Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence in an Urban Context

The United States technically has one of the best education systems in the world. At least that’s what people outside believe. We have some of the top schools and colleges. Everybody has heard of Harvard, Yale, and Columbia and a lot of people try to get into these schools from other countries. This is true; those universities are great, however, what about the elementary and secondary education in this country? A lot of people in this country will never make it to these colleges because of the lack of grades, money, drugs, family issues etc. So, we would hope that they at least get the best education they can while in elementary and junior high schools.

The importance of education starts in preschool and kindergarten. According to the textbook  “the children most likely to benefit from preschool education- for example, those at highest risk of malnourishment and contracting preventable diseases- are the least likely to be enrolled in a preschool program”. This is definitely a shortcoming when it comes to education. The kids that need preschool the most do not attend. Why? Well, one reason is that some people do not think it is important, especially immigrants. For me personally, I came from Russia and we did not have preschool. At six years old, we automatically went into the first grade, so I’m sure a lot of people do not see a reason to send their kids to school that early. Another reason is that it is not mandatory. Some people do not have the resources to send their children to school when it is not mandated by the government.  Most of these people cannot afford sending their children to preschool, paying for their clothes, or paying for some of the dues these schools collect. This leads into another shortcoming- lack of funding provided by our government. Instead of providing more money for schools, so that kids actually go, get an education graduate and get a job, the government puts all of its money into wars, leaving the children in this country to end up hustling. I remember the books my junior high school and high school gave out to us were torn and dirty. That is such an embarrassment to this country considering the United States is one of the world powers. I lived in Russia until I was eight years old, and I remember our books were always fresh, covered, no one wrote in them, they surprisingly cared more about our education that they do here. When I saw the books they gave out here, it made me not even want to touch them, let alone read, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one feeling this way.

Another shortcoming is the curriculum overall. The American curriculum focuses on English and history, but barely on math and science which is very important. Compared to the European countries, children in this country are very far behind in math. When I came here, I went into the third grade. Granted I did not speak English, but when we started doing math I realized that what they were teaching here, I learned in the end of first grade in Russia. This is a problem, because even to this day, I see people in Baruch struggling with math in all of their business classes. We can clearly see the affects of the lack of pressure to do well and study hard 10 years later in college.