What are the education problems of today?

(This blog forms part of a series. Please check the previous entries on how to use computers wisely, how much time in front of the computer is healthy, what is better: the library or the Internet>)

At first glance, the question “What are the education problems of today?” seems far too generic. Surely the education problems in USA must be different from those in Africa, India or New Zealand?

Naturally, every country will have its unique problems. In some countries, women are allowed to go to university. In others, children don’t have access to schools, textbooks, teachers who speak their language, learning tools. Some education systems are criticised for pushing children too hard, making them too stressed by exams and too busy with homework. Other systems are criticised for not monitoring the students’ progress closely enough or comparatively enough.

However, some education problems are shared by numerous and often seemingly diverse countries:
· Students leaving school without gaining an adequate level of literacy and numeracy.
· Discipline problems at school.
· Students who dislike school and consider learning a chore.
· Students who battle with homework.
· Drop-out rate.
· Students who are mislabelled as “learning-disabled”, or “learning-challenged”, or ADD.

Please feel free to post a comment on this blog and list more education problems. The ones I’ve named above are the first that came to mind because I work with them every day... and because I know the solution.

That’s right. The solution is called “Letting children learn according to their Learning Styles” or “Learning Styles” for short. Please have a look at http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/default.asp?page=lsas to find out more.

While I know I can’t solve the education problems in a single blog column, here is an interesting article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6360517.stm about what makes for happy children (stay-at home mothers, open channels of communication with parents, lack of peer pressure, high level of education with a simultaneous lack of unreasonable demands from teachers). And here is another article about why Learning Styles are important: http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/downloads/Here to Stay.pdf.