Isaac Said:

Why the constant analogy of a factory model when discussing education in America?

We Answered:

In a word, it's politics. Running the public schools is a government function and government is controlled by politicians. They generally understand the factory model and can explain their various theories of how schools should function based upon that. This is what gets them elected and getting elected is how they have control of the agenda.

Tony Said:

What are some primary purpose of education in America? for citizenship or to take responsibility for our democ?

We Answered:

This question sounds like and looks like (word for word mind you) the question that was asked of me in my masters program as our first week written assignment. Do you also need to write a 3 page paper on in

Vanessa Said:

what are the stages of education in America?

We Answered:

The first stage is preschool. It may not really count because it's optional, not required, and it's not considered part of a child's formal education. Children at this level typically do more hands-on play sort of stuff, not actual schoolwork (although they may still learn basic things such as letters). A child can usually attend preschool anywhere from age 2 1/2 to 5. There is also a program called pre-kindergarten which is supposed to prepare the child for kindergarten (the first year of elementary school and first year of formal education). But like preschool, it is optional. A child would generally attend pre-kindergarten from age 4-5.

Then comes elementary school (our term for primary school). Most elementary schools nowadays have kindergarten through 5th grade. There are some elementary schools that still go up to 6th grade (that's how it generally used to be in the old days, and some schools still do it this way). I have heard of a few that are only kindergarten through 4th grade, but I don't think this is very common.

Middle school or junior high school is next. Unlike elementary school where students are typically in the same classroom all day, middle/junior high school is when students start switching classes throughout the day like in high school. Most areas of the country call it middle school and it typically has 6th through 8th grade. Areas that have 6th grade in elementary schools usually just have 7th and 8th grade in middle school, but then there are still a few places that have junior high school, which is 7th to 9th grade (again, that was generally how it used to be, but nowadays this is not very common). The few places that only have grades K-4 in elementary have 5th-8th grade in middle school, but this is also not that common.

High school is the last part of required schooling. Most high schools have 9th through 12th grade. A very few still have only 10th through 12th grade (if the 9th graders are still in junior high).

As for the ages that attend all these grades: a child usually begins kindergarten at age 5 and turns 6 sometime during the year. So then they go to 1st grade from age 6-7, 2nd grade from age 7-8, and so on. Just keep doing the math. They eventuallly graduate from high school at age 18.

College or university comes after high school, but it's not required. Most people start attending after graduating high school. The ages that go can vary. It much depends on the career that the person is going into. Sometimes people start college later and not right after high school. But many start after high school, and the typical 4-year college degree means they'd go from age 18 to 22. In college, people earn their degrees to get into whatever career they want to do.

Frederick Said:

Where can I find good sources for a paper on education in America?

We Answered:

The best and most overlooked way to improve classroom education of any kind is to introduce the use of boardgames. I have taught for over ten years all over the world, and only when I use boardgames do students voluntarily insist on extending their classes for two, three, even four hours. Not only that, but they then show the most rapid improvement.
Check out the following websites for some useful background info.

http://www.rpg.net/sites/edu/1-1.html

http://www.rpg.net/sites/edu/1-2.html

http://subscriptions.fasfind.com/wwwtool…

http://www.gama.org/uploads/nS/XX/nSXX7l…

Give it a try and you will be amazed. At least you will be helping to break the monopoly that the big textbook publishers have over the education industry.

Fred Said:

What would it be like if healthcare and college education in America were free?

We Answered:

As a military brat I get the socialized, government-paid health care. Really it's the best, as long as there's nothing wrong with you.

The reason why many politicians like Obama like it is because they get really great care from people because they are high up and powerful, and really, who wouldn't like to say they get to take care of the President of the United States?

