Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence in an Urban Context

The United States has a reputation for a successful educational system. People on the outside do not know, however, that this reputation is mainly intact due to the successful colleges and universities that we have here. The government and even the people have turned a blind eye for too long to the status of elementary schools and high schools. Lack of funding and structural problems have led to the decrease in standards. Teachers are paid far less than other professions, making it an unattractive job that most do not want to go into and increasing the lack of quality teachers out there. On top of that, the people always complain about the lack of funding but always gripe about how the taxes are too high making funding even more difficult. Our successors will not be able to use the quality college system in this country if they cannot get into those schools in the first place.

Politics aside, there are ways the educational system can be repaired. First of all, children today are taught in a manner that is not interesting and lacks relation to the real world. Most teachers use instructional discourse to teach to their students. The problem with using such methods is that they do not pertain to the real world. Even today, I find myself overwhelmed at times because I do not know how to tackle a certain problem. In school, most of the problems given involve using a specific method that has just been taught or is completely obvious to use. The purpose of education is to prepare young minds for the real world. Doing so should require a top-down approach, which spends less time on skills and more time and recognizing how to do things. The skills people develop in school are useless unless they know when to use them.

Schools also spend a lot of time with required curriculum that most will not end up using in life. Many courses that I have taken in high school and in college as well, I have wondered why I am taking them because I do not want to do anything that involves it in life. I think instead of people choosing what their focus should be in college, we should encourage our children to decide earlier what they want to become and take a curriculum that is tailored toward that goal. Apprenticeships are one way of doing this. By working with a single person in a real world atmosphere, the focus on that pupil is intensified as well as the interest in the craft. Allowing the individual to choose that craft is also important because he is motivated to do well instead of feeling like he is wasting his time. Some general knowledge courses, however, should still be required for all children for a more well-rounded education.