Notable problems in todays education

[Vy]

I want your opinion on what today's education lacks, especially from the tech side.

 

Would you prefer to leave books behind and use tablets as an alternative?

 

Any other changes that you'd like to see in the classroom?

[slalom]

I don't know about most of you guys, but in my school, a majority of the teachers can't fucking teach. Makes stuff worse. Most of my teachers rely on packets of paper with stuff we're not going to remember because we weren't actually taught the subject.

From a tech side, I want tablets to replace the textbooks.

[Four]

IMO the entire U.S. educational system doesn't prepare you for the future. It teaches you the basic knowledge to get through life, but they should teach you how to file taxes, you should learn the U.S. laws more in depth, you should learn how to use the stock market, etc.

 

I think tablets/laptops should replace the books we have now. The majority of the time in my city when I was in middle school half of the books were way outdated (5-8 years old). Overall we should be taught via electronics as well to save on the wasted paper the school system wastes, I see tons of paper being wasted in my school.

 

[video=youtube_share;dqTTojTija8]

 

This video explains why the school system needs to be changed.

[frosty]

Wouldn't taxes fall under basic mathematics (and basic instructions)? I'm not 100% sure how it works because here in the UK we don't file taxes. Teaching a bunch of high school students how to file taxes would probably be forgotten by the time they actually need to or can.

[All Ts]

Specifically in the United States culturally, pace, attitude and discipline cause us to fall behind other places.

[Jake]

I work in IT for a school district that has rolled out iPads tablets, and laptop to all the students. iPads/Tablets are useless, they provide no benefit what-so-ever to the students. A majority of the time the students use the iPads for games during class time instead of actually using them for academic purposes. They are expensive and require a lot of work as kids constantly break them or they have problems with the restrictions/software we put on them.

 

As for laptops those actually seem to work very well. Students who are from families who couldn't normally afford them get this technology. It is super helpful for kids as they don't have to stay after school to write papers or go to their local library. For whatever reason I notice kids get less distracted with them than the iPads and seem to be more productive. Also, its a lot easier to install restrictive software and monitoring on laptops.

 

For teachers wise when I was in high school we had some teachers who did not teach and claimed I cannot teach you I can only help you teach yourself. They gave us a textbook and told us to read it and do all the problems in it during class. I had teachers who said they would give us lower grades first quater and higher grades second to show improvement and make themselves look better on reports.

 

We need to make programming classes and financial literacy classes mandatory. In this day and age knowing how to program will greatly benefit your life and increase job prospects. As for finical literacy so many of my peers don't know the first thing about taxes, money management, credit scores, ect.

[Chloe Gallagher]

This actually sums it up pretty well.

 

[Itch]

To give you an idea as to where I am coming from... I can see this from 3 different perspectives.

Student - Currently attending University

Parent - I have 2 children in the U.S. School system now.

Teacher - I currently am a student teacher for ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) at nights. I also am a certified Referee instructor.

 

All forms of media have their place and use in the classroom. It is up to the teacher to determine what works best for the students in their classrooms.

I have seen many different approaches, but every time an ipad, laptop, or phone comes out... the few students that actually want to learn do... the rest find the many different distractions offered there and end up learning nothing.

 

Although I am pro technology in a classroom if it is not restricted and implemented correctly all chance of good educational value goes out the window.

For that reason I usually limit the use of tech and stick with more traditional realia (educational materials). If you are a good teacher you can make the class enjoyable and productive without the need for tablets or phones.

 

Classrooms and subjects need to be fluid and adapt to what the students want/need to learn, getting and holding the interest of the students in a way that will benefit them in the long run is the hardest aspect of teaching. Every education system that I have looked at has it's pros/cons. We've all had that teacher that is terrible, and most of us have had an awesome teacher or two we've learned a lot from.

 

Basically the biggest problem facing education in the U.S. to me is the one size fits all mentality.

[Exk]

I think the lack of clarity in instructions a huge issue. There are so many holes in the foundation of education that kid's receive, and over here in NY kids that don't reach out towards external help tend to fall behind. There are good schools, but even the best public schools have pretty inefficient teachings.

Some of the kid's I work with have teachers who refuse to explain things, and interpret questions as you weren't listening. The lack of patience really makes the education hard to catch. Moreover, I always tell the kids I work with to pry for information if somethings unclear because the teachers for whatever reason assume everything is spot on in their skimpy "rubric." Some teachers are good about it, but a lot of them tend to not be.

 

As for the information provided, I heard some schools in Georgia provide tax-filing classes and organization classes, which would be pretty amazing here. Most of school from what I've seen is training to be diligent and punctual. It teaches you responsibility as well as basic common knowledge. At least, that's what I took out of my 18 years in public school education.

 

If they could tweak the system to focus more on educating kid's in terms of responsibility and less on a number, I think it'd greatly improve the quality of the kids coming out. Also, kids lack the room to think loosely, since most of their work / exams are memory-based regurgitated information. Again, referencing the kids I work with, some of them need things to be spelt out to them since they were never told to think things out on their own.