Flat World Book Review

I feel like I am walking away from this book with a better understanding of our education system and many of the problems we have faced in the past, ones we are dealing with now, and ones that will come if we don't make changes.

I think that there were a lot of issues that I didn't fully understand such as how big of an impact the way our schools are funded has on schools especially in low income areas. Maybe I was just naive but I could understand people wanting to keep their tax dollars local and fund their local schools. But I also felt terrible for students in low-income areas because it should not be their burden, they have no control over where they are born. Now I fully understand and see the bigger picture of not giving these students the education they deserve and need. The fact that some states can use third grade reading scores to determine the future of prisions is just crazy to me. Why would you not fix the problem and help those students succeed instead of insuring a prison bed for them. Not only that, but as we continue to under-educate students we are growing the lower class population that then becomes a drain on our society as a whole.

One thing that really frustrates me is that we all know that there is a need for change but it seems like little is being done to make the necessary changes. Not only is little being done to change once something is done the changes take years to make an impact. Reading how long some of the court cases take to make any difference if they are able to make a difference at all is really frustrating. In my opinion America is really shooting itself in the foot by not investing in education right now and not making the changes that are so badly needed.