How so?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

More because EVERYBODY is held to a lower standard instead of letting the more capable students choose their own course

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Depends on where you go. Small/poor towns aren't going to have a lot of opportunities. Big or successful schools have a whole variety of options for smarter or dumber kids to choose. Even if you don't, if you work hard you can still rise to a higher standard for college.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Teachers nowadays teach for standardized tests. This isn't a good way to measure knowledge because there is a finite measure of how well somebody did and also different people are smarter with different fields. Testing everyone over the same things is a bad way to educate

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Not so much in high school if you take faster paced courses. Calculus or physics aren't on high school standardized tests but the teachers still teach it.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

And those are someways in which our system still functions, but the heart of our educational system has been replaced by politicians

by Anonymous 11 years ago

???? What's with the melodrama? Once you reach high school, the smart people rise ahead and can, thanks to the education system, go to great colleges. No one's inhibiting any potential.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

You're just wrong. For example, in my AP Preparatory English class, I have one of the best teachers I've ever had. The problem is our class is forced by the BOE to follow the structure of another teacher teaching the same class. Time after time, we can't get through a lesson or discuss a novel thoroughly because the other class goes faster and less in-depth. I feel like this is screwing over my education and doesn't let me learn the way I would do best. And since the other teacher also makes the tests, we have to base lessons off of what his class needs and not our own. This is an exact microcosm of what is happening with the overall educational system in America. Politicians decide the class structure, material, tests, etc without molding to specific individuals' needs

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Your school is fucked up. Go complain to the board about it. In my school AP classes teach to the exam, but the collegeboard isn't a government organization. I'll guarantee you such a thing doesn't happen in my school, but I do go to a good school. Go do something about it because that shouldn't be legal. Then again, though, once you get to AP you shouldn't have the same problem. I guess if you go to a crap school , things like that happen.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

There's also no logic there...why would it be called a pre-ap if it's the same exact class as a regular class? Your BOE is run by wackos.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

You don't understand. It's one AP class, but taught by different teachers, not a regular class. And if you don't experience the same problem, your school doesn't experience the same rules and regulations that the majority do because this is the problem with our educational system all over America.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I know it's not the same class, but didn't you say every class has to have an identical curriculum? I've never experienced or heard of anything like this. I'd like to see some evidence that your school is the norm. Why not back up the claim that majority of schools is like yours since you toss that word around so casually. Why would you call a class "pre-AP" if a class without the title is being taught the same things...I feel like either you're trolling me or your school's just extraordinarily horrible. Do AP classes have the same curriculum as regular classes? Also, are you in middle school? Because that might affect things.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Winnie I agree with that. Schools worry so much about the low brains the bright ones are pushed back. We should try to have excellent students not happy students. They don't need a prize for just doing the least possible.

by Anonymous 7 years ago

I'd say that this would depend on where you went to school. Growing up in a town that has a competitive school district and a reputation as "national blue ribbon school of excellence" would be a lot different from growing up in a town where the education program isn't valued or given enough funding, or where the introduction of charter schools is setting the stage for a neglect of public schools.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Maybe it's because students just don't care anymore. As a high school student, I see many of my peers brush off tests saying they didn't bother to study because they won't need it in the future. It was ranked a blue ribbon school, but when the students were told this, they laughed because 'no one cares about learning' and they 'only come to school for friends and because they have to'.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

or maybe because the u.s is required to educate every child and test every child. other countries may educate whoever they want and therefore their test scores will be higher. also in poorer countries such as china, most kids have to stay home and help bring money in while the rich kids get to go to school. not everyone gets an education. if we were to pick certain people to be tested, we would rank much higher.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

All very true. The problem there is that doesn't give an accurate representation of the entire country's educational system

by Anonymous 11 years ago

thats true. i guess we will never really know the unbiased statistics because so many things stand in the way. it just bothers me when people make the asumption that America is stupid when it comes to academics, when in reality, no one really knows where we would actually rank.

by Anonymous 11 years ago