daisysnotebook:

Someone asked me why I praised European education when I’m not a fan of socialism. European education is more effective than American education (in general) and it isn’t just because it’s socialized. It’s the teaching methods and such. I think that we do offer a pretty good education system, but doesn’t it seem like we fall behind globally? Just look at our standards.

Like for example, my friend who graduated high school in Denmark, said that he was required to know four languages and pretty high level mathematics before graduating, and he went to public school. The requirements for graduation at American public schools are jokes. I’m sorry, but it’s true. You can’t really call our education system “effective” no matter what you economic/political views are. Private schools are more efficient because a lot of them operate on a different system, with better teaching staff, better teacher-student ratio, and higher educational requirements in general.

And please don’t even get me started on the education systems of countries like South Korea or Japan— they can kill us academically, and it has nothing to do with Asian people being “smarter.” It has everything with our education system being mediocre in comparison to theirs. We need to step it up.

I know I’m missing something. Does anybody want to comment?

Reblogging because I suck at short answers.

I think that regardless of how different the system within European countries are in comparison to our system, it is extremely apparent that they do considerably better in the area of education than we do.

The European educational systems allows students to specialize more. My mother was educated in France from maternal school and following grade school, students attended high school according to academic credential and something akin to university “majors,” though the program would be more interdisciplinary until they entered university if they passed the Bac.

The quality of education in France according to some has sank, but the fact of the matter is they still have a more logical system than we do. I also look at the curriculum of a friend that went to university in England, and admire the degree to which they could concentrate and specialize - actually I was just discussing this with her today.

I see how many of my relatives were required to learn one or two languages by the end of grade school and then I recall dozing off in high school French or helping to teach the class. Our standards are embarrassingly low in education.

The system has to be reformed and has needed to be reformed for some time now. Also, in your defense - really our defense - there is nothing remotely socialistic about such a view. People can only compete to the best of their abilities when they are not held back by standards that are too broad, loosely applied and frankly crippling.

This post has 11 notes.
  1. aquacity said: I’d say the UK is behind the US education wise from what I’ve heard from my American friends and British friends.
  2. thatpoliticalkid said: We’re definitely falling behind compared to the rest of the world. In America, we still stress our kids to become lawyers and doctors. But what we really need are more scientists and engineers. The rest of the world is leaving us in teh dust.
  3. philosophy-of-praxis said: Adequate public funding and public funding for research into teaching methods, up to date text books, government ensured levels which aren’t swayed by “BUT U CAN’T TEACH MY KIDS THOUGH” sooooo socialise it?
  4. shigahon said: “The requirements for graduation at American public schools are jokes. I’m sorry, but it’s true. You can’t really call our education system “effective” no matter what you economic/political views are.” I definitely agree - so true.