Public Education is Failing. Here's Why.

It's probably just me and my OCD but the techno music was way too distracting. I could not focus on the dialogue.

Grading system destroys motivation

that tough

Why are you interviewing the CEO of Prager U? It’s such a shit curriculum i watched a video of an elementary school language arts teacher reviewing their curriculum and it was appalling.

Decades ago, the iconic Italian writer Italo Calvini already discussed the patheticity of an educational system that is based on the consumption of education at elite universities by the elite. When will you get it? So, better sign up for the military or do shit average Americans are supposed to do.

Personally I hate going to school not because it’s school but instead because I have to go there in fear every day. of school shootings or getting beat up or lunch stolen.

In High school, they dont teach 'law' 'business' two topics crucial! yet the teach totally irrelevent things.

To be fair, doesn’t China have a population about 7 times larger than the U.S.? Should they not have a higher number of smarter kids?

Because it's run by a pack of malicious idiots that treat students like s___!!!!!

give them more work and summer school if they don't pass, that's how new york works

Equality of opportunity is unachievable. Everyone is completely different in a myriad of ways, there is no way to equalize that. You can't have equality of outcome either. It's unethical, and creates far more harm than good in the long run (as mentioned in the video).

However, even though equality of opportunity can't be realized, to say that everyone has opportunity is true. It's only by parent's involvement in their children's learning, teaching children responsibility, accountability, and discipline, along with creativity, having fun while learning, and passion can every single child grab at that opportunity when it presents itself.

Parents are using schools as a daycare service. Parents cannot be bothered to tutor their children., especially in Title one areas. Teachers are playing catch-up all the fucking time. Then if your school accepts federal assistance, that assistance is tied to how kids are performing. So, if kids are failing, that school wont get that assistance. So what will administration do??? FORCE TEACHERS TO PASS FLUNKING KIDS. THATS RIGHT FORCE THEM. And if the teacher objects, her contract WILL NOT BE RENEWED!!!!!

When you abolish all punitive measures this is the result at least with the anti-intellectual majority of kids who have no interest in anything more abstract than watching TikTok videos on the smart phones their idiotic parents shouldn’t have provided them with in the first place. Most people are not intellectually inclined and will inevitably end up performing either manual labor or else routine commercial tasks such as scanning merchandise at retail check out counters. Higher education is currently downsizing to accommodate the new realities. Teachers will be automated out of existence and replaced with the juvenile equivalent of GED high school equivalency diploma tutors who do no lecturing and simply grade the practice tests to determine when their charges are ready to go take the state test. And these tutors of the future will make even less money than teachers and perhaps not even be required to have bachelor’s degrees.

This is pure propaganda nice job

If people don't know what a woman is, and people are bending over backwards to argue about it, what does that tell us?

We need to get the feds out of education. Local communities, parents and teachers should have more control. Stopping the fed student loan program would force universities to actually teach real skills instead of making activists out of people. Forces them to price classes for what they intrinsically are worth.

I'm Russian.

I moved into the US after finishing third grade in Russia.

So far I had finished 5-9 grades, now I'm in 10th grade.

I remember what I was taught in Russia, and I have a brief understanding of what I might have been learning about in Russian 5-10 gades.


Everything in US seems so oversimplified. Most of the time it's as simple as fill in the notes, read short article, spend 5 second of your life to search something online. Its so terrible, that 5 grade feels like extended kindergarten, and in 6 trade school expects that not everybody knows the multiplication table.

In 9-10 grades everything was shoved into semester-long classes, so we just had different stuff thrown at us every day, making it harder to learn something more in-depth.

English classes is completely different topic to discuss. Since 5 grade most of the stuff we read or write about was

Black people (African Americans, other black people aren't black enough)

Refugees/poor immigrants starting new life full of freedom.

Also we had one book about evil Vietnamese commies

Other than stuff affected by politics we read a book prom Percy Jackson series, 2 Shakespeare's plays, one of which wasn't takes seriously, same short story written by Ray Bradbury (twice), and a book about a girl living in US during industrial revolution.

But overall, everything was mostly opinion or plot based questions, teachers are officially taught to ignore terrible grammar most of the time.






Now, Russia.

Since 6 grade you would probably have...

Math, biology, physics, chemistry, literature (reading), Russian, (writing), history (both Russian and world history), English/French/German, PE, probably art, and may be something music related.

Also like 1 or 2 optional electives after school

On literature and Russian classes we are taught to write cursive in first grade, since then you are expected to always write in cursive in school.

Grammar matters, one mistake or a typo, -1 point.

Generally, one mistake, - 1 point.

Considering a 5 point grading system, getting a 1 would almost 100% fail you, so most of the teachers are just spare you, and the worst you can get is 2.

And we have behavior grades, which actually counts.

And we write everything in pen.

And we read many books or short stories, both made by famous Russian ans foreign authors. All the way from 1 to 11 grade we have to memorize poems, and tell them in class. We have to memorize authors, some books they wrote, year they wrote it, be able to summarize the plot of these books, and may be required to know the background story of why or how certain book was written.

