America's Education System

1. What is your reaction to the video?
Public schools today are struggling to teach children the essential skills to become good, hard-working, citizens in the real world. After watching this video, I now realize how unacceptable public schools really are. My eyes have been opened as to why our schooling system is ranked so low compared to those of other countries. Along with this, I see how ignorant many people can be when it comes to America’s schooling system. Even though all these other countries have been succeeding with their education systems, many of these teachers in America believe that our system provides results. I do not understand is why they cannot see how unsound our system is when the facts are right in front of them. I believe
that if parents in America were able to choose where their children attended school, the quality of education would increase. When the students from Belgium took the test and got better scores than the American students, it really conveyed to me that we do need a change in the American education system. After seeing how the competitive school system in Belgium works, I now realize that adopting their system here would make the better teachers stand out and would make student have higher academic achievements. Watching this video really broadened my vision on the issues plaguing the American school system today.

2. Compare and contrast the video to your educational experience(s). What similarities did you see with your own education? What differences do you see?
The examples that were shown in the video were drastically different from my experiences with school. From sixth grade up until the end of my sophomore year of high school, I was home-schooled by my parents. Then, for my junior and senior years, my classes were online through Liberty University Online Academy. Even though I have been home-schooled for the majority of my childhood, I do see some similarities between the video and my schooling. When I first started public school, I was in a good school that provided a good education for me from kindergarten through third grade. In-between third and fourth grade, we moved to a new house and along with it came a new school. This new school was a huge transition for my family, but not necessarily a good one. When I started attending school after we moved, I noticed that the school was not as great as my previous school. I was still able to get a decent education for the next two years there, but, that is when my parents pulled my siblings and me out of public school to start home-schooling us. Home-schooling contrasts public school vastly. Public schools involve social interactions and teachers that were trained in the material being taught. Growing up home-schooled, my schooling was only about education. There was no social interaction and my parents were my teachers. So, if I had trouble understanding a topic in a course, but my parents couldn’t help me, I would just be stuck. This makes up the difference between my homeschooling life and life at a public school.

3. What three (3) things surprised you the most in this video?
Many of the schools and teachers shown in this video surprised me.
One of the most surprising things to me involved the teachers and supporters of America’s school system. Hearing that they believe our education system is working when the data says it is not really surprised me. It did not make sense for them to believe the education children receive in America is first-rate. How can these teachers turn a blind eye to the evidence that they are wrong? This question boggles my mind. These supporters of the American system were not the only reason the video surprised me however. The fact that some charter schools hold lotteries just to accept students made me really see how desperate some parents can be to get their children into a decent school. Charter schools set an example on how many American citizens believe that our education system needs to be overhauled. They do not want their children to attend the schools they were assigned to, so, they must hope that they win the lottery to get their children a good education. The third and final thing that surprised in this video has to do with the superintendent in South Carolina. She believes that their school system is improving when the SAT scores for South Carolina are the worst in the country. Why she believes that they have a good school system is what confuses me. So many residents of South Carolina oppose it, including the governor himself. This superintendent, along with the charter school lotteries, and the teachers
supporting the American education system, are the three things from the video that surprised me the most.

4. What connections do you see with the readings from last week (Sociology of Education, Education v. Schooling and Why We Still Need Public Schools) and the video?
The connection I see between the articles and the videos has to do with the quality of schooling in America. The article, Education v. Schooling, agrees with one point that the video made. Students in the American school system are not learning, but rather just doing what it takes to get a passing grade. The teachers do not care how well their students retain information as long as their scores get them through to the next grade. The Sociology of Education article says that the social class a student ends up in ultimately depends on their abilities. So, as the video points out, the school that a child attends affects their life forever. Whether a child goes to a good school or a bad school changes all aspects of their life. These aspects include a child’s intellect, political views, future career, and social skills. This makes an adequate school essential for the proper education of children, as the video states. Another article, “Why We Still Need Public Schools,” expands upon these aspects of life that an education affects. Just like the video, this article seeks that all children should be provided with a free, quality education. All children have the right to be properly educated. Connections between all the articles and the video could be summarized in this way. Regardless of race, gender, or background, all children need to be educated in order to make sure they can succeed in the future.

5. Do you think America's "overall" educational system is poor, fair, good or excellent? Explain your answer.
I do not believe our educational system is at the bottom, but, it is not exceptional either.
After considering it, I believe that the system is fair. There are some good examples of success coming out of the American school system. However, there are also many bad examples that show how the system is failing. Many students coming out of American schools were pushed through school with passing grades just to get them ready to join the work force. These students were not actually taught anything, and so, they fail to comprehend many problems that life throws at them. One problem that the American education causes is parents’ inability to choose the school their child attends. This means that children must attend the school chosen by the government, regardless of whether the school is credible or not. Children that grow up in an environment where schools do not teach properly end up failing when it comes to their education. The fact that copious amounts of distant countries beat us in how educated students are shows how our system does not work. While there have been good attempts to assist our system, such as the No Child Left Behind Act, they fail to actually correct the problem. The American education system’s inability to correctly educate children is what makes me believe that America’s education system is only fair. To fix education in America, we need to adopt the systems of the top performing countries, such as Belgium, that work instead of relying on our old methods
that have been proven to be ineffective.