The State of Our Schools

I wonder how many of those unprepared high school graduates will complete an undergraduate degree? Judging some of my fellow graduates, I'd say their odds are good. :/

Part of the trouble is that in the inner cities, drug dealing remains more lucrative than graduating high school and getting an 'average' job. It's a huge problem where I'm from in Chicago - the kids on the corner are getting younger and younger and are making more money than a lot of other people!

Just another piece to the puzzle.

I agree with choice being available for parents over where to send their children for schooling and parents getting involved. The political party I'm a member of in New Zealand agrees with school choice as well, it's a major policy of theirs.

Personally,I didn't go to college and don't plan to. I'm a SELF-STUDIER. I think the financial void in our education system is a failure that needs revamped totally. What I see is kids learning to lose the values,etc. that made America great and they rarely have any FAITH or foundation in their lives to build a life upon. Knowledge and WISDOM are not the same. Drive,passion,persistence,ETHICS,and EARNING a LIVING are more necessary today for ALL people to attain as skills for success. Don't get me wrong, I WANTED to go to college...to LEARN. Look at all the great examples in our country that maybe had a 6th grade education(and alot of 'common' sense!). I applaud Mr. Trump and everyone associated here for what they are doing. It's THE alternative education to CHOSE!

I am in full agreement with Mr. Trump's position that parents be allowed to choose the schools of their choice for their children. Competition may make for better education, and such a choice sure seems fair to parents (and all property tax payers). They are the one's paying, let them select the school of their choice.

Further, in my opinion, I feel, based upon my reading, that America lags in giving our youth a true education in the fullest sense of the world. Mr. Trump's citing of statistics bears this as well. A full education encourages, demands, independent thought, analysis, and pondering of the current and our past. It's not homework assignments meant to merely take a student's time(which I remember some teachers giving--meaningless mindless time-consuming work; while others challenged us with thought questions--not just memorization)--it's challenging projects and discussion, problem-solving, etc. History must be emphasized in a lively way; critical examination using skills being taught makes learning applicable to their lives...but as I look around me, I see a woeful lack of critical thought among the adults of today. Many people are apathetic--thus, it is no wonder many accept the status quo state of education. Adults can't teach something they lack themselves. Many adults I meet know very little history; do you think they're going to encourage their children to learn it when they don't even care?The superior teachers are those who creatively instruct their youth...and likewise, superior teachers should be superiorly rewarded financially. Again, competition...and its benefits I believe would prove worthwhile. When I think back to the teachers who really influenced me, they were the ones who thought "out of the box" so to speak. They had respect for students and took sincere interest in them. But to do so meant they had to be such a teacher, and they had to have the resources available to them to do so as much as possible. Education, good teachers, should be rewarded well in our society. That, in itself, would attract more of those who may have an interest in teaching, but who might otherwise avoid it due to economic considerations. I think good teachers should be very well paid. In all of society, there are the superior and there are the mediocre. In the free market, the superior individual often achieves far greater not only in recognition but economically, while as the mediocre stay at same level their entire lives. Superior teachers, as in any other profession, should be rewarded handsomely.

Involvement not only with school activities, but also parents being involved themselves in the education of their children. Parents who love to read share that with their children (even when school is out--the library and bookstore becomes an important and much looked forward to activity); museums aren't just visited on school trips but with a parent and child such trips are planned; and what I believe is most important: Parent/child communication. Real communication. In-depth discussion adjusted to the child's age; adult-child conversation and discussion of what's happening in the world and of ideas goes far in a child's intellectual development. I have certainly seen that children (even very young children) who have spent much of their free time talking with adults are far superior to their peers. The children who are obviously highly intelligent I've met are those who love reading and who have a parent(s) who actually speak to their child as another human being...they don't talk "down" or "simple" to them...they actually converse with them often.

As Mr. Trump said, money is not the only way to solve a problem. I've seen parents (who did not have the financial status of others in their community) but who have spent so much time with their children fostering independent thought that their children are far superior and capable of thinking for themselves. So, though money can cer

I totally agree with Mr. Trump. My upbringing is a little differnt than most people my age. My parents were raised in the depression era, my sister and one brother in the 60's, my other brother was a 70's child and I was rasied in the 80's. My father only made it to 5th grade. But he is one of the most intelligent men that I know. He stressed the importance of our education on a daily basis and still does. Money does not fix things. The correct usage of money is how we fix things. There are teachers out there who are brillant and then there are some who need to find a new job. Last year, my daughter had the worst experience in school. She had been attending a private school and we changed her over to the traditional public school system in Louisville, KY. She attended what is suppose to be the best in Louisville on the elementary level. Her teacher was the worst we had ever seen. This woman told us that she really did not want to be teaching. It showed. For the first time my daughter did not want to attend school. Now, that she is in the 6th grade things are better. She has teachers who are there because they enjoy teaching the childern. I am a parent who is involved in everything the school does. I believe if more parents were involved the bad teachers would not be there. My father stressed to us the importance of reading about history and learning the politics of the world. I encourage my daughter to do the same. It amazes me to have conversations with people my own age who do not have a clue about the world around them. You must read and learn as adults. There is no other way to help the childern change the world than to see their parents still learning. As I said, I grew up in a differnt sort of home and history has taught me a lot about why the world is the way it is. I hope someday things will change for the better and the people will see that money cannot fix the problems. People fix the problems....

