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I have not seen the movie, but I can speak to the quality of American schools (in working class Los Angeles by the way) as opposed to German and Austrian schools (where my husband taught), especially Austrian schools (that my children attended in their earliest years -- three years of free kindergarten and the first two to three years of grade school). Austria is thirteenth in math on that list.
America has the best grade school teachers -- the best trained. They are very professional. They don't, however, get the perks and the job security and above all the respect that European teachers get. When we were in Europe teachers were called "Herr professor," Mr. Professor "Frau Lehererin," Miss Teacher, etc. (by everyone in the town). The kindergarten teachers were called "Schwester" -- Sister. Teachers at that time were given special opportunities to buy homes at reasonable prices and were encouraged to remain in their profession all their lives. Teachers were somebody. Contrast that with our country.
Children, as I said, had three years of half-day kindergarten provided by the government. During that time, they did not learn the alphabet or to read. In fact, my neighbors warned me that I should not let my child read until she was 6. That is actually a good idea because many children do not have the maturity to read until they are 6. In kindergarten, the children learned to listen to stories, tell stories, sit together in a group, play harmoniously (well, most of the time), organize and make things and keep a schedule.
Of course, learning to read German is much easier than learning English. German is a phonetic language. Although my oldest daughter could not read at all when she started school, by Christmas, she could read a book of Disney stories - somewhat simplified, by herself. I was utterly amazed. Both of my children did well in math. That was their top subject. That may be a natural gift.
In Austria, a grade school child stayed in the same class with the same teacher for the first four years. After that, they were tracked according to their performance and family choices.
Families were quite aware that it was important for a child to do well in grade school. There was a lot of pressure because it would be hard for a child to catch up later if the child did not do well in grade school. That child's opportunities in life would be limited.
At the time we were there, high schools had three basic tracks (with variations) -- Hauptschule, where children learned very practical things and maybe afterwards or even simultaneously did an apprenticeship for a craft or job -- Handelschule, which is sort of a preparation for a school that is academically more demanding than the Hauptschule but does not necessarily prepare the student for university but rather for a business or technical degree -- and, then the Gymnasium which focused on academic studies and which was highly demanding and competitive intellectually. At the end of the Gymnasium studies, the children had to take a difficult test. Passing or failing was a big deal. Teachers in the Gymnasium were well educated academics.
As I said, the teachers in the public schools here are, in my opinion, far more professional and better prepared for their profession although perhaps not culturally as well educated (in European art, music, history, etc.) than their European counterparts at least in the schools that I saw.
There are a number of reasons why European kids perform better than the American kids. Americans mostly respect rich people, famous people, not educated people, not teachers in the schools, not university professors, not research scientists, etc. It's rich people behind this whole "school reform by privatizing" thing, not intellectuals. Europeans still respect famous people, but they also showed a great deal of respect in their daily lives for educated people. That was quite a shock to me. The first time that an Austrian called my house on the phone and said "Frau Doktor" to me I laughed out loud. I was stunned that someone would call me Frau Doktor, a very respectful title, simply because my husband has a PhD. PhDs in this country are not recognized for their academic achievements outside the workplace for the most part. Some of our closest friends have no idea that my husband has a PhD. It's just not something that is important here.
But parents and their engagement in the education of their small children are the real secret to the success of European schools. In Austria -- when we lived there -- grade school children generally got out of school at 12:30 p.m. They brought small textbooks sometimes paperback -- that the children, not the school owned -- and little notebooks the size of the bluebooks that we used to take college exams in -- except thicker with them in their schoolbags. Every day each child had homework assignments. Mothers sat beside their children as the children did the homework -- every day. And at the end of the day's homework, the child would draw a design on a line under that day's assignment with a colored pencil. That was very important. It indicated to the child that the child had finished something. Getting to draw a little design across the line with the colored pencils was a sort of reward to the child. (Don't ask me why, but they really liked doing it.) So finishing the work and making it look nice were a source of personal pride. The little notebooks were filled with these colorful lines and were very cheery.
Our schools do not teach children to reward themselves in that way for disciplined work. Most important, our schools are settling for lack of interest by parents. That's not the teachers' fault. That's a cultural problem as are most of the problems in our schools. We would never require the decorative line at the end of a homework assignment because we would see it as a waste of time.
Mind you, my children attended public schools, and my husband taught in public schools in Europe. They were not privatized. The privatization of schools here is a corporate gimmick. It is unnecessary. It is downright bad. It will lead to cost-cutting, eventual lack of parental control and one-size-fits-all cheap education that cuts corners. Isn't that what our corporations all of them do to increase their profits?
I think the trend toward charter schools is absolutely abominable. In the long run, it will take parents OUT of the schools even more than they are. I strongly suspect that the movie is yet another propaganda gimmick by big business. What a shame that so much money is put into such a horrible idea as privatizing our schools.
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