Discussion Why do Americans suck at their own language?

[amerie]

So in the United States there seems to be a growing problem with illiteracy in schools, which I don't understand? It's literally your own language, how the fuck are you going to survive in life if you can't even read?? I'm not talking about dyslexic people, and even if you are dyslexic I've seen lots of dyslexic people whom with the right interventions got the help they needed and became avid readers. But I'm seeing neurotypical kids in school literally struggle to spell and write basic words. In other countries even if they're uneducated I rarely see this as a huge problem, because it shouldn't be…ITS YOUR OWN LANGUAGE

Also why are SLD's so common in the United States? Are they over diagnosing? Because I rarely ever see this problem in other countries. I am aware that diagnostic criteria is different but I see lots of American kids struggle a lot with reading and math and at some point I'm becoming suspicious if the school is the problem rather than the child…

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

I think a lot of it has to do with very early education. In the case of being shit at your own language, it's important to be on top of your kid very early on to ensure they know their shit properly - ie. stimulate them at the highest (educational) levels from as early an age as possible, because their ability to learn and absorb drops off a cliff at a certain point. And a lot of SLDs could be better managed and ameliorated by early intervention also.

In the west we can be pretty slap-dash with kids I think, whereas in some other cultures, the structure and discipline is a high priority from birth.

I was lucky to be stimulated by supportive older siblings and a great educational system from a young age, and I turned out a genius, as you can all attest to.

 

[rainseahorse]

It's more of a systemic thing where there are certain areas in USA that don't have a strong culture around education. Most major Eastern countries do, and those students may end up better at English than many kids in USA.

 

[amerie]

I think a lot of it has to do with very early education. In the case of being shit at your own language, it's important to be on top of your kid very early on to ensure they know their shit properly - ie. stimulate them at the highest (educational) levels from as early an age as possible, because their ability to learn and absorb drops off a cliff at a certain point. And a lot of SLDs could be better managed and ameliorated by early intervention also.

In the west we can be pretty slap-dash with kids I think, whereas in some other cultures, the structure and discipline is a high priority from birth.

I was lucky to be stimulated by supportive older siblings and a great educational system from a young age, and I turned out a genius, as you can all attest to.

True, I notice lots of autistic and ADHD adults in Asia and Europe tend to get diagnosed really late and got amazing grades in school! I feel like American education is just a side effect of capitalism tbh, not glazing communism or anything like that but we are mainly about high graduation rates and promoting people forward at the quickest rate possible but Eastern countries as brutal as they are do a really good job at education.

It's more of a systemic thing where there are certain areas in USA that don't have a strong culture around education. Most major Eastern countries do, and those students may end up better at English than many kids in USA.

I think this varies from area to area, I'm from California and in many parts of SoCal and the Bay Area a lot of the high achieving Asian immigrants tend to be extremely competitive and if you aren't getting into UCLA, Cal, USC, Stanford, CalTech, etc. you're basically a failure.

I live in a more lower income very Mexican part of California and many people just go to the local community college in our town and no one really judges you for it because even going to college is an achievement because a lot of people are first-gen and come from poverty where education just simply wasn't a priority.

America has a lot of immigrants that come from (not trying to be offensive) third world countries who's culture just doesn't really prioritize education due to historical and systemic factors, Europe tends to have a lot of Asian immigrants which makes their countries look good since they value education a lot.

 

[broken_stoic]

We like producing as many idiots as possible to feed the machine.

But really, our political system has been fucked for a good while, we know our education system is shot to hell, but there is no political willpower to fix it.

 

[these_days9]

Well when people can profit from kids not being to able to read…that sort of deals the deal. They legitimately use 3rd grade reading levels to figure out how many prison beds to buy.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

To be fair, English is a pretty hard language to learn, and an even harder one to master. It's a disproportionate mishmash of so many inconsistent rules and standards borrowed from other languages so it's only natural that even some people who've spoken it their entire lives still aren't perfect with it.

As for the modern education system well, there's plenty of other reasons for that many of which are political or institutional but there's also the fact that right now there's just so much satisfying yet brain rotting content out there that provides no educational value and is vastly more interesting to the average child/teen than any textbook will ever be.

 

[sariff]

as a european, i will say this: they made their country a superpower in only 200-250 years, who am i to judge them on small things like this

they are better in most things than the vast majority of the rest of the world