Many people say that the best way you will get to know the problems of the education system is by asking kids; in fact, that is the most effective way. Education reporter Amanda Ripley took her time to find answers to why the United States was performing low in education. She received her answers, not only from statistical data, but from students themselves. Those students joined the exchange program and simply pointed out the differences from those schools in top performing countries to schools in the United States. As a student myself, I believe there are a few things that are in need of reform. Students should be taught basic life skills before they graduate high school and should be taught to think in order to increase their performance
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We are currently taught to memorize. We are being taught to learn certain skills in a certain subject because it will be on a big test that will benefit the state. That is one of the main problems in the education system; students are not being taught to think. In every grade, I was taught the objectives that the state of California provided for the teachers to teach in the school year; not once did I learn to create something on my own. When the talk of common core came up, everyone knew it would be a hard transition because we were being taught to regurgitate information instead of coming up with something from scratch. Knowing and understanding are two completely different things, two things that are being tossed around in classrooms. Cheryl Hollinger, a 17 year AP biology high school teacher, believes that the problem in which students can’t actually understand a concept is because the material in books are overwhelming and are way too big to go into depth. She commented, “Students go through the motions of their lab assignments without grasping why, and the exam is largely a vocabulary test." This is due to the education system wanting the students to have content knowledge. Content knowledge is not enough in this world that keeps on evolving. Señora Smith, a Spanish teacher I had, told the class that we didn’t need books because books don’t …show more content…
In the documentary Most Likely to Succeed, Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, claimed “... priorities were dictated 124 years ago.” The foundation of the system is too old to still be in use today. There needs to be change to the system to keep up with the changing world that we live in. Everything is growing in all different aspects. There is competition in the world today to be the best as there was in the past. “If we can compete with other countries it’s gotta be in producing citizens capable of innovative thinking,” Jed Silverstein, a English/Philosophy teacher, asserted, “not citizens capable of industrial production, not citizens capable of assembling iPads.” The way the system is set up is what some people refer to as a “factory.” The day is divided into blocks where bells ring and students roam around. Students sit and listen in a class just to go to another class where they will sit and listen again; that is repeated several times in a day. School is considered more of an organizational device rather than educational. In order for students to be competitive in the world, they must be in an environment that will strike their creativity. You can’t have students be “factory workers”; students must be given the opportunity to be entrepreneurs to see their ability outside of the “factory” setting. The way school is set up with the requirement of classes should not be
We are currently taught to memorize. We are being taught to learn certain skills in a certain subject because it will be on a big test that will benefit the state. That is one of the main problems in the education system; students are not being taught to think. In every grade, I was taught the objectives that the state of California provided for the teachers to teach in the school year; not once did I learn to create something on my own. When the talk of common core came up, everyone knew it would be a hard transition because we were being taught to regurgitate information instead of coming up with something from scratch. Knowing and understanding are two completely different things, two things that are being tossed around in classrooms. Cheryl Hollinger, a 17 year AP biology high school teacher, believes that the problem in which students can’t actually understand a concept is because the material in books are overwhelming and are way too big to go into depth. She commented, “Students go through the motions of their lab assignments without grasping why, and the exam is largely a vocabulary test." This is due to the education system wanting the students to have content knowledge. Content knowledge is not enough in this world that keeps on evolving. Señora Smith, a Spanish teacher I had, told the class that we didn’t need books because books don’t …show more content…
In the documentary Most Likely to Succeed, Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, claimed “... priorities were dictated 124 years ago.” The foundation of the system is too old to still be in use today. There needs to be change to the system to keep up with the changing world that we live in. Everything is growing in all different aspects. There is competition in the world today to be the best as there was in the past. “If we can compete with other countries it’s gotta be in producing citizens capable of innovative thinking,” Jed Silverstein, a English/Philosophy teacher, asserted, “not citizens capable of industrial production, not citizens capable of assembling iPads.” The way the system is set up is what some people refer to as a “factory.” The day is divided into blocks where bells ring and students roam around. Students sit and listen in a class just to go to another class where they will sit and listen again; that is repeated several times in a day. School is considered more of an organizational device rather than educational. In order for students to be competitive in the world, they must be in an environment that will strike their creativity. You can’t have students be “factory workers”; students must be given the opportunity to be entrepreneurs to see their ability outside of the “factory” setting. The way school is set up with the requirement of classes should not be