President Obama said many things during his State of the Union Address. He spoke about several topics including the economy, health care, taxes, and education. The part of his speech that hit home the most was the latter. There is a specific quote that I feel conflicted on.
During his talk on education, President Obama says numerous times that the United States drop out rate in college and in high school is the highest its ever been and the worst out of all the industrialized countries and that we need to do something to fix it. Obama proposes that everyone should get their high school diploma, saying, "And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It's not just quitting on yourself, it's quitting on your country - and this country needs and values the talents of every American." I do agree with this to a certain extent. I was very close to dropping out of high school and going for a GED and a job. The only thing that stopped me was my age. Some people are more cut out for high school and the usual social things that come with it. Others don't want to waste time and just already get a GED so they can get a job and go to college or trade school that fits with what they want to do. Two of my friends, one of whom got his GED when he was 16 is already at a trade school to get started on his career, have already done this or started. A lot of other kids aren't motivated enough to get their high school diploma and go to college and don't realize that the benefits it will have. They don't see a goal of getting them and
I think that a lot of the focus should be to help students determine what they want to do before they start high school. though still allowing them to have the freedom to change their minds, and then have different levels of high schools dedicated to what people want to do. This is much like Germany's education system, which goes from teaching kids in elementary school similar to the United states and then from there three different branches: Hauptschule (grades 5-9), Realschule (grades 5-10), and Gymnasium (grades 5-13)*. Hauptschule teaches the same things as the other two, but it does it in a much slower time line, with classes dedicated to specific careers. Once they finish, they enroll part time in vocational school with training until they're 18. In Realschule, there's more vocational options and if the student changes their mind about what they want to do, they can go on to the Gymnasium, which is the higher level. Gymnasium gets students ready for college and universitys and the most common subjects are language, sciences, and math. Teachers in elementary recommend where the student should go based on how the perform academically, confidence, and how well they work alone.*
It's a nice idea of having every child graduate high school and college, but with our current education system and unless we somehow motivate them when they're younger, I can't see the United States having the highest percentage of college graduates by 2020. No one in my immediate family, including my father, mother, brothers, sisters, and 80 year old grandparents have every attented college. My maternal grandmother barely graduated, my grandfather and other grandmother didn't graduate and neither did my mom and dad. Only my siblings, aunt and stepfather have graduated. I think that Obama has a very good thought about what needs to happen in education, but how are we supposed to go to college when our parents didn't?
*http://www.howtogermany.com/pages/germanschools.html
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I like the way you structured your post. Where most people would simply disagree to an extent, you went into an alternative idea. Very realistic and relates well to a large amount of people. Well said. =]
ReplyDeleteI love the German education system. It works so well on so many levels. I was in an exchange program 2 years ago, and our school was partnered with a Gymasium. The way the school was set up was so different. They had a set schedule, but classes didn't usually start on time because the teachers usually got there late. And if you didn't want to go to class, no one forced you. It was so weird, but they were motivated to go to school, so there was no need for the strict enforcment that we have here. And it's so cool, because if as you'e going through school, you decide you don't want to go to University, you can just change over to a vocational school, or vice versa.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of people that say Germany's system doesn't work because they have high unemployment rates, but those people aren't looking at the whole picture. There's a lot of families where only one adult needs to work to support the family because they have a very good job.
If America had a system like that, we really wouldn't have a problem.
Oh, and I like how you proposed that as a possible solution. Very few people would have thought of that as a good reference point on how schools should work.
Great job ^_^