Seeing the delayed children, even people like me who don't like children feel heartbroken. However, from an abstract point of view, the issues involved in the film are not new, and from a fair and efficient point of view, anyone who understands the issues will feel angry and unfair even if they do not see the influence of these children.
Basically every American knows about the failure of American education. The problems caused by education failure do not need to be introduced in the film, and most people know it. There are not only academic opinions about the reasons for the failure of education, but also can be seen in general film and television dramas, such as the fourth season of "The Wire". The only people who can be shocked by the film's viewpoints are those who don't care about any social current affairs at all. In addition to the conception, the arguments of the film are too many and too complicated, and it is difficult to say smooth visitors. The film’s rhythm is also problematic and lacks a sense of urgency. The above is the problem of the film itself. From this point of view, the film is very general.
However, the education issue is not only closely related to Americans, but also an interesting issue in itself. So although the film itself is boring, I still want to discuss this issue. I don't like to make comments without facts, but based on my personal experience, I still have a few ideas.
The film requires the education system to be more efficient. It is true that the American education system is extremely inefficient and wasteful, and it is also a serious problem with a lot of investment. How to measure efficiency, how to get rewards for high efficiency and punishing inefficiency, are all very important questions.
On the surface of the film are children who want to study in a bad school, but in my personal experience, such children are rare, and most people have no interest in education at all. This disinterest comes from two sources, family and society. The influence of the family is very important, and the actual behavior is far better than the so-called idea. Although China’s tradition has gone through a century of destruction, many Chinese people still believe that “everything is inferior, and the only way to study is to learn well”. From a utilitarian point of view, most Americans also believe that education is power and that education can change lives. Although "The Great Stagnation" and many recent studies question whether this is really the case, most people still believe this.
However, "thinking" and "behavior" are two very different things. A family can say that they believe education is good, but can they really make the necessary sacrifices for this goal? This is like saying that I think physical exercise is very important, but I never go to the gym. This is the discrepancy between my words and deeds. What I call the importance of physical exercise is just talking. From my behavior, I can see that I don’t think physical exercise is worth my time and money.
The flaw of the Americans is that the Chinese do what they say, and many people are willing to sell iron for their children's education, and many Americans just talk about it. Moreover, it is not easy to talk about it in the United States, because we can see from the rise of the "Tea Party" that many Americans are fundamentally anti-knowledge and anti-education. If the family does not encourage education and does not make the necessary sacrifices for it (which also includes social responsibilities such as non-divorce, then the effect of natural education is not good.
In addition, the social value of the United States also has many aspects that oppose education. In In the process of its rise, the more powerful frontiers in the United States discriminated against the East Coast Ivy League and other nonsense goods. Today, "elite", a word that other countries are applauded, still carries a lot of derogatory meaning in the United States. In high schools and universities, the "identity" of athletes and social experts is much higher than that of "nerds" with good grades, which in itself can explain the problem.
From these two aspects, we can see the factors that the film failed to mention. For example, the film says that the quality of teachers is problematic, and introduces systemic issues such as the teachers' union, but it does not introduce the two fundamental issues of family and society. Because families are not willing to make sacrifices, the United States does not have enough taxes to make teachers one of the highest income groups. Since society does not recognize the importance of education, teachers have no social status in addition to income. Under such circumstances, the United States can insist that "education rejuvenates the country", but does not make some substantive reforms, and merely improving efficiency is just a drop in the bucket.
Compared with many other reasons, this is the reason why the United States is divided into two today. In fact, since the founding of the United States, this country has two tendencies, one type of elite and the other kind of civilians. For more than 200 years, the two tendencies have been evenly divided, but in today's global and informatized world, it is clear that civilians have become lagging behind.
To a large extent, this is what determines the success or failure of students. The so-called "statutory schools" are successful not only because the schools are extremely efficient, but also because the people who go to those schools are themselves motivated. This is the same reason as Tsinghua University. Perhaps China's higher education is only second-rate, but the elites selected out of 1.3 billion are all first-rate. Their success does not necessarily mean that Tsinghua is very strong, but they themselves are strong enough to "despite" Tsinghua is not as good as Harvard, and they can also become first-rate talents. Therefore, the ability to select students from a group of children who are keen to learn makes the success of the charter school also overestimated.
Regulation schools and innovative education methods are certainly important, but they cannot change the incentive system inherent in the system. As the film said, the success of American education before was because they had no competitors, so American education can still dominate the crowd with the issue of the "despite" incentive system. But today this has obviously become an unrepeatable past. Therefore, in addition to the reforms promoted by the film, the United States also needs basic innovation to ensure that it does not decline like Rome.
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