Other than this..... No calculators in math, no matter what.

You have to memorize entire periodic table

You can't turn in your work late.

Everything is on paper.

Homework is assigned most of the time.

Always assigned sits.

And moving somebody's chair, or arranging desks somehow toher that how it always was is worse that abwar crime.

And no matter what, you can't sit on the floor, or work on your assignments anywhere other than in the classroom.

Sometimes you may have same subject twice certain day.

And yeah, most of the schools have either school uniforms, or very strict dress code.

And our substitute teachers are actual teachers, they know the subject, can ask or answer questions related to the subject, and can grade your assignments



And we are doing fine. THIS IS POSSIBLE.

Few less depressing facts. In Russian schools there are short 10-15 minute of free time between subjects, and about 20 minutes for lunch.

You are stuck with moslty the same people throughout elementary, middle, and high school. And a lot of times students of all trades are still learning in the same building, so you can make good long lasting friendship, without worrying to never see any of your comrades ever again relatively soon.

And we don't have to pledge to anything in school. I'm pretty sure even in Soviet Union we didn't have to pledge to anythinh.

And we have no bathroom/hall passes. In my school we were even allowed, most of the times, to stand up any time, and go to the bathroom without saying anything.

And in my 1-3 grades sometimes we had a "class hour". And today recently they made a thing called "important talks" where they basically tell students about how terrible stuff like drugs or human trafficking is, ect...

"Important talks" was created recently, I was already in the US at that time. The goal of "important talks" was to increase patriotism in schools. People worried that this would be the same as political indoctrnation. But from what I know, students wasn't complaining. Materials that teachers use for this are publicly accessible, for all grades. I looked at these materials, it mostly talks about Russian inventions, literature, and other ways Russia had contributed to.... world, and our lives I guess.



Now I'm mentally time-traveling back into my american 8 grade, to a moment where my English teacher once said.... No, se didn't even say it, she almost yelled "COMMUNISM IS THE OPPOSITE OF FREEDOM, YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE, BUT THIS IT THE PAINFUL TRUTH, AND I KNOW THE TRUTH"

Why do I have to exchange what I just described to you about Russian school, for spending a school year with that old political person, and getting my salary in US dollars?

It doesn't wotlrth it. No matter how much easier it is to get the latest IPhone, or buy a mansion, while working for a giant tech monopolist like Google.

Nowadays College is overrated.

the low standards, low funding and non existent parenting in the household. Its all coming together into one big pile of shit and still people wanna make this a agenda issue.

Just found your profile and I am very impressed. Definitely earned a subscriber here!

I think Gen Z is just dumb in general

This is so sad. Without my college degree I would not be making $60 per hour

I’ve learned more from this one video than I ever did in school. It’s a jailyard for children teaching them how to be good sheep

Problems with education is that public schools arent paid regularly like charter schools, have to teach common core and that in poor areas they have lower property values meaning lower property tax revenue meaning worse education. Another problem is teachers arent given enough freedom, we need to democratize schools let teachers vote on how they want to change the schools like expanding the building or hiring new teachers or adding new clubs, this will get rid of administrative spending for boards of educations, super intendents and principals look up edvision schools theyre completely teacher run.

As always, EXCELLENT contents! Thanks for your hard efforts to deliver deeply concerned issues in our nation. YES; "take out greedy politicians out of education!"

Harvard students are the smartest? Hahahahahaha, you seem to believe whatever you hear or read in the media. Why don't you prove that Ivy league students accomplish more in life?

As a teacher (who willingly transitioned into teaching from a more lucrative job), a couple things to note after reading:

1) Both conservative and progressive people complain too much about politics in teaching. The problem doesn’t boil down to just political agendas all the time. The more we focus on political agenda the harder it is to just straight up “teach”

2) Parents don’t know how to be parents anymore. Even parents that are privileged enough to spend time and “parent,” simply don’t. Too many kids don’t get taught social and emotional skills at home

3) There’s too much talk of teachers (and other people) saying “school isn’t the same as it used to be.” You know what? It can be. I remember what it was like being in 5th grade and how awesome it was—I will do anything to give my kids a similar experience. Parents, teachers, and students just need to put in the effort

4) Not everyone is cut out to be a teacher, but those who want to be and aren’t teaching don’t get incentivized to teach. There are a lot of people that straight up can’t teach. If that hurts to hear, sorry, but it’s true. That doesn’t mean you can’t learn to be better, but the people that really suffer from a bad teacher are the kids. Those who can be great teachers though know that there’s more money to be made in other industries

5) Not enough funding for extracurriculars (and cross curricular programs). How can kids love school if there isn’t a reason to love school? Can you imagine the amount of reading that gets done if there is a theater department? How fun that is for some kids, but also how beneficial it can be? Or how learning processes of baking a recipe, using measurements, and following step by step instructions can translate to success in math when someone needs to follow basic step by step processes and use numbers?

