Obama: U.S. 'Poised to Lead,' but More Math & Science Education 'Critical'

Being a teacher, I have a unique perspective on how the state of the education system is in this country, especially in lower-economic areas, since I've taught in them. The education system is royally screwed up if you ask me. Too much money being allocated for sports and not enough to basic subjects such as Reading, Writing, Math and Science. When there's more attention paid to "Friday Night Lights" than there is to academic decathalons and educational achievements, then there is a serious problem.

Be more concerned with how your tax dollars are being spent in the classroom than they are on the football field, basketball court, or golf course! Push for better textbooks, more school supplies, more opportunities for teachers to train in areas that this country needs to excel in, like science, math, technology, and for improvements in the basics as well.

Push for educational reform, and that means letting the unions support their teachers, who are abused enough in the classroom as it is, in too many places. I speak from personal experience on this one, trust me. Teachers have so much on their plates, and so much information is out there about what a teacher's schedule is-my personal favorite is the absurd idea that we get summers off....we don't. We spend summers training and updating our education, to try and give our students the best possible education possible.

The biggest plea I can make is for the public to support those teachers who are working day in and day out to improve the lives of their students, fight for your tax dollars to be used in the best possible way. Feel free to check out my blog, realpeoplerealleadership.blogspot.com and comment away...I'm also on Twitter and Facebook...let's get this country back on track and our priorities back in focus!

The difference between Asian and American education mehtods is not so much the testing, but the drilling. There, pupils still respect their teachers and are obedient to their demands. In addition, the teachers usually have the cooperation of the student's parents, and family in genaral. In the contrary to us, they have uderstood the necessity of higher education to further ther countrie's ability to stay competitive with other nations, whereas we have taken our 'superior' intellect for granted and long neglected. Now that we find our country sadly lacking, we have been attempting, in typical western fashion, to buy it back by endlessly funding and otherwise extending finances to educational institutions, without results. To succede, we must first change our and our childrens' attitudes towards the necessity of education, and re-focus on the consequences an uneducated populus will eventuslly have on our economic, and political stability. If we can not reach that goal, all the money in the world will do nothing to improve our education standards.

Why aren't teachers up to the task of promoting kids into the sciences and math? Why does it take the federal government pumping money into a system where it will only be misspent and mishandled by federal bureaucrats?

I say, disban the Department of Education and turn it back to the States where the people can control and oversee where the money goes and teachers can be fired for not doing their job. When the feds took control, we were told education would improve, well, like everything else the federal government takes over, it fails. Another waste of time and money and it's going to get worse.

Again, more talk, talk, talk, with nothing in the end. Everyone knows this, yet, we have to accept this?

The future belongs to the youth of America, we are the best and the brightest. We are in the best universities in the world MIT, Cal Tech, Harvard etc.

It does not take a grasp of the calculus to realize the President's policies are failing: they simply do not add up.

They need to teach them economics. Then in years to come we will finally have someone in our government that knows something about economics.

I wish it were true that America was poised to lead instead of just more hopey dopey fodder for another pretty Obama speech. It's going to take more than just more of his one-solution fits all spending to fix the problem.

Start firing the bad teachers, and reward the good ones with a raise, and the fact they can keep their jobs. Disband the teachers unions. Throwing more money at the teachers salaries isn't going to do it. That is why we are messed up today.

I am a retired aerospace design engineer, artificial intellegence software designer and project manager. I got my start as a Submarine Engineman (diesel mechanic)so I came up the hard way. I learned the ropes one knot at a time .... I am saying that they would not even so much as give me an interview. -Richard

i totally agree i think it would be great if math and science were better in education my stepchild is failing these two subjects so i would like it to improve in school protocol to help students more if they do not understand.