Is Our Education System a Big Failure?

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English 101

First Draft Due: July 15, 2011

Essay #1; 756

Is Our Education System a Big Failure?

According to the PISA Study (Programme for International Students Assessment), which is organized by the Organization of industrialized countries for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), "Out of 30 developed countries the U.S. is ranked 25th in math and 21st in science". Even President Obama said, in his first major speech on education in 2009, "The United States must drastically improve student achievement to regain lost international standing." Are these signs that our educational system is failing? Education is the key to success in life. If the system can't guarantee a good education, the children of today will suffer the consequences. The education system needs to start changing the way of testing people's abilities starting early in kindergarten. Although the IQ test is widely used by our system without a guarantee of success later in life, the education system should implement a new way of testing and teaching by taking into consideration Gardner's multiple intelligence theory and Bacon's advice to improve the outcomes in education.

The American education has declined over the past years. The U.S. at one time boasted one of the best education systems, but in the recent years it has lost its position, failing to 25th place among other countries. What happened with the American education? Wasn't enough government funding, economical changes or the ineffective ways the schools relate to the student? Why are other countries, even third world countries ahead of the United States in world ranking. Charles Sykes in his book, Dumbing Down Our Kids, points out that "If students in other countries do better than American students with worse buildings, larger student classrooms, and routinely undertrained teachers, then the only obvious reasons for poorer US results are the teaching methods and materials."

Implementing a new way of testing in kindergarten can improve students' intelligence in many ways. Howard Gardner states, "IQ test predict school performance with considerable accuracy, but they are only an indifferent predictor of performance in a profession after formal schooling... IQ tests measure only logical-linguistic capacities" He implies that IQ tests are not enough to measure all kinds of intelligences according to his theory. As a result, these tests can't predict who will become a good teacher, a good manager, or a good salesperson. However, If the education system integrates a new way of testing as early as kindergarten to measure and stimulate the seven kinds of intelligences by implementing multiple ways of teaching, schools will be able to educate students to their