A small rant on the public education system. (Captain Obvious/Wall o' Text warning!)

[El Lobo]

you are just too stupid to realize that.

Agreed.

[n00b1n8R]

If you were to ask me what K is in the periodic table, all I remember is I think its one of the ones that tricks to trick you, just like lead (I think is PB or something close)

eh?

[Ifafudafi]

I think he means "tries" to trick you, and that's not completely true; several elements have symbols based in their Latin names and such. For example, "Au" stands for "Aurum," the Latin word for gold, which Au is.

Also it's fun when everybody agrees with me

[Mr Buckshot]

Very, very well said, Mr. Ifafudafi.

I don’t live there any more, but I experienced three years of school in the Silicon Valley area of California. While it was not unpleasant, it definitely was disappointing. No, it’s not really because I’m an Asian immigrant living in the West as many stereotypes say – my primary school education was analogous to that of the U.K. as it took place in Singapore, a former British colony. The primary language of education was English, just like in the West. I didn’t go to grade school in China or Japan or anything so I will not compare the American schooling system to the Asian system.

I have observed that in many states the American public educational system up till high school has declined in quality significantly, focusing too much on memorizing and dumbing down the curriculum so much it makes some people cry. When I first arrived in America from Singapore and began fifth grade I immediately observed how shitty the system was – we were still learning how to write numbers as words in math, the teacher tested us on MULTIPLICATION TABLES, and the English class was easy-as-flushing-the-toilet, because there was a big emphasis on spelling. It was unnerving that I, as a foreigner, was getting better grades in English class than most of the local Caucasian students even though both we were all educated primarily in English.

The result of awful educations just reflects itself in American media where people "speaking out" against current issues openly show total stupidity.

I hate the all-memorizing kind of system because the students are likely to purge all the facts from their minds after the year ends, which means that when they get to higher levels they are royally screwed. Plus, there are people who are intelligent but have difficulty memorizing things – they deserve a different education system that teaches them to understand and not memorize.

1. Have kids memorize material A.
2. Test kids on material A.
3. If kids pass, move on. If not, have failing kids repeat steps 1-3 until success.
4. Have kids memorize material B.
5. Test kids on material B.
6. If kids pass, move on. If not, have failing kids repeat steps 4-6.
7. Continue as such for semester.
8. Cumulative test on all material. If kids pass, move on. If not, failing kids repeat old material until success.
9. Repeat steps 1-8 for second semester.
10. Graduate those who pass, hold back those who fail. Begin again next year.

I couldn’t agree with you more, but only for the regular courses

However, Mr. Ifafudafi, you also have to consider that once you hit high school you can choose AP and IB courses that differentiate the motivated from the less motivated. There are plenty of American students of all races who still are intelligent despite the uber-shitty elementary/middle education they previously had, because they self-study or get tutors or their parents are professionals in various academics. Or maybe they escaped the shitty education by going to expensive private schools. They will choose the AP and IB courses in high school and those 10 steps you listed definitely won’t apply any more.

The regular courses, on the other hand, are...hopeless.

[nooBBooze]

I once met some kid, actually a decent student at his highschool and he told me that the literature, history and philosophy they have to regurgitate all day is useless ballast to the fundamental lesson of how to write a letter of application.
There was a time that i actually cared. Nowadays it seems rather reasonable that the educational system actively gets rid of all the sophistry of no value to the ultimate lesson.