till they are 9 or 10, kids get recess and phys ed for hours every day, kindergarten is kindergarten, meaning that kids draw and paint and glue and cut things, teachers have professional development every day...

...we could go on and on.

Didn't one of their school administrators say something to the effect of "How did we create such a superior education system? We looked at what the US does in every area and we did the opposite." I am sure I have the quote wrong, but I am also sure I have the gist right.

And I think teacher evaluations are pretty much useless.

One night I decided to delve into the studies on teacher evaluations. Over the period of a week or two, I read studies on how effective they are. Long story short, there's nothing much to say that's positive.

In my own personal point of view, one doesn't really know if a class is useful or not until its five years down the road or so. In that time, if one refers to the class, uses what was taught, and if it made one see the world in a new way, then it's a useful, good course and most likely, same for the teacher.



Cher

The U.S. works from a model that was designed to create masses of workers for industry more than citizens for a democracy. Not evil per se, but easily corruptible and prone to it. And here we are, seeing the vision of John Dewey, having it explained to us in a foreign language, and finding it all incomprehensible. The engine of our democracy has been reduced to cog-making, managed to standardized mediocrity by mid level accountants. At this point we would not recognize excellence in education, we would fear it as a subversive affront to the Idiocracy.