Waiting For Superman

[QuantumJG]

Ok so the latest US documentary is waiting for Superman. This documentary talks about how the US educational system is failing it's people.

What I want to ask that is our country's educational system as flawed? Are we doing enough to provide an educational system that ensures that our population is properly educated.

We have a family friend who is an educational professor at either Deakin or LaTrobe University and she believes some of her students aren't teacher material. So we are pumping out some teachers that have no passion in their students and they are suffering.

I have been lucky to have a lot of great teachers who motivated me to do well in my subjects, but I have also had some dud teachers. My greatest concern was that during my highschool life I had ONE good English teacher in year 9 and the rest didn't teach me anything.

What about the people having to apply for SEAS because their school was a disadvantaged one? VN was developed to try and close this gap whilst our VCE system is a monopolized one where we have these institutes that charge hundreds of dollars to help with VCE units that barely any students can afford.   

[pi]

What I want to ask that is our country's educational system as flawed? Are we doing enough to provide an educational system that ensures that our population is properly educated.

This. We need more money to suburban and rural/regional government schools and less funding to the already rich inner-city private schools. Only more/fairer distribution of funds can ensure our country is better educated in the future.

[Greatness]

What I want to ask that is our country's educational system as flawed? Are we doing enough to provide an educational system that ensures that our population is properly educated.

This. We need more money to suburban and rural/regional government schools and less funding to the already rich inner-city private schools. Only more/fairer distribution of funds can ensure our country is better educated in the future.

+1 the government is better off funding education rather than their other failed campaigns

[eeps]

I agree with everything said so far. True, there is a gap in the education system - the top schools (i.e. MHS, MacRob etc) to the very low schools (academically speaking). IMO as what has already been said, the government should invest more money into the education system; as the students in the system now are going to be the future. Give a fair education to all.

There will always be the top and low schools in any education system around the world, that's a matter of fact. The Victorian government etc should try to bridge this gap - implement foundations and support those schools in need. Though equality may not be reached in the education system, hopefully it goes someway to bridging the gap between schools.

[chrisjb]

I reckon we're prety good... There are flaws with the system, but we'd be up there with the best imo.

It's true that we need to put more money into rural schools and less into already rich ones. At my school, we got some building grant to build all these state of the art buildings and all but one of our complexes isn't more than 7 years old (and the majority of it was only finished this year... and the one that is older would have been top of the range when it was built)... our school simply didn't need that money or buildings. The original buildings didn't look nice but they were functional and they could have kept going for a while.
I think that the money the spent at my school could have been spent much better across three or four rural schools.

That's the only problem that I can see with our system though. And we have gotten better.

[TrueLight]

what do people think of school voucher program where the parent has the responsibility to choose the best school and promoting competition between schools. so instead of the government allocating funding, let the parents get the money to pick the school

http://ldp.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1162:school-education&catid=101:policies&Itemid=290
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IfCd2iA6sc Peter Schiff talking about voucher system

heres some problems with federal voucher programs...
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul132.html
proposing a tax credit instead of a voucher

[chrisjb]

^ I don't understand it.

[Kotza]

Great topic.

I think our system is a fairly flawed one (in Victoria at least.) IMO it's just the sheer complexity of our system and the great extent to which results can vary depending on individual circumstances. Results shouldn't be determined by your wealth/location and what school you attend. I know the latter is something that is realistically impossible to make equal (all schools being equal) but the chances of greatness varies soooooo greatly in comparison to public schools and high status inner city ones that it just isn't right.

Also, George Carlin, an American comedian/social commentator/philosopher commented on how the quality of both education and pupils is deteriorating. He said that the only policy the government implements is "lowering of the passing score," and therefore allowing less capable and intelligent students to succeed and become teachers etc. This is the case in my school where a pass in any SAC is 45%, so basically you are passing by knowing less than half of the material... shocking.

This is entertaining in regards to education, i recommend watching it!!!!!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jQT7_rVxAE

I have come into contact with teachers who mispronounce basic words such as "requisitioning" and say it as "rechristianing," and the list goes on. Moving to a public school has indeed been detrimental to my VCE scores, and this should never occur.

