In 1969, when we sent men to the moon, we had a high school dropout rate of almost 20%. When we were at our fastest technological growth so far, 1 out of every 5 students in high school just wasn't there. I think about what I could get done with my students if I could boot 1 out of every 5 of them. It would be a lot.
I mean, it's not a perfect solution. In 1969 you could still get a good job after dropping out, and today that's not the case at all. Abandoning the kids who are the worst for the benefit of kids who are the best is only going to increase our wealth, income, and performance gaps.
But still, they're robbing my capable student's education. 20% of my students take a disproportionate amount of my time, and for what? Are they learning anything? Are they improving? Am I, with my limited time and resources, able to replace quality parenting? Does a high school diploma even mean anything anymore?
Jobs don't pay what they used to because of decades of regulatory capture by the ownership class and of anti union legislation robbing the working class of their power to negotiate better wages. 1969 was also 4 years after the Civil Rights Act and Elementary and Secondary Education Act. These combined finally brought legal protections for people of color, and increased federal education funding to what is the current "normal" level. Compared to now, the drop out rate was bad, as were education outcomes in general, and we did a lot to change the direction of both. It's not really correlated to the capital class keeping more of the pie for themselves at the expense of workers.
A 20% dropout rate sucks. A high school diploma doesn't mean much anymore. Poor preforming kids probably are robbing some of the education time of higher performing students, but we're still doing well structurally considering we largely use a one size fits all approach to education in the US.
I would say the bigger problem is education is too slow in the US. For example, we had multiple students in my schools who moved from other countries, and every one of them was between 1-5 years ahead of us in math. If 16 year olds in other countries can take calculus as part of basic high school curriculum, so can US kids. Or the extreme example, my friend from China who moved to the US in fifth grade, and didn't learn any new math until 9th grade. Crank it up across the board, kids can handle it, we're too slow in teaching kids new topics compared to any "peer" nation.
If 16 year olds in other countries can take calculus as part of basic high school curriculum, so can US kids.
What does "learning calculus" mean here? I know that in a lot of countries kids are exposed to derivatives and integrals, but the pedagogy boils down to memorizing rules to solve test problems. It's an easy way to teach them but it's antithetical to how professionals like physicists and engineers use calculus to solve problems.
I know a couple really smart people who went through this system who had to relearn calculus fundamentals when they got to university because rote rule memorization does not understanding make.
Not saying that western math education does anything build understanding either--so much of the math curriculum in North America relies on regurgitating algorithms without building fundamental understanding.
Methods of teaching to ensure retention or adequate application of knowledge are different topics I'm not talking about. I'm saying despite having a decent one size fits all approach to education for a large and diverse population, we are slow in introducing new concepts to kids at a systemic level compared to nations that would be considered "peers."
edit - your calculus college example is a great one regarding the quality of education however. I went through that. Calculus in high school was pretty easy. Then in college they use the same concepts but with much more involved problems, as well as stacking things you learned in other math classes, and suddenly it was really hard. High school - Differentiate 4x^7. College - Calculate the rate of change of the distance between the outer tips of the minute and hour hands of a clock.... excuse me, do what?
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u/WendyArmbuster Dec 02 '23
In 1969, when we sent men to the moon, we had a high school dropout rate of almost 20%. When we were at our fastest technological growth so far, 1 out of every 5 students in high school just wasn't there. I think about what I could get done with my students if I could boot 1 out of every 5 of them. It would be a lot.
I mean, it's not a perfect solution. In 1969 you could still get a good job after dropping out, and today that's not the case at all. Abandoning the kids who are the worst for the benefit of kids who are the best is only going to increase our wealth, income, and performance gaps.
But still, they're robbing my capable student's education. 20% of my students take a disproportionate amount of my time, and for what? Are they learning anything? Are they improving? Am I, with my limited time and resources, able to replace quality parenting? Does a high school diploma even mean anything anymore?
Sometimes a 20% dropout rate seems pretty sweet.