Summary Of The Shame Of American Education

“U.S students lag behind international peers; in tests of reading, math and science, U.S 15-year-olds were outperformed by many of their counterparts in Asia and Europe-- in some cases placing below the international average” (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Let’s face it. The American education system is broken; the effects that it will bring will wreck the future of millions and strip away the ideologies that define the American spirit. One may wonder, how is that possible? Isn’t the pursuit of knowledge one of the components that propel culture and advancement in the first place? That is true, to a certain extent. While knowledge is key to growth within America (or rather, any country), the education system’s approach

Teachers often get a classroom of about 20-30 students; this hinders the teacher from individually assisting students in an efficient manner. Some students could be completely lost due to misunderstandings or nebulous, half-formed concepts of preceding ideas and teachings, while others could be well ahead with their studies, thinking nothing of this ‘new’ topic. In “The Shame of American Education” by Burrhus Frederic Skinner, creator of B. F. Skinner Foundations, a distinguished American psychologist, behaviorist and esteemed social philosopher, he states that schooling procedures should “stop making all students advance at essentially the same rate,” since “those who could move faster are held back, and those who need more time fall farther and farther behind.” He also suggests a possible solution in which the system “could double the efficiency of education with one change alone-- by letting each student move at his or her own pace” and using “individual instruments for part of school curriculum”. Having students ‘learn’ at the same rate would not improve their knowledge but reversed effects instead. The pupil:teacher ratio is excessively imbalanced. Teachers have too many students to work with, therefore they are unable to pace themselves and fully aid a student’s needs. If teachers applied themselves and adjusted a plan for each individual student, according to their weakness/strengths, there would be a drastic improvement in learning. As Carl Rogers, an American psychologist, inspired by Skinner, also known as the renowned father of client-centered therapy, once said “The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases” implying that every individual is different with their assets and deficiencies-- having all the students learn at the same rate would not benefit all but instead creates division within the student body between those who