are in decline will usually rigidly adhere to the status quo. We're going to be in for a rude awakening.

Sorry if my thoughts seem kind of disjointed but I'm a bit hungover.

I'd also like to add the psychological effects of a culture that hinders academic achievement ingrained in the youth. There is a psychology of hopelessness and fatalism prevalent in the cities; a sentiment of why bother?

I can share the experience of a young man I know who I lived with (he was my room-mate's younger brother). I've known him since he was around 10 or so (he's 18 now). He's not a stupid kid. His one half-brother (the room-mate) went to the city's best high school with me (though he had the distinction of being the only one in our graduating class to not enroll in college); his other half-brother currently attends the University of Pittsburgh. This young man has the capacity to be as academically accomplished as his brothers, surely.

However, his attitude is wrong. Both his parents have dealt with substance abuse issues and have been imprisoned. His sister died in a car accident and a third half-brother (not related to the first two) is, to those who know him, an alright guy but he has done time.

This young man, let's call him K. for matters of convenience, has been diagnosed with and medicated for a number of psychological disorders, including ADHD and depression (there may be a role in his parents' history of substance abuse). As a student, he was capable when he applied himself but also is a follower and would act up in class for attention and popularity. This resulted in him being held back.

His more successful brothers and I (as well as his parents) have tried to encourage him to apply himself. When K. was younger, he talked about how he would go to college and law school and be a judge since he was intimately aware of the problems with the justice system and seemed to want to address them. In time, however, 'realism' set in and K. stopped talking about wanting to become a lawyer. He stopped going to school, had a child, started smoking weed, started to run the streets, and is currently in some juvenile detention school system somewhere in up-state PA.

The city sent over a therapist to talk to him and I witnessed these sessions in which K.'s answer to why he didn't go to school was that he was tired. He was tired from running the streets at night. Why is he running the streets? Why doesn't he just go to school and make something of himself? He would say, school is important but what's the point? Teachers don't care. The school doesn't care. Not like a diploma gets you a job that pays.

The allure of being a hoodlum like everybody else beat out the need for hard-work and determination to be a lawyer.

I know this is just one guy but it represents a greater general malaise that inflicts the youth today. I saw it growing up as well but something in me said this isn't right. Other kids don't come to the same conclusion that I did.

When your neighborhood looks like ****, why should you care about your community?
When your school doesn't even have enough textbooks, why should you care about education?
When your parents are doing time, what role models do you have?
When your friends are hustling on the corner, why should you be different?

[Al B. Sure!]

Of course a spoiled brat like you with no life experiences beyond mommy and daddy's comfy suburban home would know about the problems facing the nation's poorest.

He could at least provide some counter-points. Say why he think your analysis is 'flat-out wrong' (or at least what specifically he disagrees with) and provide evidence for why he thinks things are the way they are.

Of course a distinct lack of experience would diminish the validity of his opinions.

[Kidlicious]

As a teacher, I can only do so much. For example, there are students who flat out refuse to do homework and no amount contact with the parents seems to help. Many parents simply aren't involved in the lives of their children and as a consequence, there is no real incentive to do well. Sometimes the parents are just plan bad but more often than not, these students come from families with financial stress, a sick parent, or other domestic problems.

Somehow the parents and students need to be held accountable. That's the key part of a real solution. I don't see that happening though. Anytime anyone in education suggests that they are put down as shifting the blame.

[Riesstiu IV]

No kidding. You would not believe the kind of hand holding bull**** you have to put up with when it comes to students who refuse to do any work. If their parents don't reinforce the need to do homework, then teachers are forced to use bribes or undue praise for what little they do accomplish as a means of encouragement.

[VetLegion]

He would say, school is important but what's the point? Teachers don't care. The school doesn't care. Not like a diploma gets you a job that pays.

When your neighborhood looks like ****, why should you care about your community?
When your school doesn't even have enough textbooks, why should you care about education?

What's all this caring business?

You get educated because you want to eat. Not to please someone.

Also, what's this attitude that a diploma should entitle you to a well paying job?

You're just starting in life, you're years away from a well paying job any
way you put it.

[VetLegion]

There is also a strong undercurrent of anti-intellectualism in this country.

Really? We have that here, but I always attributed it to communism (which encouraged
kids to blend in, be the same as everybody and not stand out). I actually have seen this
"cut the tallest grass" mentality erode during the last 15 years.

What would be the reason for anti-intellectualism in the US? You never had communism
there.

[Wezil]

What would be the reason for anti-intellectualism in the US? You never had communism
there.

Republicans.

[Riesstiu IV]

Basically the American proletariat resent individuals with even the faintest glimmer of intelligence or ambition to question the status quo.

[Heraclitus]

Really? We have that here, but I always attributed it to communism (which encouraged
kids to blend in, be the same as everybody and not stand out). I actually have seen this
"cut the tallest grass" mentality erode during the last 15 years.

What would be the reason for anti-intellectualism in the US? You never had communism
there.

