Our Education System Sucks

Here is another letter I wrote, this time about our education system.
I was listening to your Thursday show and one of the professors mentioned that the Secretary of Education believes that we need to start going to school longer. I believe that is a load of bull. I think we need to start actually educating our children and the parents need to take more responsibility in the education of their children. When I was growing up I remember my mother working with me when I was very young to learn how to properly pronounce words like spaghetti and giraffe.
How is it that some people are able to excel in school while only going 9 months out of the year when others fall behind and need more summer school? Maybe the reason I was able to take calculus courses in high school while others were struggling with algebra is because my parents cared how I did and took part in my education. By the way, my parents did not go to college and I doubt they understood calculus. My dad was a sheet metal worker and my mother was a stay at home mother that periodically took a job to help us get by.
While I was in school I knew I had some teachers that just went through the motions, these are not the teachers I want teaching if my kids have to go to school year round. In this case I want my kids to get a job (or start a business) like I did and learn how money and the world works.
My next frustration is the way we look at college. I was lucky enough to take 2 years off between high school and college to work and live on my own. This helped me to realize that I am bored to death by manual labor and have little room to advance unless grow my brain.
When we are in high school we are told that college is the only way we can be something in the world. It is the fix all for everything. We are led to believe that we need to go and get any degree and we will make a lot of money. We are also led to believe that we need to go to school at all costs i.e. student loans. When I finally made it to collage I met a lot of students that were there to get a bachelor in psychology and they thought they would be making a lot of money. I knew that this type of degree will make minimum wage or just above and each job opening has 300+ applications in a good economy. Why do we teach our children that it is ok to go into debt to get a psychology degree? They would do better if they worked their way up in McDonalds management without the debt.
Here are my recommendations for better education. We need to take a part in the education of our children, not just hand them off to teachers. We need to teach our children that there 2 reasons we go to college, either to get a piece of paper so someone will give us a job or the enrichment. We need to make that decision before we take the step into college. Teach them that debt for college is the easy way out, there other options for paying for school. Teach them that you do not have to go to college to do well in the world but they need to continue their education.

2 Replies on “Our Education System Sucks

  1. Your mom was a stay-at-home mom who (not “that”. “That” is for objects; “who” is for people). So, it is also incorrect to write that you met a lot of students “that”. Again, you mean “who”.

    But in response to your comments about a degree in psychology. A person with a degree, albeit an associate degree or a bachelor’s degree in any area can expect to earn about one million dollars more in a lifetime that someone who does not graduate from high school. So, a degree in psychology or anything else, is beneficial. As far as employment, indeed, a bachelor degree in psychology is mostly useless, but it is a prerequisite to a masters in psychology which is required for a position such as a school psychologist. School psychologists make about the same as school administrators and more than teachers. But should someone earn a doctorate in psychology, he/she can expect to earn well over $100 an hour.

    Also, the reason the Secretary of Education is stating that American students should go to school longer is because presently we go to school fewer days per year than our European and Asian counterparts. Europeans typically attend school for 220 days. Japanese students attend for 260 days, and Korean, for 280 days. Whereas, the average American student in the public school system attends school for an average of 180 days per year (it varies a little from state to state). American education is still based on the very old agricultural tradition that required children to be home late spring and fall for planting and harvest. If we are going to compete with the Japanese, Koreans and Germans for jobs and in science and technology, many feel we need to increase the school year. Afterall, how much more might American students learn if they are in school an additional 1,000 days (80 more days a year from kindergarten to 12th grade) which is the equivalent of an additional 4 years of schooling!

  2. Your mom was a stay-at-home mom who (not “that”. “That” is for objects; “who” is for people). So, it is also incorrect to write that you met a lot of students “that”. Again, you mean “who”.

    But in response to your comments about a degree in psychology. A person with a degree, albeit an associate degree or a bachelor’s degree in any area can expect to earn about one million dollars more in a lifetime that someone who does not graduate from high school. So, a degree in psychology or anything else, is beneficial. As far as employment, indeed, a bachelor degree in psychology is mostly useless, but it is a prerequisite to a masters in psychology which is required for a position such as a school psychologist. School psychologists make about the same as school administrators and more than teachers. But should someone earn a doctorate in psychology, he/she can expect to earn well over $100 an hour.

    Also, the reason the Secretary of Education is stating that American students should go to school longer is because presently we go to school fewer days per year than our European and Asian counterparts. Europeans typically attend school for 220 days. Japanese students attend for 260 days, and Korean, for 280 days. Whereas, the average American student in the public school system attends school for an average of 180 days per year (it varies a little from state to state). American education is still based on the very old agricultural tradition that required children to be home late spring and fall for planting and harvest. If we are going to compete with the Japanese, Koreans and Germans for jobs and in science and technology, many feel we need to increase the school year. Afterall, how much more might American students learn if they are in school an additional 1,000 days (80 more days a year from kindergarten to 12th grade) which is the equivalent of an additional 4 years of schooling!

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