For the rest of us it's not so awesome. Like I said before if there is anything you need help with it loses it's splendor.
Ever hear the phrase 'you get what you paid for'? That's the truth. You don't pay much, you don't get much.
Giving birth in a normal hospital: they take care of you. They help you move, wash yourself, and make sure you're as comfortable as possible after the fact.
Giving birth in a government paid hospital: You take care of yourself. It's very possible to get very sick and they won't do anything about it. I'm not a pessimist, this is what I've seen.

When I was in my early teen years I began to have serious pain in my spine. We went from military hospital to military hospital for years. It was only a little short of two months ago that we discovered what was wrong (i have discs that are burrowing into my spine, ouch). But the only reason we discovered this was because we fought out of the system. The military still pays our insurance but we go to normal hospitals. It really was a fight though to get out.
When we were still with the military hospitals we kept getting told that I was depressed and the pain stemmed from that. All this of course made me feel rather depressed but I knew my pain could not be so debilitating if it was all in my head. I couldn't walk sometimes. Breathing hurts.
They refused to do testing with MRI's and CT scans and we finally came to an ortho-something-or-other doctor who told us to fight our way out of the system. so we did and the testing began. I'm not saying every doctor I saw was wonderful. There were a few who were rude. But the majority was devoted to discovering the cause of the symptoms.

Government-paid health care breeds doctors who are doing their job because they have to. Though some care, like the doctor who told me to get out of the system, the majority are paid little and are in the military because they didn't know where to go and the military paid for their schooling.
People who go to college and pay off student loans for many years have to be really wanting to help people. Really wanting to heal and to learn.

I used to live on the border between the US and Canada and many Canadians love their socialized medicine. But those are the people who've never had anything serious to see the doctor for. They all come to the US to have their children and for serious diseases.

I believe that if you want something in the United States you can get it with some hard work. no matter what your background. Look at all the accomplishments our president has achieved! And he is not the most extreme example of US rags to riches stories.
Success comes with a high price. A lot of hard work. But that's life. Nothing is free really.

Virgil Said:

Let's tell the difference between the education in china and the education in America?

We Answered:

There is no comparision!!

Jacqueline Said:

Why is it that in America Education and Health Care are one of the lowest priorities, What future awaits us ?

We Answered:

Actually education and health care are two of the most MEDDLED with areas by the feds. What you see are the RESULTS of governmental interference.
The government refuses to do its actual job--law enforcement--and instead keeps cutting bogus deals that only special interests benefit from. On health care, for example:
We need to enforce CONTRACT law so that legit claims do NOT get denied. We need to enforce ANTITRUST law so we taxpayers don't keep getting taken to the cleaners with bogus costs. We also should reform all these unconstitutional federal programs--like Medicare--that don't do anything for anyone other than big pharma.

When 75% of the people who declare bankruptcy over medical bills ARE INSURED, then insurance is CLEARLY not the answer.
"Aldrich’s situation is "asinine" but increasingly common, said Dr. Deborah Thorne of Ohio University. Thorne, co-author of a widely quoted 2005 study that found medical bills contributed to nearly half of the 1.5 million personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. each year, said that ratio has likely worsened since the data was gathered.
...
Like Aldrich, Thorne said, three-quarters of the individuals in the study who declared bankruptcy because of health problems were insured. "
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20201807/

Linda Peeno, MD testified that SHE had often denied treatment JUST to save the insurance company money http://www.thenationalcoalition.org/DrPe…

Furthermore:
"the vast majority of health insurance policies are through for-profit stock companies. They are in the process of “shedding lives” as some term it when “undesirable” customers are lost through various means, including raising premiums and co-pays and decreasing benefits (Britt, “Health insurers getting bigger cut of medical dollars,” 15 October 2004, investors.com). That same Investors Business Daily article from 2004 noted the example of Anthem, another insurance company. They said the top five executives (not just the CEO) received an average of an 817 percent increase in compensation between 2000 and 2003. The CEO, for example, had his compensation go from $2.5 million to $25 million during that time period. About $21 million of that was in stock payouts, the article noted.