The report in question is promulgated

Thanks for a great topic. Could write for hours but will keep this brief.
1) We need to make sure that all parents have the resources that they need to parent. Research has shown that when parents of at-risk children recieve 30 minutes per week of home visitation from a nurse or a teacher, they do better in school later and do better in life.
2. Education needs to better serve the diversity of children. Much of the success of homeschooled children and Sudbury Valley Model schools lies in the fact that children need time to explore their interests, they need to take responsibility for their own education, they need to develop independence, social competence and leadership experience. Most schools stress being quiet, listening and feeding back information. Real world success requires more active participation.
3) Children have all their time structured with unstructured time in front of the television set. If you study the life of most great minds, you find that they developed their adult achievements through exploration in childhood. Letting children have 2 hours a day to explore a learning environment be it a library, an art studio, or a science lab with adult mentors present, will have dramatic results on the future of this world.
4) We need more criteria-based evaluation. At Sudbury Valley schools, no one can graduate until they can defend the thesis that they are prepared to go out into the world and take on adult resposibilities. How many of us could defend that thesis when we left high school?
The link is to Sudbury Valley web site for those interested in learning more.

"The best reason to give a child a good school … is so that child will have a happy childhood, and not so that it will help IBM in competing with Sony … There is something ethically embarrassing about resting a national agenda on the basis of sheer greed." — Jonathan Kozol

I would have to agree with Christina's closing "applicable to business and in life" because in many case it's not money but principles that are often missing.

Progress before profit, process before product and passion before pleasure (if you know what I mean).

That's all for now.

Back in college, I established an organization that conduct free tutorial and seminars for students who want to learn more things that was not in the curriculum that time. Our course is computer programming, yes, most of programming subjects are quite boring and they are not teaching how to fix computers, web design, animation, those things that will make you express your creativity and ofcourse, students like tinkering hardwares. The organization had 50 members, and I found out that most of them are failing in their subjects, and some the teachers gave up on them (

When Chris made the comments that "… There is something ethically embarrassing about resting a national agenda on the basis of sheer greed." —
There is a lot of assumptions here. I mean, aside from the idea that there is a National Agenda at all, and whether there should be! The 'plaint is that you don't want corporate involvement in the curriculum. I ask "why not?" Is there something fundamentally bad about IBM or SONY? When the U of C here in Ottawa needed a computer lab, Sxx Microxxxxms' set it up. The fogeys on the Board didn't catch up until decades later! Personally, I think greed is one of those emotion laden words, like "profit" which cloud thinking. People need a decent income to have a liberal agenda, and that means learning to make the employer happy. (or competitive...or whatever).
Clearly you would need some common dog checks and balances in the system...after all, it makes one wonder if you could get un-biased funding for a nutrition studies program from MacDonalds....(grin!), but you COULD get them to subsidize a business model lab.
And though I would LOVE to take my students on a field trip to the local museum every morning, (the Learning as Play method of teaching!) the fact is that we have to teach disciplines like reading, researching, writing clearly and this means memorizing a lot of things which the museum won't teach, like times tables, and where to put the commas in a sentence!
Please don't confuse the Learning with the Socialization, both of which have to be taught. How to deal with a bully is probably more important than what happened in 1776 but how do you know?
In the English version of "To Sir With Love", the teacher simply threw the books into the waste paper basket, and started teaching life lessons.... This movie is still relevant after all these years. The whole movie deals with the "true task" of a teacher. Watch it and comment please...

I see the problem with the schooling system a bit differently. Our society knows so much, collectively, that no one person can ever hope to know it all. The skills of how to learn and research are the critical things to teach, and where the child is taught these, they're usually well in hand

Mr. Trump:

As a student I totally agree with your beliefs on challenging schools to be more innovative and creative in order to increase school standards as well as the importance of parental involvement. Please take a look at my blog to find out more info on my educational beliefs as well as others on important issues and more info on my new book "Writings From a Teenage Mind."

Best Wishes,

Joshua Murphy

Gentlepersons:

My younger brother is a school teacher at an inner-city school, K-6. The children arrive for their very first day of school with attitude. I should say here that my brother must be a saint. Or perhaps he was one in a previous life. Parents who wish to get their children prepared for a better life will demand performance from their progeny to the level possible

Mr. Trump, The world has decided to give you positive names

Dear Donald,
You are naive regarding public schools; your children go to private schools, right? We need to raise the pay for teachers to attract bright people. Our generation is the last group of students to be taught

Dear Donald, I am delighted that you took to courage to mention about education.

In our present generation, good and quality education is the best thing anyone would think of archiving. That puts me in the opinion that we truly need a better education. But How?

How is such a better education possible if most leaders would advise the young that EDUCATION IS NOT FOR THE POOR AND IF THEY CAN AFFORD IT THEY SHOULD TRY IGNORANCE? Do you agree with such philosophy?

How can we change such view about education being so expensive and not for the poor?

Basically, we have a lot of poor people on earth and it's not everyone that is opportune to be rich or come from a rich background, so what are the possible avenues and procedure or concept you would establish to make education possible and affordable?

You mention that we need to prepare students for the real world, Of course I agree with you but I think there's no possibility or physibility that with the present situation of things, students can be educated about the real world situation.

What exactly do you mean

Regarding Public Schools - A lot has been said about the underpriveledged children - in my opinion, more energy should be concentrated on the BORED MAJORITY- children with above average intelligence left to the wayside while all the energy is flowing to helping the underpriveledged or heaping praise on those who just

In a country as rich as ours, the United States of America, I am still puzzled