Re: American literacy decreasing: There are lots of stats about inner city school failures to educate, hence the rise of the charter school movement to get around dismally performing unionized schools. Also, the USA has seen millions of migrants come into the country in the past several decades. Mostly recently, it has been noted that ma…
Re: American literacy decreasing: There are lots of stats about inner city school failures to educate, hence the rise of the charter school movement to get around dismally performing unionized schools. Also, the USA has seen millions of migrants come into the country in the past several decades. Mostly recently, it has been noted that many coming from Mexico & Central America are illiterate- which could have the effect of pulling down the USA’s literacy rate.
The answer is not necessarily more funding either as you suggest. New York City pays a record rate of $28k per student per year and I have read of similar stats in Boston and elsewhere. And their outcomes are abysmal! In recent years, only 25% of inner city students have passed state exams. It’s not the funding. There is something more profound going on - Union strangle hold of education which creates inflexibilty, tamping down innovations, dysfunctional family structures etc. It comes to a point when the state can no longer expect taxpayers to pay increasingly larger amounts with nothing to show for it.
The literacy rate apparently takes into account immigration levels. The UK in recent years has also seen huge rates of immigration from least developed nations and has still maintained at 99% rate. Norway has also had significant immigration and maintains 100%.
I do agree about the money not being well spent. The average spend per pupil in the UK is less than the US and yet the UK is considerably higher up the league table.
The UK also suffers from areas of extreme social deprivation and family dysfunction. They have put a lot into the inner cities education but know there is a significant way to go. But the fact remains a solid education is the best way to increase social mobility and ensure society progresses.
Interestingly, the Times of London had an anecdotal article about Ukrainian refugee children in France and Italy being a year ahead in maths earlier this week. According to the OCED, Ukraine is supposed to be behind, but the children are outperforming in the class room. In Ukraine apparently they used 1940s style textbooks and the discipline (including silence in the classroom) is much stricter. Apparently their language skills are great as most speak Ukraine and Russian and are therefore able to rapidly pick up French or Italian.
I do agree that there is profound systematic incompetence in the US state education system which has serious implications for US society going forward. It is in many ways why I think parents are fighting back against school boards etc in the US as the basic compact of state education has been broken by the various state education administrations. If parents felt their children were being educated in the basics, they would be more willing to overlook some of the societal engineering which French Theorists are attempting. As it is the so-called French Theory (crt, queer theory, decolonization of history etc) serves a distraction from the real problem which is the failure to educate American children properly.
re: your conclusion - 'couldn't agree more. Any given child has to get the basics down first (reading-writing-arithmetic)...the focus on extraneous and even questionable material is a damaging sideshow. Parents & taxpayers have the right to demand better. You could say it's 'American Decadence & Wealth' that has contributed to the superfluousness of today's current curriculums. Countries not as wealthy as the USA, like the Ukraine, Russia - can't afford all the foolishness; They have to get it right the first time - no remedial learning, no community 'remedial' colleges. They don't have the money to do 'do-overs'. We are an indulged society. Just think, American companies & universities now employ thousands and thousands of 'diversity counselors' just to 'monitor the halls' - we have laws on the books that do the same thing - whereas this human capital, these diversity counselors could be far more productive in actually producing something useful. 'Diversity Culture' is now an industry employing literally an army of Sociology and Ethnic Studies majors. But these jobs, don't produce anything - nothing - they are nothing but another' American indulgence'. As a nation, we will fall from our own rot, a rot from within, from the bad use of human resources and funds. And if we don't start getting serious about educating our youth and demanding more from the work place, yes, we are doomed to be a second rate nation. We are on our way.
Re: American literacy decreasing: There are lots of stats about inner city school failures to educate, hence the rise of the charter school movement to get around dismally performing unionized schools. Also, the USA has seen millions of migrants come into the country in the past several decades. Mostly recently, it has been noted that many coming from Mexico & Central America are illiterate- which could have the effect of pulling down the USA’s literacy rate.
The answer is not necessarily more funding either as you suggest. New York City pays a record rate of $28k per student per year and I have read of similar stats in Boston and elsewhere. And their outcomes are abysmal! In recent years, only 25% of inner city students have passed state exams. It’s not the funding. There is something more profound going on - Union strangle hold of education which creates inflexibilty, tamping down innovations, dysfunctional family structures etc. It comes to a point when the state can no longer expect taxpayers to pay increasingly larger amounts with nothing to show for it.
The literacy rate apparently takes into account immigration levels. The UK in recent years has also seen huge rates of immigration from least developed nations and has still maintained at 99% rate. Norway has also had significant immigration and maintains 100%.
I do agree about the money not being well spent. The average spend per pupil in the UK is less than the US and yet the UK is considerably higher up the league table.
The UK also suffers from areas of extreme social deprivation and family dysfunction. They have put a lot into the inner cities education but know there is a significant way to go. But the fact remains a solid education is the best way to increase social mobility and ensure society progresses.
Interestingly, the Times of London had an anecdotal article about Ukrainian refugee children in France and Italy being a year ahead in maths earlier this week. According to the OCED, Ukraine is supposed to be behind, but the children are outperforming in the class room. In Ukraine apparently they used 1940s style textbooks and the discipline (including silence in the classroom) is much stricter. Apparently their language skills are great as most speak Ukraine and Russian and are therefore able to rapidly pick up French or Italian.
I do agree that there is profound systematic incompetence in the US state education system which has serious implications for US society going forward. It is in many ways why I think parents are fighting back against school boards etc in the US as the basic compact of state education has been broken by the various state education administrations. If parents felt their children were being educated in the basics, they would be more willing to overlook some of the societal engineering which French Theorists are attempting. As it is the so-called French Theory (crt, queer theory, decolonization of history etc) serves a distraction from the real problem which is the failure to educate American children properly.
re: your conclusion - 'couldn't agree more. Any given child has to get the basics down first (reading-writing-arithmetic)...the focus on extraneous and even questionable material is a damaging sideshow. Parents & taxpayers have the right to demand better. You could say it's 'American Decadence & Wealth' that has contributed to the superfluousness of today's current curriculums. Countries not as wealthy as the USA, like the Ukraine, Russia - can't afford all the foolishness; They have to get it right the first time - no remedial learning, no community 'remedial' colleges. They don't have the money to do 'do-overs'. We are an indulged society. Just think, American companies & universities now employ thousands and thousands of 'diversity counselors' just to 'monitor the halls' - we have laws on the books that do the same thing - whereas this human capital, these diversity counselors could be far more productive in actually producing something useful. 'Diversity Culture' is now an industry employing literally an army of Sociology and Ethnic Studies majors. But these jobs, don't produce anything - nothing - they are nothing but another' American indulgence'. As a nation, we will fall from our own rot, a rot from within, from the bad use of human resources and funds. And if we don't start getting serious about educating our youth and demanding more from the work place, yes, we are doomed to be a second rate nation. We are on our way.