While I will NEVER assert that Americans are the most informed and intellectual citizens on the planet, the media's obsession with comparing our students' test scores with those from other developed nations just demonstrates how lax those in the media are when actual research is involved.
It is not a secret that Europeans, for example, test ONLY those who are on an academic track, and those test scores are what the world sees. WE, however, test EVERYONE. And then the Bobbleheads in the media, along with politicians, declare that there's some kind of a "crisis" here.
It's Dumblefuck 101-I have never made a value judgement regarding what particular gift a student has, but common sense dictates that some students are great at Electronics or Mechanics, but aren't particulary in their element when they have to discuss Metaphors (What's a Meta For? Sorry-couldn't resist) while others are completely comfortable dissecting an Emily Dickinson poem.
Yet we don't have the balls to say that every student DOESN'T have an interest in obtaining a degree from four year academic college-that might hurt their "self-esteem," afterall. Virtually every other developed nation in the world get's this fact, except us.
So the stats are skewed and we make our students look like idiots, when in reality it's the adults who are making us look like fools. A "One Size Fits All" educational system does not work.
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