The US Needs Year-Round Schooling.........

I caught this article on cnn.com this morning.

Granderson pointed out some really good points in his blog.

"American 15-year-olds ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math in a study of students in 34 nations and nonnational regions."

"the report suggests Finnish 15-year-olds are one to two years ahead of our kids in math and science."

"We spend on average about $30,000 more per student than the other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, yet the best we can do is middle of the road."

 Look, I am not some nationally egotistical fanatic who thinks "My country is the best" or "We need to be the best in the world". However, I think there is something to be said for global competitiveness and I think that a key to being the best you can be lies in education. I hail from a country that seems to pride itself on the fact that it provides it's citizens a "free" education, but what good is that education if it's second rate? Plus, if you want to get nit-picky, most of the countries that rank above us in this study has a "free" education that continues through university. There are probably more. And, to be realistic, I don't know of a country that charges to educate children, not saying there aren't any, I just don't know of them. Even countries like Sri Lanka, Libya, and Cuba offer free tertiary education. 

"only eight of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries that took part in the study in 2009 have a lower high school graduation rate than we do."

"When the results of the test were released in the winter, Arne Duncan, U.S. Department of Education secretary, pointed out that despite not being in the top of any of the subjects tested, "U.S. students express more self-confidence in their academic skills than students in virtually all OECD nations. This stunning finding may be explained because students here are being commended for work that would not be acceptable in high-performing education systems."

So............ Not only are we no longer able to compete with other countries on the same level of intelligence, but we're either too stupid to realize it, or so egotistical that we don't care and simply hold our heads high with feigned ignorance. Consider this: The dumbest of the smartest may, very well, be smarter than the smartest of the dumbest.

"Harris Cooper, a summer-learning expert at Duke University, pored over a century's worth of data and found that each summer, our kids lose about a month of progress in math and that low-income students lose as much as three months' worth of reading comprehension."

"More than a month of teaching time at the beginning of the school year is spent re-teaching the stuff our kids forgot over the break."

"At 180 days, we have one of the shortest school years of the countries tested. South Korea, for example, has 220 school days, and a No. 2 ranking in math. Finland is first in math and science at 190 days."

"The organization estimates that by boosting our scores for reading, math and science by 25 points over the next 20 years, the United States would gain $41 trillion over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010."

And to restate....

"We spend on average about $30,000 more per student than the other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, yet the best we can do is middle of the road."

  Interestingly, in my son's school district, due to budget cuts, the school year is 167 days, not counting snow days. 13 days lower than the national average, which is already low. Pathetic. Then consider the changes in education just since I was a child. Fewer and shorter school days. Less homework. No textbooks. New teaching strategies, which I find completely asinine. Then consider how much it's changed since the time my mother was in primary school... If she couldn't help me with MY math homework, how the hell can she help my son? (Except, I have joyfully eliminated that problem.. though not everyone can home school even a single subject.)
I am well aware that because we are a Republic Union, education is mostly left up to the individual states as long as they meet some vague federal guidelines. I am well aware that people seem leery of giving the federal government more power. HOWEVER, I think it's time that we say there is something wrong with our education system and hand it over to the national government. There needs to be uniformity in the ways we educate. There needs to be firmer guidelines. There needs to uniformed funding. No more poor state, poor education system. We need to put out the monies to give our children the best we can offer them, even if it takes 20 years for us to see the pay out.

In about 30 years, the smartest of the dumbest will be deciding what to do with my Social Security and Medicare, if these programs can hang on until I'm in my old age.... Then consider things like economy, foreign policy, do you want the smartest of the dumbest deciding those things for you?