Three reasons are often given for the deteriorating secondary/elementary education in the US:
(1) Less funding for materials, etc
(2) Low wages for teachers
(3) Social environment (schools in areas plagued with poverty, violence, hard drugs, etc).
While I agree the above are huge problems, it doesn't explain everything IMHO. For example, I attended elementary/secondary school in a very poor region of West Virginia. The school system did not have a lot of money but still the science/math education I received there was fairly good (the humanities were awful though). My daughter, on the other hand, now goes to a public school in a relatively well-to-do district (relatively well-paid working class and middle class families), yet receives an inferior education to the one I received. So, in her case No.s 1 and 3 dont apply.
I am only slightly knowledgeable of educational systems in France and Italy. However, the french lycee and the italian liceo seem much superior to the american high school (in general...I realize there are some exceptions).
Any ideas about why this may be?
Thomas
===== "The tradition of all the dead generations
weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living"
-Karl Marx
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