Reply to Wow! Anyone else listen to the Diane Rehm Show today?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Thanks PP for this link! I had missed this article!

There was also a great story on CNN (Fareed Zakaria GPS) about a month ago called "Fixing Education" or something like that. A VERY sobering reflection on the state of American education and where we stand internationally.

A true wake up call.

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Can you give a quick synopsis?[/quote]

The main points I can remember this documentary touched on were where the US stands internationally on science and math (#27 I think it was); and how too often "your zipcode is your destiny" in terms of the mobility upward on the ladder of success. Simply put they asserted that upward mobility is coming to a standstill for kids not lucky enough to have well functioning and performing public schools.

There was a very interesting comparison of the US to South Korea and Norway, two cultures who approach education very differently than we do, and also are polar opposites yet both achieve tremendous success in education in their respective countries.

I found it particularly interesting watching the profile of Norway - they pay teachers very highly and it is more competitive to get into school to become a teacher than it is to get into medical school there, if I recall correctly! The prestige of teaching is very high and well compensated. They do all this with shorter school days than we do here. Of course Norway is a very different country demographically and much smaller as well and the person they were interviewing (Head of Education or something?) acknowledged this and how in America we have such diversity of backgrounds, language, that make it harder to serve all children well.

The South Korean profile was opposite of Norway in terms of hours spent on rote training and drills and on extra curricular tutoring sessions that pretty much all kids attend until 10pm on week nights. Uniforms in school and often single sex classrooms -- a ton more pressure than in Norway yet with superior results in terms of the level of education and skill the kids leave school with when they graduate.

I recommend watching it if you can!

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/06/zakaria-fix-education-restore-social-mobility/?iref=obinsite

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/05/gps-special-fixing-education/

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