Utlitmatley it comes from four sources:

a) Ostracism of those who question the Yankee Puritan hyper-moral New Jerusalem project
(carrying either a Christian or Liberal set of values)
-used by the higher classes against intellectual, cultural or scientific dissidents and as a general rationalization for their venomous contempt of the poor.

b) The "If you're so smart why aren't you rich?" "practical American" attitude that has always been strong in the US.
-used by the middle class against those who criticize the status quo. Or so they believe. Actually its skilfully subverted to enact changes plutocrats find to their liking while steering it away from protecting parts of the status que they [Plutocracts] don't like .

c) Distrust of foreign (often even ethnically not only religiously) elites who share no meaningful experience with the lower class. This manifests in mocking upper class SWPL cultural norms and a general distrust of Liberal Puritan hyper-moralist intellectuals and sometimes even a wholesale rejection of anything that clashes with their culture (including science).

d) The ultimate internal dialectic of democracy demands eventual literal equality. This has been noted as far back as Aristotle's time (by the man himself). Democracy can not exist without the shadow of a radical Jacobin spirit. This "You're not better than me!" impulse feeds much of what fires up b) and c) and isn't tempered because in their vulgarity Americans worshipers of "Dehmuhracy!" and even many of the fans of "the founding fathers" (as they see them) and "the constitution" (as they see it) fundamentally espouse mob rule.

[SlowwHand]

I like how you're a mind reader of Americans; and Aristotle wasn't American, nor did America exist then.

[Heraclitus]

I like how you're a mind reader of Americans, and Aristotle wasn't American.

This may shock you. But Democracy as a concept and practice predates America.

Point d) is true of any democratic society, but only America (and perhaps France with its worship of the Republic) put it at the very soul of their nationhood.

Also I'm not reading minds. I look at:

a) What polls and studies show as to the relationship between the various demographic groups and classes - in other words I look at who hates who and who likes who.
b) Cui bono

And then mercilessly throwing away rationalizations when they clash with the reality of a) and b). Some of my analysis is based heavily on Frankfurt school concepts and the New Jerusalem angle prusued by the Yankee elites is more or less derived from the brilliant analysis of the subject by Paul E. Gottried.

[SlowwHand]

Then don't hypothesize on what Americans think, which you did.

[Heraclitus]

Then don't hypothesize on what Americans think, which you did.

I wasn't describing what they think, I was describing what they are doing and how they use talk points.

[DaShi]

I agree with Sloww. Hera, you don't understand America at all.

[ColdWizard]

No one cares about the poorest, but what about the best? From the Washington Post:

By all accounts, he is one of the best math teachers in the country. The Mathematics Association of America has given him two national awards. He was appointed by the Bush administration to the National Mathematics Advisory Panel. For 25 years he has prepared middle-schoolers for the tough admissions standards at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, the most selective high school in America.

Yet this year, when Vern Williams looked at the Jefferson application, he felt not the usual urge to get his kids in, but a dull depression. On the first page of Jefferson's letter to teachers writing recommendations, in boldface type, was the school board's new focus: It wanted to prepare "future leaders in mathematics, science, and technology to address future complex societal and ethical issues." It sought diversity, "broadly defined to include a wide variety of factors, such as race, ethnicity, gender, English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), geography, poverty, prior school and cultural experiences, and other unique skills and experiences." The same language was on the last page of the application.

"This is just one example of why I have lost all faith in the TJ admissions process," Williams said. "In fact, I'm pretty embarrassed that the process seems no more effective than flipping coins."

Last year, he said, Jefferson rejected one of only two eighth-graders in Virginia who qualified to take the USA Junior Math Olympiad test, six scary problems to be done in nine hours. At the same time, "students who had very little interest [or] motivation in math and science were admitted," he said. "Some admitted students had even struggled with math while in middle school."

Williams knows that the school board is concerned that less than 4 percent of Jefferson students are black or Hispanic. He is black himself and was born in the District. He is familiar with the failings of math education for low-income minorities, but he doesn't think rejecting top math students is the best way to make the school more diverse.

The solution, he said, is to "get rid of all warm and fuzzy math programs at the elementary school level and teach real academic content to all students." Textbooks are dumbed down, he said, to accommodate allegedly math-phobic children. Don't get him started on the overuse of calculators.

He showed me a copy of a Jefferson recommendation he filled out in 2004. It asked him to rate the candidate on "interest in math," "self-discipline" and "problem-solving skills." There was no mention of ethnic diversity. This year, recommenders are required to assess three qualities: intellectual ability, commitment to STEM [science, technology, engineering, math] and whether the applicant's background, skills and past experiences "contribute to the diversity of TJHSST's community of learners."

Last November, I wrote a column endorsing that approach. I said that if the school put more emphasis on character and less on math scores, more black and Hispanic applicants would have a chance. I still believe that. But I have been so taken with the power of Williams's teaching over the years that I feel obliged to present his contrary view.

He has run into several cases of Jefferson ignoring STEM commitment. Humanities types are being accepted, and stars of Mathcounts, the nerd equivalent of youth soccer, are being rejected.

"And yet how many minorities have this corrupt process scooped up? Barely any!" Williams said. "I usually write between 45 and 60 TJ recommendations and spend at least 75 minutes on each because I make them all totally unique. I felt like last year's effort was a total waste of time."

The Jefferson admissions committee's careful sifting produced last year's average senior class SAT score of 2233, the highest in the nation by far. That is impressive. But at least one gifted teacher who knows Jefferson well thinks it could do better finding the students who come for the love of math, not prestige.