Education around the world

[Dr Realism]

After living in South Korea for nearly six years now, I am convinced that what children need is less education, not more. Education does not necessarily mean learning. It is often the opposite if it closes your mind to ideas and possibilities. Education kills creativity. The South Korean system has perfected it. The entire system is based on multiple choice, A B C D E tests. Everything fits neatly into a bubble that you fill in. Classes are utterly boring. The teacher lectures about the text book and the students fall asleep. Learning is not the purpose. The only purpose is to get a high score on a test. Ever since I graduated college, I've studies and learned more enthusiastically by myself than at any time that I was ever in school.
At times, school convinced me that I was stupid (as it does to many children), because I did poorly on some test or homework assignment that somebody decided was important for me to do. Did getting poor scores in Algebra 2 and Trigonometry mean I was an idiot? No. It just meant that I couldn't comprehend some boring textbook sitting in a class with 25 other kids, as if sitting in a classroom at 9 in the morning studying something boring is the optimal way to learn.
And why do kids have to study the subjects that schools decided? Was it really necessary for me to study The Cantebury Tales? Why wasn't I learning how to create a web page? That would be pretty useful to me. How about making economics part of the core curriculum? Teach kids about credit and loans and savings and what happens when you mess up on that stuff? No? Cutting a pig fetus up is more important? Cause that's still the only animal I've ever cut up so I guess I didn't need to learn that.

 

[Dr Realism]

I got a D is French during my first year of High School. I got C's in Spanish too.
Yet today I'm fluent in Korean and I speak Japanese and can read Chinese. Isn't that ridiculous. My final GPA in High School was a 2.5 but My Final College GPA was 3.1. In all the classes in my Major I got A's. My last two years of college were the best years of school I ever did. Yes High School almost convinced me that I wasn't really cut out for college. It's ridiculous.

 

[Master Chief]

I have the exam in two hours, and I am utterly unprepared and freaked out. Now I wish I had listened to her

Don't worry, I'm sure you will do fine. Just don't be nervous when giving the exams. I used to have black tea with lime and did not talk to anyone to calm my nerves before entering the examination room

P.S what is the subject of the exam?

 

[The Imperial]

I have finished the exams. I won't flunk The subject was biology. And thanks for the suggestions and good advice

 

[bboomer]

Australia; Educational practices have changed over time,.

I went to a De La Salle boys school for seven years. Very few of the brothers had any teaching qualifications, They taught by rote, and their favourite teaching aid was the strap, which they used with abandon. Most of the boys hated them.

A lot of home work, which began in year 5. Final year homework was never less than 5 hours.

'Normal' class size was a bit over 40. Largest class I can remember was year 9, when there were 60 boys .This was a parochial school , for which my parents paid .

Hours ,I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure our day was an hour longer than the public schools. We we had an extra subject ;religious instruction. In the final year of high school there were 4 hours of school on Saturdays. Mandatory, no exceptions. During that time, each student worked on his weakest subject.

TODAY ; the school year is split into 4 semesters of 10 weeks. There is a two week break at the end of the first three semesters. Then a six week break after the last semester, over summer.., which includes Xmas.- School year starts in early February.

Most Catholic schools today are co ed.

Corporal punishment is now unlawful, whether from the teacher or a parent. That's right, parents are no longer allowed to hit their children. And about time too.

 

[Belgarion]

A

Corporal punishment is now unlawful, whether from the teacher or a parent. That's right, parents are no longer allowed to hit their children. And about time too.

No it is not. "Corporal punishment by a parent or carer is lawful and is not considered child abuse provided that it is “reasonable”. "

Corporal punishment: Key issues

 

[Eye of Woland]

Found this ranking of the top educational systems in the world. Compiled by a British multinational publishing & educational company, the criteria used are education in primary, secondary and high school, along with higher education & international schools.

1. South Korea
2. Japan
3. Singapore
4. Hong Kong
5. Finland
6. The United Kingdom
7. Canada
8. The Netherlands
9. Ireland
10. Poland
11. Denmark
12. Germany
13. Russia
14. The United States
15. Australia
16. New Zealand
17. Israel
18. Belgium
19. Czech Republic
20. Switzerland
21. Norway
22. Hungary
23. France
24. Sweden
25. Italy
26. Austria
27. Slovenia
28. Portugal
29. Spain
30. Bulgaria
31. Romania
32. Chile
33. Greece
34. Turkey
35. Thailand
36. Columbia
37. Argentina
38. Brazil
39. Mexico
40. Indonesia

For a Masters degree, UK is 1st with the USA 2nd (can't find the full list).

Top 40 education systems in the world

I'm a little surprised the UK made it to 6th on the list. I know the top Universities in England (and Scotland) have outstanding worldwide reputations, I just imagined the gap between the very best & average institutions were enormous in the UK, simply based on economic disparities between regions & the historical reverence of Oxbridge.

Then again I couldn't find the methodology involved; they could've taken a small representitive sample for every school period or just picked the top 5 from each country.

 

[athena]

Who determined the ranking? Since opening this thread I have come across information of International Bank influencing education with the intent of preparing the masses to be workers. The bottom line is money and that might not be the best standard for the education of humans. Live is not all about money, and maybe our education should be all about money.

What Dr. Realism said about passing tests and not actually learning is so true.

 

[athena]

There would be big trouble if any adult at a school laid a hand on a child. Our schools are in big trouble. When a child in my school district spins out of control, the teacher has everyone leave the classroom, and special authority is called in to deal with the child. School policy has taken the authority away from teachers that they need.

I have just watched two documentaries of low-income schools with serious behavior problems, and we are totally failing these children. In some innercity schools the children live in neighborhoods that do not even have the safety standards of civilization. These children are living with drugs, crimes, and violence. We need to send copies of the videos of schools in trouble to the countries where people think their lives will be better in the US. Maybe we can reduce the illegal immigrants if they realize their lives may not be any better here and in the wrong section of our cities, their children can be killed. These are not places to raise children!

 

[athena]

I got a D is French during my first year of High School. I got C's in Spanish too.
Yet today I'm fluent in Korean and I speak Japanese and can read Chinese. Isn't that ridiculous. My final GPA in High School was a 2.5 but My Final College GPA was 3.1. In all the classes in my Major I got A's. My last two years of college were the best years of school I ever did. Yes High School almost convinced me that I wasn't really cut out for college. It's ridiculous.

Yes, I did much better in college than high school, but I attended a very bad high school in a poor neighborhood where I did not fit in and would not want to! Social problems can be too distracting in high school and teachers having to deal with teenagers who resent being in school is not conducive to their ability to teach. I attended schools that made new because of violence and teachers suffering post-traumatic syndrome.

My father had a second family and his children in the second family attended schools in exclusive neighborhoods for well off people. The difference between the education the children from his second family got and the education I had is the difference between heaven and hell. I have zero appreciation of IQ test because they do not take into consideration all the factors that influence how well a child does on a test.