Education+-+World

__**    Although education is often overlooked when discussing the problems at hand in the world today, we beleive that education is the most important thing in a child's life as they continue to foster into young adults. While many wealthy countries are overfilled with rich education, others are not as fortunate. Children in third world countries often receive little, if any, education. We feel that this is fact is important and needs to be changed. Your education not only defines where you go in life, but also how succesful you are! On a national level, a country's education system determines the state of the economy; for now and the future. Our main concerns about education is the recent lack of decent education in the United States, and the over all lack of education in third world countries such as South Africa and Sudan. To be more proactive in thes troublesome situations around us we researched two organizations seeking to help solve the problems in todays education in thrid world countries; One Laptop Per Child (OPLC) and Pennies for Peace. We continued with this by raising money for Pennies for Peace. Todays children are the leaders of tommorrow; we find it only fair to give them a head start!
 * __ World Education

The most important difference between the European and U.S. educational systems is the stress on mathematics. At the elementary school level in Europe, math, such as multiplication, is given a lot of importance, especially if the student wishes to excel in science-related studies in college. In the United States 25 percent of students take algebra before high school. As a result, approximately 90 percent of students stop taking mathematics before getting to calculus. Math teaches children logical and rational thinking. I believe it is the building block for independant and analytical thinking. High school in America is very flexible. Therefore, students who choose to go into a science-related field in college often have not had any advanced math. It has been found that the number of math majors in the U.S. is equal to high school graduates in European countries such as India, on the basis of math study. As such, I think that the flexibility of the U.S. educational system is its ultimate weakness. Research from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) suggests that the international standing of U.S. students declines as students progress through school. It shows the international standings of 4th grade is above average, 8th grade is average, and 12th grade is extensively below. In 12th grade, the achievement scores for overall student population, who were tested on general mathematics and science knowledge, and advanced students, who were tested on mathematics and physics, were well below the international average. Research found: 4th grade- In both mathematics and science, 4th graders performed above the international average; (mathematics) outperformed 12 countries and were outperformed by 7 countries; (science) outperformed 19 countries and were outperformed by only Korea. 8th grade- The 8th grade improved, from substantially below the international average to a little below the national average; (mathematics) were outperformed by Canada, France, and Japan, but their performance was about equal to that of Great Britain and Germany; (science) outperformed France, performed as well as Canada, Great Britain, and Germany, and were outperformed by Japan. 12th grade- (mathematics) 12th graders were outperformed by 14 countries, performed at the same level as 4 countries, and outperformed only 2 countries; (science) 12th graders were outperformed by 11 countries, performed as well as 7 countries, and outperformed 2 countries.
 * U.S. Education vs. International Education**

This information was gathered from http://nces.ed.gov/Pressrelease/reform/#International, the Institute of Education Sciences, part of the U.S. Department of Education.

The International Education Association assessed the reading literacy of 4th and 9th graders. Finland was the only country to outperform the U.S. The U.S. 4th grade students outperformed students from 24 other nations, while performing as well as students from Sweden. American 9th graders' performance in reading was equal to 15 other nations, while outperforming students from 14 nations. Among 4th graders the reading performance of about 60 percent of U.S. students meets or exceeds the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) average in two of the three scales, narrative and expository reading. 70 percent of American 4th graders meet or exceed the average on "reading to perform a task" scale. The 9th grade students did not perform as great as that of the 4th graders. Between 52 and 55 percent of 9th graders met or exceeded the average. The U.S. has recognized the faults of the educational system and that it desperately needs some improvements. Reforms have been established to help fix this seemingly increasing problem, however more reforms are needed to ensure that education is to become a much smaller problem in the U.S. user:Manz **__Importance of education in the world and overall in the general life __** Education is most often referred to as the process of learning and obtaining knowledge at school, in a form of formal education. At a very young age, children learn to develop and use their mental, moral and physical powers. From this, they are then able to acquire these through the various types of education in which they receive throughout their life. However, the process of education does not only start when a child first attends school. It truly begins at home. A child does not only acquire knowledge from a teacher, but has the ability to learn and receive an education from a parent, relative or even a close friend. In almost all societies, attending school and receiving an education is extremely essential and necessary if one wants to achieve success.

It is vital for a child to get a proper education so that he or she has the tools that they need to improve their live and have a successful future. A proper education, including reading and mathematical skills is a necessity for a child to have so that they can get a decent job and secure their overall living. This also becomes a cycle because since no body is getting an education in their country, the country can be sent into poverty and there is nowhere out. Their resources can not be improved because they dont have any well educated people in the country.

However, there are those places in the world where the less fortunate are unable to receive that equal opportunity of a formal type of education. The opportunities that are offered are greatly limited. At times, there are not enough resources to provide schooling. This is usually because parents need their children to help them work in factories, do certain jobs, possibly at home or outside of the home, or just do farm work. Since it is not traditional, in some places, to receive a formal education, the one who receives an education is usually envied, praised and possibly even admired by members of the community. Children sometimes look at other children with awe just the same way as one child might envy another because he got a new pair of shoes, and wishes he could have too.  Learning subjects in school is not enough. One student can learn history, math and science in school, and be "book-smart". In addition, another student can learn how to live life by acting a certain way in certain situations and being "street-smart". These two differences in types of knowledge are extremely essential to be successful in life.  There are many campaigns that have been structured based upon the importance of education as well as the government has created laws stating that a student must attend school up until a certain age in order to receive their diploma. This has definitely made a huge impact on world wide education up until this very day. Even statistics show that in 1996, 241,570 people out of a total of 437,345 have only received an elementary education. This leaves 198,530 people who have never graduated high school. Nation wide, a statistics chart has told us that about 36.8% of the population has not received or completed a high school education, let alone any diploma at all. Just a high school education alone is incredibly important and it leaves the students with not only the experience, but the confidence as well. They will be able to use their obtained knowledge for many situations or obstacles they may reach in life. No matter what, education is the key that allows people to move up in the world, seek better jobs, and ultimately succeed fully in life. Education is very important, and no one should be deprived of it.

Not only looking at the world now and pausing for just a second to look back at how it was, I look ahead at what the future holds as far as the education for children and all human kind. To just be able to hold out your hand and open your mind and for someone to be able to take what was given to them and pour into someone else's hand is just absolutely amazing. It is not only a small portion that is passed on to you, but you make it's value so much greater as an individual.

The little things can be so much greater, if in the hands of an. user:Supa_K

** __ Cultural and Moral Effects On Education __ ** In our day-to-day lives we often forget how big the world really is. Each person alone, has different ideas and opinions not to mention each country has a completely different idea of what is right, wrong and important. These may seem simple or personal but they affect us all, especially in education. A persons morals are the foundation of the way they live their life, so when sharing there ideas about life, such a teacher would, morals have a large effect. Culture also has a large affect on our opinions and has a way of structuring our morals. For example eastern countries may find it offensive to bare to much skin while in Brazil clothing is often only an option. These differences define who we are though; they affect our own opinions in the way they've taught us to think. Growing up in a culture were education is highly important, such as China, causes students to be very focused on their academics. Chinese students must do several hours of homework each night and our now surpassing American students in grades K-12. American students on the other hand continue to decrease in statistics that have to do with good education rates, and as of 2006 only 69.6% of American students graduated high school. This is surprising for such a wealthy country, while the Chinese keep improving there academic areas and students began to rise in the statistics. As you can see success is where your cultural morals are set. Cultural differences not only affect students, they affect teachers also. For example in Chinese and Latin American cultures it is disrespectful to look an adult or authority figure in the eyes, therefore when asked a questions students make a point not to, while in American culture this may be considered shyness or insecurity. A teacher that is unaware of these cultural differences could greatly alter the learning environment of he or she's students. Even simple things such as physical contact, may seem unimportant but the difference throughout separate cultures can be major; when there are physical miscommunications it is much harder to get a point across. Studies have shown that only 7% of a message is conducted verbally, this leaves much room for miscommunication with body language. In middle eastern and south American cultures it is normal to stand very closely during a conversation while Americans and Europeans stand with a bit more distance between them and African Americans stand with even more! If your physical actions don't match up with your verbal message the listener will pay more attention to the physical message you are sending off. The speaker may, unknowingly, be confusing, or even offending the listener. This may cause great strife in a classroom if a student is an immigrant, or even the teacher is from a different country. The cultural differences of physical communication are just one of many factors that stand as a hindrance between a student and he or she's education. As you can see morals within a culture, and cultures within a country, all contribute to a persons education. Ignorance towards these factors can have e negative affect on a students education. If teachers and students alike could be more aware of the people and cultures around them, education may improve for all. --by kelly maclaggan user:Smellbo

