The Advantages And Cons Of The American Education System

Knowledge is an important part of human advancement. When knowledge advances, so does the human race. Advancement starts with the education of the younger generations. New generations need to learn everything that the older generations have learned so that they can build upon their knowledge or correct it. The American educational system is experiencing problems with this transfer of knowledge. It would be too much to say that the educational system is failing, but there are many things that should change. Some aspects of American education which could be improved upon are standardized tests, homework and creativity in students. Even though education itself is evolving day by day, it is also experiencing drawbacks in these areas. Children are

The SAT went from being something that could give you a step up on the college competition to being an absolute necessity to apply. Tests like the SAT have invaded the educational system and are both helpful and detrimental. In one regard, they are a relatively good indicator at how advanced a student may be. The tests assess a student based on basic school subjects and contain questions that most students would have learned or would know how to answer. These tests benefit the studious kids that take them. The kids that are either naturally adept at absorbing the information or the kids that work extremely hard to soak up the knowledge required to do well. But, the students who enjoy other subject matter like art or hands on work suffer from these tests. Their IQs are judged based on the criteria of the tests administered when in fact they could be ten times better at their specialty than the students who specialize in testing. The problem is that the system only really recognizes the book smart students. That is one place the system is going completely awry. More schools need to have different programs to fit the students. If every student is assessed with the same criteria then there is no diversity. Society thrives on diversity and if this diversity is recognized early in a student’s academic career, then they will thrive and they won’t have to spend their adult

There are also different ways to go about it. I would start by adjusting the homework requirements within school curriculums. I would not do away with it completely to start, but there would be a major cut back of fifty percent or more. This would test the waters of the power that homework has on students. Also, homework given to students shouldn’t be just busy work that they can throw together or copy before class. It should be well thought out and occasionally graded work and projects. That way it’s not taking up too much time nor is it a waste of time. The use of standardized tests should change as well. The government shouldn’t use them as a means for schools to get their funding or as a way for students to get into college. The money should be distributed to the best of the government’s ability. Taxpayer money should still go to local schools, but the scales need to level out for funding nationwide. Also, colleges shouldn’t just rely on standardized tests to get the information they need about prospective students. Although there are other ways to prove yourself to a school, none compares to that of the SAT and ACT. They hold too much power in the process. With the schools just looking at a paper and deciding whether you can attend, there is a lack of connection. All forms of application material should be treated equally. With this, students wouldn’t be as stressed out over the