I posted one little thing that was misunderstood, and now that's all you are talking about on the thread.

Then there's our huge frickin' military that the Europeans are always complaining about, which has some of the best training in the world. I'm in the process of signing on for nuclear power in the Navy - damn good training.

You are correct. The Japanese in particular were sending groups of educators and still do, to the United States to figure out how we were able to solve problems. Our students were way ahead in creative thinking and problem solving. The Japanese in the last 10-15 years have been reforming their education system to implement more of the US model that requires creative thinking.

NCLB makes that difficult. It is not impossible but with the emphasis on core academics and how that takes away from other areas, it is really tough. How many art majors have we discouraged and dropped out of school because they are not up to snuff mathematically but possess some of the most creative minds? Now, they struggle to get into college because of the narrow scope of NCLB.

Again, a funding issue. Most superintendents are mindful of the benefits of teaching foreign languages beginning at the elementary level but there are other things that priority.

dont Americans want t o educate there own students first instead t o
build universite for Asian students t o be smarter?

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They don't have special Asian universities if that's what you mean. Yes they do, but you can't stop one from learning.

You hit upon an important issue under education. Misunderstood or not, that's a good thing. It's important that we don't shove people into little boxes for acceptable behaviors or lifestyles any more than the wider cultures already do. That's why making any kind of blanket statement on any group can be detrimental.

Well, first understand that there is no real centralized authority operating the university systems in America. The private universities do whatever won't piss off those who contributed to their endowment or the parents of students, and the state universities answer to the states, not the federal government. The primary goal of any university in America, public or private, is to look better than the next university. One way to do this is to accept the best students who are willing to attend your university, regardless of where they come from. Of course, they still need to accept a certain number of in-state students in most cases.

Yes, I pretty much agree. I usually have a knee jerk negative reaction to control freaks. My observations have lead me to conclude that the most important thing is parental involvement in their children's education, and if you are, you will be talking to the teachers and looking for other opportunities to add towards their education. Ahh, but then we get those kids with fucked up parents, etc., and I think it pays to to have special programs to help them. Money spent on education, is money well spent. As a certified geezer, I have seen, first the superior California education system become second rate due to budget cuts, and now the superior Eugene, Oregon education system deteriorate due to republican inspired budget cuts. I want a better educated and more productive populace capable of paying for my medicare and social security. You don't get much for nothing- education should be #1 priority- it is our future. Take some more taxes out of my social security for education and stop spending it on searches for WMD's in Iraq and tax cuts for the rich

TeaSea,

While I tend to agree with you, this really isn't all that practical, at least given the current situation. There are not enough teachers as it is, raising standards now would decrease the already too low number. In the short-term, I believe we'd be better served by increasing overall funding for textbooks, school buildings, extracurriculars, etc. Increasing pay, as you call for, would also be highly beneficial as that would presumably increase the overall number of individuals pursuing teaching careers which would eventually (say, in a decade or so) allow us to raise standards/training requirements.

The problem now is underfunding, particularly in impovershed areas. In many places schools are funded largely by local property taxes, meaning that if you live in a rich area with high property taxes you'll end up going to a well-funded school but if you live in a poor area with low property taxes you'll go to a poorly funded school; party of the vicious cycle of poverty. In my opinion, the US would be much better served by nationalizing school funding; all schools should be funded entirely at the national level according to the number of students they have. Any legislation to this effect would, of course, need to be more sophisticated than that with allowances for differential funding under certain circumstances, but the general direction should be equal funding. Equal and better funding would go a long ways towards solving the problems of the US' primary and secondary education.

Svante,

We shouldn't discriminate when it comes to admitting students to American universities; furthermore, most American universities are private meaning they can accept whoever they want to ensure they have the best student body possible. Additionally, most college students in US universities are American, only a small portion are foreign. Finally, accepting some foreign students is a great thing; it enriches universities by allowing students from other cultures in. I studied international relations at a university and highly valued having foreign students to share their culture.

im currently in school in england,and chavs are a big problem ( if you dont know what a chav is dont know if you use the term in america, a chav is a person who drinks, smokes under age bothers people like emos and goths and normal people, vandlises and all that jass) these chavs interupt lessons and make it impossible for others to learn but the teachers can not do much to stop them, They get on my nevres grhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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