Do you think public education is helping our children become citizens in a global community? Why? Why not?

Similar questions: public education helping children citizens global community.

The short answer: no The longer answer: no with evidence! Here's some statistics: Only 37% of young Americans can find Iraq on a map—though U.S. troops have been there since 2003. 6 in 10 young Americans don't speak a foreign language fluently.20% of young Americans think Sudan is in Asia.

(It's the largest country in Africa.) 48% of young Americans believe the majority population in India is Muslim. (It's ) Half of young Americans can't find New York on a map. This from the National Geographic Roper poll o f 2006.

According to the 2004 National Assessment of Educational Progress, Only three out of ten eighth graders read at or above grade level. What are the odds that this number has gone up to ten out of ten by the time the student graduates high school? My guess is: not very good.

I see students who are the result of public school education every semester in college. I am continuously shocked by what they do not know ranging from simple facts (which a lot of people are against teaching) to critical thinking skills (which everyone seems to be in favor of teaching). One of the problems, identified by Thomas Sowell in Inside American Education is that education is very fad driven in its theories.

This is due in large part to the fact that education schools are the "academic slums" of universities. Education schools are among the easiest to get into and graduate from. Consequently, those we charge with teaching our your are themselves poorly educated relative to other academic schools on campus.

To be a citizen in the global community means, among other things, having a general awareness of the global community which can't happen if only 20% of young Americans think Sudan is in Asia. To be a citizen of the global community means, among other things, being able to communicate in this global community which can't happen if only 4 in 10 Americans speak a foreign language fluently. Children begin life full of curiosity.

When I finally see them many seem to lack this important trait. What happens in the middle bears a large part of the blame. Or perhaps I should say what doesn't happen.

Everyone is so concerned about teaching critical thinking skills but these cannot be learned in the absence of knowledge. If you don't know things what are you to critically think about? There is no doubt that we are in a global community.

Thomas Friedman cogently illustrates this is The World is Flat. Are American students ready to engage with that community? Are they ready to compete with it?

In some ways they are, but in other important ways they are not. The problem does not simply lie with public school education but to the extent that public schools do not address fundamental eduation they are not helping to solve the problem. Knowledge is important.

Aplying knowledge is also important. Knowledge does not simply mean being able to look something up. The competition (in countries like India and China) are focusing on learning and they are getting results.

What are we focusing on? Kyphilosopher's Recommendations Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning Amazon List Price: $21.00 Used from: $3.47 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 3 reviews) Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind Amazon List Price: $19.95 Used from: $2.12 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 5 reviews) Inside American Education Amazon List Price: $23.95 Used from: $11.003 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 22 reviews) The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know Amazon List Price: $29.95 Used from: $11.003 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 29 reviews) Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know Amazon List Price: $13.95 Used from: $0.09 Average Customer Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 42 reviews) The Knowledge Deficit Amazon List Price: $21.007 Used from: $1.007 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 9 reviews) The Schools We Need: And Why We Don't Have Them Amazon List Price: $11.003 Used from: $1.003 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 19 reviews) .

The diversity of our schools is helping do that. The bar has been raised at most schools assisting the students with being on equal footing, as they enter the world and go about their separate ways. All children must know about people of different cultures and races.

School have mulitcultural literature to read, diversity celebrations, and speakers who can enlighten the students about what the world is like. We are also hiring a more diverse group of teachers who can share their story with the children. Txteacher's Recommendations An Introduction to Intercultural Communication: Identities in a Global Community Amazon List Price: $59.95 Used from: $42.56 The New World Reader: Thinking and Writing about the Global Community Amazon List Price: $58.36 Used from: $32.85 .

1 txteacher, regarding your answer "The diversity of our schools is helping do that. ":Now all the schools have to do is teach children where Iraq is on the map.

Txteacher, regarding your answer "The diversity of our schools is helping do that. ":Now all the schools have to do is teach children where Iraq is on the map.

What do you think about public schools?( florida) I really care about my kid's education What do you think is the best.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.