Least Debatable

With presidential debates behind and discussions about who won them, there are still many unanswered questions. What about growing inequality, what about housing and education crisis? Which one of the candidates gave us answers to the possible solutions? Some of the media outlets have focused on this problem, like an article by Jake Miller "What they didn't say at the debates", which discusses the issues like housing and, particularly, education crisis. Even though avoided at the debates, for the average American, the growing crisis about those issues actually might be the most important ones.

Image source: cnn.com

The question that everyone seems to be struggling to answer is what could be done about it. As this article describes, Finland is currently leading as the nation with highest scores in education. However, if they have implemented ideas from the United States, why does the system seem to be failing here? Personally, I believe that one of the problems is certainly caused by the established individualism.

When I first moved to the United States, my dreams and hopes were focused on the education. I grew up under a different education system, the one that certainly didn't focus on individual tracks. As a student, you were placed in a classroom with other 20 or so people, staying with them through the next 10 or 12 years, going to the same classes and studying same subjects.

As socialist as it might sound, it also (as I've realized this now) taught us something. Not only you had to prove yourself (and your parents) that you can be a good student, but you had to stand for your classroom as a whole. If there were bad students who fell behind, your overall grade (average) of classroom dropped, compared to others. Also, even though there were some exemplary teachers, there were others, who would make sure you would not pass certain tests if they didn't like your attitude. Once again, as seen from examples in charter schools, competition is one of the driving forces. However, that competition in a socialist way was focused more on the whole group instead of an individual. Each student could learn how she or he would excel compared to the rest in the classroom.

The documentary that we have seen during class raised me a question: aside from funding, why would charter schools, without track system, seem to get higher overall scores than public schools? And why, after so many debates, the crisis still seems to be present without a definite solution to the problem.

The United States definitely have seen a decline in the education. Therefore, I would agree with Kumashiro that all schools could be better. But it would involve much more than teachers, parents or students themselves to get involved in order to fix the problem. In addition, I would hardly call this a "crisis," as American education is still valuable and desirable around the world. Being absent from the number one spot, does't necessarily constitute "crisis" yet. Maybe redirecting oneself from the individualistic approach would make a change. Maybe, but this would be only a fraction to the possible solutions of the problem.