User:GoHerd2009/DraftTitle

Is America falling behind when it comes to education? Studies show that America’s education systems indeed are lax compared to that of other countries. The United States of America used to be advancing rapidly in just about everything, but now it seems we are starting to slip and we are constantly being surpassed by other countries, China in particular. Within this document I will discuss what America is doing wrong, the differences between the education systems in China and in America, and ways to possibly solve this crisis and help American children secure their futures. So what are we doing wrong? Describing the typical American in a single word is easy for most residents of other countries: lazy. American’s have always been viewed as lazy, and it seems to get worse with each upcoming generation. Let me investigate this further by starting with young children in grade school. Many parents are outraged because their child has too much homework and too little “kid time”. Now I’m not saying that children need to be stripped of their playtime and take hours to complete mountains of homework, but we’ve all heard the phrase “practice makes perfect” and I believe this to be true with school as well. Think about it: the more you practice your violin lessons, they better you will be at playing it; the more you study, the more you will learn and do better in school. Homework can be overwhelming if it is piled on the students which can cause them to be discouraged, give up, and resort to cheating or dropping out entirely. This is why many schools are resorting to the “ten-minutes-per-grade rule”. This means that a third grader will have thirty minutes of homework per night, a fourth grader will have forty minutes of homework per night, and so on. I believe this will help young students gradually learn to handle the workload that awaits them while also helping them learn to prioritize. Several college students have come from high schools were homework was rarely assigned. When they entered college where there are three hours of homework per credit hour, they get stressed and usually end up withdrawing from college because it is too much for them since they had not experienced this much work before. Homework is a good thing, but too much of it can have negative effects. Parents need to be involved in their children’s education and teachers need to stop being so lenient and manage their classrooms with strict rules. If a parent does not care about their child’s education, do you think the child is going to care either? In most households, both parents have to work in order to support their family, which means spending less time helping their children with homework or projects. Education starts in the home. Just because your child is too young to go to school doesn’t mean that they can’t learn from you now. Parents need to help prepare their children for school, teaching them the alphabet, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. Too often, teachers cannot control their students, so they just give up and let them have the run of the classroom. Where is the respect? Where is the obedience? These things are basically unheard of anymore. As I stated above, education starts in the home. This doesn’t just apply to academics, but also to morals and values. Teach your children respect, honor, loyalty, trustworthiness, and you shouldn’t have any problems as your child gets older and develops into a bright young man or woman. Parents, teachers, and the homework aren’t all to blame. Money is a big issue as well because “rich” neighborhoods can afford nice schools with the latest technologies and education tools to help their children learn. Also, “rich” neighborhoods tend to draw in the better principals and teachers while the “poor” neighborhoods basically get what is left over: teachers who are underpaid, overworked, unmotivated, and have weaker skills. The differences between China’s and America’s education systems American high school students attend school 180 days out of the year with a three month break for summer vacation. A typical school day in America is about six hours long with a 30-45 minute lunch break, but these numbers vary. Students in America go to school Monday through Friday. China’s high school students attend school 248 days out of the year, and even though they get holidays (or vacations as we like to call them), many Chinese students refuse them because they worry it will disrupt their studies. A typical Chinese school day for high school students is thirteen hours long with a two hour break for lunch and a two hour break for dinner (in short, they were in class for a minimum of nine hours). Chinese students attend school Monday through Saturday. No wonder the Chinese are so much more advanced! In an American high school, you will find that the only thing that gets students excited is sports: football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, soccer, cheerleading, etc. Chinese schools typically do not have varsity sports like these. American students usually have more art and music classes than the Chinese while Chinese students usually have more science and math classes than Americans. Chinese parents diligently teach their children honor, respect, obedience, wisdom, etc. because these are very important virtues to them. This is why you normally never hear of a disruptive classroom in China or students harassing their teachers and fellow classmates. There are many other differences between American and Chinese school systems, but these are just some of the more important differences. What’s the solution? There are many things we need to change in the school system. I will keep this short, simple and to the point. In order to make our education system better in America we need to do several things. We need to better train teachers so that they can manage their classrooms and keep the students under control. Parents need to ensure that their children are attending school regularly and doing their homework. We need to make sure students get an appropriate amount of homework; too much will overwhelm them and discourage them, too little will bore them and seem like it’s not worth while. Appropriate funding for educational tools is a must. Schools must raise their standards, make classes smaller for more individual attention, enforce stricter rules, include more mandatory math and science classes, increase the amount of time spent in school so that the teachers actually have time to teach instead of rushing through assignments, implement an ethical code of conduct, and much more. If we want to see our children succeed and live a prosperous life, we have to make some serious changes NOW. How can we expect to keep jobs here in America by fighting off the competition in other countries if we don’t have an educated, experienced, and well-trained labor force? We need to take some notes from China. They constantly put us to shame with their education, technology, advancements, etc. The Chinese take education very seriously, and it’s about time that we do too. We just have to work hard and push our children to their limit to do the best they can so that they have a fighting chance in their future.

References (1) http://englishplus.com/news/news0700.htm (2) http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-71021/China (3) http://ae.china-embassy.org/eng/jylx/t150815.htm (4) http://www.liuzhou.co.uk/china/educationinfo.htm (5) http://www.theglobalist.com/DBWeb/printStoryId.aspx?StoryId=5264 (6) http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/benamon/060126 (7) Friedman, Thomas. The World is Flat. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. (8) http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/01/20060109-3.html (9) http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0502ACTIONAGENDA.pdf (10) http://www.kptv.com/lhjbacktoschool/13523179/detail.html (11) http://www.martynemko.com/articles/how-to-fix-the-schools_id1495