Prologue:
Here his my disclaimer and I am sticking with it. However unprofessional it may sound, this blog has kicked my butt. It has knocked me to the canvas on more than one occasion and I had thought about scrapping it on several. Please allow me to explain. What I was hoping to get across within this blog post is the fact that public education in America is vastly different than other places in the world. What I did not contend with was that I did not have a massive amount of knowledge in the inner workings of public education from different countries. The more I dug into the research, the more rabbit trails I hit until writers block and fatigue began to take its toll. This blog was scheduled to come out two weeks ago but alas here we are at a later venture with the hope I can get it cleaned up today and posted by this evening. That being said, I will attempt to put the information together that makes sense out of what was originally in my brain when I started down this journey. Thank you for your grace. Here it goes!
Public education in our country has certainly taken a beating for several years. There are articles and news reports detailing failures, low test scores, and comparisons to students in other countries throughout the world. The list is lengthy and does go on seemingly for miles. As someone who believes in American Public Education, it has been challenging to politely attempt to educate those who feel we are in a dismal time. I am a realist who has lived inside the system as well so I will admit there are some items that do need to change. There is no nirvana anywhere in the world however and each system has its own plusses as well as minuses. The pandemic has not been kind to any educator's situation as well. I have seen people working much harder than they were before Covid reared its ugly head. Now teachers are attempting to catch students up to standards they may have missed during these last few years. The bottom line from my perspective is that public education in the U.S. is a system that operates on the premise that any and all students are taught. Who ever walks through the doors of the school are welcome and taught. This is not always the case in other places throughout the world.
There is also a dire side for some places in the world. Statistically, around 90 percent of the worlds population has a primary education but only 66 percent have attained secondary education. That still equates to millions of children and teens who are not receiving adequate schooling. This, of course is an extremely complicated issue that does require vast amounts of work in order to level any of the playing fields. I am a huge proponent for educating until a typical graduation age yet also have a realistic opinion if your family is in need of money for food, the older children of the family help provide for everyone at home. Hence, I will not judge others who are dealing with major amounts of poverty and truly need to survive from day to day.
The bottom line from my research is that comparing American public education to that from other countries is comparing apples to oranges. Our systems are so different, it is challenging to take a stand on which system is best. Perhaps one is not necessarily better than another, just different. One item about our system I feel is very just is the fact that all students are allowed to participate. Each student participates in daily work and routines, which includes assessments. The fact is students who has recently arrived in America with little to no English skills will still need to take state assessments. Students with disabilities' state test scores will also be included in whole of the school's state testing. If I do take a step back however, I will concede in my mind that test scores are not the end all be all to me. The fact that students are allowed a free appropriate public education is what matters in my mind. After all, don't we want our future adults educated to be able to function as successful adults? I would say "yes" to that notion. Many countries offer primary and intermediate school for kids but allow students to opt out of school after the age of 14. This is where a portion of the population will either stay in school, go to a trade school/internship or begin to work.
I hope this blog leaves you with a bit of thought about our system in America. Although we do have different challenges, I feel the majority of teachers are working hard for students and do want the best for their kids. I would contend that teachers from other countries are working just as hard for their students. My hope is that each of us can take some of the good practices from different systems and employ them into the collective public education systems throughout the world. Perhaps that would help us out globally.
In conclusion, I am not an expert in how the majority of countries educate their students or as to how long their requirements are before students can leave school. It is an interesting research however and quite the challenge I must say.
Until next time- have a great week,
Jon - Navigating Solutions
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