A 2006 article, “U.S. Health Insurance: More Market Domination, More CEO Compensation”
(hcrenewal.blogspot.com) notes that in 56 percent of 294 metropolitan areas one insurer “controls more than half the business in health maintenance organization and preferred provider networks underwriting." In addition to having the most enrollees, they also are the biggest purchasers of health care and set the price and coverage terms. “’The results is double-digit premium increases from 2001 and 2004—peaking with a 13.9 percent jump in 2003—soaring well above inflation and wages increases.’" Where is all that money going? The article quotes a Wall Street Journal article looking at the compensation of the CEO of UnitedHealth Group. His salary and bonus is $8 million annually. He has benefits such as the use of a private jet. He has stock-option fortunes worth $1.6 billion."
--Save America, Save the World by Cassandra Nathan pp. 127-128

"Insurance Companies Robbing Patients
Robbing patients to pay CEOs leads to unprecedented medical insurance corporation greed.
Thursday, January 3, 2008 8:52 AM
By: Michael Arnold Glueck & Robert J. Cihak, The Medicine Men"
http://www.newsmax.com/medicine_men/medi…

Oh and let's stop a little something INSANE called "compassionate entry":
"Dickson emphasizes that not all the free care is going to illegal aliens passing through on their way to other states. About half goes to Mexicans who use the Copper Queen as their personal emergency-care facility. In effect, the hospital, which performs general surgery, has become the trauma center for that stretch of northern Mexico. If an ambulance pulls up to the border-crossing point near Bisbee and announces "compassionate entry," the border patrol waves it through, and the Copper Queen is compelled to treat the patient. It is one more program that Congress mandates but does not pay for. "If you make me treat someone," says Dickson, "then you need to pay me. You can't have unfunded mandates in a small hospital." Although the Medicare drug act that passed last year provides for modest payments to hospitals that treat illegal aliens, Dickson says there is a catch that the U.S. government has yet to figure out. "How do I document an undocumented alien? How am I going to prove I rendered that care? They have no Social Security number, no driver's license."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articl…

How about a sensible, FREE MARKET plan that would not only reform ALL government-run health care ON THE WAY TO PRIVATIZING IT, but address the above problems and more:

the NEED for more homegrown, US-educated doctors and nurses (we turn away THOUSANDS of well-qualified students each year, while for doctors, our system REQUIRES because of so few docs being allowed into med school, that 25% of ALL our residencies be filled by graduates of foreign med schools. Not only is that stupid for OUR patients, but it's THEFT from countries that ALSO have doctor shortages. AKA evil.)
Reduce costs to med students--student loans now average $130K upon graduation--that's stupid when we give slackers highly subsidized rides through college even if they keep flunking or take pointless classes like Women's Studies at OUR expense. We HAVE the money to get more med schools, dental schools, nursing programs--stop WASTING it on PC idiocy.
Reduce prescription drug costs by BULK BUYING so it doesn't hurt pharma which does spend a lot in R&D but doesn't break the backs of some 80-year-old struggling to stay alive.
That sensible plan?
QUALITY, ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE health care for all.
That means preventative care (physical with follow up). Real medication (no Medicare "donut holes" the really ill are ripped off again.) No bogus ridiculously low "caps" on needed medical procedures. No abuse of the ER. No paying for the silly with the sniffles to go to the doc for free. No more bankruptcies over medical bills. I want THIS plan that ends abuse of the taxpayer, takes the burden off employers, provides price transparency, and ends the rip-off of the US taxpayer at the hands of greedy insurance CEOs (which has been repeatedly documented).
http://www.booklocker.com/books/3068.htm…
Read the PDF, not the blurb, for the bulk of the plan. Book is searchable on Amazon.com
Cassandra Nathan's Save America, Save the World
It means after the physical and follow-up you PAY YOUR OWN WAY until med expenses become an actual BURDEN, then insurance kicks in--exactly as it was designed HUNDREDS of years ago when people had more common sense.
Ed should be handled LOCALLY with more input from PARENTS.