Did you know?

[California Girl]

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[lprof]

I don't know......... didn't know either.

Cool to contemplate.

[Terry]

Very interesting. However, very sad about the education in the U.S.

[California Girl]

Very interesting. However, very sad about the education in the U.S.

That's the same thing Rick said!

[pipanale]

It's an older video. I think it may have come from TED originally. In any case, I'd like to see it updated and see what the statistics look like.

If you ask me, the key to education is teaching people to think. You can learn a skill quickly if you know how to think.

Signed,

36 year old male who's on job #12 since 1996 and does a job that didn't exist 5 years ago.

[linne]

A very thought-provoking video. What I among other things noticed was the difference between the number of children borned in USA and children borned in India and China.
The world will change!

Linne

[Terry]

Education in the US has got to change. There, I said it. Charter schools are not the answer all the time. Some do set a good example, but they're a drain on the public education government dollars. I'm not an expert, and don't pretend to be. However, we have given our teachers the unbelievable means to never get fired for underpreformance. It's called tenure and the union. If we don't get rid of this ridiculous scheme, we will kill our education system.

If you are not a good teacher and you do not go to work then you should be fired.

I work the dark side of education. Wednesday of this week I had over 257 teachers off duty. Well over 100 of them were off for some sort of professional development reason. This means that they were sent to a class to teach them to be better teachers. However, in their absence, a sub was there to teach the students. The teacher leaves their job to learn to be a better teacher when in fact their students learn nothing that day.

And that is not to say that we don't have good sub teachers, it's just not the same learning.

When are we going to get it and demand the best education that we should offer our children? We're reaching a really close to bottom level very soon and it will be embarrassing. Let the good teachers rise and get rid of the bottom feeders.

[spindrift]

That is why parents in our area send their children to competitive private schools, even if the cost for tuition can reach up to $40,000 a year. It is viewed as necessary to give them a heads-up for ivy league education.

[Terry]

Spindrift,
I don't blame you and if I were a parent today, I would do the same thing. I'm guessing you're from the East Coast?

Demographics play a big role in the US also.

[Terry]

Margo,
Sorry I may have stired up a bee hive. This is my passion, education. If it gets too political, I'll ask to have it shut down. But for now, I wouldn't mind hearing opinions....and I don't mean to hijack your thread, friend.

[California Girl]

I have a friend who got her California teachers credential and taught in elementary school for a few years. When she started having a family, she home schooled all 5 of her children. They are amazing kids, incredibly smart and socially well-adjusted. The youngest just graduated from high school.

[pipanale]

That is why parents in our area send their children to competitive private schools, even if the cost for tuition can reach up to $40,000 a year. It is viewed as necessary to give them a heads-up for ivy league education.

It's funny you say it that way. What's the value in an Ivy League education anyway? A Liberal Arts (to name a major) major from Harvard and one from a state school are equally screwed these days if they can't think or learn a skill. All the Ivy League does is start you out with a $250,000 nut staring you in the eye.

(So says the guy who went to a state school , married a woman who went to a state school and moved to a state with one of the best state school systems in the country)

Our daughters are going to learn math and become good at it. Math = the ability to think and that's what will hopefully give them a leg up when they get out of school. A coworker of mine told me I'd make a good Indian (she's Indian) because of how we're trying to prepare our kids.

Let's hope we're right.

As for teachers and tenure...don't get me started. I could share emails from a family member who's a tenured teacher and can't form a complete sentence and admits to not understanding what she teaches...to 3rd graders.

[Terry]

Is is better to have an Ivy league school education for an undergraduate degree if you plan on pursuing a medical or law background? Or does it really matter more that you graduated from the top of your class with your undegrad degree from a state school?

[loria]

Is is better to have an Ivy league school education for an undergraduate degree if you plan on pursuing a medical or law background? Or does it really matter more that you graduated from the top of your class with your undegrad degree from a state school?

intersting question, but i am nto sure it's the right one--i think that given you graduate at the top of columbia versus the top of , say SUNY (and I think SUNY is terrific--so don't get all crazy on me) that a graduate school might look more closely at the ivy school--however, it really also has to include the scores on MCATS or LSATS or GRE's
but certainly, the old boy network has worked wonders for some--