By BRENT STAPLES
Published: November 21, 2005

The United States will become a second-rate economic power unless it can match the educational performance of its rivals abroad and get more of its students to achieve at the highest levels in math, science and literacy. Virtually every politician, business leader and educator understands this, yet the country has no national plan for reaching the goal. To make matters worse, Americans have remained openly hostile to the idea of importing strategies from the countries that are beating the pants off us in the educational arena.

The No Child Left Behind Act, passed four years ago, was supposed to put this problem on the national agenda. Instead, the country has gotten bogged down in a squabble about a part of the law that requires annual testing in the early grades to ensure that the states are closing the achievement gap. The testing debate heated up last month when national math and reading scores showed dismal performance across the board.

Lurking behind these test scores, however, are two profoundly important and closely intertwined topics that the United States has yet to even approach: how teachers are trained and how they teach what they teach. These issues get a great deal of attention in high-performing systems abroad - especially in Japan, which stands light years ahead of us in international comparisons. - NYTimes.com
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One of the things the editorial suggests, but doesn't say outright, is that the US has 50 different standards for what is taught, and in each of those 50 (except Hawaii), there are varying standards based on location. A national school board, while poison to some who see any incursion of the federal government into state affairs as unconstitutional, is obviously necessary if the US doesn't want its college students to major in alchemy and ark-building. As it is now, our average student in public schools usually finish near the bottom when ranked with other industrialized countries. If you haven't read any news reposts of US college freshmen being unable to locate Mexico and Canada on a map, you haven't been paying attention. I have seen high school students graduate without knowing who won the Revolutionary War, and just recently, I think, a pro football player, who had attended 4 years of college, admitted that he was illiterate. I hope that this editorial in the Times will mark a turning point, but I fear that it won't.

The big difference isn't the schools or the educators but the students. Japanese students are pushed academically in a much more serious way than your average American kid. Japanese kids that come to America take their studies much more seriously and manage to use our schools and our educators to become world class academics.

It's not our educational system necessarily but our culture that poses a lot of the problems. Sports are given more emphasis in a lot of American families than math, science and reading. You have to admit that most Japanese families just take education a whole lot more seriously than your average American family does... in practice rather than just in theory.

In Japan, the school year is about 235 days long. In the United States, it is about 180. From experience, I can tell you that the first month of so of the school year is spent doing paperwork and re-teaching last year's coursework. In the United States, if a school day reaches the time that is normally the time for the first lunch period, it is considered a full day, even if students are dismissed at that time. I don't know if it is like that in other countries, but I doubt it. I also doubt that Japanese and European teachers need to spend as much time on disciplinary matters as do US teachers.

Unfortunately there are some things that likely contribute to the problem that aren't very PC to discuss.

6th grade education used to mean something. Now you can't survive in this country without a high school education. Not only that but now we tell everyone that they really need a degree. Not everyone needs a college level education. Not everyone needs a high school education. The reality is by trying to get everyone through our school systems, we diminish the quality of education. If a student is disruptive and not applying themselves they actually get more attention than someone who is there to learn. More energy is expended trying to force education on unwilling recipients so that school district statistics don't go down... School report cards determine property value in this country. A huge part of that is drop out rate and college bound student percentage. There is no reason for some students to go to college... they hate school and are just slogging there way through it. Those students end up becoming a difficulty to the educational system. People who make it through the system with deficient skills are not really a problem to school boards unless they come out and tell people that they can't read or show that they can't find Mexico on a map. Even if they do, it's easy for people to pawn it off on the kid being a screw off rather than realizing that the school boards have a conflict of interest. Test scores and grades... college entrance... nothing else matters.

I don't expect a lot of agreement on this, but I know there are people who just go to college to get a ticket... not to get an education. The system itself isn't bad because plenty of people are managing to get excellent educations, it's the attitude of the students and the parents that is the real problem.

If developing social skills wasn't so important for young children, I would home-school my kids (currently I don't have any, but down the road I plan on having some, not sure how I would work that into my work schedule, but where there is a will there is a way).

Ogi

I hate to disagree with you Ami, but a college degree is an absolute necessity here in the Northeast. People in the mailroom have a Master's degree. The person taking over my job has two BS degrees and a Master's in Engineering. The competition for jobs is so tight, and it's the reason I'm not discouraged. I've worked and struggled to get an education, but those around me have apparently worked harder than I did.

And the trouble with America's schools today is not the government or the teachers or even the students. It is the parents and the commitment to their child, and what they instill as important into their lives. So many broken homes, single parents who can't make a living, think about the "poverty" wage and the lack of health care. These people can't afford to put food on the table, and whether they will get shot on the streets before recess. The government has been trying to address this with Head Start and other programs, but government is no match for the importance of a family relationship.

My daughter goes to a public school, but it's really an expanded program for talented and gifted kids. Kids compete to get in and stay in. But the only reason most are successful is because *all* of the parents are committed to their education. The kids are taught in-depth and I supplement by asking questions and testing her, providing her with materials and information. They wear uniforms and discipline is strict there.

But on the other hand, the home-schooled kids are smart but have a tendency to be socially unskilled. I know many parents would argue with me, but I think it's out of religious conviction, and if they are going to confine themselves to other members of the church, I suppose they find that acceptable.

I completely understand that in the US we need to have diplomas. My point is that it's ridiculous. A lot of our schools get watered down because there are people in school who don't want to be or are very far behind the rest of the class. They are not seeking education but rather the piece of paper that says they can get a job.

If there were more options available to people who didn't want to continue education then perhaps our whole educations system wouldn't have to carry the burden of teaching college seniors how to compose a paragraph.