American Ingenuity
mammasan
Posts: 5,656
I was having a talk last week with a couple of guys from a class I take. The conversation turned to our kids and education. To make a long story short two of the guys there have kids who have lived overseas, Japan and Kuwait to be specific. They where explaining how mcuh more advanced academically, specifically in the areas of math and science, the schools in those countries are compared to here. This brought on a question, have we as American been fed the line that America is so great and we are so powerfull that we have stopped trying to be the best and now just expect that we are the best. I happen to believe that we have lost our way. We now just assume that we are the best without actually working to be the best. I would like to hear what others think about this.
"When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads." - Ron Paul
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China and places have always had different customs. They eat more sushi which is better than McDonald's. Many of those countries have company employees outside doing exercises in the morning. It's just a completely different culture and society there expects different things from people.
I think that our school system tries to be the best at everything and that is where we go wrong. We don't have a philosophy in education other than...someone else is number one in this area so we have to now be number one their...uh oh, scandanavian countries are better at english and the arts...we better focus on that now. We are trying to be everything to everyone and be better than everyone at everything. You know the saying...jack of all trades master of none. That's our education system. We'll get all kids to a bare minimum but we won't (and probably don't know how) to push our kids. Maybe if we had 2 separate systems...one for the arts and one for the sciences we'd be able to develop better students at each.
But I think we're also more and more lazy. Society doesnt' really place an importance on learning...it places an importance on getting things done. If a kid has homework they just want to finish it so they can do something else...They don't want to learn it necessarily. They want to cross it off their to do list: somehow.
Who has time for math when we're busy teaching diversity?
yes, absolutely, complacency is a big part of it.
I agree with this. I've been stating this for some time. That once our children are out of elementary school that education should be tailored to their strengths and likes. Instead of forcing a student , who has no desire to study math, to sit through calculus and geomotry they should have the option of taking courses that interest them. Secondly I believe that most students go to college not because they want to learn but because they want a better job. Of course we all want to make good money but that should not be the focus of our studies.
America does offer the best environment for applying your education in innovative ways. So America tends to get the cream of the crop from other countries to do their best work.
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
True but the problem is that we now have to start looking elsewhere to find the cream of the crop.
i agree if you're talking higher education.
yea sadly I agree with this. not sure what can be done.
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
I know I'm successful at my profession not because I'm the best but rather because I'm a great listener, I'm passionate about what I do, I care about the company's success and in seeing those I work with be successful and I rank fairly high skill set wise but by no means in the top 5 percentile. People like to work with me and are willing to overlook the occassionally screw up rather than work with a perfect pain in the ass.
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley