First in Self Esteem and Last in Math: Whose Fault is It?

by Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger

11 Jan 2007 06:58 AM

Have you read the statistics that came out a few years ago about America's students? There was a large study done comparing elementary students through high school students with other countries and the results were dismal for sure. While our kids are number one in self esteem, we are near the bottom in all other academic subjects areas. In other words, we feel really good about failing!

Everyone is quick to point to our failing public school system. . .and while I do feel that the public educational system needs some tweaking, I can't say that I agree. I've always felt like the public school systems do a really hard job that continuously gets harder and do the best that is feasible. I've also always felt like it is still the parents' primary responsibility to educate their child--even if they choose to use the public school system to do it. Interestingly, despite our kids' "failing" our economy is still growing at a faster rate than those nations to which we were compared. But that's another topic.

I recently came across this article that examines some of the reasons why our kids may be so far behind. Consider the following:

Our students don't spend very much time learning the basics. American students spend less than half of their daily time learning. The rest of the day is taken up with things like social skills, health, sex education, HIV education, etc. The typical high school student spends 1,460 hours studying things like math, science, English, and history. Meanwhile, their counterparts in Japan spend 3,170 hours on basic subjects, students in France spend 3,280 on core academics, while students in Germany spend 3,528 hours studying basic subjects. Consider also that American students are getting substantially less homework: American 5th graders, by some estimates, are getting 4 hours per week, while students in Japan are getting 7 hours a week, and students in Taipei are getting 13 hours per week!

Class size, lack of funding nor lack of the latest and greatest is not the problem. . .All over the world students achieve more with less. Especially in Japan and Taipei; where students were scoring the highest. In those countries teachers are less educated, facilities are highly outdated and the average class size is approximately 40 students per one teacher! On top of all this, Asian students watch more T.V. than their American counterparts (on average).

Could it be that we, as a society simply expect less of our students? We expect them to have good self esteem as that's a desirable quality in our culture and we don't expect high math and science scores? It is easy to blame everything and everyone but ourselves for the decline in public education as measured by test scores (if you can measure the success of a system this way). But if we, meaning parents and teachers, are not expecting more of our students, they will not achieve more.

Don't believe me? Try this experiment. Hold a $10 bill out of your child's or student's reach so that he or she has to jump, just a little to get it. Now hold a $50 (or $20 or whatever you're willing to give up) well out of the student's reach. It is okay to place it at a seemingly impossible height. Tell them if they reach--they can have it. I can almost guarantee you every time that when the expectation is set high, and the incentive is big enough, the student will achieve it. Before we blame the school system for our kids' failures, lets look at our own expectations first. If we think it's important for schools to teach social skills, good self esteem, character traits, etc., then we can't complain about the product they produce.

Interestingly by the way, although our students perform at the bottom on standardized tests, our economy continues to grow at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world.

Related Articles:

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Learn more about Valorie Delp

Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line.

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tau_ceti (6) 17 Jan 2007 06:53 AM

Remember that these failures started emerging in the 1970s, and it's only been in the last 10 years that the American school system has been able to get back to 1970s levels. The American economy has nothing to do with the American education system, either; people who can run businesses aren't the ones trying to cure cancer. Academics and business people have always been different animals.

I don't think it's a matter of expecting less than other countries; I think it's because American kids are expected to memorize facts, whereas in schools in Japan there's more of a focus on understanding core concepts. There's more for American kids to learn, but what they're learning is usually irrelevant or learned improperly. American kids aren't taught how to learn, just how to regurgitate. You've got to walk before you run, and kids in the States are given a diagram for how to walk and then are told to run the 100m dash.

Valorie Delp (49340) 17 Jan 2007 10:25 AM

Interesting comment. . .and I definitely see your illustration with regards to teaching kids how to regurgitate. I definitely agree, but I still think we expect much less than is expected from students overseas. Perhaps the difference is the pedagogy. I do know that when I traveled abroad, my "peers" were far and above more knowledgable than I was in vast numbers of areas and I consider myself to be pretty well educated. I also know that getting into university in other places is substantially more difficult than it is here.

While the point about economics wasn't necessarily mine to make, I do think it is an interesting commentary. If we're talking about culture, and our culture holds capitalistic ideals to be the desired goals, then it is reflected in our economy and is also reflected in our education system. In this way, they are completely inter-related.

Something that I didn't mention in my blog, that I think definitely plays a role, is diversity in culture. For example, I can say that for my neighborhood, these parents (as a blanket statement) don't really care if their kids go to college. Some don't even care if they graduate high school as long as they get their GED. That's the norm. That's not how it is where I grew up, nor is it that way where my husband grew up. Whereas in Japan, for example, there is on uniting common culture that stresses importance on the same things like a certain education.