<p>I think many of the problems above can be attributed to a US education system that I would describe as “One size misfits all”.</p>
<p>Thanks to NCLB, our K-12 education is now geared towards getting the maximum number of children to learn how to fill in the correct bubbles on a standardized test. </p>
<p>They are not taught to be able to understand and communicate our language, understand and employ basic logic (key to critical thinking), understand the basic principles of matter and life, be able to quantify and compute, and grasp the fundamentals of how humans feel, interact, and govern themselves in a society.</p>
<p>They just have to memorize basic facts, not be able to work together to solve the problems that will face them in life.</p>
<p>Of course, what can you do when 1 teacher has to deal with 25-30 children who all have different needs and styles of learning. Keeping order and filling in worksheets become the only way to manage such a crowd. Most children are naturally curious, but need help in working towards a socially correct way of cooperative learning. Sit down, shut up, and fill in the worksheet is about the only way to handle that number of students for many teachers, unfortunately. And after a while, these students are conditioned to do only that.</p>
<p>Our higher education system for the most part is no better. They take these passers of standardized tests and quickly discover, they cannot write, much less articulate a point of view effectively, be it of social or scientific nature. So they spend freshman year remediating basic reading and math skills, and filling in the rest of their credits by satisfying their angst with pop-culture ideas because the great thinking of man is not interesting because the students have been taught not to think, just do as instructed. </p>
<p>Those who continue to just do (not think), just continue on with their indoctrination, learning the “facts” they are told and come out with a uniform view of the world thoroughly ingrained in their heads. </p>
<p>In many ways this is no different than the education system of the Madrassas that teach radical Islam. The students come out spouting what the instructors want them to think, not finding their own way through a vast world of conflicting ideas and experiences learning how to critically evaluate information, formulate and test ideas, present ideas based upon their observations and graciously accept both praise and criticism of their work.</p>
<p>Fortunately, our universities don’t teach bomb construction to undergrads.</p>
<p>Yes, higher education is oversold on its benefits to a society.</p>
<p>But for an individual who is prepared to properly, it is well worth the money and time, provided you find an institution that will challenge a student, not indoctrinate.</p>