American Schools Are Training Kids for a World That Doesn’t Exist
1–10 of 27 posts
Re: American Schools Are Training Kids for a World That Doesn’t Exist
#2Are we supposed to be surprised or outraged? Or just think, "well, dadgum, they're correct!"? Because as near as I can tell, it's always been this way. US public schools have always trained kids (train - not educate, that's for the upper classes) for a world that no longer exists.
Re: American Schools Are Training Kids for a World That Doesn’t Exist
#3Are we supposed to be surprised or outraged? Or just think, "well, dadgum, they're correct!"? Because as near as I can tell, it's always been this way. US public schools have always trained kids (train - not educate, that's for the upper classes) for a world that no longer exists.
Once change became the norm (probably the 1970s) this was probably the case all over the world. Given that it's pretty difficult to change school curricula and retrain all your teachers, what does anyone expect? In any event, it's not the purpose of education to be great vocational training. The problem in the US isn't that schools are training kids for a world that doesn't exist, it's that they are training kids to pass idiotic multiple-choice tests.
Re: American Schools Are Training Kids for a World That Doesn’t Exist
#4All of college should be “one and done” like the NBA.
https://medium.com/@timrpeterson/all-college-should-be-one-a...
Re: American Schools Are Training Kids for a World That Doesn’t Exist
#5It's always been that way. Yet all of us who learned in public schools in the US still managed to change the world.
Re: American Schools Are Training Kids for a World That Doesn’t Exist
#6Are we supposed to be surprised or outraged? Or just think, "well, dadgum, they're correct!"? Because as near as I can tell, it's always been this way. US public schools have always trained kids (train - not educate, that's for the upper classes) for a world that no longer exists.
Once change became the norm (probably the 1970s) this was probably the case all over the world. Given that it's pretty difficult to change school curricula and retrain all your teachers, what does anyone expect? In any event, it's not the purpose of education to be great vocational training. The problem in the US isn't that schools are training kids for a world that doesn't exist, it's that they are training kids to…
Oh, that's far from being a US-only problem. Japan is all about passing stupid tests as well (and studying really hard to be the best at it, because, you know, it's important to be the first at nonsensical things), with little regard to actual professional prospects.
Re: American Schools Are Training Kids for a World That Doesn’t Exist
#7Are we supposed to be surprised or outraged? Or just think, "well, dadgum, they're correct!"? Because as near as I can tell, it's always been this way. US public schools have always trained kids (train - not educate, that's for the upper classes) for a world that no longer exists.
Once change became the norm (probably the 1970s) this was probably the case all over the world. Given that it's pretty difficult to change school curricula and retrain all your teachers, what does anyone expect? In any event, it's not the purpose of education to be great vocational training. The problem in the US isn't that schools are training kids for a world that doesn't exist, it's that they are training kids to…
A college representative for Durham University in the UK told me the entire British system is more focused on test scores than the US is, which is why for an American applying to UK schools much more weight is placed on SAT scores and AP tests than extracurriculars, essays, recommendations, and qualitative achievements compared to US schools.
Re: American Schools Are Training Kids for a World That Doesn’t Exist
#8I'm going to take a contrarian view. I think that American public schools are decent. Many are quite good. Only a few are excellent, but that's true of private schools as well. I don't think that it's our schools that are to blame for American ignorance. (And no, putting more money into them probably won't solve the problem.) It's economic inequality (underprivileged kids don't fuck off because they're stupid, but because they know that even if they work their asses off, the deck is still stacked against them) and a culture of ignorance and anti-intellectualism that pervades all social classes, top to bottom. People value ambition but not insight in this country, and deep knowledge makes you a fool who didn't have "the guts" to charge into the working world, beat someone up, and take a place.
For the world that should exist, where humans of average social connectedness and social class are equipped to solve the problems bearing down on us as a species, American students are undertrained. If the shit really hits the fan on energy, ecological concerns, or social unrest... we're all out of our depth. It's not just the schools, with their supposedly "outdated" emphasis on timeliness and conformity. The first 10 years in the corporate world, except for the upper-class kids who get a rope-bridge over the shit pit, kills any creativity that people might have had. The corporate world is much more destructive to creativity and, in the long run, intelligence, than the schools are. (It's also why intelligence tends to decline, in the U.S., after 22. That's not normal, and in other societies, people peak much later.) This society produces one thing: private sector politicians.
For the jobs that most of them will actually get, American students are overtrained. You don't need a college education to be some shitty private sector subordinate, nor an understanding of CS to do business-driven engineering in some VibratorFactoryVisitor-laden Java Shop. Knowing that stuff will just make you angry and make it harder to do your damn job, stay employed, and feed your family.
The claim that American schools are training kids for a 20th-century world that requires conformity is missing the point. The 21st-century world requires just as much conformity from individuals in the short term. Those lessons about not talking back to authority are just as important today. The hard challenges that humanity will face will take more, and our generation may be underprepared to take them on when they arrive, but we won't get a verdict on that one until we're tested.
Re: American Schools Are Training Kids for a World That Doesn’t Exist
#9Funny, because even if they would prepare for the future, it would still be for a world that doesn't exist.
Re: American Schools Are Training Kids for a World That Doesn’t Exist
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Once change became the norm (probably the 1970s) this was probably the case all over the world. Given that it's pretty difficult to change school curricula and retrain all your teachers, what does anyone expect? In any event, it's not the purpose of education to be great vocational training. The problem in the US isn't that schools are training kids for a world that doesn't exist, it's that they are training kids to…
A college representative for Durham University in the UK told me the entire British system is more focused on test scores than the US is, which is why for an American applying to UK schools much more weight is placed on SAT scores and AP tests than extracurriculars, essays, recommendations, and qualitative achievements compared to US schools.
Test scores and grades are far better criteria than that socioeconomic nonsense. It would be better if American colleges admitted purely on academic factors. They'd also get better students, even if they'd lose their elitist "mystique".
I think that the extracurricular "holistic" component is deeply harmful. If the top universities admitted on academic criteria, then Americans would accept that not everyone good-- because there clearly are good students who aren't great at standardized tests; "not a good test-taker" is a real thing-- goes to Harvard (which is true anyway) and get over it. I certainly know smart people who were mediocre students in high school.
The extracurricular bullshit (which is, in fact, heavily socioeconomic and racial and always has been) is a bit of branding that works wonders on 17-year-old kids, and their parents, by creating the appearance that college admissions are a "holistic" judge of the applicant as a person. It's brilliant insofar as it drives up tuitions (even at less prestigious schools) but it's really bad for society.