 Presently the outlook on education varies in different countries. For example, in America the education of students is generally seen as not improving over the past few years due to laziness short attention spans and such. Whereas in countries like India, China, and Japan, the rate of education and college graduates for these countries seems to be booming and exceeding the rate that of the United States. My research has shown that the U.S.A. is still on top concerning education, through having the highest average of years of education and one of the highest percentages per GDP spent on education. But these rates are starting to slow down as countries such as India, Japan, and China are having growing graduation rates that are overlaping the United States. This is an issue for the United States to remain the major world power that it is. There are also many countries today, such as in South Africa and Sudan, that do not have the expenses or the economy to support a good education for its young citizens. As shown by these statistics, the education of these third world countries are very poor and almost non-exhistant. This is needs to be a great concern for everyone. Compared to the average 12 years of education that the United States get, countires like Uganda, Sudan, and Afghanistan recieve less than 4. And as the United States had the room and money to spend 5.7% of our GDP on national education, these third world countries do not have the money PERIOD to spend on their education.
 * __State of Education Over the Past Few Years__**

One chart of statistics that I found relevant to my research was the average years of schooling of adults by country. The numbers for my highlighted countries were:  These numbers vary enormously and a section of our project is also to find out why they vary so greatly. Another statistic I found that related to my topic was the spending on education, which was the percent of the GDP. The GDP is the Gross Domestic Product. The statistics were as follows:
 * United States- 12 years
 * Japan- 9.5
 * United Kingdom- 9.4
 * Mexico- 7.2
 * China- 6.4
 * India- 5.1
 * Iraq- 4
 * Ghana- 3.9
 * Uganda- 3.5
 * Sudan- 2.1
 * Afghanistan- 1.7
 * United States-5.7%
 * Japan- 3.6%
 * United Kingdom- 5.3%
 * Mexico- 5.3%
 * China-
 * India- 4.1%
 * Iraq-
 * Iran- 4.9%
 * Sudan-
 * Afghanistan-

The state of education and government can be a viscious circle. The children of these countires are growing up without the proper tools and skills they need to succeed in this day and age where technology is taking over. These are also the people who would someday be in the government of their country and have the chance to fix this increasing problem. Though without the education they so desperately need and deserve, how are they able to correct this issue. The value and quality of the education of the country directly relates to how good the economy in that country, for example the United States and United Kingdom. This is truly a global concern due to the recent globalization of the world and the new technilogical age that we live in today. user:Supa_J

 **__How Do We Help?__** In the U.S. we have high standards for education. Education is very important and the reason why is because that is how we make a living. The down fall on education is that it is very expensive and some countries can't afford it as much. user:purpleponyprincess   

