Quote:
Originally Posted by
RunsWithFoxes 
My primary complaint was (and is) that students who honestly want to learn, and love to learn, shouldn't be placed in an environment where competition with other students is the primary focus. This was especially true in grad school, where it seemed to me that some classes were specifically designed to weed out students that the university considered unfit.
First, that would have been like death to me. Testing motivated me, competition motivated me. Testing and structure is what I needed. Everytime I got 100% I felt that adrenaline through my veins. When I didn't get the best grade in the class and lost out to someone I hated, I studied all the more vigorously the next time. And I love to learn. I just need structure and motivation to do so efficiently. Different people are different.
I'm going to rant here, but please don't take it as anger towards you, it's just my own strong feelings!
As for grad school- if they plan to go into academics, they better damn well be able to compete. Everything is competition, competition for money, recognition, tenure, publication, everything! And that is the same for many fields of employment. Grad school isn't for people who can't compete, and yes, a lot of it is to weed people out. That's how great schools earn their reputations. If someone wants to learn grad school level stuff in a less competitive environment, there are schools with students of different degrees of ability, or heck, the library!
My main complaint about the education I had was that I wasn't given appropriately challenging material until 7th grade when they separated out different groups. And no, they didn't only allow certain kids in honors, they encouraged as many kids to be in it as possible, including the kids no one might have guessed were smart, and it was their choice to drop out or not. I saw a lot of great students drop out to join easier classes.
The biggest problem with education in America- anti-intellectualism, low expectations, and not understanding that learning requires work. Parents pay only lip service (tell kids to do homework, but they never read or show interest in learning themselves.) and teachers have to bow to the lowest common denominator and angry parents.
People whine that kids shouldn't have to spend hours on homework or read the book or teach themselves some things on their own. Parents check all their kids math problems and practically do the work for them. Kids threaten to sue teacher if they get a bad grade (yes, this happens.)
I know someone who works at a college. She says people come in for tutoring who haven't even tried a single problem or opened the book. They complain that the tutor isn't helping them when they refuse to try. It's like they think learning is like the Matrix, it all gets spoon fed into your head.
And don't get me started on how these High school grads do on simple placement tests. Half of them don't even show up with pencils!
If anything, the schools need to start giving people a swift kick in the ass.
