COMPARED GLOBALLY: AMERICAN STUDENTS ARE FAILURES

I'm going to graduate college and have never taken a chemistry class in the US, and while I probably would never have needed it anyway, it says something about our educational system. The summer between my 10^th and 11^th grade year I went to school in Panama, and while they have nowhere near the amount of funding as the US in education, I took chemistry there. I also took physics, biology and theory, and they weren't optional.

For the past four decades, OECD has been one of the world's largest supplier of data on global issues. They've created a snazzy little test, the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) which tests world-wide students' scholastic performance. Its purpose is to test and compare their performance globally, an excerpt from their website describes what the PISA assesses, "In all cycles, the domains of reading, mathematical and scientific literacy are covered not merely in terms of mastery of the school curriculum, but in terms of important knowledge and skills needed in adult life."

The test assures us that American students will not be able to compete on the same level globally with other countries in the future. According to this, we lack the important knowledge and skills needed in adult life. In 2006, we weren't even in the top 20 of any of the subjects (mathematics, science, and reading). In 2003, we ranked 24 out of the 29 countries compared. It also shows that we have a higher percentage of people with degrees, so in essence, we are graduating more people with less knowledge. We are a nation of "educated" dumb people.

The first PISA came as a huge shock to many nations that perhaps they thought they were doing better than they actually were, and while many countries have taken on the challenge to improve their school systems, the United States was not one of them.

Evaluations of results from the year 2003 showed that the amount spent on education and the ranking of PISA scores were not necessarily correlated either. Countries that spent less such as Finland, Japan, Korea, Czech Republic and Australia did a lot better than countries like the United States, that despite its greater monetary investment in education, scored below the OECD average. The Czech Republic, who spent a third of that of the United States, scored in the top ten, while the US ranked 24 out of 29.

Recently, I traveled throughout Europe with a friend and we felt dumber than ever. It's common, a thing of normality to know how to speak 3 languages, if not more. In the US if you know two you're super smart, three, you're a genius. So, if during the rest of my travels, someone calls us dumb Americans, I can't really argue because they're kind of right. How are we slacking so bad on something so fundamental?

For a PowerPoint on U.S. results compared with everyone else, provided by the OECD, visit this link:

http://www.pisa.oecd.org/dataoecd/10/1/39773685.ppt

I would love to hear your comments and feel free to subscribe to be kept posted on new articles.

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Leyda Hernadez

leyda.h.v@gmail.com

www.makingmovesincollege.blogspot.com

WOULD YOU LIKE SOME SUPPLEMENTS WITH THAT?

When you're not getting all the vitamins you need through the food you eat, you take vitamins, well after writing Compared Globally: American Students are Failures, it looks like we're all going to need some supplements for our education. In college, you don't pay for knowledge; you pay for time, time in class, time in labs, not necessarily knowledge. The greatest gift is not to attend an educational institution, but something you already have…the ability to read and become accessible to infinite knowledge. You're probably thinking reading books, are you serious? And yes, I really am.

Words and books are what make civilized men, what founds great leaders and philosophers. The ability to read is unappreciated by those that do not realize its worth. It is not fair to fall from greatness because we remain ignorant to the fact that the greatest power is not money or assets, the greatest power and the greatest nation will be an educated one.

The institutionalized system of education is not free, but the ability and availability to acquire knowledge is free to whoever is willing to seek it. I have learned more from readings than from the hours I have spent in a college classroom.

I am not advocating that books replace institutionalized education... just that people are ignorant to the fact that the system teaches you what is required to pass tests, which is minimal, and for the most part, people remain satisfied with what little they know, while a world of knowledge is available to them that they never bother to discover.

Look in your wallet and I can tell you there is one flashy card that is missing. It's your library card! So get one of those bad boys and overdraft all you want. This is one card that will give you gains instead of debt, I swear. Let the supplementing begin!

Another good place to go is the Itunes Store on your Itunes, search a topic and when the results come up, click price, so that the free options are on top. Their resources include lectures, tutorials and subscriptions.

The Major Advantages to Reading More Books and Why 3 in 4 people are Being Shut Out of Success gives you plenty of reasons to pick up a book, included are: you learn at your own pace, it improves your vocabulary, and it builds your expertise.

I would love to hear your comments and feel free to subscribe to be kept posted on new articles.

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Leyda Hernadez

leyda.h.v@gmail.com

www.makingmovesincollege.blogspot.com

"YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO MAKE IT"

Everyone has a story, you just haven't heard it. I'm 20 years old but hardly think of myself as a baby, and I consider that I am far ahead in my accomplishments for my age. Some people say success will come, but I say if it doesn't come, you have to look for it and when opportunity doesn't knock, start building another door.

This is my story: I was born in the countryside side of Panama. I am the daughter of immigrants and an immigrant myself. I was born to parents escaping a communist dictatorship in Cuba and drug and corruption in Panama. I came to the U.S. with my sister who was 3 and my mother who was pregnant with my little brother. We had no place to live of our own. We moved to a one room apartment infested with cockroaches, where I shared with my two siblings the living room which was our bedroom and the sofa-bed that was our bed. I started school and they put me in special classes to help me learn English. My dad was an engineer but he only found work mowing lawns, my mother had been a college professor, she knew Russian and Spanish but no English, so instead she dedicated her time to raising us.

Sometimes someone will tell you that you're not supposed to make it, and some of us in fact didn't.

Some of us never finished high school, some of us got pregnant and left it at that, some of us got caught up in drugs, some of us stayed victims and some of us victimized others. Some of us had parents that didn't care about us, some of us grew up with fists. Some of them were my friends. And though some of us weren't supposed to make it, my parents told us we would. After all my parents weren't supposed to make it but they did, their stories are far more remarkable than mine. When I had the opportunity to complete high school and get my AA at the same time, I did it with honors.

I started at 18 as a junior at the university and this year (my third at the institution) I will graduate with two Bachelor's, one in Studio Art and one in Public Relations. I have interned with a Florida school district and the Valencia City Hall in Spain.

In the 20 years that I have lived, I have lived in 3 countries, I will hold two degrees, I speak two languages, I have read countless books, I am the author of a blog that encourages students and young professionals to invest in themselves; I am a young professional and the future of America. I wasn't supposed to make it, but I am and I will continue to because I am nowhere near the end of my list of goals.

I have never felt that my background should be regarded as a hindrance, but rather as an incentive to succeed. Whether you weren't supposed to make it, or someone told you you wouldn't, whether something got in your way making it more difficult, or maybe in your case, you were expected to make it, whatever your story... there is always a time when you can give up. So maybe you weren't supposed to make it... but the truth is, you certainly can.

Check out the remarkable stories of some famous successful entrepreneurs who were told they wouldn't make it, including the originators of I Love Lucy and FedEx. And They Said It Couldn't Be Done

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Leyda Hernandez

leyda.h.v@gmail.com

www.makingmovesincollege.blogspot.com

DID YOU KNOW? A Teacher's Apology for the Quality of my Education

My teacher apologized for having failed us as a teacher on the last day of class several semesters ago. Needless to say, we were all stunned.

He showed us this video.

Did You Know?

It shows us not only how fast the world is moving but also how far our educational system is causing us to fall behind.


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Leyda Hernandez

leyda.h.v@gmail.com

www.makingmovesincollege.blogspot.com