1) If I say all people have right to a quality education taught by qualified teachers. Most of the people might think I am out of mind. However, different aspect may have different meaning to 'quality'. For example somewhere in the mid-Africa, a 'quality' education may be some kind of hunting skills. Meanwhile here in the US, 'quality' will be the understanding of read and write which is a total different world. Hence, I guess it was our misunderstanding to the word 'quality'. It's so true that we need to learn read and write, to certain extent, i think a quality education depends on the society rather than our etic view to what 'quality' meant to be through the world.
2) To those urban inner city schools which have no money to pay for good teachers and low test scores, to be realistic, a school helps children to become less dependent on the family, providing a bridge to other social groups. Children learn that they will be judged on their behavior and on academic performance. If a school can't afford a good teacher, at least teach their children a correct moral for their future development.
I agree with you that different countries of people have different definitions of the "quality" education, depending on how wealthy the countries are. For example, there are educational differences between Hong Kong and America. That's why you and I chose continuing our education in America.
回覆刪除Correct me if I am wrong, but I am under the impression that we have been studying the US educational system. If we want to get into other countries, that is a whole other set of issues. For example the legal rights we are granted, living in the US is completely different than the legal rights say in china. So the way I look at it is if some Americans are getting certain rights then all Americans should reap those same benefits regardless of where you reside. Poor, or wealthy, your social class should have nothing to do with the education you receive. The circumstances that some people are in are bad enough! Why should they suffer even more by not getting an adequate education, when education might be the only hope they have at better their life?
回覆刪除I agree that there are many different interpretations of what is education and knowledge....but I feel that we all expect quality out of whatever we do, want, and pay for. I don't agree with the way that the cash flows in the school system. Why is it that the poorer you are the less money your school receives? Aren't the lower incomes who we are supposed to be helping? If you can afford to help with the cost of schooling, then pay your share. If you can't pay your share, then there are programs at the state and federal levels to help you. Morals education hopefully doesn't depend on funds?? If I read that correctly. There is no balance to the system since the funding is based on the housing taxes in the area of the schools. The teachers pay is a totally different messed up project. Their pay is crappy, they are the heart of the whole system. If they didn't have the passion to be there we wouldn't have this whole education system in the first place. It shouldn't be based off the school that they get hired at..it should be based off years of service, education etc. (like the rest of us, raises etc). There are some teachers in the poorer districts who out rank richer district teachers yet get paid less because of the area they work.
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