The education system used in the US had not helped the American child. It has served to worsen the learner’s economic, social, behavioral and intellectual situation. The American education programs and policies have not been established to promote the development of skills that would enable the leaner to cope with the challenges on the society. For instance, the standardized testing system had always been blamed for lack of depth in the learning contents. The drawback of this testing system is that it assumes that learners have the same abilities and capacities. It does not recognize that people are enabled differently; some extremely gifted in mathematics, sports, athletics, acting. The toxic culture promoted by the education system gauges the success of the children based on their ability to excel in academics (TEDx, 2015).
The entire learning period is tested in only one seating. As a result, the result obtained does not reflect the true value of learning obtained by the students. The score is dependent on several factors such as the state of mind of the student and this could give a completely wrong outcome. The learners are bogged down with learning resources and lesions that do not have direct relationship with the realities in their living environment. This system fails to develop character and work ethics among the learners. It denies them the commitment of learning and working through to acquire knowledge and skills. The standardized testing system fails to recognize art, entrepreneurial skills, ethics, small business development, innovation and creativity. The US education system is formulated to prepare learners for the white color jobs with little regard for the highly skilled students who would do better in the blue color economy. The system is lacking in necessary knowledge in areas important to the economy such as financials, stocks and other economic factors that affect them directly or indirectly.
The discrimination in the American education system has condemned a section of the society to a life of poverty. The children in the poor neighborhoods are treated to an education that lacks basic learning facilities such as music classes and sports facilities. The government had not fully invested in the education of the black and colored children (TED talk, 2016). The segregation in the education system had served to sideline the black children who are mostly educated using the public education system. The public schools lack proper library facilities and resources. They lack proper teaching and learning materials, sports facilities, laboratory facilities and resources to teach science subjects.
The public schools are always lagging behind in syllabus and learning content as compared to those in the private schools. The black and brown children are subjected to standardized tests despite their lack of adequate preparations. This poor education system makes it difficult for the black child to obtain proper grades to proceed to college. Many of them are forced to drop out due to lack of motivation. Public education has been used as a too for discriminating against the black communities hence leading to increasing wage and income inequalities between them and the white counterparts.
The American education system has failed to inspire innovation among the learners. It has failed to use technology to leverage the minds of individual learners. The US has been sucking the best brains to build and sustain its system. This is because of lack of proper education system that would bring up learners to master science and technology and use it to drive the economy. As a result of poor education system, America lacks people with requisite scientific knowledge to initiate innovations and creativity (Cosmotology Today, 2016). The nation has failed to harness learners in science and technology.
- Cosmetology Today. (2016, Jan 18). Michio Kaku: US has the worst educational system known to science [Video file].
- TED talk. (2016, Nov 1). Kandice Sumner: How the America’s public schools keep children in poverty [Video file].
- TEDx. (2015, May 23). Toxic culture of education: Joshua Katz at TEDx University of Akron [Video file].