20/20: Stupid In America

[H0ley]

http://tv-links.co.uk/show.do/9/4803

The video is about the American Education system and its flaws. This topic kind of what l4m3r and I get in discussions about quite often. After watching this, I feel very lucky to have been enrolled in a middle college while in high school.

Feel free to comment.

First pop shot, Exhibit A: PETER

Oh yes, that came from someone who put his shirt in his fridge to cool himself down. I AM a GENIUS.

[PETER]

Mmmmm, shirt.

I don't think the education system is wrong, from my experience, it is the kids that fail the schools.
I am unfortunate enough to be in a high school (secondary school) where there is a lot of shouting, messing around, and just generally misbehaving, and then, in the end the teachers just start not to care, wouldn't you if you had a class of 25 kids messing around throwing paper plains, seeing what is on each other phones and not listing to you, in my french class, it has gotten so bad that most of the time the teacher just gives us fucking french crosswords, and it brings the students who are doing well, to the bottom of the class. I think it can also come down to what sort of area you live in. Also the pressure of exams (which there are so many now) can cause students to get stressed and tired, therefor effecting there performance in class in a negative way. So don't blame the teachers.

[Spazzy McGee]

...throwing paper plains, seeing what is on each other phones and not listing to you, in my french class, it has gotten so bad that most of the time the teacher just gives us fucking french crosswords, and it brings the students who are doing well, to the bottom of the class.

w00t! planes roxzorz!

[chillin]

I don't think the education system is wrong, from my experience, it is the kids that fail the schools.

Also the pressure of exams (which there are so many now) can cause students to get stressed and tired, therefor effecting there performance in class in a negative way.

No, kids will be kids, but it's the teachers' (and parents') jobs to control and teach them properly until they're able to do it themselves. Failure of one isn't just a result of one person's failure.

Exams are a necessity and everyone has to learn to deal with those and with being generally stressed/tired. School, when done properly, does not have to be easy. In fact, it shouldn't be, because jobs and life after the academic/childhood bubble will be worse - whatever experiences that occur before "the real world" should help kids prepare for it, not debilitate them.

Regardless, "there" (read: their) performance will not always be 100%, they will be tired and stressed [if they care to put in effort], and they should be - to a certain degree. Standards of learning and work ethic, especially before college, really suck over here for the majority (?) of students.

[PETER]

Perhaps the education system is different in America, I don't know, but over here (in England), kids can be real shits to teachers, imagine your in a class trying to teach, none of your students are listening to you, their playing around on their camera phones, not doing the set work, and some are drawing under the desks, and your not getting paid much to do it. I see students getting detentions all the time but it is always the same ones. From saying that, I guess you could put the blame on the parents.
As for exams, they should even it out a bit, if you have an exam over-lapping the other and you have to study for them both, then it will almost certainly effect their performance in a bad way, and if they do bad in the exam then it can effect what job they will be able to get, and in the long run, it could effect the rest of their life.

[chillin]

It's that way everywhere, and probably worse here...

What do you mean by an exam overlapping the other? Back-to-back? That happens. Sure, it's harder to do better with several at once, but we all have to deal with it. As said, that's life. Besides, bombing an exam or two isn't the end of the world (though it feels like it sometimes)...

[CannonBallGuy]

Exams exist. Deal with it.
I had 4 exams one day this year, 5 and a half hours. Nice.

I didn't give a shit since I got special compensation on the last two and two girls had over 6 hours - they had to sleep at a teacher's house that night.

[CannonBallGuy]

When I had 4 exams, they put breaks in between, during which I got no work done whatsoever. I was at college from 8:15 till 6:15. Fun!!

It's against the law to make a student sit more than 6 hours of exams in one day, and of course, they have to be supervised overnight...