206 Comments

• Digg
• Bury

Right, if you didn't have to go to school I'm sure little 14 year old you would have been in a library reading up on James Madison. You'd be playing WOW and eating cheetos.

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

Chomsky once said that education should not be like filling up a glass with water, but letting a flower grow in its own way. Repetition is like force feeding a duck to make it into pate. I like my child's Montessori school where it has different learning stations, and the kids go from station to station. In a public school system, I guess this would translate into more electives, less testing, and more freedom for the child to pick their own literature to read or choose their own recipe to cook and choose which computer program they will learn to read from. One of my children learned how to read on the computer by playing Starfall and Curious George games at her own pace.

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

I agree with you, let the teachers concentrate on education and let the parents raise their kids.

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

OMG - What an uninformed individual.

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

Nope - sports tend to pay for themselves. Where as the School Board - thats a whole nother story

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

The history of US education: <a class="user" href="http://www.thomhartmann.com/german-school.shtml&quot;&gt;http://www.thomhartmann.com/german-school.shtml&lt;/a&gt;

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

Living in Germany for one year does not make you a world-expert, and does not validiate your statements about the "unamerican" way other countries teach their children. You're also wrong about Germany (it's not poor students, and it's a choice made by the individual students).

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

Our educational system is a great success. We are puddy in our leaders hands.

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

Teach, live and travel in Asia, because of the high demand for teacher in Asia and growing economies. Now has never been a better time to start something new! <a class="user" href="http://www.cambodialanguagecorps.com&quot;&gt;http://www.cambodialanguagecorps.com&lt;/a&gt; <a class="user" href="http://www.thailandlanguagecorps.com&quot;&gt;http://www.thailandlanguagecorps.com&lt;/a&gt; <a class="user" href="http://www.vietnamlanguagecorps.com&quot;&gt;http://www.vietnamlanguagecorps.com&lt;/a&gt;

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

Dear All - I thought you might be interested in this info:The cset test is best academic test for your studies and if you wish to avail to the chance to get those grades to guide your career path in the right direction, my help is for you. It is a nonprofit institution advancing quality education with valid educational testing, curriculum development assets and test prep products.<a class="user" href="http://blog-teachingsolutions.org/blog/category/cset/&quot;&gt;http://blog-teachingsolutions.org/blog/category/cs ...</a>

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

I'm a 15 year old currently in the 10th grade and I agree with the fact that a school system that enforces repetition instead of critical thinking is broken but that isn't just the reason of the growing ignorance and (for lack of a better word) stupidity of America, the other is the fact that even when kids succeed in public &quot;or&quot; charter schools they most of the time lack the ability to convert it into experience to use in the real world. my solution to this for all schools to train and exercise this ability. maybe then the growing &quot;stupidity&quot; of America will start to decline or at the very least stop.

• Reply

• Digg
• Bury

Perhaps a little off topic, but in most of my classes (first/ second year) - and I am not trying to say that I am smarter than others , but students just don't think critically or at all about anything. I usually sit in the middle of a lecture hall, one day the hall was full and I was forced to sit in the back row. As I looked down the hall I saw countless labtops with facebook, twitter, MSN, ebay and of course hundreds of cellphones flashing multiple coloured lights. I know what the school system is like because I am going through it. In my opinion school is too focused on pushing students through the system. With their new educational action plan &quot;Getting more kids to graduate &quot;. I don't think I ever heard one of my teachers ever ask me my opinion on any subject ever until I was in University. There is NO motivation in high school besides parents who encourage their kids to go to university. The teachers - and of course this is generalizing - don't care about the material they are teaching. There is too much emphasis on official knowledge and perfect test scores- but what does our education system have to show for years of this practice?While we know that the education system in place now is from the industrial age, action must be taken to correct the system- for the information age that we are in now. I know many kids who just weren't interested in what the school was offering them, and no amount of credit recovery or second, third or sixth chance is going to change their minds. Students are definitely getting dumber? Perhaps I am ignorant? When in the last two decades has some great breakthrough been made? By oh lets say anyone born after the 1980's? I don't necessarily mean scientific but more generally a great discovery such as electricity or DNA? or world changing influnce... when will the world be blessed to know such a leader as Martin L. King- I'm sorry to burst anyones bubble but Obama has yet to lead the world in much of anything... Yet this past year millions tuned in to watch Michael Jacksons funeral? And even more went to the local store to buy copies of a magazine with Britney Spears shaved head on the cover? Most kids I know would say that they're really indifferent to it all- celebrities, school, politics, economics, religion- the most important part to a young adults life has become what will I do this weekend? I hope all my friends will come out and we will all have a good time!... &quot;A good time&quot; I can attest to the fact that I enjoy having a good time- but being indifferent to all else that fundamentally influnces our lives!? Schools have created an indifference in young people, and indifference that has made the masses believe that they are to do what they are told to and they'd better not reject it. Havn't we made it past the marxist- lenin communist/socialist/fascist way of thinking? Or the constraints of the looming war tragedies? Oh wait I forgot, there is still war going on today...Well at least 2% of the population controls over half of the worlds wealth...And what would a some youngester say to that... &quot; LOL C U @ SKOOL&quot;

• Reply