Friday, March 11

My Biased Views


Not much has changed since 2000, when the U.S. scored along the OECD average in every subject: This year, the U.S. scores below average in math and ranks 17th among the 34 OECD countries. It scores close to the OECD average in science and reading and ranks 21st in science and 17th in reading.
Source: TheAtlantic.com




Pretty dismal ratings if you ask me which of course you did not ask...  but, if you really care about this country, the people who live inside this country, and the future of this country then this should not just bother you but it should PISS YOU OFF BIG TIME...

How did something like this happen?

Our educators have decided to teach to the tests rather than teach to learn and retain knowledge.  Therefore, our students score high on certain tests because they have, in essence, memorized the answers but have not learned anything nor have they retained anything.

When they get into college with their high grades, they continue to memorize for the exams and continue to fail to learn or retain the knowledge that they need to...

Our once #! educational system is now just simply mediocre.

When I was teaching business students in college, I discovered quite unexpectedly that:
  • Most students read at a 10th grade level
  • Most students wrote at a 10th grade level
  • Most students had no critical thinking skills
  • Most students had no desire to drill down on subjects
  • Most students had no teamworking skills
  • Most students wanted to be told exactly what to know
  • Most students wrote 1-2 sentence answers to essay questions that should have required a minimum of 100-150 words to demonstrate competent understanding of the concept
  • Most students presentations skills were at a 10th grade level

What bothered me the most was that when students had to turn in a project or a written assignment they had no idea nor did they want to research it on their own, how to submit the docment as if they were submitting it to their employers.  These papers were not typed.  There was no title page.  They did not know how to submit it in a MEMO format.  There were spelling errors.  Inappropriate sentence construction.

To make matters worse, these classes were composed of 3rd and 4th year students.

Granted...  I wasn't teaching at an Ivy League University but I doubt Ivy League University graduates are going to come down to East TN to work...  so, most of our employers will be relying on locally educated employees.



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