[bomb]

One problem I have with our system is that we start to tell students "it's okay to fail" from y10 because there are "pathways" anyway. At our school, this meant everyone relied on said "pathways" rather than aiming for 80+ with some effort.

Our pass is 30%, so you can guess through to pass.

And kotza I love that video haha. George Carlin is a genius.

[Ghost!]

One problem I have with our system is that we start to tell students "it's okay to fail" from y10 because there are "pathways" anyway. At our school, this meant everyone relied on said "pathways" rather than aiming for 80+ with some effort.

This, definitely.

There's way too much emphasis for students these days to understand that it's okay not to excel academically. We're told everyday that not everyone is 'book smart', and it's perfectly fine not too do well when it comes to studying. It makes me sad going to a school were less than 25% of students understand where or how a study score/ATAR is made, and 10% have visualised academic goals.

[nacho]

What I want to ask that is our country's educational system as flawed? Are we doing enough to provide an educational system that ensures that our population is properly educated.

This. We need more money to suburban and rural/regional government schools and less funding to the already rich inner-city private schools. Only more/fairer distribution of funds can ensure our country is better educated in the future.

I go to rowville secondary, ranked 430th out of 480 schools, but i still don't see what the government could fund us with?
I think we have a few rooms in our school without airconditioning or heating.. but its' not like we're missing tables, have power cuts or something.
The school isn't anything fancy - but we have more than the basic needs, it's the students and parents attitudes that need to change. Although, the government could fund schools with guards to patrol the vicinity of the school to catch out any 'waggers'.
Too many students want to get away from school ASAP and start earning $$, dropping out in year 10, or just wanting to 'pass' their vce (idk what they even mean..? >30 ATAR maybe)
And i don't think you can say 'the education system is failing us, we have lame teachers who don't really have a vocation for teaching', you could just as easily say that about those adamant students who never show up to class or don't do the work. The legal system is failing us, our health care is failing us, our government is failing us.. it's not the way to go about things.

Thinking about it now, though, I think perhaps the government could fund students in getting tutors or something..
Seriously, you may as well say we live in a failed world then

[Ghost!]

What I want to ask that is our country's educational system as flawed? Are we doing enough to provide an educational system that ensures that our population is properly educated.

This. We need more money to suburban and rural/regional government schools and less funding to the already rich inner-city private schools. Only more/fairer distribution of funds can ensure our country is better educated in the future.

I go to rowville secondary, ranked 430th out of 480 schools, but i still don't see what the government could fund us with?
I think we have a few rooms in our school without airconditioning or heating.. but its' not like we're missing tables, have power cuts or something.
The school isn't anything fancy - but we have more than the basic needs, it's the students and parents attitudes that need to change. Although, the government could fund schools with guards to patrol the vicinity of the school to catch out any 'waggers'.
Too many students want to get away from school ASAP and start earning $$, dropping out in year 10, or just wanting to 'pass' their vce (idk what they even mean..? >30 ATAR maybe)
And i don't think you can say 'the education system is failing us, we have lame teachers who don't really have a vocation for teaching', you could just as easily say that about those adamant students who never show up to class or don't do the work. The legal system is failing us, our health care is failing us, our government is failing us.. it's not the way to go about things.

Thinking about it now, though, I think perhaps the government could fund students in getting tutors or something..
Seriously, you may as well say we live in a failed world then

... yes, but who's influencing students into wanting to leave so early, and not wanting to be in school? And who's job is it to motivate students to be in school, and to show them that education is the right way to go in life?

[Kotza]

Nacho, Rowville is 430th? Holy shit.... Mazenod is 56th...

Why did i leave lol.

[sam.utute]

Nacho, Rowville is 430th? Holy shit.... Mazenod is 56th...

Why did i leave lol.

Haha lol man. Picked one of the worst public schools. It's ranking is getting even worse as more kids come to join the sports academy and ignore academic studies.

[Kotza]

lol sammy its a joke, the sports academy only makes the school academically worse, there is no benefit behind its existence besides saying that rowville has a sports academy lol.

I dont know why a man of your caliber went to rowville anyways, you woulda smashed up a 99+ at a decent school