Bringing this over here, so we don't threadjack the healthcare discussion.
education is an incredibly expensive economic good that we here in the U.S. deliver very poorly to its intended recipients.
Posted June 23rd, 2008 at 10:53 PM by one who hopes t...
in
the original thread: http://www.illinipundit.com/2008/06/21/us-medical-innovation
D. Boon: "Health care, and education, are not blue jeans. They should be rights, not privileges."
Actually, D. Boon, I would argue that education is an incredibly expensive economic good that we here in the U.S. deliver very poorly to its intended recipients. Look at how other nations do it, and their illiteracy rates (the rate for illiteracy in the U.S. is approximately 30%, far worse than many other nations on this globe.).
How do we teach reading? If you're lucky, you get phonics. If you're unlucky (as so many of our students are), you get whole language, and when you don't have the rules to crack the code that underpins about 50% of the English language and don't do well in reading, you get reading recovery or special ed.
Math? If you are one of the unlucky students in a district that hews to guidelines the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics have distanced themselves from, you will be learning from "Everyday Math" ( more properly described as "Everyday Crap"), a program whose textbooks don't include examples for parents to use while attempting to assist their children with the child's homework. After all, we all know that 6th, 7th, and 8th grade children (especially male children) will copy down all the notes the teacher puts up on the board in class and take said notes home to use while doing their homework. (And we wonder what kind of drugs the children are taking? I think the curriculum designers have them beat in this instance!!!)
High School? We state that "all must go to college to get a job", and eliminate vocational education. In almost every other country in the civilized world, children are tested and sent to either a vocational school or a college-bound high school based on their test scores.
I have heard it said that in the U.S. we give our children too many chances--they know there are almost no consequences when they fail. And before people start screaming about "tracking, and how evil it is!!!", may I remind you that in Germany, for example, one can change the high school one is sent to, but one is expected to work off one's behind to get there and stay there.
Discuss, please...
It's another government-supported monopoly. Of course it doesn't work well.