By McKayla Helm and Amelia Likeum, Editors
“I believe that education is the single greatest route to improving your future, and that includes not just your personal future, but that of your family and even your country. If the populace is not educated, you will never see advancements in technology, medicine, agriculture, or anything that holds up a society. It is in the poorer countries in which I have studied that I see a greater push for education. It is unfortunate that these places are not able to support the infrastructure or have the monies needed for an improved system. However, the students in these countries truly feel that going to school is a gift, and they do not squander it,” Spaetzel said.
Spaetzel studied in Mexico City at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico when she was a junior in college from 1988 to 1989. She received her master’s degree at Universidad Internacional in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1995. During her time in Mexico, Spaetzel noticed the difference in the eagerness for education.
“Additionally, there were so many schools for ESL because students wanted to learn English and the public schools just didn’t have the teachers with the ability or knowledge. I’m sure it was hard to choose which private English school to attend. Our classes were always filled up, and that was after these students had spent a whole day at their regular schools. I wish we had that same problem with wanting to learn another language here,” Spaetzel said.
In America, education is important in order to train the generations that will one day be the majority of the country. The government gives guidelines and laws for the benefit of the country for education, but the states, districts, and people have a lot of freedom in what they choose for their own education. This freedom can involve school and class choices. Typically, schooling in the United States consists of 13 years (Kindergarten and grades one through twelve). There are six years of elementary, three years if middle school and three years of high school. Education is an important part of people’s lives, especially as young adults. However, when it comes to the young adults in America, the U.S. ranks 14th among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and G20 (Group of 20) countries in the percentage of 25-34 year-olds boasting higher education attainment, at 42 percent which is over the OECD average, 38 percent. However, Korea has a 65 percent which puts it as the leading country in education.
According to the OECD U.S. Country Report, young people in the U.S. will be struggling to surpass their parents’ education, the odds being at a low 29 percent. This is one of the lowest levels in most OECD countries.
Students in Latvia, Chile and Brazil are making academic gains three times faster than American students while in Portugal, Hong Kong, Germany, Poland, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Colombia and Lithuania are improving twice the rate according to a report by Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance. This proves that this generation of young adults will be struggling to surpass both the older generations in education and their foreign peers.
Study findings report that after years of rankings, foreign students are shown to be outpacing their American peers academically. Students in Shanghai recently took international exams for the first time and outscored every other school system in the world in every subject. American students ranked 25 in math, 17 in science and 14 in reading for the same test.
On a closer level, Kaneland is attempting to improve the education here with the schedule change, however all changes are approved by the Board of Education in Illinois. It was implemented to help improve Kaneland student’s grades and education. Currently, the plurality of Kaneland, when all of the subjects being met or exceeded are put together, is 56.7 percent.
“It is an undeniable fact that countries who outeducate us today are going to outcompete us tomorrow. If we’re serious about building an economy that lasts- an economy in which hard work pays off with the opportunity for solid middle class jobs- we’ve got to get serious about education,” President Barack Obama said at a White House event in September.
merica wants to improve their educational system, but it could be a difficult process.
“Education is a complex system. You can’t take one element or one variable out of a system and expect it to work. We need to understand how different countries are producing results, but we need to be sophisticated in how we interpret those results,” James Stigler, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, James Stingler said.
Germany School Life
In Germany, each of the sixteen states has it’s own public school system and has no tuition fees. Educational programs are organized, financed and administered at the state level. The Department of Education in the states oversees the state’s primary, secondary and career training schools and much of higher education. After secondary education, the rest is set up at a federal level. The educational planning and research corresponds with the help of the state and federal level administrators. Accordingly, the teaching and testing is generally equal throughout the country, although a difference in the curriculum may be different in each state.
A typical school day for a German student ends between one and two p.m., and they rarely need study halls or lunches. On the other hand, the homework load is intensive and parents often spend lots of time helping their children. Similar to the U.S., students who do not meet the academic level of a particular grade level in more than one subject are held back for a single year and have to repeat the entire course work for that year. Because the academic standards are so high, it’s not unusual for a graduate to have spent a couple extra years in school.
Grades one through ten do not change classrooms, unless special facilities are needed. Instead the teachers move from class to class to see students sitting two to a table. There are fewer electives than offered in the U.S. and it is very standardized. The student’s weekly class schedule lists about twelve subjects, and each day’s schedule is different. For example, students may have their math and science classes on one day and then on another take their language classes. Typically, German students are taught more subjects per semester with limited weekly hours of instruction over a longer period of time. Religious classes are also mandatory for all students until they turn 14.There are two classes for each of the religious denominations, Protestant and Catholic.
Generally, in Germany, there is a high standard of education and students will separate their private lives from the school. Except for an occasional field trip and an annual class trip, there are not many social events.
“It would be boring. There’d be no point in school,” freshman Gio Regalado said.
However, in America, school is part education and part social interaction.
“Conversation and social interactions help the students,” biology teacher Breanne Kahl said.
Not only are there high standards for their education, but employers and labor unions are looking to offer paid training positions in order to train a skilled labor force. It is as important to obtain an internship as it is a job. Internship positions are available to everyone, even dropouts, which puts them at high demand. For the German students, it is important to have formal career training because there are over 400 state-recognized occupations that require the formal training. The training is technically separate from the school, but employers and labor forces are often checking in to examine the next generation of students. This training is a necessary component of both the German labor market and the educational system.
Overall, German students handle their education at a serious, almost job-like level. This is why Germany ranks fifth among OECD countries in graduation rates from advanced research programmes and in adult participation in job-related non-formal education.
Korea School Life
Korea, along with having a regular school day, also provides hagwons, or private after-school tutoring academics. Hagwons can go up to 10 p.m. since authorities placed a curfew, hoping to lessen the amount of hours spent studying.
The typical academic schedule begins at eight a.m at school, which ends around four p.m. After school, the students go to a hagwon, which begins around one to two hours after school and ends around ten p.m. After that, some students even go as far as to study privately at home, sometimes from ten p.m. to one a.m., depending on the ambition of the student.
The purpose for studying so hard is to get into the best university possible. To get into one, Koreans need to score as high as they can on the CSAT, or College Scholastic Ability test. Students who don’t score very high are doomed to a low-class university, and lesser jobs.
Having such an important exam is slightly beneficial. This can get all the students motivated to work hard so they can get into a good college. It is also a strand of hope for the poorer students, since they can rise to the top if they study really, really hard.
Yet there are downsides to having just one test, also. It’s hard for those with test anxiety to get into a good college. It also means that if a student doesn’t score high in just one test, thir life is condemned to never be as good as it could’ve been if they had just answered a few more questions correctly.
The test, which takes place in the student’s last year, places much stress on the student. This is like the stress over the ACT in America except on a greater level. Since Korean colleges determine who enter their university solely on the test according to Time Magazine, students feel more pressure than ever to do well.
