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Well, one of the problems with American school might be the fact that it's run on federal money. No matter how badly the schools do at educating their students they will never be shut down here.

As far as dropping out goes, I dropped out recently but not due to lazieness. I dropped out because I disagree with the way that the public education system is being run. I am in the process of getting my GED. (Which so far, seems alot like taking a seventh grade level SAT test)

To be honest I can’t in all honesty comment on the state of Japanese schools or any schools outside the usa as I have never even visited Japan and more importantly I have never attended there schools. That being said I’d like to say that school is not difficult in academics but rather environment. I believe George Bernard Shaw (Nobel Prize winner) said it best "There is nothing on earth intended for innocent people so horrible as a school".

What I am trying to convey is simply that schools (at least in america), intentionally, create an environment that does not foster learning and more importantly creativity and free thought. What we (and by we I mean the youth) are instead handed is an environment that is meant to teach obedience and above all faith in the system.

Now I know a lot of you are sitting there thinking I must have been bullied in school. As much as people and the media would like it it’s not that simple, in short I didn’t really run into many bullies after I broke that kids nose after school (the magic of a roll of quarters).

But I digress, I have found that in school children are often treated in an almost subhuman way. The cares and concerns of the students and even parents go unheard. I have had staff members and teachers that will only address a pupil as student or there student number.

Speaking of teachers I find schools hiring processes to be grossly negligent. I have had not one but two teachers that would literally destroy assignments and wrongfully grade students (still not sure why they did this). Also it seems at times that these teachers actually know absolutely nothing about the things they are supposed to be teaching.

Not to mention I’ve had teachers who outright refuse to help students who are struggling in class even when they asked for help directly. They would just say to them “If you paid attention you’d know all this stuff”. I almost punched that teacher for that.

I have a lot more to say but I kind of feel like posting all this is kind of hijacking the thread so I’ll post more if people are actually interested.

I am completely and utterly speechless- and that does /not/ happen often.

Well, perhaps not. Can I have this principal's address please? I think I need to come to his home for nice little. chat. ^^

All right, time to be serous. That is absolutely terrible. I mean, I've always had a poor view of secondary education, but that is just ridiculous. He reminds me a little of my American History teacher, Mr. Milstead. He always lectured- all day, every day. From these lectures students were expected to learn about both history and Milstead's likes and biases. Then, when the time came to write papers, you hopefelly knew what subjects/positions on subjects to avoid or you there was no way you were getting a good grade on that paper, whether the quality of work was magnificent or terrible.

Hrm, sorry. I digressed, but no more. My high school has always irritated me, and I have a plethora of teachers that I wouldn't mind being rid of. Thus, I tend to rant. Forgive me. Still, I agree with the statements that America's schools are crap. Simply put.

-Nya

that's like the state tests here. our teacher explained to us why. i forget all the math to it, but in our school each teacher grades about 200 essays a day, 2 minutes for each essay
i could be wrong but i'll check

The AP test has to be graded that way simply because of the fact that so many more kids these days are taking the classes, most of them don't belong there. In my school this year, our AP enrollment doubled, it makes what would have been far more personal and meaningful classes crowded comparitavely. Frankly I'm surprised three or four people haven't allready been booted from the class, the first three essays one person turned in were "sixth grade quality writing", to quote my teacher. Thankfully I do have a great teacher, I think even with conditions being a little cramped (she admits that she doesn't have the time to pour over papers and grade them as she normally would, the enrollment of the whole AP program two years ago is our current single class size) I will be able to learn a good deal from her.

America's schools in general, weak as hell, finding the right districts and moving there, that's how you do it. I go to one of the better high schools in Wisconsin, even if our reputation from years ago isn't how we are now, and I grew up in the second best grade and junior high's of the time.