: Why Isn’t America Number 1? Education Trust fact in ways that are palpable every day. in Oklahoma, Kim’s algebra teacher never have revealed grades publicly had majored in physical education at -- in the United States grades are conFor example Kim, the Oklaho- a university that accepts pretty much sidered private; low grades shameful. man who went to Finland, saw that all-comers. All the kids knew his main In Poland, struggle and failure seemed students respected teachers for their job was coaching football; teaching to be acknowledged as a normal part of learning. I’m not going to talk about South Korea -- there’s such a thing as taking a good thing way too far, and South Korea seems to have done it. If you ever start thinking that American kids are under too much pressure because they take a couple of standardized tests a year, you might want to read about the strain South Korean kids are under. But one thing -- Eric found the math classes much less boring than math classes back in Minnesota.
knowledge and expertise and matched them in seriousness and focus. Students there know that every one of their teachers has had to sweat out being accepted to highly selective teaching programs the way American students have to sweat out being accepted to MIT. Prospective teachers then have to go through intensive training and student teaching. Back
All these observations simply raise more questions, and Ripley allows us to follow her as she goes to experts in South Korea, Poland, Finland and the United States to get answers about teacher preparation, national standards and assessment that raise yet more questions about what the purpose of education is, what national policies are most effective and what obligations schools have to kids and kids have to schools. The intellectual journey that we travel with Ripley has profound math was what he had to do in order implications for Americans as we consider what to do to improve education. to coach. Tom, the Pennsylvanian who went to Poland, saw teachers read test grades out loud to the class and never saw anyone get the equivalent of an A. Back in Pennsylvania he would have been stunned not to get As for much lower-level work than he saw being done in Poland. And teachers would
This isn’t the book to read if you want your pet policies or proposals to be bolstered. But if you are curious why the richest nation in the history of the world can’t seem to get its educational act together, this is a very readable way to enter into the subject.