Are poor education levels the result of poor teachers?

Question:Using the USA and the UK as examples, the education levels are very low compared to most first world countries. Is this because of poor teachers or poor students?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Using the USA and the UK as examples, the education levels are very low compared to most first world countries. Is this because of poor teachers or poor students?

I don't think we can simply blame one or the other. I think we need to look at the overall system including, for example,
(a) how teachers are constrained by too many conflicting rules they have to operate under.
(b) how the entire school system is too subject to outside politics.
(c) how teacher's hands are tied in regard to controlling student conduct in the class.
(d) how children are affected by not having a supportive environment for study or respect for it.

Culture can have something to do with. Economics can play a role in certain areas. too.

poor parents

It is because of poor, in fact, virtually impoverished, teachers. Pay us more, and you'll get better results.

depends on the area, areas with the most money have might much better schools, areas that are poor, might have less better schools

Yes, but I think it depends on the age of the student. We just talked about this in class the other day. When your higher up on the "educational ladder" (lets say college), you have a good idea of what is right/wrong and can understand more because of the experiences you've had. I'm a junior in college and I know that there were definitely teachers that I had in high school that slacked off and didn't teach in the manner that they should. For elementary and even middle school aged students, its still a lot of believing every word coming from the educators mouth. But who knows, maybe I'm wrong....I could have had "poor teachers" when I was little.

Even though the ratio is different, I would still think there are more slacker students and teachers.

if we paid them more maybe they will want to give it their all to teach the students

you have to realize first of all that other first world countries have stricter rules for education, like school on saturdays, students have to have perfect scores or the result is fierce punishments!! i dont think poor parents have anything to with how their kids education is unless they are having their kids do nothing but play. "all work and no play makes jack a dull boy, all play and no work makes jack a stupid boy."

Great question and it deserves a decent answer.
Everything that each one of us attracts into our life is a result of thoughts which match the subject which here is `poor education levels`. It is a general topic and generalities tend to contain a certain level of untruth. What I mean is that there is SOME good education mixed in with the bad. The thing is that `good` education is not measurable by grades and the `bad`education is. That is not the only clue that we have but imo it is the single most important one.

The United Nations, for example, has declared Finland to have the best results as regards students and what system do they use? Mainly Waldorf. Who has bothered to examine this system here in North America for its intrinsic value?

IMO, the powers who run our countries don`t want a populace who can think. That would put them out of business. Far better to raise a bunch of yes/men-women to do their dirty work and harvest their billions for them. Free thinkers are definitely not useful when it comes to that. It`s that simple.

There are many possible answers to this question since the reasons for poor education levels vary from one location to another location, from one school to another, from one teacher to another, from one learner to another, from one economic condition of a place or learner to another, from one culture to another, and so on. In other words, the poor levels are a result of the interplay of different factors not just due to poor teachers or poor students. Anyway, there could be some statistical studies that can provide the answer/s to this question.

There are a number of factors that contribute to "poor education levels," but students need to take some responsibility for their own education. Too many students who are bright are too distracted by extracurricular activities.

In reality the student is his/her own student. They decide what to learn, when to learn the subject matter, how to learn it, to what depth, and how much to retain. The teacher is just facilitator to learning with a serious responsibility to make sure that the students are on the right path and that they know that they have acquired the subject matter as required by law. But if the student has the power of learning in his court then learning is the responsibility of the student. We need to teach the student how to learn.