Do Americans Cherish Education Less

Despite all the rhetoric about education and its importance in our society, when compared to countrys with far less that America, it would not be hard to reach the conclusion that Americans don't value their education and education system in the same manner as other peoples and nations. From Education Sector:

In today's debates about how best to improve student performance, little mention is made of how students' personal views on learning may affect their academic achievement. Specifically, commentators seldom discuss students' understanding of the utility of an education and the effects of this perception on how much they value education and how well they perform in school. Perhaps because doing so can be controversial.

Not perhaps, it would be controversial. The controversy would come because we would have to start holding kids accountable for their actions and this flies in the face of the "student-centered" mindset we have cultivated in recent decades. We are so concerned as a society about the "well-being" of student that we don't ask teh student to sacrifice their wants and desires for something that we as adults know is important. Such a move would "damage the self-esteem" of the child.

The Ed Sector writer, Adbul Kargbo, continues:

As someone who attended school in both Africa and the United States, I think both Winfrey and her detractors are somewhat off the mark. It's not enough to argue about whether or not inner-city students want to learn. Rather, we should be asking why these students don't value education enough to want to do well at it.

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After all, Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world with limited opportunities for social and personal advancement. There, however, education is valued because it is seen as a guaranteed path to social and professional advancement and holding an advanced degree is enough to earn one the respect and admiration of peers and the wider society. In the U.S., on the other hand, while my high school peers all expressed a desire for personal success—vaguely understood to be ownership of a house, car, or some other material thing—few seemed to see the utility of education in getting them from where they were to where they wanted to be in life. And, almost without exception, the people they admired—athletes, musicians, entertainers—had attained success through talent or training and not a formal education.

This under-appreciation for learning is not just limited to students in low-income districts. In college I befriended many students from wealthy and upper-middle-class families who were more interested in athletics and partying than in their studies. After graduation, many were able to fall back on family and personal contacts to land their first jobs and get the requisite experience that would ensure success later in life. At a time when almost everyone is entitled to a high school diploma and increasing numbers have the opportunity to attend college, internships, work-experience arrangements, and personal contacts seem to have become more relevant to future success than educational achievement.

It thus appears that while the popular view is that everyone has an equal shot at success, some students cannot always see how education can put them on the path to success. And who can blame them? If they seldom see the long-term benefits that can come from being educated, can they realistically be expected to work hard at something they don't believe will pay off in the future? Ultimately, many students may conclude that academic achievement will play only a minor role in their future career prospects.

Read the whole thing, it is a stunning indictment not only of the American education system, but the American student.