ANSWERS: 11
  • Not that I know of...NASA and MIT seem to be right up at the top in my opinion. And that would fall into the Science education....no?
  • sadly yes
  • I'm a Brit and we often hear that in certain US states Darwinism, for example, is offered up in schools as a very questionable theory if taught in the classroom at all. It makes many of us both pity and deride those states' approaches to 'education'. Luckily the US is a big place with lots of people and science seems to do well generally, NASA and MIT for example, being good proof that enough sense gets through to produce good scientists and advanced learning institutions.
  • I believe its more math illiteracy. I don't ever remember being taught much math until High school and when I found a good teacher that I liked that made it easy on me... They changed my class and refused to let me have him. If I were better at math, I could have been anything! a physicist even!
  • Many public schools aren't really all that great in math, but "science" in a broad sense is ok. The public school curriculum really does move slowly, but luckily most high schools give ample opportunity for acceleration. While most people don't know geometry before freshman year, it's pretty standard for people to take calculus their 3rd year.
  • What there is a crisis of in America, and it's a bad one, is information logistics. It rarely gets from its origin to where it needs to go, as the American school system is a sad patchwork of privatization and nationalization. Nobody really knows how to fund and update schools. They're having a tough time keeping up to snuff on the technology field because of the poor state of info crowdsourcing and experimentation. It seems to me that America is the Windows of the world - a patchwork of hotfixes and quirks. It gives us character, but sometimes there're things character has to be put aside for. The problem is even worse for math than it is for science. The by far biggest problem with America's school system is the fact that life management, conflict resolution and social skills aren't taught. They teach us to assemble food, assemble information and assemble theories, but it's up to 'parents' to teach us how to live, and... well, you can see how well that works in the good ol' USA, my international friends.
  • Everyone so far, intotheforge especially, has made good points thus far regarding this question. The problems with the education system in general in this country have been analyzed and re-analyzed for years and years, so i probably don't need to put my 2 cents in to get the point across. However, coupled with the deficient education system & administration of it, is that our current society, in my opinion, most rewards those that excel at throwing a ball through a hoop, or dancing like a ...well... singing and dancing really well, or pretending to be funny in front of a camera, or simply for being born with a camera-friendly face or body. Not to say there is anything wrong with the creative-mind, we have many excellent writers and lawyers that started out writing short stories in high school, but the financial rewards just are not there, overall, if you watch tv. When did you last hear about a contract about a mathemetician? We hear all the time about huge contracts for relatively young people in sports and entertainment. Hey we all just heard about Ryan Seacrests' massive 3year contract worth more than, well, more than everyone on my block will earn over a lifetime. Every year, kids, KIDS, come out of college and pick up fat contracts with signing bonuses worth more than my grandfather earned in an entire lifetime. Our society is all screwed up, and yet we wonder why. The problems do not just lie with our schools, systems, or politicians, they lie with all of us. Just my opinion.
  • I think that there is a crisis of illiteracy period in the U.S. Our collective national love affair with stupid seems to continue, unabated.
  • The real question is, "Is American education worthy in the world we live in today?". I, personally, say no. Reason being, is that I graduated high school knowing my ABC's, numbers, and how to write legibly. With today's world you need to think and read critically, communicate effectively, and understand the implications of the ABC's, Numbers, and your writing. Of course, there is always college! Or is college the same thing?
  • I taught science in high schools for 25 years, and there is a crisis of scientific illiteracy in the USA. Too many students just turn off with the "I don't get it" attitude. I think it's pretty hard to find really really good science and math teachers. I was OK but not truly great. Perhaps if really great teachers could make the $$$ that engineers or other science careers do, more students could experience great teaching. Perhaps some really talented educator/scientists could create curriculum to grab students attention and really get them to learn science. Perhaps there is a way to cure "math phobia" but I have no idea what it is. Making the best science students sit in the same classroom as those who hate science is counterproductive. Separate them by ability and let the eagles fly and the turkeys flounder. Not everyone can and not everyone wants to be a scientist, but we should give them all a chance in elementary school and then meet the needs of the really interested science students in the upper grades. Just my 2 cents.
  • I believe so. Ideology has become the new science, and political correctness now dictates what our children learn. It's a shame.

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