Education Vs American Education System

Education plays an important role in any society, and evidently, it determines the type of success that future generations will have. The education that the future leaders of the world receive will dictate how strong of an economy a country will have and the strength of its political systems. In recent years, the US has been dropping in the world rankings when it comes to education. The majority of internationals outscored the United States and they are continually showing how advanced their school systems have become, compared to the United States. Overall, the United States placed 17th in the world for education, 25th in math, 17th in science, and 14th in reading on the Program for International Student Assessment, otherwise known as the

Lately the government has been making the school systems’ priorities about other things rather than diverting all of their focus on the good of the students. Denise Gelberg, a former teacher, shared her experience of how the education department even considered choosing in between her ultimate goal of educating her students or just focusing on the organization’s functionality (Gelberg). The government does not necessarily need to allocate more funds towards schools in order to better results, but they need to change the way that their system works. There are school systems that do not make their educational plans for their students in a coherent matter. The curriculum for grade school, middle school, and high school do not always line up, so occasionally there are holes in some students’ educations. Without these types of systems, there is not really any room for improvement for the students (Zhao). School administrations need to think more about how they can make sure that the curriculum will benefit the students in the long run. Education leaders need to realize the gravity of influence that their actions have on their students. This not only can start off by making sure that they understand how each of their decisions affects all of the parties involved, whether it is the teachers, the students, or the parents of the

Scholars would identify this incredibly important type of knowledge that every teacher should have as “pedagogical content knowledge,” where the teachers know the common misconceptions students may have on the content and the teachers know how to address those misunderstandings (Mehta). In some cases, in the United States, teachers are properly prepared with the knowledge of actual content that they will be teaching their kids, but they are not always necessarily taught how to effectively relay that information to the students. A report found that the majority of U.S. teachers were typically ranked lower in their college classes, especially teachers teaching in poor neighborhoods. Whereas in Finland, the occupation of a teacher is put at such high standards that the teaching programs are incredibly competitive, accepting one in ten applicants (Mehta). The administration not only needs to have some sense of moral sensitivity when it comes to addressing the topic of a student’s education, but also when approaching how to treat a teacher. Evidently, the attitude of a teacher reflects upon the success that a student has in that class. So, teachers need to be treated with a certain level with respect, especially since the