The effectiveness of American education has always taken a lot of heat, especially in comparison to other, mainly European, countries. So what is the rest of the world doing that we’re not? And should we pick up some of these methods?
Overcomplicating the Problem
When looking at America versus the rest of the world, the most striking difference is our lackluster proficiency in math when compared to other countries. It’s true that it’s improving by some measures, but it’s still middling when compared worldwide.
Neil Aggrawal, a lawyer and ex-middle school math teacher, argues that America’s desire for complexity snuffs out the simplicity that can exist within a math classroom. He also discusses the “drilling technique” that is prevalent in so many math classrooms throughout the states. Drills may work for basketball and football practice, helping tone muscles and recognize patterns, but Aggrawal argues that it isn’t efficient in the classroom when it comes to math.
What We Talk About When We Talk About What We Don’t Want to Talk About
Sex. That’s right, Americans pale in comparison to others when it comes to sex. Well, at least talking about sex to our kids. Many American schools (as well as American culture in general) teaches an abstinence-only style of sex education. Because telling your children not to do something will definitely make them not want to do it, right?
According to Time, the Netherlands are doing sex education right. Talking to students and adolescents about sex and allowing them to express themselves has led to the Netherlands’ teenage pregnancy rate dropping eight times lower than that of the United States.
Can Money Fix Everything?
How much is the average student worth spending on? Well, according to the United States, around $12,731. The United States actually is ranked fifth (behind Austria, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland) in spending per student. Finland, a country that is often looked to as the poster child for education, spends close to the amount that the United States does, at $12,545 per student. The average spending per student worldwide is $9,377
So should we start spending more to get better? Well, no. Austria spends $13,607 per student and is ranked 26th in the world, whereas the United States is ranked 14th.
Our Take
Yes, the United States can do better when it comes to education. Do we need to be number one? Maybe not, but we should certainly try to be.
Looking to other countries and totally mimicking them will not get us to where we want (or need) to be. Why? The culture is different there. Finland and America and Austria and the Netherlands are all different countries with their different ways of doing things. There isn’t a single answer that will definitively make one of them the best on Earth.
It’s important that the United States builds its system from the students up, instead of the top down. Students can teach us a lot about how they learn, it’s important that the United States takes the actual learning processes into consideration when determining how to “fix” their schools. After all, isn’t that what’s the most important?
