What happened to our educational system?

[frederick]

This for us American's, but all are welcome...

My daughter is in the 4th grade, and she left her American history book at home. The book starts in the 1950's, post Korean War. It makes no mention of any war, to include our independence before this, to include the Korean War. It's all about the great economy and industry and of America for the next several chapters. When it gets to the 60's and 70's, no mention of the Vietnam War, or even the equal rights movement. It talks about Martin Luther King, Jr., and his ideology of equal rights and what not, but not the back story, or why he was even doing it. It was like blacks were treated equally from the beginning. There is no mention during these time periods of the 1950's to 1980's of the Cold War. It talks about the space race, and that's it. When it gets to computers, it talks of Steve Job's being the inventor of the first Apple Computer, and basically the inventor of all computers, and how Apple is so great. It speaks of Windows in the opposite tone, and how it lead to uncertain economic times, and is mentioned heavily as being part of the 2008 economic crisis.

So I continue going through this book, and get to the part of where these two towers should be and how it all happened and the start of the war on terrorism. Apparently, the destruction of the Trade Center Towers was an unfortunate accident, and makes no mention of terrorism or anything, other than "There is much controversy over the accidental destruction of the World Trade Centers." It ends there. NOTHING!!! So it side steps the first part of the WoT in Afghanistan, and goes straight to 2003 with the invasion of Iraq, and how it was a political war, but not part of the WoT. Any kind of further shock this book could present is gone at this point. For the next 4 chapters, it goes on about how the War in Iraq was a poltical war, designed to remove an extremist government, of course some parts on oil, and how the war brought democracy to Iraq and the country is living the life of peace and freedom and AWESOMENESS!!!

We get to the 2008, and economic crisis...what caused the economic crisis? Banks? no. Poor lending standards? no. I'll take RESIDENTIAL FOR $200? no. Windows computers, Tobacco and Alcohol, illegal drugs, and the war in Iraq.
Windows Computers = unstable, unpredictable computers costed businesses billions in revenue to maintain them because windows used dirty marketing tactics to bully Apple computers in to a hole and pushed their crappy computers on to everyone.
Tobacco and Alcohol = because dying livers and lung cancers consume the federal government's resources
Illegal Drugs = because they make people less productive (agreeable) and not have jobs (not true...completely)
War in Iraq = because more people died in Iraq than any other war...wait...what? no seriously, WTF OVER? this book makes no mention of any war before this? And compared to other wars the US has been, Iraq wasn't that bad.

so what did I learn? The PC System has seriously consumed the schools. Its so PC it makes me vomit blood...that, or everything I learned as far as American history has been a complete lie...

 

[SAG]

When/where I went to school we learned that ML King Jr was a communist, America freed France in WWII, and to never trust the treasury department.

... at least one of those 3 things still holds.

My oldest just started 3rd grade. I can't wait to start looking at his stuff.

 

[angry_geek]

What book is this? I've gotta see this stuff.

 

[Richard P]

There is a reason that more and more people are homeschooling or sending their kids to private schools.

The public education system in this country is bad and getting worse every year.

 

[Xander]

What happened to our educational system?
This for us American's....

My brain hiccupped right there.

 

[altrenda]

Please post the name, author, and publisher of this "textbook".

 

[coffee]

Couple that with the recent Michigan State teacher that was talking about his weird political view in his writing class.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130905/NEWS06/309050139/MSU-Republican-professor


Iam very interested in this thread and will be watching it closely.

 

[GEGeek]

We get to the 2008, and economic crisis...what caused the economic crisis? Banks? no. Poor lending standards? no. I'll take RESIDENTIAL FOR $200? no

Good one, laughed out loud with that.
Don't even get me started on America's ranking in education throughout the world. Bottom line, people throughout the world look at us and figure you don't have to be smart, just rich.
Glad my boys are out of school and doing well.
Someone else mentioned it here. Private/Home school. Only way to be sure.

 

[frederick]

When she comes back from her grandma's I'll try and snag the book back to give you the info.

When I went to school, the American Revolution, American Civil War, WW2-Korea, Cold War and Vietnam, and the Equal Rights Movements weren't just taught, but seen as the biggest things that shaped this country.

