Public Education in the US: What is the problem?

The United States continues to drop globally in education, this was established in my last blog post. But why?

Some would argue that its spending, that the US doesn't spend enough on education. This is simply not true. The US ranks among the highest in spending, yet among the lowest in achievement. This chart illustrates that countries that spent moderate amounts of money on education score the highest. This shows that the problem is not something easy, like not enough spending, but something bigger.

That something bigger is the entire system itself. The model used in most classrooms today is based on Horace Mann's philosophy on education. Mann believed in a primary education for all. His education philosophy was that students of different ages should be separated by age. Each grade had certain requirements, and those who didn't meet those requirements were not promoted to the next grade. Students were also to have summers off, mostly due to how hot it would be in the school year. Mann believed that education should be decided federally, rather then locally. Most classes were taught using lecture.

One problem with this is that Manns education system is mainly fact based. Mann emphasized the memorization of facts. Now that we have the internet, memorizing Abraham Lincolns birthday or the location of the Czech Republic is not very important. What schools should be teaching instead is how to apply these facts to the real world. Memorizing facts and spitting them back out does not require any form or original thought. What should be emphasized more in schools is critical thinking.

Another problem with this is that curricula are set by the state rather then locally. If teachers had more freedom to write their curricula, then they could tailor them to the needs of individual students and incorporate all learning styles.

Our education system is incredibly outdated. It was designed during the industrial revolution to give as many students the most uniform education as possible. But education is not "one size fits all". It needs to be tailored to the individual student to fit his or her needs, and our system does basically the opposite of that. To improve how public education in the US works, we need to scrap the old system and design a new one.



Here is an interesting TED Talk by Ken Robinson, an education activist. 


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