Comments on: Statistics Show Americans Aren’t Only Ones Who Have Trouble With Geography http://www.bloggernews.net/17777 High-quality English language analysis and editorial writing on the news. Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:23:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Michael B http://www.bloggernews.net/17777#comment-46357 Michael B Sun, 24 Jun 2007 03:51:51 +0000 http://www.bloggernews.net/17777#comment-46357 I teach geography and give map quizzes to my students each semester. Many of my students are international students. My empirical numbers indicate that international students are not significantly different in their knowledge of country locations. They tend to do better in their own region, i.e. Japanese do pretty good with identification of Asian countries, but score no better for Europe or South America or Middle America, and Europeans have as much trouble with South Asia, Middle America, and South America as everyone else. Just my experience. Geography is taught in schools, usually at the 4th grade and 8th grade level, but not by geographers, by history or social science teachers. Too many anecdotes I hear about these teachers having their students read Newsweek or read CNN and that is their geography lesson. We are the laughing stock because we do not invest in education. We spend money on equipment, but not where it really matters. We let teachers decide that they want shorter work days and shorter school years. Today, my kids are told they need to learn to read at home rather than in school. IN MY DAY, we read in school all the time, and every student read, whether they could or not. We didn't go home at 2.25pm, we went home at 4pm. And we read both at school and at home, and we had homework. A lot of homework. We are scoffed at abroad because we spend $57 billion dollars on our national education system and $570 billion dollars on defense. We are scoffed at domestically because of unfunded mandates (No Child Left Behind) and unrealistic goals and expectations (again, No Child Left Behind). We are hurting because the same students that we have reduced expectations for as students then want to become teachers and then, after becoming teachers, expect even less of their students and have no expectations of themselves. Many of students, roughly 60%, are teachers-to-be and are usually the worst students themselves, having little respect for the academic climate, homework, attendance, attire, classroom demeanor, or their own achievement. Our educational system, while suffering now, is only going to become worse, as this aura of entitlement that permeates college graduates furhter diminishes our global leadership role. I teach geography and give map quizzes to my students each semester. Many of my students are international students. My empirical numbers indicate that international students are not significantly different in their knowledge of country locations. They tend to do better in their own region, i.e. Japanese do pretty good with identification of Asian countries, but score no better for Europe or South America or Middle America, and Europeans have as much trouble with South Asia, Middle America, and South America as everyone else. Just my experience.

Geography is taught in schools, usually at the 4th grade and 8th grade level, but not by geographers, by history or social science teachers. Too many anecdotes I hear about these teachers having their students read Newsweek or read CNN and that is their geography lesson.

We are the laughing stock because we do not invest in education. We spend money on equipment, but not where it really matters. We let teachers decide that they want shorter work days and shorter school years. Today, my kids are told they need to learn to read at home rather than in school. IN MY DAY, we read in school all the time, and every student read, whether they could or not. We didn’t go home at 2.25pm, we went home at 4pm. And we read both at school and at home, and we had homework. A lot of homework.

We are scoffed at abroad because we spend $57 billion dollars on our national education system and $570 billion dollars on defense. We are scoffed at domestically because of unfunded mandates (No Child Left Behind) and unrealistic goals and expectations (again, No Child Left Behind).

We are hurting because the same students that we have reduced expectations for as students then want to become teachers and then, after becoming teachers, expect even less of their students and have no expectations of themselves. Many of students, roughly 60%, are teachers-to-be and are usually the worst students themselves, having little respect for the academic climate, homework, attendance, attire, classroom demeanor, or their own achievement.

Our educational system, while suffering now, is only going to become worse, as this aura of entitlement that permeates college graduates furhter diminishes our global leadership role.

]]> By: David Dalton http://www.bloggernews.net/17777#comment-40559 David Dalton Fri, 15 Jun 2007 14:27:05 +0000 http://www.bloggernews.net/17777#comment-40559 Without any disrespect to Laura's opinion, those other countries who spend less on education with apparently better results do not educate the way we in the US do. Those bastions of Socialist goodwill weed out students with lower academic potential and shunt them off to vocational training, never to be scored by the media again. Those nations, who pride themselves on their social conscience and scorn the US for our 'selfishness,' also exclude -in most cases- students with severe physical disabilities or profound intellectual disabilities. We could surely catch up, but at what cost? Should we leave our challenged brothers and sisters behind in the manner of the Europeans? Without any disrespect to Laura’s opinion, those other countries who spend less on education with apparently better results do not educate the way we in the US do. Those bastions of Socialist goodwill weed out students with lower academic potential and shunt them off to vocational training, never to be scored by the media again. Those nations, who pride themselves on their social conscience and scorn the US for our ’selfishness,’ also exclude -in most cases- students with severe physical disabilities or profound intellectual disabilities.

We could surely catch up, but at what cost? Should we leave our challenged brothers and sisters behind in the manner of the Europeans?

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