Unit23: Education Matters: Raising Hopes or Failing Dreams?
(a title coined by a colleague/friend of mine, Mrs Abigail See)
Intro:
Over the past few years, education has been a pressing issue both in the US and in the UK. In this unit, we will try and study the American and the British educational systems and address the main issues they are faced with, such as elitism or lack of diversity.
Survival kit:
Download this file and add whatever you think is interesting.
Step1: The US and the UK school systems + key headlines about education:
A) THE US SCHOOL SYSTEM:
-
main facts:
Overview of the US school system1
Overview of the US school system2
Overview of the US school system3
US System of education (video) doc1a
- a two useful articles about education or parenting in the US:
"Affirmative Action's Latest Test", Los Angeles
Times
"Common Core": Listening comprehension1 (until 3 min)
B) THE UK SCHOOL SYSTEM:
-
main facts:
Overview of the UK school system1
Overview of the UK school system2
British education system (video) doc1b
- a few useful articles about education, social mobility, or parenting in the UK:
"Cameron puts telly ban on his kids", The Sun
"Cameron: blame education not migration for factories' foreign labour", The Guardian
Step2: An unequal system?
- In the UK:
"Higher Education in 2013: the year of
marketisation?", The Guardian
"UK's lack of social mobility is due to entrenched elitism, Alan Milburn says", The Guardian
- In the US:
"President Obama on making College More Affordable", The White House Blog
- Social mobility:
"Education and class: America's new artistocracy", The Economist
Doc2c: "Poison Ivy League: Should America look elsewhere for its elite?", The Huffington Post
Doc2d:
Doc2a:
Doc2b:
Step3: Solutions and other school-related issues:
-
E-learning and MOOCs:
MOOCs: extra link in French
- Robots vs teachers:
Robot Saya: world's first robot teacher (The Guardian)
Microsoft's nazi robot (Ars)
- Homeschooling:
- The Theory of Evolution (vs creationism):
Darwin's Theory of Evolution (BBC)
Evolution vs Creation at school (Wikipedia)
Videos:
Practice!
- Translate:
From French into English:
-"Rapport PISA sur l'éducation : la France championne des inégalités scolaires", Les Echos
- Listen and understand (Ecricome/CCIP) :
- Read and understand (or translate into French!)
-"Parents fined for taking children on term-time break attack 'inflexible' rules", The Guardian
-"Why I let my Daughter Get a 'useless' College
Degree", Time
-"Will Indiana or South Carolina be the first to Ditch
Common Core?", Breibart
Cartoons:
