Why America’s education system is bad

A lot of Americans complain that their education system is broken and doesn’t work for everyone in the country. We’ve asked our readers to send their comments, and we’re going to publish two wholesome comments per day.

Dan: ‘About two-thirds of Americans get a good to great education, which is not terrible since they are getting what they need to go to college. American universities generally try to fix this problem and provide all the education businesses need. The system seems to work for most people, but they don’t take proper advantage of it in a way they should. However, the big problem with the system is that we leave poor kids in poor areas of the country behind in terrible school districts. Also, Americans have a terrible attitude towards education, which is, the more everybody studies the better results they will get. In Europe, tests are in place to discover what a student is suited for, which helps schools to guide him or her better and limit his or her lessons to achieve a certain goal. In America, kids stay in a system where they shouldn’t be and end up going to the wrong college.’

Alex: ‘There are standardised tests in America, which I don’t think is a bad thing. However, the problem lies where the entire syllabus is changed so that students can study for the test, not for the sake of learning. These tests have time limits and do not allow some very bright kids to analyse the problem before solving it. A student might have an ingenious idea about how to solve a problem, but with a strict time limit, only students who have memorised a certain formula can finish the test in time. I have seen a lot of kids who were very smart but did terribly in maths tests. However, they have survived the education system that put them down and are successful mathematicians, professors, programmers, etc.’