
Swimming Without a Suit - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/opinion/22friedman.html?_r=1
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asolove
Come on, can we please stop using the high school test comparison or explain
why there are such dramatic differences. The countries listed higher on there
tend to have draconian centrally-run school systems which only allow certain
portions of the population into public high schools, while the remainder of
the population attends vocational schools. Thus, we're comparing the future
college graduates of other countries against the entire population of the US.

And our system is quite to our benefit. Most all of the US hacker community,
who slacked off in middle school and only really got interested in the tough
math of high school and college, would never have been allowed to take those
classes in most other countries. They'd have been marked as low-achievers
early on.

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xiaoma
I don't think the Canadian educational system is all that draconian. It is
amongst the most competitive in the world, though.

Here are some other reasons the US is struggling despite spending more money
per student than any other country:

1) Most of US public teachers come from the bottom third of college students
2) Teacher skill is far more important than small class sizes, but the US
system values small classes more than good teachers 3) New teachers typically
work alone after a very short amount of time 4) Teachers are paid poorly

[http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/socialsector/resources...](http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/socialsector/resources/pdf/Worlds_School_systems_final.pdf)

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redrobot5050
Not to mention the U.S. system is still fixated on what worked for the
educational system when 95% of Americans worked on farms. Six hour days.
Summers off.

Since the majority of the U.S. (51%) live in urban areas, the 21st century
education system should make school similar to the workforce: school from 9-5.
Or 8-4.

Grades need to be wiped out. Students need to be placed on levels. No a "slow
math class" for 8th grade, but one that reflects his/her ability or inability.

And we need national standards on textbooks. No more bullying from large (red)
states like Texas on what gets taught in science classes around America. Or
what you can say about the south and their attempts to smother/suppress the
civil rights movement / black vote.