<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="DISPLAY: block; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left">OLPC, One Laptop Per Child, is a way for children across the world to get as much education as they can. The laptop is designed to help children in the developing world. These laptops are called OX laptops and its price slashed the $75 per device. The founder of OLPC, Nicholas Negroponte, created it as a "book like" device.It's made for harsh environments such as water and shock-resistant. It is designed to entertain and educate children while allowing them to learn by themselves. When they tried it out with a child, they were afraid that it was going to be ignored after just a few days. Instead, it seemed to provide enduring fascination. They have now created a way for more laptops to get out there. It allows residents of the U.S. and Canada to purchase a laptop for a child in a developing country and will receive another one for personal use. This is a great nonprofit experience for someone to get into. It's a wonderful way to help children across the world get an education and learn by themselves as well. For more information on OLPC, click <span style="DISPLAY: block; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left">[|www.LaptopGiving.org] <span style="DISPLAY: block; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left">. <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="DISPLAY: block; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left"> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="DISPLAY: block; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left">Countries such as Africa don't have enough money to spend on education. A lot of children that live there are barely able to survive. The money that they do have is spent on keeping them alive; water, food, and shelter. Since this country is so poor, the cleanliness is very bad. There is a lot of diseases caused from this. Something that is helping those in developing countries is G8. G8 summit of 2007 is the group of Eight leading industrial nations that have agreed a package of measures on Africa, education, and for Aids and malaria victims. they are targeting on spending about $60billion on fighting Aids, at least $1billion on malaria preventation and $500 million for an education programme. Mr. Kondakov added: "There will also be new elements" focused on health and education. We want to aid these types of countries and help them get the education they need for the children to become someone. Chancellor Gordon Brown has said the UK will give $15bn in overseas aid for education in Africa and Asia. The world's richest nations are to help every African child have access to a primary school by 2015. Mr. Brown said: " In 2005, Make Poverty History forced governments to make promises on aid." "Now, in 2006 it is time for us to keep our promises." <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="DISPLAY: block; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left">" It appals us all that over 100 million children around the world are missing out on an education," Andrew Mitchell (conservative international development spokesman) said. <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="DISPLAY: block; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left">In 2005 the international community agreed to provide an extra $50bn a year in aid- the money earned for education spendings part of the UK's contribution to that total.

It has been found that there is an education crisis around the world, especially in Africa and Asia regions. In South Afica, Bible study and praying has been replaced with diversitial and political policies. Political indoctrination, especially from a Marxist point of view, has replaced the factual presentation of history. Some of the results are already evident. A study showed that 1/3 of child abuse comes from teachers in South Africa. Another study, performed by World Bank, proved that 40,000 teachers in South Africa were HIV positive. Later, 17,500 teachers left the teaching profession, leaving 2,500 in one year- that's a net loss of 15,000 in one year. Political policies are not the only thing creating a crisis. The other thing is the education system lacks resources to adepuately equip a nation for growth. There is also an education crisis occurring in parts of Asia, such as Kandahar. Education in regions like this are in crisis because of the targeting of schools, teachers, and pupils. "We go home by different routes everyday because of threats and intimidation" says 15-year-old Zubaida. Militants have launched numerous attacks on schools and teachers in Kandahar and Helmand areas. Taliban guerillas have been suspected of setting fires to three schools in the Nawa district of Helmand. Because of this, around 50 schools have been shut down because of fear and irritability of more attacks. <span style="DISPLAY: block; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left">Our group feels that the U.S. is liable to help this crisis or else be looked badly upon. We feel that more institutions like OLPC and Pennies for Peace are needed to help lower the stamina of this seemingly growing crisis.user:Manz
 * __Editorial__**


 * __Action[[image:pennies_logo_small.jpg width="150" height="131" align="right"]]__**

Kayla Kelly, Jori Johson, and Kaila Padovich have decided to support and gather money for the organization called Pennies for Peace. What we do is gather small donations, basically pocket change, from a willing participant. This money will be going to this organization which will, in turn, go to funding new schools and supplies for deserving villages and towns around the world. This money goes more specifically to the village of Korphe of the Karakoram Mountains in Pakistan, which is very poor and does not even have the money to pay for pencils for the children's education. If you would like to learn more about this organization, please visit the Pennies for Peace Organization. As a seperate action, Tyler LeQuia has decided to write a letter to a congressman and inform him/her about the situation. In this letter, I will introduce hard facts that were gathered in this article to support my stating of there being an education crisis around the world. The congressman will be informed about the crisis here in our own country and also about the crisis in Africa and Asia, and facts will be used to support my "thesis statement". I will type this letter and print out to copies, one to send and the other to bring to the final for a presentation- that way I am able to prove that I did write a letter.

Works Cited <pro.corbis.com>. <weblogg-ed.com>. <www.douglashenderson.com>. <www.swosu.edu>. <www.uniyatra.com>. <www.willekegames.com>. <[|http://nationmaster.com/>.] http://nces.ed.gov/Pressrelease/reform/#International>. <[|http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7411904.stm>.] <[|http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4893980>.] <[|http://searchwarp.com/swa230219.htm>.] <[|http://worlded.org/WEIInternet/>.] <[|http://www.penniesforpeace.org/>.] <[|http://www.waxmann.com/fs/nestvoge.pdf>.]