There are so many more things too, but honestly the problem is bigger than so many things. BUT I just try to do the best I can, gauge how my students feel and progress. Hopefully if other teachers, parents, and people in general do the same, classes and schools can get better.

The problem with teaching is that is requires a degree but is so easy to get into that it doesn’t pay a lot.

Homeschool can be good, my friends became very successful 😊 but... there can be wrong ways of homeschooling your kids. I was homeschooled, but I didn't get the proper education that I needed until I was 17... I was mainly left to do whatever I want, pretty much. But I did learn about different parts of the world, politics, religions, cultures, evolution, paleontology, animals, archeology, taught myself to write and read, astronomy, and how the weather works and more... So, I do have an exceptional knowledge of random stuff. But I struggled with people, workplaces, making friends, relationships, and I failed my course. I do have ASD, but my parents should've probably done things abit differently with education wise, got me therapy, and not leaving me to my own demise. My brother suffered too, and he is struggling with the outside world. We are very GLAD that our parents put our sister into school, she is excelling and doing so well in life.

Majored in Computer Engineering absolutely none of my STEM classes were ever political, it was rough and most people failed or quit, I also didn’t rely on my “degree” but did self projects and did self learning and in the end I have an Engineering Job offer and 0 debt. The education system is beyond horrible though I just made good choices

as a Finnish person, it's hard for me to believe that this is how things are in US. We are a tinier less wealthy country and yet our schooling system is among the best. the school is free and every student has the same opportunities no matter how rich they are, not to mention the teachers are respected and get payed well. I feel so lucky watching this, and I hope US can actually start taking care of it's school system.

dude that’s crazy ana was my freshman year english teacher

Iam so glad I live in Europe. I even get paid for getting good grades in uni. I study organic chemistry and love it. It is so much fun for me.

Some kids don't want to learn.

PART OF THE ISSUE THAT NEVER GETS ADDRESSED IS that, back in the 40s, 50s and 60s, corporal punishment was COMMON at all elementary schools, public or private. Parents regularly practiced that which today would be described--and outlawed--as child abuse. When I think back to my one year in public elementary school (third grade), I remember a class overflowing with baby boom kids, a revolving door of teachers and impatient, angry administrators. None of the adults involved in the "education" process seemed to want to be there, and many left after a year or less. Fast forward to public high school, 1967: the exact same issues. Homerooms with 40 students. Weary, apathetic "educators". I was jealous of my friends in private school because their classes were so small and they had so many perks. In those days, the prevailing motto was, "those who can, do; those who can't, teach." Can you imagine 40 kids in a single classroom?????!!!!! And most parents thought this was just normal.

There's different views on education. School has traditionally been used to train workers. Others see it as a way to develop critical thinking.

I have been homeschooling for 12 years. We went through many phases throughout the years. My children did school at home, in classes another parent taught, online, co-ops, etc. This year we do some subjects at home, some online, some at co-ops. There’s so many variations a parent can choose. My oldest child recently graduated with a 4.0 GPA. He also researched and built his own computer last year. My children play sports and one is involved in yearbook. My husband is a public school teacher and talks about how unprepared his students are and how broken the system is. I know not everyone can homeschool but I know many mothers who have their own business and also homeschool. I’m also in support of school choice. Lower income children shouldn’t have to go to failing schools. Their parents could get money towards private school or to be able to send their children to another school. The schools that are failing would have to change what they’re doing and get better so more parents would be willing to send their children there. I believe in the free market in all aspects of society.

Yo he even got the head of PragerU, that's impressive reaching out right there

Schools don't make you stupid, only you make yourself stupid.

According to my younger brother, they don't even do computer lab classes in his school. They occasionally hand out laptops for students to do work on during class, but they never have dedicated classes to learn HOW to use them properly (This is year 3-4 in Australia btw, only a few years off high school). I've had to teach him how to shut them down properly, and why he can't just leave them on when he isn't using them; things we were taught before even finishing Kindergarten. I really hope his school is one of few exceptions, but I somehow doubt it

OMG but as soeone who moved from the US and Canada to the UK, the UK is signifucantly worse, both private and opublic, they think that canada is in Australia

My kids don't want to go to the haunted house with the scary clowns for Halloween anymore because it reminds them too much of school. What can I do about it?

It will only get worse as colleges start panic enrolling anyone and everyone in a last gasp to try to survive. They will even get more lax in grading standards in order to keep students enrolled even though they are learning absolutely nothing.

We need to start talking about the toxic feminization of this country. Females are taking over every influential area of American life. The growing male/female imbalance of influence/power is flipping this country upside down. Truth hurts. The male vs female roles are getting flipped and the fabric of society is getting torn to shreads.

If you wanted to destroy a Nation where would you start? Education is high on the list.

And this is the so called worlds power country? Where over half of population has a literacy below 6 grade? Where young people have problem naming 3 countries beside north america and gen z wants socialism??😂 What a load of bs