Question by carlos s: What do you think is the best policy for education?
Do you think our American education is bad and need to be fixed?
Best answer:
Answer by J Ludmilla
Yes. There are various problems with the American education system, but here are just a few.
1) Teachers are teaching to the tests, meaning that if a topic is not on the SATs or a state assessment test, then it will not get taught. Take a close look at an SAT exam and you will see that it does not contain the material that a college bound senior should have been focused. Yes, it is true that there are certain standards that must be met and fundamentals that must be taught, but we should not be focusing exclusively on the fundamentals. We are breeding a society of children that think inside the box.
2) There are too many special education teachers (this includes “gifted” teachers). We focus too much on the very bottom and the very top and we forget about the middle. I think my biggest grudge here is more with how the gifted programs are run. Usually, “gifted” children are labelled at a very young age and by the time they enter high school, their peers (which were also labelled at a young age, only their labels were not so flattering) are often just as capable and intelligent. While gifted children are given individualized education plans, their peers are given a one size fits all education.
3) There are too many under qualified teachers. They say that if you can’t do, then teach, and this is true now more than ever. Schools need to higher teachers that are generally motivated to teach and more importantly that have attended colleges with an intensive curriculum that has taught contemporary theories on how to actual teach students. Surprisingly, not all teaching programs really do this. School administrators should put as much effort into making sure that they hire qualified teachers as any other industry does for hiring high profile professionals.
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