A bit about education
Did anybody notice that as we steadily pour more money into our education system its quality steadily declines. For example, everybody that I know who came to the U.S. from the Ex-Soviet Union in their teens and went to high school here considered all the science courses a joke. When I, myself, was taking math courses my junior year of high school I was going through the same material I studied in Ukraine in the fifth grade. I'm not even going to mention the level of general knowledge among high school students.
In comparison to them my classmates back home were geniuses and I would've never thought that about them when I was still living in Ukraine. For us knowing the works of both Dumas' and knowing most of the countries and their capitals was the norm. We didn't have computers, we had old books instead. Nobody complained about the amount of homework. We had more discipline and our programs were tougher. For example, we read "Tom Sawyer" in elementary school and for me it still seems to be very age appropriate for the kids that age. What grade do students read it in the U.S.? I don't even want to mention "The adventures of Huckleberry Finn" that, if it's allowed by the town, American students read in the 11th grade while we read in the fourth.
I would also like to mention the role of parents in a child's life. I think parents should accept more responsibility for their children. We tend to blame school system for poor education. I partially blame the parents. They are the ones to guide their kids, not the school system. I think there should be more discipline at home and I think parents should be making sure that their kids are studying.
P.S. I'm also for the school voucher system. If we spend so much money on each student, his/her parents should be able to choose to which school the money their offspring is entitled to is going.
