Strengths and Weaknesses of the American School System

Our American School System has a variety of strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths:

  • Focused on the needs of the student
  • Develops programs to assist students of all capacities
  • Schools are moving forward and keeping up with the technology times
  • We are teaching our students problem solving skills
  • Huge amounts of funding for schools in STEM programs
  • Foster teamwork and creative skills
Weaknesses:
  • We do not teach students enough (real world skills)
  • Teachers are underpaid
  • Students are not focused on their emotional intelligence 
  • Notion that we are institutionalizing our students
  • Standardized testing 
  • Knowing is not enough 
In a way, my feelings are similarly aligned with the public opinion of schools. I think in education, everyone is so fixated on standards and complying to the state. If we give students a broader range of room to explore their own interests, then we can facilitate a more constructive learning environment where the students will not feel so tied down. I think this is why the public gets so caught up in the idea that we are "institutionalizing" our students. The thing that is institutionalizing them is the fear to express their knowledge through their own means of interpreting what they learn. As a teacher, I can honestly say how tiring and hard my job is, "its tough but its good" is how I like to describe it. Teachers do work incredibly hard to try and teach their students more then what is in the textbooks. We teach them problem-solving skills, collaboration with peers, leadership, coping mechanism, and in my class we teach real world concepts! When students are open to the learning process, then all of these strengths can be achieved. To do this, we as teachers need to work with each other, parents, and our communities to provide this environment for our students.

Questions for Discussion:
1. How can we break away from the institutionalizing stigma in our schools?
2. How can we make our students emotionally intelligent?
3. What can we do to help our students adapt to the real world?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MY Philosophy of Education and Learning

Image
Upon self-assessment, I learned what my educational philosophy really is. My philosophy follows the Behaviorism approach. Behaviorism  philosophy involves shaping our ideas by determination and forces in the environment. Learning occurs through reinforcing and responses to stimuli. I am not surprised that Behaviorism is my philosophy of education. Being that I teach special education students, a lot of my class is focused on repetition of skills and positive reinforcement. While Behaviorism was not the model I always intended on using, it is the method that works best with my class. In my class, reinforcing skills is essential to the student's understanding. Because they are in a 15:1 (self-contained) classroom, they need to be hit with the material from a view different angles in order to fully understand it. Here's a look at the history of the  Behaviorism Theory The philosophy that I like the best was Essentialism, which is the one I most associated with on my self-asse...
Read more

Digital Pedagogy

Image
Digital pedagogy involves classroom practices that require the use of other forms of modern technology incorporated into instruction. 1. I have observed a few digital pedagogy assignments in the classroom. I have seen students use social media as a form of classroom instruction and I have also seen virtual classrooms used. Interactive maps have become popular in social studies classrooms, and students are keeping up with classroom happenings and announcements through sites like Edmodo or Google Classroom. 2. For the teacher who is cautious about incorporating digital pedagogy, there are many ways to incorporate it in small ways. You can start by using blogging assignments in the classroom. By blogging, students have a safe digital outlet to share their thoughts and expressions. 3. According to the Digital Pedagogy  article, there are various training courses that teachers can take to work to incorporate digital pedagogy in the classroom. These can be found Khan Academy, Udaci...
Read more

Digital Age Education

1. What diverse learners are there in today's classroom? In today's class, we see a spectrum of different learners. We as teachers need to adapt and plan accordingly to the types of students that we have. We will get all different kinds of students who come into our classrooms. These students may have all kinds of disabilities with different kinds of skills. We as teachers need to address these issues and personalize our learning so they can be successful in the classroom. 2. What does brain research provide to adjust their teaching in the digital age? Brain research tells us that the way students learn is almost like a fingerprint, no student learns the same way as the other. If this is the case, then teachers need to access all the different parts of the brain that make it possible for the students to learn. 3. What is UDL? How do its principle's help teachers improve planning and teaching in the technologically advanced classroom? Universal Design for Learning is ...
Read more