Fixing Education in America

Charlie Joslin:

Education will never be the same. The sooner we realize that and stop trying to resist the inevitable, the sooner we can find solutions to the obstacles we face. The main problem we face is the fact that people assume there is one problem: bad teachers, lack of funding, stupid students. Do people not realize there can be more than one problem?

The Problems

Funding: One of the main problems facing education in general in the US is a lack of quality funding. Part of this problem stems from the fact that our society has decided that education is not as important as fighting wars against an ideology in countries that are not our own. Plenty of schools have a decent amount of funding, but they don't use it to the best of their abilities because they don't see any other problem. They see a lack of funding, blame that for the fact that their students are not learning, and continue to ask for more. Granted some schools don't get enough funding, and why they're not getting more is beyond me.

Teachers: We have plenty of good teachers, not enough great teachers, and too many bad teachers. Teachers unions believe that teaching is a right and that a teacher is a teacher is a teacher. This is just crap. Teaching is a privilege that has to be earned and a lot of teachers haven't earned it yet. Now teachers have a point on the fact that a meritocracy doesn't work. Using standardized test scores doesn't work because there are so many factors that play into a child's learning ability that the teacher has no control over. But that's not an excuse for having bad teachers.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 4, 2013 4:13 AM
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