The Educational System in the United States! (and Social Justice

I need motivation, ideas, and mind-stimulation! (Yes, I only needed to say one of those, but hey.)

I'm writing an essay on the topic stated in my thread title. What do you make of the Educational System in the U.S.? How about it's current status compared to it's past? Tell me your opinions, interesting facts, personal experiences...anything! Consider elements such as equal opportunity, fairness, and overall quality. If you live outside the U.S., that's perfectly fine--as long as you know a thing or two about the U.S. Educational System. If you don't know anything about the U.S. Educational System, tell me about the Educational System in YOUR country!

If you need inspiration, listen to 'The Wall' by Pink Floyd. Is that what it's called?

These topics I came up with might help your brain to boogie:

Mental/Physical Abuse and Discipline in schools

Preaching Vs. Teaching

Liberal Vs. Conservative

Are we, as students, being programmed? If so, for what? And why?

Are we classed by wealth?

Are mental disabilities considered 'a problem'?

Is education, thought control? Is education required in success? Is dislike/like of 'school,' strictly cultural? Where do our often 'firm dislikes' of the Educational System, stem from?

Are students looked at as individuals or a collective mass?

What entails education? Academics...Positive Influence...Character...Confidence...What should teachers be teaching?

Hard Truth Vs. Sugar-Coated (when discussing a country's own history)

Are history books biased (based on where they were produced), or for the most part, realistic?

Get your juices flowin' and post something!

Thank you :)

"Is education, thought control? Is education required in success? Is dislike/like of 'school,' strictly cultural? Where do our often 'firm dislikes' of the Educational System, stem from?"

People use the excuse that education is thought control because education is a controlled system, and there are some people who do not enjoy controlled systems. But there has to be some kind of system, or everyone would be on different levels and the learning process would not be supported.
Wether education is required in success...that is based on what your opinion success is. My opinion is that success is getting the most you can out of life, and living up to your full potential, so yes, to me education is very important in success. Without an education I would not be able to form independent yet informed decisions, and I would not be understanding to others views. Education lets you reach the corners of your mind that need to be dusted off and discovered.
In my opinion, Americans dislike school because the opportunity is disposable. They can throw it away or take all they can from it, some take advantage of what they learn and others think of it as just a requirement. Other cultures may not have the opportunities to learn, and though I'm sure there are some people in those cultures who are indifferent to learning in a structured school system there are many who would leap at the opportunity. We just don't see how much we have going for us, how set up we are to enter the real world.

I'm a little rusty. I haven't done any political or deep thinking in a long time...

I've watched the simpson's does that count.

Heres something probably not taught in US schools. thousands of germans died in US run prisoner of war camps after WW2.
The US blamed the french and the french the US but effectively the US were running the camps and were responcible for feeding and shelter.

Great responses. There are a few points made that definitely struck me, and I will be using these points in my essay. I received perfect on my English Language, Reading & Composition Assessment Test, so I was placed high. I'm not normally a top-of-my-game student, but this class is certainly challenging, and I need to do well. So thanks you guys! Keep the responses coming...I love hearing what people from around the country (and outside) have to say.

Bob, most of the questions or 'Versus equations' I listed, are obviously rhetorical. I've phrased them as questions because I don't want to come off as condescending, but open.

You can never make everyone happy. That's just life. There will be plenty of things people will disagree about. Whether it be history, how hard the homework is, are the kids treated fairly, are my children getting the correct and best education they can get out of the public school system?

There are plenty of things people can go off of, but all in all, i think it's important that children are learning. Granted, if there is a school bully, that could possibly scar that person as an adult and cause a lot of pain in their life, but that doesn't mean that we need harsher punishment in school. Who wants to walk away from high school feeling like they didn't matter and no one cared about them? Scares will form no matter who you are in high school, and once you get into the real world, you'll look back and realize how silly and small all those problems were.

School is there for you to get a decent education. point, blank, period. I think the only improvement that could possibly be made in the US school system is the teaching curricular. Yes, some children have a hard time understanding things. i know. i was one of them. but that didn't hold me back in the long run to learn. you may not be learning the same thing as the person sitting next to you in the same class. the person next to you may be learning that George Washington was our first president, while you on the other hand are learning how to spell George Washington, or that there even was a president named George Washington. (i know that's not the greatest example but bare with me) Although some children have a harder time understanding things, i believe we should be learning MORE in school then we are. Other countries are farther ahead of us. A lot farther ahead of us. Why hold certain things off for college that you could learn in high school. Allow us to learn that and more.

We may be one of the most prosperous countries, but i wouldn't say that we are the smartest. i've been to other countries and seeing how high tech they are. seeing how conservative they are. seeing how much smarter they are than us. we are naive' to think that we are better than anyone else. instead of feeling sorry for others, we are the ones that need to realize we're the ones people are feeling sorry for.

(this all has to do with education. nothing else! just wanted to clear that up!)

I don't think there is any point in going into the smaller details like, how healthy is the school lunch and should we be liberal or conservative in school. there are bigger issues than that. i truely believe there is no reason to get into those things. you will always have someone complaining about one thing or another. School is School. what's the purpose of it? to make friends? to learn at an early age how to gossip? to help each other learn about the cool new trends and "oh my goodness, did you see what brittney spears did to her hair? if she's cool, then we need to do that to" School is School. School=Education School=Sucess in life School=future success in all you do.

i don't know if any of this made sense just now, but it felt good to write!

It made perfect sense. You inspired me to jot down some things.

