Why Education Systems Has Success, And The Lack Of The American Education System

America used to thrive on its education system and that is why it became one of the greatest nations in the world. Education is the backbone of our country, and we must give high priority to improve its current condition. Unfortunately, in the past couple of decades, the education system has been regressing. It has been on the decline and not as effective. The quality of education in a country has an influence on GDP growth, social cohesion and social well being in general. In order to improve the quality of education in the U.S., the following must be taken into consideration: the structure of our education system must be reanalyzed, we must compare and contrast our education system to systems of other countries with higher rankings, and finally, there must be a solution.

Many people know that the U.S. does not rank very high in education. You hear about how they are always trying to improve education, but they still fall short of where they strive to be. In Anu Partanen’s “Finland’s School Success, What Americans Keep Ignoring” she addresses this issue. She points out what Americans are doing wrong, what Finland is doing right, and how the U.S. can improve the education system in many ways.

The United States is considered to be one of the biggest powerhouses in the world, but when it comes to education in the U.S, we’re consider to be average. How is it that other nations who aren't as powerful as the U.S, be ahead us in education? Examples of these nations are South Korea, Finland, and Poland. Amanda Ripley sought to find an answer to this question.

The Finnish Model will work well on reforming the U. S. because it provides equal education and opportunity for everybody. In the country of Finland, “there were no high-tech, interactive whiteboards in her [Kim’s] classroom…no police officer in the hallway” (p. 83). This suggests that these students do not need fancy equipment or armed protection to be the smartest kids in the world. In addition, the Finnish want everyone to be successful despite their circumstances at home, and one way they do so is possessing academic and vocational schooling. This gives students a choice between two equitable options of education instead of forcing them down a one-way path to graduation. The U.S., in my opinion, would greatly benefit from allowing this option in their schooling system because it allows students freedom over their future.

There was a time when America’s education system was top-notch according to the culture and society. With time, a myriad of things has changed, but unfortunately what has not evolved is the American education system. The country is still following a system which was not designed for the current global economic climate. Equality, as positive as it sounds is not as sufficient when it comes to education. The system treats students equally yet expect a similar culmination and outcome. Every child has his individuality and distinct abilities; one cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. Conversely, a few of the prominent reasons why the education system is failing are overcrowded schools, the rise of technology, and following the same old school hours.

For instance, in Korea their “pressure cooker”(24) style of education “school never stopped”(57). In comparison, Korean student typically went to school from 8am to sometimes 10-11pm, while in the United States generally school is from about 8am to usually at the latest 4pm. With this style of schooling the Koreans never use excuses found commonly in the United States such as, “the test was unfair or not everyone can be good at math”(57) instead their mindset was “You didn’t work hard enough”(57). While Ripley and Korean Education minister Lee Ju-Ho think this method is extreme she uses this comparison to show that their is no denying that working harder in school whether it be more rigorous or lengthy improves scores tremendously. In Finland the utopia of education, many comparisons were linked to the teachers as well as students. In Finland “all education schools were selective”(85) meaning that most finnish teachers had received “the highest levels of education in the world”(85), in comparison to the United States where an Oklahoma algebra one teacher’s college had “low standards and little rigor”(88). This comparison also shows how seriously foreign countries take teaching compared to the United States where “jobs were protected by powerful unions”(84). Many finnish kids also were

The United States is one of the best country in many areas such as technology and health care or education, but compared with other develop nations, the united states education system is still behind many country including United Kingdom, Japan, China. America’s standards of education are far lower than several other countries, because the American public education systems is less effective, students are lack of motivation to learn. According to Michael Moore, in the book Idiot Nation, and John Taylor Gatto in Against School, they argue that the education system in the United States is deeply flawed. America’s schools having a poor curriculum, many facilities are in bad conditions and lack of resources that students need to learn. The

There are already many articles about how Asian countries are surpassing America in education, but what about Finland? Finland, which is about the size of Minnesota, is top ranking in math, science, and language arts. Despite this, Finland’s education standards are more laid-back than ones in America. America's education system is lackluster in comparison to other countries, but it’s fixable by recognizing the problem, observing other countries, and updating our own standards.

