Public school education: are teachers as helpful as they could be in preparing students for college?

[Sikeliot]

I often find that teachers nowadays do not seem to put in the time and effort toward being helpful to their students and actually giving a decent education to the college-bound but rather, do the minimum amount of effort in order to maintain their tenure and/or just leave with a paycheck. Has anyone else noticed this?

When I got to college a lot of professors are shocked by how little some of us know.. which, surely, is a result of how things were taught given that people here are quite smart.

What have your experiences been with the educational system in your countries? I am speaking of what I see in America.

[Gospodine]

John Taylor Gatto, a retired American schoolteacher with 30 years of experience said the following in an excellent book he wrote (http://www.amazon.com/Dumbing-Down-Curriculum-Compulsory-Anniversary/dp/0865714487/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360400131&sr=1-1&keywords=dumbing+us+down) critical of compulsory public schooling:


It makes the children confused. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize to stay in school. Apart from the tests and trials that programming is similar to the television, it fills almost all the "free" time of children. One sees and hears something, only to forget it again.
It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.
It makes them indifferent.
It makes them emotionally dependent.
It makes them intellectually dependent.
It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).
It makes it clear to them that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised.


My favourite quote of his: The truth is that schools don't really teach anything except how to obey orders.

[AlexandraD]

well, i went to a private high school so my experiences are different than most canadians...

what i can say about my school is, it was very nice. they were very open, the classes were very small, everybody knew everybody and the teachers basically knew your name from day one. they worked very hard with everybody, the teachers had very adaptive teaching styles, homework was quite relaxed and alot was done *IN* school not outside of it, long lunches, 90 minute classes had a 10 minute break in the middle... from what i remember, there was 3 or 4 teachers who had Ph.D's in their area of study, and all the teachers there had a (minimum) masters degree in their main.

i knew a kid who was depressed and suicidal, and often was away from school for months at a time, for his 4 years of being there. he still graduated, one of the best students as well, he told me the school worked with him so well it he managed to get amazing grades and he credits his time and talks with teachers in lifting his depression.

so it was quite excellent :) i feel for people in public schooling, however, i've talked with a few people on here and alot of the schools in america, or in heavily populated areas or in the city, seem truly awful :(

[derLowe]

well, i went to a private high school so my experiences are different than most canadians...

what i can say about my school is, it was very nice. they were very open, the classes were very small, everybody knew everybody and the teachers basically knew your name from day one. they worked very hard with everybody, the teachers had very adaptive teaching styles, homework was quite relaxed and alot was done *IN* school not outside of it, long lunches, 90 minute classes had a 10 minute break in the middle... from what i remember, there was 3 or 4 teachers who had Ph.D's in their area of study, and all the teachers there had a (minimum) masters degree in their main.

i knew a kid who was depressed and suicidal, and often was away from school for months at a time, for his 4 years of being there. he still graduated, one of the best students as well, he told me the school worked with him so well it he managed to get amazing grades and he credits his time and talks with teachers in lifting his depression.

so it was quite excellent :) i feel for people in public schooling, however, i've talked with a few people on here and alot of the schools in america, or in heavily populated areas or in the city, seem truly awful :(

Private High school is very different to public High school, from a South Africa perspective at least.