(ThyBlackman.com) People often compare the American higher educational system with a hippopotamus who fell into a swamp. Indeed, the system is bulky, the flaws are serious, the crisis is deep. Our politicians, from the president to the mayors of cities and towns, are trying to save the day. Some (who are more decisive) offer to take measures that in fact turn out to be half-baked or one-sided. But what are these problems that spoil the higher education in the USA?
- Information overload
Students spend a lot of time studying what they can’t use in their lives, and it doesn’t increase productivity. I can not imagine the position in which a person applies the knowledge of Roman history, Shakespeare, or classical philosophy. Supporters of these disciplines believe that they are necessary for the overall development and expansion of horizons. But to broaden the horizons of just one area of information which is considered to appeal to humanistic ideals is not enough.
- The cost of higher education in the USA
Education in the United States is high quality and prestigious, but quite expensive. And the cost rises every year. The cost is one of the main factors why people decide not to enroll in an institution. Moreover, many graduates face increasing debt from student loans. An increasing number of parents are beginning to turn to institutions such as Knowledge First Financial in order to better finance their children’s education.
- Unequal access to education
The United States is one of many countries where education affects a lot: status, power, prestige, and of course income. But the number of cases of expulsions from schools in America is huge. In the American system, it turns out that much depends on geographic location and family income level, and not on potential or knowledge.
- Problems of linguistic minorities
Students who learn English as a second language are perceived in the American system as those who are obviously lagging behind in the program, and they can even be dismissed if the school has to undergo important state testing and the management does not want to spoil the statistics. Of course, there are various programs for teaching English to such students, but when they enroll in a university, they face the reluctance of the university’s head staff to enroll applicants without full knowledge of the language.
- Gender inequality
According to surveys, boys enjoy privileges in the United States. Many teachers do this completely unintentionally, but the fact remains. In addition, in America it is believed that girls are more prone to the humanities, and boys, in turn, to the technical fields.
- Standardized test problem
It is worth noting that standardized tests are considered very important in the process of learning in the United States. They are used for the sake of having one generally accepted methodology by which institutions measure students’ academic achievements, and they can also be used to measure students’ progress and teachers’ performance, or to assess whether students are ready for the next stage of education. As a result, the student graduates with minimal knowledge in subjects and with “maximum” test-passing skills.
- Violence
This includes not only the familiar troublemakers, who are likely to be in every school or institution, but the serious cases in which students bring weapons to school. This problem is mainly characteristic only for the United States, as for a country where the carrying of firearms is permitted by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.
- Limited funds allocated for institutional needs
Numerous reforms solve only superficial problems, without giving any attention to more important ones. Despite the fact that education is an important quality for all Western countries, in the USA this problem is simply concealed by reforms that, for the most part, do not affect the basic problems of education in America, due to factors like private schools that have their own student selection policies, unions of teachers who do not want to devote more time to students, etc.
- Most severe censorship within universities
In recent years, the most severe problems have added the most severe censorship inside universities. And it must be emphasized that students have driven themselves into an extremely rigid framework. For centuries, the campuses of Western countries have been positioned as the realm of freedom of speech, but now they look like an Orwellian state, where a heretic is threatened with a ban, a boycott, and even exclusion for breaking the rules.
- Cheating and plagiarism
Statistics show that cheating on exams is a serious problem in the US education system. Sociological studies show that approximately 75-80% of students resort to dishonest methods in order to improve their academic performance. Plagiarism is one of the forms of cheating in colleges and universities. If you don’t know how to write a paper, don’t plagiarize – simply, order an Anonymous essay from a professional writing service.
Staff Writer; Steve Brown