Having experienced an educational system other than United
States’, I must say that the U.S is trailing behind many developed countries in
quality of its system. Before moving to U.S, I lived in Russia where I went to
1st through 3rd grade. And after starting my education in
U.S, surprisingly, I had no trouble adapting to school. I guess you could say
that it’s because the content for 4th grade math here was similar to
2nd grade math in Russia. And once I learned English, I had no
trouble with any other subject due to the difficulty levels being lower here
than my classes in Russia.
But of course, I was not paying attention to these types of
issues while still in school. Now that I’m done with school, I can easily point
out the faults in the system and the society. And yes, it’s not only the
education system, but also the society that brings down the quality of
education here. And I can give many examples. For instance, getting good grades
is not very important for many students. However, I’ve observed that grades are
valued more than actually learning here. As long as you have good grades, you don’t
care if you actually understand the concepts being taught in classes. And
honestly, you can’t really blame the students for doing this, because there is
a 99% chance that you will never put that knowledge to use in real life. Also,
in my opinion, parents’ expectations from their kids aren’t as high as they
should be. As predicted by the Eccles socialization model (Eccles, 1993),
parents’ educational expectations had both direct and indirect effects on
children’s academic achievement scores. And that’s very obvious, if your
parents don’t care about your education, the chances of you not caring either
are very high.
With that being said, what kind of actions can the government
take? First of all, I believe that teachers should be selected carefully, and
there must be more competition for jobs. Teachers shouldn’t be so laid back. It
is without a doubt that students decide their own future, but teachers can
guide them to the correct paths. I’ve had many teachers who let kids sleep or
use electronics in their classes, and they don’t even call them out once. Teachers
are educating the leaders of tomorrow, so they must spend more effort preparing
them for the future. Works cited
- Davis-Kean, Pamela E. "The Influence of Parent Education and Family Income on Child Achievement." Journal of Family Psychology 19.2 (2005): 294-304. Print.
- Eccles, J. S. (1993). School and family effects on the ontogeny of children’s interests, self-perceptions, and activity choice. In J. Jacobs (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: Vol. 40. Developmental perspectives on motivation (pp. 145–208): Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
I really like your post. It's great that you use personal examples like experiencing other countries' education systems, because that makes for good emotional and credibility appeals. The argument is convincing, and appeals to an audience that could be easily convinced by the post. Good job
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