She got in trouble today, cause in class they were learning about how Steve Jobs invented the computer, and how she protested that Steve Jobs did not invent the computer and that the first computer was invented in the 1940's, while not entirely correct, a lot closer than what they were teaching her. I went to her school, talked to the teacher and the principal, and couldn't help but laugh at them. They themselves think Steve Jobs invented the first computer. So my wife got called in, because I couldn't maintain my composure of having to tell them they needed to go back to school.

It's ridiculous what they are teaching our kids today. I'd be happier if they taught my kids that Communists are heathens (cause it's true...sorry, thats the soldier in me), and that we to invade Britain for reparations for the way they treated during the colonial times to the war of 1812...and the fact they owe us for two world wars. Not ignorance is bliss.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Have u met the average kid and the average parent of today?

I'd be ok if they removed history all together and replaced it with some sort of supplemental parenting time where they review things parents should have taught their kids...behavior...responsibility...etc

These kids are going to snap when they get older

 

['putertutor]

My brain hiccupped right there.

Haha. Yes, when you are proclaiming the downhill spiral of our education system, you probably ought to get your possessive and plural tenses worked out ahead of time.

I'd really like the op to post the title, publisher, and ISBN of the text book. My first reaction, though, is that this is probably a one-off issue. Microsoft being partly to blame for the economic crisis?? Definitely.

 

['putertutor]

There is a reason that more and more people are homeschooling or sending their kids to private schools.

The public education system in this country is bad and getting worse every year.

Actually, private school enrollment has been decreasing since 2000 and is projected to keep doing so in the near future. Home schooled students did increase, but not outside the range of increased school enrollment numbers in general. This is probably because of the economy, but the statement is still not true.

Our school system is hurting for sure. No Child Left Behind has created a horrible environment where schools are almost required to teach to the test and receive little funding for anything that resembles real teaching.

Textbooks in general, are provided by just a few large companies. These companies tend to tailor their materials towards the desires of Texas, California, and New York as they have highest populations and are the publishers largest customers. The other states? They generally have little to no say in the quality or content of the textbooks they are buying.

We need to take a serious look at how we fund education in this country. On average the US government spends about 2% of the budget on education. Compared to about 20% on defense. Seems a bit lopsided to me. Maybe if we were just a bit more selective about the areas we spent our defense dollars in, we could afford to put a little more into education. With numbers as small as 2%, it wouldn't take much to have a major impact.

 

[Richard P]

Actually, private school enrollment has been decreasing since 2000 and is projected to keep doing so in the near future. Home schooled students did increase, but not outside the range of increased school enrollment numbers in general. This is probably because of the economy, but the statement is still not true.

Our school system is hurting for sure. No Child Left Behind has created a horrible environment where schools are almost required to teach to the test and receive little funding for anything that resembles real teaching.

Textbooks in general, are provided by just a few large companies. These companies tend to tailor their materials towards the desires of Texas, California, and New York as they have highest populations and are the publishers largest customers. The other states? They generally have little to no say in the quality or content of the textbooks they are buying.

We need to take a serious look at how we fund education in this country. On average the US government spends about 2% of the budget on education. Compared to about 20% on defense. Seems a bit lopsided to me. Maybe if we were just a bit more selective about the areas we spent our defense dollars in, we could afford to put a little more into education. With numbers as small as 2%, it wouldn't take much to have a major impact.

Well if you look at the numbers on your private school chart just about all of them are estimated so not sure how accurate it is but not really going to argue about the private school numbers as honestly that part of my statement was added on as more of an afterthought.

However the home school numbers are another thing altogether. Just a quick search shows that yes home school numbers have increased quite a bit more than total attendance. According to the chart you sent me total attendance from 2000-2010 went up 4.6% and the same site (link below) says that from 1999-2007 homes school attendance went up 74%.

http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=91

Now while the time periods are not exactly the same they mostly overlap and if anything homeschooling has accelerated the last 5 years since 2007.