Although often taken for granted, education is a privilege the U.S. offers to aid in achieving the “American Dream”, in which some define as opportunity and success. The U.S. proves being the “greatest country in the world” by leading other countries in military strength, political strength, plentiful resources and a powerful economy. In order to maintain a mighty military, the “Department of Defense deploys 1.8 million soldiers in active duty and owns 29,819,492 acres of land worldwide.” (military.com/military-trivia-facts.html) Economically, the U.S leads the United Nations in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with an annual production of $16,768.1

The United States of America is ranked twentieth in the world for education which sounds shocking, but after taking a look at how other countries run their schools, it is easy to see why we are so far behind. In Michael Moore’s Where to Invade Next, Moore takes a look at the education systems in countries across Western Europe and discovers that there are vast differences in how the world runs their schools.

Education plays important role in society. It determines the final development of an adult’s personality. In today’s society most jobs require a University degree. To receive a University degree students need to rely on a good education system. Does America provide this? The American education system has relied on the grade point average system for a long time. The problem with this is there is not a universal GPA grade point system varying from course to course. This creates an inaccurate way to determine ones overall achievements. Teachers have different standards than others, grade inflation can occur and students can be exposed to different learning environments. Does the education system need to change to create fairness?

The human mind is perhaps the greatest object on the earth, animate or inanimate, but without the proper training, the mind is a relatively useless tool. Through the development of formal education systems, humans as a whole have tried to ensure the training of all minds so as to continue prosperity for the world. Most of the time, though, education systems do not realize the harm they are doing to developing minds and the subsequent negative consequences. Among the largest of these inadequate education systems is the American primary schooling system. The American education system is in fact failing; it continues to deplete children of their natural creativity and thirst for knowledge while preaching conformity, which in turn creates an

Finland, South Korea, and Singapore have built very strong educational systems since the late 1970s when America was at the top as an educational leader. Finland that once was at the bottom of the educational latter is now ranking at the top on PISA assessments in math, science, and reading. Over 50% of finish adults have completed a higher education program and the government covers 98% of the costs for these adults to go to college. Finland seems to of found a way of giving all students an equal education and providing a smaller gap between students test scores on standardized testing. This even takes into account students that are emigrating from other areas in many of these areas do not speak the language in Finland. Also the students are still being able to be reached and achieving great strides according to standardized tests. Finland is only going up as far as educational goals go and test scores. Despite the number of immigrants that have been recently coming to the area. Finland attributes a lot of their success to highly educated teachers, which the government pays for their education. Finland also educates their teachers in a thinking curriculum for all their students. School systems also give teachers the opportunity to teach what they need to teach, they are not worried about tangible evidence to show the public. Most of the tests that the students go through are to evaluate higher order thinking and performance skills. This is the opposite direction

Different regions and cultures made different ways of educating. Asia always dominates in the rankings of the OECD on the PISA (Worldwide study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in member and non-member nations of 15-year-old school pupils ' scholastic performance in mathematics, science, and reading.) tests. More specifically, China has always ranked in at least the top 10. In the 2012 release of the OECD rankings, Shanghai China ranked number one on all reading (570), Mathematics (613) and Science (580) tests while the United States ranked 36th in mathematics, 25th in reading and 28th in science. The United States scarcely ranks in the top 10. Why? China and the United States school systems and students

Have you ever wondered why our country is ranked low in comparison to other countries when it comes to education? Our country is said to be the best country in the world; yet when one takes a closer look on our system, defects are bound to be found. Take a look at our education for instance. We have the least productive schools in the nation. The truth is that the board of education has dumbed down the system due to a decrease in testing averages.