Discussion on Education

Tony: I would like to introduce the two experts that will be taking part in our discussion today about the United States education system. Laurel Horn is a high school English teacher that has been teaching for 13 years, and Carolyn Edwards is a professor at University of Nebraska at Lincoln who has researched different education systems in Europe as well as teaching here. Let me start by asking your opinion on what the big debate of "teaching to the test" here in the U.S.

LH: This is a touchy subject to many teachers that I work with and talk to in other school systems. The last thing a teacher wants to do is to sit in front of a class and only teach their students what will be on a test at the end of the year. The problem comes in when pressure is being put on us from higher standing individuals that are threatening our jobs if our students don't perform well, or the government saying they won't give us funding if we don't meet their standards. Also, we don't want to sit here and let a student be marked as underachieving just because we didn't go over a subject in class. This in my opinion is the biggest failing of our school systems now, but until the government begins to take a step back and change their policies it seems to be something we have to deal with.

CE: I do agree with Laurel about this being the biggest failing of our school systems now, but I don't find the fault completely with the government. I believe it is the duty of the teacher themselves to find out how to integrate the curriculum on the test with real world applications. Many of the top school systems in Europe aren't worried about the normal curriculum of the history of their nation or which artist painted what painting. They are focused on teaching their students how to become a productive member of society. These European schools focus on group-based exercises to introduce the subject, while encouraging engagement with other students, which breaks the mold of lecturing in the classroom. If we are able to find this balance here then we will be able to compete academically with even the Asian countries which are leaving us in the dust as of now.