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Is the U.S. behind in the sciences?
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<blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 2038103" data-attributes="member: 99"><p>I think you're probably right about this and I think it is because we've saddled ourselves with a "one size fits all" public education system.</p><p></p><p>Correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that many (if not most) European countries tended to try and start directing students toward a likely career path at a relatively early age (in the 12-14 range). Those who wanted (and were suited) to move into technical trades were directed into schools that would teach them those skills while those who wished to pursue "white collar" jobs were sent in another direction and those interested in the sciences were sent in yet another. The concentration of sciences and math in the lower grades were partially in there as a determinant for which students had a preference and aptitude for those fields.</p><p></p><p>Here in the US we have this concept of "no child left behind" that is intended to insure that they don't ignore kids who perform poorly in any subject. That's a laudable goal but I think it has had an effect of "dumbing down" our educational system and lowering the bar to see to it that fewer kids are "left behind" by virtue of making it easy to keep up with the work that is presented.</p><p></p><p>To use a metaphor, if you've got a group of people who are running from point A to point B and one of their goals is to make sure that nobody is left behind then they must do one of two things. They either assign an individual to help drag along each other individual who starts to lag or they have the whole group move slower so that fewer can be defined as "falling behind". To extend the metaphor to Europe (and again, this understanding was from years ago when I took French and our teacher was telling us about the educational systems of Europe) they seem to have adopted the attitude of, "Not everybody can get from A to B at the same speed. In fact, not everybody can get to B at all. That's no reason to slow the others down in their progress."</p><p></p><p>I'll not comment further on the political attitudes this has spawned in me regarding public schools in the US. But suffice it to say that I think the current system is deeply flawed.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rel, post: 2038103, member: 99"] I think you're probably right about this and I think it is because we've saddled ourselves with a "one size fits all" public education system. Correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that many (if not most) European countries tended to try and start directing students toward a likely career path at a relatively early age (in the 12-14 range). Those who wanted (and were suited) to move into technical trades were directed into schools that would teach them those skills while those who wished to pursue "white collar" jobs were sent in another direction and those interested in the sciences were sent in yet another. The concentration of sciences and math in the lower grades were partially in there as a determinant for which students had a preference and aptitude for those fields. Here in the US we have this concept of "no child left behind" that is intended to insure that they don't ignore kids who perform poorly in any subject. That's a laudable goal but I think it has had an effect of "dumbing down" our educational system and lowering the bar to see to it that fewer kids are "left behind" by virtue of making it easy to keep up with the work that is presented. To use a metaphor, if you've got a group of people who are running from point A to point B and one of their goals is to make sure that nobody is left behind then they must do one of two things. They either assign an individual to help drag along each other individual who starts to lag or they have the whole group move slower so that fewer can be defined as "falling behind". To extend the metaphor to Europe (and again, this understanding was from years ago when I took French and our teacher was telling us about the educational systems of Europe) they seem to have adopted the attitude of, "Not everybody can get from A to B at the same speed. In fact, not everybody can get to B at all. That's no reason to slow the others down in their progress." I'll not comment further on the political attitudes this has spawned in me regarding public schools in the US. But suffice it to say that I think the current system is deeply flawed. [/QUOTE]
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