RARE PHOTOS: Horrifying us school experiences | Rare Historical Photos

The things in this list might be hard for foreigners to comprehend, but the call is coming from inside the house, too. Many Americans know how crazy and dystopian some of their schools are. According to a 2023 survey by Pew, 51% of adults in the U.S. think that the education system is going in the wrong direction.

When asked about specifics, most respondents say that schools need to spend more time teaching students core academic subjects like math, reading, and social sciences. 52% of the respondents also agree that schools don't receive adequate funding and resources.

The U.S. actually spends quite a lot of money on education, more than any other OECD country, in fact. In 2021, the U.S. spent around 5.6% of its GDP on education. For comparison, in Germany, Japan, and France, the percentages were 4.5%, 3.5%, and 5.2%, respectively. 

Yet that doesn't translate into better results. U.S. students still lag behind countries like Canada, China, Estonia, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. Washington think tank the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) reports that a student in Singapore is 3.5 years ahead of an American student in math, 1.5 years ahead in reading, and 2.5 years ahead in science.

Some experts suggest that U.S. citizens don't see where the money goes. As the senior scholar at the American Enterprise Institute Mark Schneider writes, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) often fails to publicize their expenditure data. In 2023, the NCES published a report but didn't give the public the raw data. 

And why do we need to know where the NCEE spends its money? According to Schneider, it would help to "unpack national trends and extract lessons that can help us understand how to reverse the stagnation" in the current education system. Also, "To make the large and ever-growing national investment in education more effective and efficient."

The NCEE president Mark Tucker explains that the problem persists because the U.S. education system was built on a "factory model." Originally, most teachers in the U.S. were women without many prospects to work in other fields. In the rest of the world, however, teachers were professionals, trained and highly qualified to work in classrooms.

Tucker says that the solution to the poor U.S. education system is simple. "We have to have more highly educated teachers and we need to pay them more." But that's easier said than done. He says that the U.S. still might have a slight superiority complex. "We were so dominant for so long that it's hard for us to accept that there are now so many countries pulling ahead of us," he explained to The Guardian.

Students in the U.S. also have a great deal to say about the changes they want to see in their schools. In 2019, The New York Times asked high schoolers how they would improve the education system. Students agreed that teachers need higher wages and more support, they would like to learn real-life skills and see standardized tests and grades de-emphasized, and feel less pressure to do well in school.

American students also want teachers to make lessons more engaging. "A textbook doesn’t answer all my questions, but a qualified teacher [who] takes their time does," student Michael Huang wrote to The New York Times. "Having a teacher [who] just brushes off questions doesn't help me," he added.

These high schoolers also understand that they need support from their parents and teachers to thrive. One respondent, Melanie, wrote that when a student has people who are truly rooting for them, they might be destined for success. "With enough support and resources, any student could be motivated to step out of their comfort zone, and be pushed to further their thinking and education and do great things in the world beyond the classroom."

How do these pics from American schools compare to your school experiences, Pandas? Share your thoughts with us in the comments. And, if you want to see more similar content, be sure to check out our previous articles here and right here!