Plummeting Education Standards Are a National Emergency

[Jack D]

1 hour ago, Mike J said:

It is that kind of education that may allow you to become a popular actor and then be elected president and your wife can buy lots of shoes. 

 

[Queenie O.]

20 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

My step-daughter is a fairly good student but I am amazed that she knows little about world geography.  Thanks for the idea!  I will buy a map and have them start learning.

My brother and sister back in the States own a mail order company that makes classroom maps. My brother also does workshops in local schools. Knowledge about geography is sorely lacking in US schools too!  Many adults are lacking in geography too.

Here I've in the past asked local children about towns' names not far from us. Some children knew, but others did not.

 

[Snowy79]

On 5/19/2021 at 5:03 AM, Shady said:

Anyone who thinks a PH education is worse for their child than a US education better live in a state that's banned Critical Theory.

 

[earthdome]

On 5/18/2021 at 7:14 PM, OnMyWay said:

Brent Int'l here in Subic might be one, but at 15k USD per year it is not in my retirement budget.

Is that for one child or two?

[earthdome]

On 5/18/2021 at 11:12 PM, OnMyWay said:

I'm not sure what your son's age is, but I believe the kids are suffering a lot.  Especially socially and emotionally.  For youth, school is not just about the 3 Rs, it is about learning social skills, discipline, etc., etc.

Our daughter is 3 now and is an only child. By late spring last year we decided we really needed to get her out so she could socialize more. But the opportunities were very limited. We found a mall 30 miles away with a large play area that was still open and would visit that almost weekly. We tried to enroll her in a preschool last fall then they closed. Finally some local playgrounds opened last fall so we could get her out to socialize more. She would make a quick friend then the other child would have to leave and our daughter would get very upset that her new friend was leaving. She really wanted to play with children her own age. Finally we got her into a preschool 2 mornings a week in February and more recently formed a local filipino play group and meet at a park weekly.

[Tommy T.]

23 hours ago, Queenie O. said:

My brother and sister back in the States own a mail order company that makes classroom maps. My brother also does workshops in local schools. Knowledge about geography is sorely lacking in US schools too!  Many adults are lacking in geography too.

Queenie - please note that I am not criticizing you but supporting the efforts of your brother and sister. Good for all that they are making maps for learning as that is a great start.

Just to make things clear... Geography is so much more than just knowing names of places and being able to find them on maps. Geography concerns the relationships between people and the earth. It includes societal relationships, farming, travel, weather, climate, soils, ocean environments and on and on.

It saddens me to see the lack of teaching and knowledge world-wide about geography, especially as that is my "weird" degree and background. I am also saddened by the lack of knowledge and teaching of history - which bored me to tears when in grade school.

To be fair, my learning in grade school and even high school in Canada and USA focused primarily on learning and regurgitating facts: dates and names of people and events that shaped the world as we now know it (sort-of). I actually did not learn truly how to learn until I was about to be thrown out of university due to failing grades. Somehow, I figured it out on my own and suddenly became an A and B+ student!

Today I am fascinated by history and geography and read all I can about these topics. I rue all the time I wasted not studying and really learning when I was young...

Is this a sign, finally, of maturity?

Hmmm... now that I am - again - on my soap box, I will also point out how so few people in USA and even Canada, don't speak more than one language. L speaks at least 7 languages or dialects from Philippines, including English, of course. In Canada, French and English were compulsory when I was in grade school, but any language was okay to choose in high school and college, so long as one studied at least a couple years of it.

Look at the US schooling and news and you will see that it all is aimed almost totally at USA and North American history and geography. Ignorance is bliss regarding other countries and races until the "news" picks up a crisis and that becomes the topic of the day.

Oh boy... I can already feel and hear the criticisms and comments aimed my way... Well.... fire away!!!

Edited May 20, 2021 by Tommy T.

[Queenie O.]

All great points Tommy!

Oftentimes Geography as a subject in the US is kind of left by the wayside as other curriculum subjects take up precedence. I think that we American adults at times (not all) tend to be rather ethnocentric, and don't always give too much thought into other worlds happenings. Not the case I think for many folks in other countries.

From my brother and sister's experience, students have really enjoyed and responded to learning more about the geography of their own places, and the world as well.

[Shady]

1 hour ago, Tommy T. said:

Look at the US schooling and news and you will see that it all is aimed almost totally at USA

 

Good, one should learn the history of their own nation and their own Western culture.  The problem with US education is that history is being re-written and students are being indoctrinated.

 

[manofthecoldland]

12 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Look at the US schooling and news and you will see that it all is aimed almost totally at USA and North American history and geography. Ignorance is bliss regarding other countries and races until the "news" picks up a crisis and that becomes the topic of the day.

Social Studies curriculums normally build outward into the wider world as you go up the grade ladder. They often start with local community, expand outward to include your own country's areas and history and eventually reach global history and geography levels. Most countries' education systems do  this, including  the PI.

Depending on your grade levels attained, and the curriculum of your school system, you may or may not have expanded knowledge in history and geography. 

Note: When I was a child geography and history were separate subjects, both of which are now both subsumed into 'social studies', which has become a catch all for many things. In 5th grade we studied US history and geography and in 6th grade I studied both world geography and world history. Usually teachers do not get through all of the books material in a given year, so they place the subject matter in order of what is considered most important first..... the continent of Africa was at the back of the book. History was temporal, so everyone learned about classical Greece and Rome, but not so much about the last few hundred years unless the teacher made sure to touch all the bases and allocate the study spread effectively. 

Geography and history are life-long studies. My college minors were in these 2 subjects and I am still pursuing them. Available information has expanded greatly over the years and now it is very easy to study specific things in great detail, if you are curious.... but people do need to master the basic foundations of each if they are to be well-informed. Many never did. Now most curriculum face a time-crunch in re to the amount of material that curriculum committees think should be included.

I asked my wife about her geography and history education here in the PI and she did learn her National heros, and the geography of the PI, but not much beyond that. She is 50+ and has never left the PI except to visit our daughter briefly in Sydney, so I am not surprised by her lack of world knowledge. As a student, she did get to travel through the PI for competitions, as do many even now, but that's about it. We all know how difficult it is for the many to travel out of their country, especially here in the PI.

The vast majority of PI citizens never had or have the opportunity to travel, so it should come as no surprise that their world view is often quite limited...   as is their knowledge. People usually spend their time and efforts learning things they feel a need to know, or are of practical use to them in their lives. Geographic and historical knowledge ignorance abounds here, but I don't blame them.

If your children are positioned by wealth and travel abiltiy to go out into the wider world, just make sure that  they are exposed to the basics. The younger, the better. If I was raising a child here, I would ask to see the school's grade curriculums. If they did't meet what I considered to be critical basic knowledge in certain areas of study, I would take it upon myself to supplement it. Easier said then done for most parents, I know.  

The one thing that is easy is to buy your child a globe and make sure they know its basic layout.  All map projections have distortions that are often misleading. I often use my small globe to show the Mrs. the relative distances and sizes of other places, since her reference scale is only the PI.... and the travel times within by ferry or jet.  Its only of a mild curiosity to her at present.

The only time history of world events are of any interest to her is when they relate directly to her current life. That's probably true for the majority of the world's population. 

The current information/disinformation and political propaganda scourage is another topic.

[OnMyWay]

3 hours ago, earthdome said:

Is that for one child or two?

Actual costs vary by grade, but when I looked into it around 2014 it was 14k for 5th grade, per child.