Armagetron Class in school!

[LucK]

I know what you mean yet part of me thinks that maybe they should care. I know I do. It just doesn't seem right to me that our education system is what is funding and breeding athletes for the professional leagues while the NFL and NBA rake in the profit for not having to fund a farm system. Meanwhile millions of students are stuck paying off debt for the better part of thir unenjoyable adulthoods for having to fund a farm league for a sport they will never find interesting. I know Division I soccer often goes overseas to recruit players and there is really no way of rating them academically. They get free rides while, arguably, more deserving players get better grades, pay full tuition and ride the bench. I like the English Premier League's sytem of running an academy where athletes train AND study at the expense of the club. But that is an older and more established league to be sure.

College is supposed to get you prepared for your future right? Well some students would rather choose a field in sports/entertainment than in an academic field. If they were more deserving they wouldn't be on the bench dude and at my school people involved in sports are required to maintain a 3.0 gpa, not get in trouble at school, and they have to attend practices. Even if you believe they don't deserve it athletes work hard they have to fit studying, practicing, and playing into a tight schedule. Most of those athletes are going to do something with that free education they are getting. Do you know how many athletes become doctors/lawyers? You rarely hear about those players because they are being over shadowed by the few idiots who waste the free ride they are given. But it's not only athletes who do that so you can't really be upset with them for that.

[Titanoboa]

I think he's more upset about the system than about athletes.
I'll let him answer that though. :-)

[Lucifer]

My question actually was not why; I have known that. It was why are we letting it continue that way? I am guessing I should learn to be more precise.

Making a massive change in the education system would require way more resources than it's worth. Teaching towards tests is a good way to get as many kids in and out of school as quickly as possible. Not every student wants to learn; so teaching them to take a test that gets them out of school is the best idea. If a student really wants to learn, they can find more information on their own.

It's even worse than that. By teaching to the tests, the education system reinforces the idea that people will always be judged by their superiors. So when you go out to join the workforce, you're expecting to go through various tests and be evaluated regularly. Which is precisely what happens. The system sustains itself.

Integrity, intelligence, critical thinking, these are traits that can't be evaluated by tests. And with more teaching to the test, these are traits that our education system should be cultivating that it's disregarding in favor of training kids to be prepared to join the workforce.

Nowadays, the only integrity a person needs to show is that they don't get caught cheating on a test. Intelligence? You can show it, and your superiors will fear it, and if you show too much, you'll be moved to a special corner where you can live in your own special world, sheltered from the realities you will eventually face on your own, completely alone.

School is all about learning how to follow directions, do what you're told without question, and be prepared to be a good worker. Dissidence isn't allowed, and is blatantly punished. At higher levels in school, enough students are properly conditioned that the school itself doesn't even have to step in and punish dissidents. They will be cast out and ostracized for doing nothing more than asking questions that nobody should be asking.

Why is the established education system fighting the homeschooling movement as much as it is? Because the homeschoolers are showing that standardized testing is worthless, and they're raising kids that are much more intelligent than the ones going through the school system. Is it because the kids themselves are that much smarter? Doubtful, the movement has reached critical mass and should now represent a comparable cross-section of the population. But without standardized testing, and rules that put kids in their places at all times, never questioning their individuality and never realizing their individuality, the education system has no purpose. Its nominal purpose isn't even being fulfilled, the homeschoolers are showing that.