First off, I do believe that school is designed to better a student's chances of success, but I also believe that there is an overflow of pressure, emphasis, and 'one-way ticket' thought forcing. I'll explain what I just said. I think school puts too much effort into making people believe that their ONLY way to success is to follow the path of structured education. Take a look at a great example: Albert Einstein. The genius who just about flunked every class and can be quoted, "I never let school interfere with my education." Exactly my point. If you have a bit of an imagination and motivation, you can get a great job without the education! Hey, that even rhymed. That's going on my Quote Page :) Anyway, I assume some fools are going to shove that quote back in my face, asking, "What jobs?" Let's see. I did terribly in highschool, but somehow, at the age of 17, I had the opportunity to be an Assistant Vet., a Farrier Apprentice, or a horse trainer. You can go to school for those things, but the fact is: You don't have to.

Oh, and how many teachers do you think teach because they LOVE teaching and LOVE kids? For some reason, I seem to know very few (outside of Kindergarten).

I personally want to be a high school english teacher. i have a great passion for making school better. and i love english! but i understand what you are saying. i barely passed my classes in high school. not because i'm stupid, but because i can't understand things the way others do. i learn by hands on. not sitting in a classroom trying to learn something by reading it off of the board! so i understand what you are saying and i think it makes a lot of sense

I totally agree with you Jane about how teachers and parents put so much pressure on their kids and students to do well at school and make it out to be the "be all and end all" of success. I deferred from going to university. I got straight As in high school (not cause I was a geek but I just found the subjects quite logical) BUT I found no use for them outside of school and with my every day life. Now, 10 years on from leaving high school and never returning to university (I was going to study marine biology and environmental science) I now have a job that pays considerably better than most of my piers and would be considered more "successful" than those that went to uni. It obviously depends on what you want to become (doctors dont get to become doctors just through hard work and effort!) but most kids get so scared or stressed at the idea of year 12 it affects their grades because they can barely breathe before the exams let alone think clearly.

I went to school in Australia. I think we have a very good educational system when comparing it to South Africa and England - these are the only other two I've witnessed - (I think England has got the worst one I've seen!). The kids in this country are so out of control because the Government has basically taken the control out of the parent's hands (forbidding parents to smack their children for doing wrong - seriously... Im not for bashing your child, but some kids need a good smack on the backside - Im all for it!), and taken the control out of the teacher's hands (teachers cant do anything to children without being charged or giving up their reputation or job as a consequence). Yet the Government will still wash its hands of the troublesome youths when they sit in their hoodies and create havoc around neighbourhoods (stabbings, shootings, drugs, bashings, robberies, verbal assault and generally instilling fear in the adults where the suburbs are run by the under 18s). How have things got so desperately out of hand? Discipline. Taking responsibility for the children, rather than pushing that responsibility onto a third party and shaking our heads going "its not MY job!"... It might seem like I've gone a bit off topic here - but my point is this: the education system, when occupying so much of the child's time, should accept and share responsibility for things over and above education. It needs to instill things in the child such as morals, discipline and respect. (Of course Im not saying this isn't the parents job - it is MAINLY the parent's job - but it should also be taught in schools). Once again our 'politically correct' attitude towards everything has gone over board and has not just ruined an idea, we are reaping the rewards of a ruined generation.

Im rambling. Over and out.

The UK edication. oh my god. what a joke.
there's kids who've just passed their a levels on bbc have your say trying to make people believe that they're hard to pass. all the people who took a levels earlier on are saying how much harder they were back then and it took INTELLIGENCE to pass with flying colours and then one person defended themselves in which using the word 'Miricles'. mm yes, and then there's the person who took his exams drunk as a duck by filling in each a on a question and passed. USA and UK have the worst education systems in the world and it's no wonder that all these northen little chavs grow up to be such immature idiots.

Mo, discipline is still practiced in Australia? Wow, I'm impressed. Positively impressed, really. I'm not for physical abuse, but teachers aren't allowed to do ANYTHING nowadays. At least not where I live.

All of those things are technically accepted by schools in the United States, but there is always an underlying fear of being charged or sued by parents. By pissing off their kids...or embarrassing them. So punishment is very minimal. Teachers who 'discipline' their students, in any other way besides sugar-coated "please"s, usually end up being fired. That's the way the system works.

Australia has more of a disciplinary system than most other countries I've been to (South Africa is kinda the same I guess), but the UK is the same as America - the teachers can have a studen punch them but if they touch the student back they could be fired! WHAT THE F...?!?! If I were a teacher I'd pick up a desk and throw it on the little f'kers head right before jumping on it and enouraging all the other kids to do the same. Little shits.

Its true - some children still get a high quality education and become all that they wanted to be. Some aren't interested in it but become the best mechanic or electrician, but it seems that the gap that lies between the group of achievers and the group of uninterested, unmotivated, rebelling, disrespectful youths is getting bigger and more prominent. And not only is the gap growing, the percentage of children in each of those categories seems to be changing, and the rebels seems to be more "appealing" to younger children these days (in the UK anyway). Just last night an 11 year old boy was shot walking home from soccer practice - ELEVEN YEARS OLD! A hooded 13 year old just rode his BMX up to him and shot three shots, one of them hitting the neck of the child. These occurances are getting more and more frequent. There is a case like this every couple of weeks in London (no exaggeration).

I just hope and pray that Australia continues to bring up its children the way that it is now - I couldn't handle it if I got home and had to face anything like this at home.

Whoa, an 11 year old boy was shot three times by a 13 year old boy? That's sickening, to say the least.

Thanks for the interesting information guys, no joke. Keep the feedback coming.