A Rant on Public Schooling

Lately I've become more and more concerned about the state of our public education system. The standardized testing craze, it seems to me, is actually managing to make children less interested in learning and teachers less interested in teaching.

I think the biggest problem is the fact that school funding is tied to test scores. As if it weren't bad enough to just have funding tied to local property values! Now schools get money if and only if their kids improve - now, forgive me...but doesn't it seem like the underachieving schools could use some funding?

Here's another problem. The tests focus on math and reading skills. Not on history, or science, or any of the other important things that are now getting pushed to the side in order to focus on testable skills. At some schools, children aren't even attending science classes because they need those class periods to get extra help in math and reading. These children are missing out on science! The scientific method, the process of answering questions and learning for the sake of knowledge, will be foreign to them! Isn't this a problem? Aren't we sending ill-educated children out into the world to become ill-educated adults?

Further, if our schools are doing nothing but drilling for tests, aren't the students doomed to chronic boredom? Are we at risk of alienating our children from curiosity? I think this is a real possibility - an entire generation of people bored with the pursuit of knowledge. As a result, they will not pursue knowledge. They will settle for the status quo. This is not acceptable!

I do not have children, but I am a huge supporter of the public school system. I would want my children to go to school in a place where they could be surrounded by people different than themselves, who come from different ethnic backgrounds, speak different languages, have different customs, eat different foods, and live in different social and economic circles than they do. This is not possible at private schools. However, it doesn't seem to be possible to get a quality education at a public school anymore. What's the solution? How do you prepare a child for college and a successful life while also exposing them to a diverse sample of the real world?

I don't have any answers here; just questions. If you have the answer, I'd love to hear it.