US High Schools are a disaster

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I guess it will not suprise anyone that it's mostly about socialisation.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2014/02/high_school_in_america_a_complete_disaster.html

But if we challenge the students, some will do better than others. Then the ones who struggle will get their feelings hurt and their parents will complain.

I'm in high school and I have done less than two hours of homework over the past 2-3 weeks. Yes, I do try.
Many high schools now give subtle nudges towards going to college whether students are ready or not, all so they can have high college-goer percentages for each class.. I agree that high schools are centers of socialization here; my high school is very dedicated to sports and puts its budget towards that instead of an effective heating system...

If teachers would teach instead of tell I think students could do better.

So...how are the schools in Canada?

Better, I guess... They got better results for high school level that the US. At least in Québec there is less social caste that what is show in US shows and movies. School is of provincial juridiction in Canada by the way.

Switch 'the ones who struggle' with 'the ones who succeed' and you'll have my life story right there.

I went to a school in a district with:
a.) outdated computers (with the exception of the library, the art labs, and the technology class labs in my high school, the classrooms had computers running on Windows 2000...in 2009; it wasn't until my junior year that all of them were upgraded to Windows XP)

b.) outdated science textbooks with gum, graffiti, and God-knows what else on them (this was only in middle school, though)

c.) Males allowed to wear jeans at their ANKLES (I'm not exaggerating. I clearly remember one winter day where my mom laughed at some dude walking to school like this)

d.) A student who didn't know how to spell kindergarden/kindergarten.

What does this tell you about the state of U.S. education? (Granted, I must admit that I did go to school in a pseudo-ghetto, but still, come on: WINDOWS 2000?!)

All that would be ok, though not ideal of course, if the instruction was good. There will always be students like the two you mentioned at public schools and outdated stuff is more of an inconvenience (though higher-level science/history textbooks should probably be more current).

I'm attending an American high school with an international curriculum (International Baccalaureate programme) and I spend at least five or six hours a day doing homework. Granted, most of that homework is from my I.B. U.S. History class, which is a lot more tedious than challenging. I'd much rather have less but more challenging work. It shouldn't be about the amount of time you spend on schoolwork but what that schoolwork actually teaches you.

As for socialization, what is that. My classmates in the same program and I have no idea what that is.

Whether or not the instruction was good depended on where you were, according to my friends. I was mostly in Honors and AP classes in high school, so it was pretty good. I was only in Regular classes two times in my high school days--for Geometry and Algebra II; the former was hell because the kids were so noisy and rowdy that the teacher could barely teach, and they would pick on me for participating in class (one even went as far as throwing a paper plane in my eye, another got the 'brilliant' idea of trying to cheat off of me during a test [which he quickly regretted after I verbally ripped him a new one in front of the class], and a third kept on kicking my chair). The latter was much better, but I chalked it up to luck and refused to take Regular Pre-Calc my senior year, despite my mother's insistence that I would be better off (academically, yes; psychologically? Uh...no.).



Exactly! You're supposed to be challenged in school, taught how to think and solve problems, analyze, and all that good stuff. But noooo~ You're supposed to learn how to think for yourself in college--when the stakes are much higher and there's not always room for screw-ups. DX

i agree with the whole stance that everyone's getting at. But how bad does it ever get for girls to try to live up to being happy in who they are after being downsized from social bullying and homophobia? U.S. schooling capitalizes on pressure to be the social standard, it's true, and popularity is still out there but it's ok to be insane and push people around even if they're just socially inconfident and suggestively awkward which is translated to be "gay"....I mean that word's been tossed around in and outside of school by now, and the chances of it changing in America don't seem to want to diminish anytime soon. I was honestly given the same cold shoulder in this manner almost my entire grade school history because I was quiet, awkward and extremely low in self esteem. It's no wonder because of social bullying, and maybe homophobia, many kids either instigate school shootings or just commit suicide under personal terms.

Hope I'm not beginning to fly off topic, but I'm still proving a point.

My high school actually was very legit, at least as big urban public schools go.

I guess I lucked out, the graduation rate was 97% or so and like 85% went to college, and all things considered I was well prepared.

My school had an IB program, I wasn't "full IB" but I took a grip of those classes (probably about half my classes junior and senior year) and they were way more intensive than most of what I took in college.

I'm the odd duck that was definitely challenged.