N.C. gives a nice set of tables for the number of children home schooled and from 2000-2010 the number of children home schooled went up 160%.

http://www.ncdnpe.org/homeschool2.aspx

Everything I have read about the subject says that home schooling is increasing much fast than public school attendance so not sure where you get the idea it is increasing just to match the total enrollment numbers as I can not find any number that comes even close to saying that.

I can not argue that spending money on education is better than spending it on bombs and going around killing people however money is not really the problem. We spend a lot of money on education, taking inflation into account we spend about four times more per student in 2010 than we did back in 1960 so while yes education should be a higher priority than killing people around the world lack of spending is not the root cause of our education problems.

http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66


According to the following link we rank fourth in the world (as of 2007) in what we pay to educate each child and our world ranking in math and science education just keeps falling compared to other countries (looks like we are current ranked 17th) so it is not really the total amount we spend on education that is the problem.

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-e...red-to-the-rest-of-the-developed-world-2012-1

 

[glricht]

... I went to her school, talked to the teacher and the principal, and couldn't help but laugh at them. They themselves think Steve Jobs invented the first computer. ...

Is this an accredited school? If it is, complain to the accrediting association and copy the world. Also, get the exact name of the "history book" and include it in the complaint.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

It's ridiculous what they are teaching our kids today.

Ugh...don't even get me started. Our daughter tells us something she learned in class today, often asking us the question where she'll then tell us the answer of what she learned. So she'll ask the question...I'll give the answer...and she'll say "no..Mrs <teachers name> told us ...<insert what teacher taught the class>. I often just plant my face in my hands and shake my head at the nonsense and the whole "PC thing" they're doing with todays kids.

Not to mention the whole way they're shaping kids personalities. "Eliminate competition" they now teach. All that does is make for lazy complacent kids!

 

[tankman1989]

This is a 4th grade book and I don't remember if there was much mention of a lot of the more trauma causing wars being brought up when we were that young. Now if this was a 9th-10th grade world history book I would have serious questions.

It does seem that there is some serious bias in the book especially involving technology and the computer.

 

[frederick]

Its an accredited school. They preach the sciences and have little to do with arts and music. Its all about math and science at her school. Everything else is secondary, to include.reading and writing. Everyday they have computer class, and math competitions.
I'm gonna see if I can't her in to her old school, at least there they teach them things like music, art, reading and the likes. Her last school was a good balance.

 

['putertutor]

@richardp
I can't say that money is the entire issue either, but it is a big part of the problem. And what I'm about to share is true for my local district and much of my state. Your mileage may vary, but I'm betting not much.

For every student we enroll in the local district, the school receives about $6,500. That number is based on a pretty complex formula, and although there are other funds involved, most of them are only allowed to be spent on non-education related expenses (maintenance, transportation, etc). In a small district, this amount can be difficult to work with. It takes about 5 students to pay for a single teacher, on average, and that only covers that single teacher's salary. Our small school has about 15 teachers, 8 or so administrators, and a handful of other support positions (special ed, office staff, administrators, and the district superintendent - though his salary dips into k-12 budget not just the high school). At an average salary of about 40,000 (a low estimate) we are spending at least $1 million annually, just for payroll. $1.1 million is probably closer to the truth. With 168 students in high school we get 1.092 million in funds and we haven't even touched books, teaching supplies, computers and software, utilities, or administrative costs.

In larger, wealthier districts, (such as the one where my brother in law teaches, in San Diego) money flows more readily, but they also have many more costs that a small district might not have. Even in a larger district like that, they are sharing textbooks which means many students don't get to take books home.

Beyond money, though, the larger concern is Bush's No Child Left Behind. If you ask any teacher or administrator, they will tell you it has handcuffed them and reduced actual teaching more than any other influence or challenge. There are almost no incentives, many punishments, and far too restrictive definitions of what a successful school is.

I don't have all the answers, I probably don't have any, but I think adding a little more money (it takes money to get back to zero at this point) and a deep and meaningful change to No Child Left Behind (read: elimination).

 

[Paul Rodgers]

Just wait until schools start teaching stuff like this:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=af07

- Note this page is SFW but the others may not be

 

[frederick]

Just wait until schools start teaching stuff like this:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=af07

- Note this page is SFW but the others may not be

Totally legit yo!