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What is the role of politics in education
Negative effects of Corruption
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Some people view America as a country with a weak educational system, Michael Moore is one of these people. In his article “Idiot Nation,” he believes American school systems are being run poorly causing our student’s intellect to be sluggish. Moore believes that this is being caused by political leaders and most people in society that “have decided it’s a bigger priority to build another bomber than to educate our children.” (Moore 131) These people would rather worry about situations with war than providing a decent education to the students. Because of these decisions, school systems don’t supply the most efficient education for students in our nation. This then leads to the students not learning all that they should in school. Moore outlines school systems in multiple ways that make you notice the defects in the schools and realize that people can be more knowledgeable if our nation had efficient, well-structured schools.
Moore shows us that because education is lacking in America, it is necessary that the government makes a shot to enhance school systems. Our nation doesn’t appear to take much incentive towards advancing our overall education. Proof of this is shown within the corrupt school systems. Everybody concerned about these school systems ought to be inspired to form a nice and well-structured education so that students would be told necessary info and achieve success. Something has to be modified within these corrupt schools in order to ensure students properly educated and then all students have the chance to succeed.
Moore believes that there were certain factors that caused our nation to have a weak educational system. His reasoning for poor education is mainly revolved around politicians, corporations, and the ...
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...l system. Corporate advertisements are manipulating and ruining students’ education in school. Some schools funds solely rely off of corporation’s revenue; when a corporation falls apart, so will the school. The final factor is that politicians refuse to fund education, but are angry about how America is behind other countries in education. Moore states that politicians “would rather hold hearings about the depravity of a television show called Jackass than about their own depravity in neglecting our schools and children.”(Moore 131) This shows that they are not focused enough on improving our country’s education. To help improve our educational system, changes need to be made to the factors that made our system corrupt in the first place. Altering these key factors will improve our nation’s school systems and give our students the proper education to be successful.
Educational systems in America are impaired, and the very educators that are meant to teach are the one’s pulling it down. That is the apparent message that Davis Guggenheim attempts to convey in his documentary “Waiting for Superman”. He uses many strategies to get his message across. Some of these include cartoons, children, and those reformers that are attempting to pull the system out of the ditch that it has found its way into. He makes his point very well, and uses facts and figures correctly. He does leave out some of the opinions of the opposing views, but it does not take away from his point that the educational system in America is in need of repair.
A definite correlation between impoverished school districts and disciplinary action can be seen throughout the U.S. This increase in security and authoritarianism teaches poor children their future place in society by inducing “fear of authority and habits of obedience.” He also mentions that corporations often target the least prosperous districts to market their products under the guise of “educational tools.” These schools often discourage creative thought and teach students that reading is dull and tedious as well. Conversely, the financially secure children can avoid public schools altogether by attending private school, or go to a public school with monetary advantages due to its location.
For example, “as Americans, we have quite a proud tradition of being represented by ignorant high-ranking officials.” Moore states students no longer have the information nor the skills needed in their libraries because of the budget cuts, despite that, “the ultimate irony in all of this is that the very politicians who refuse to fund education in America adequately are the same ones who go ballistic over how our kids have fallen behind the Germans, the Japanese, and just about every other country with running water and an economy not based on the sale of Chiclets.” Moore explains instead of helping the future of the United States and making school first, Americans are gaining knowledge that is useless to this society, such as facts about sports, he states, “Why on Earth am I retaining that useless fact? I don’t know, but after watching scores of guys waiting for the ESPN show, I think I do know something about intelligence and the American mind” nevertheless, they lack the information such as facts about own country. In addition, he mentions this nation has an obsession with testing, for example, resorting to testing and believe their problem would suddenly be fixed because of the test results improved. Although he claims Americans are obsessed with testing, he wants the, “so-called political leaders” to be tested the same way they test others in this
Many Americans believe that children are the future and deserve a high quality education. According to Michael Moore’s “Idiot Nation", they are oblivious to the lack of education that actually takes place in schools. Moore begins to build his credibility by using personal anecdotes and humor, citing statistics and facts, and using emotional appeals.
The U.S educational system’s purpose is to control the minds of its students that will be the future leaders of the country. Juveniles are being taught that in order to have a nice car, branded clothes and the house of their dreams, by getting into an expensive mortgage, they have to be an employee of a huge corporation. In addition, they have to undergo to a prestigious school, study hard, have excellent grades in order to become popular and respectable in the world. However, many people would not become those super leaders, but these majorities of people have a great role in the capitalistic society of the US. As Gatto says, “We buy televisions, and then we buy the things we see on the television. We buy computers, and then we buy the things we see on the computer. We buy $150 sneakers whether we need them or not, and when they fall apart too soon we buy another pair” (38).
If it was not apparent enough that America’s education system is failing, Michael Moore’s “Idiot Nation” openly explains to us about the truth. America, for being the richest country, is behind in the educational standpoint. America needs to rethink their standards when it comes to education. America is more focused on corporate earning than educating our youth. The author of “Idiot Nation” makes the reader think about how America is viewed in the world. The purpose of Michael Moore’s essay is to point out what is wrong with this nation and also give the reader the motivation to actually do something about the situation at hand. Moore is trying to make readers aware of where we send our children. The author is trying to shock readers with the facts to do something to improve the American education system.
Doctor Benjamin Barber’s article The Educated Student: Global Citizen or Global Consumer? discusses how the schools are being attacked by advertising campaigns. Barber talks about the poor school districts being targeted by a company called Channel One. Channel One provides these less fortunate schools with computers, televisions, and other technology. In return the schools have to show the students a twelve minute video that contains three minutes of advertising. In my opinion, this means were trading out our textbooks for fashion and material things. I do not believe the upper class schools have to deal with the same inequalities as the lower class schools. Doctor Barber’s intentions in his writings are about educating people about empowering themselves through culture and education. Doctor Barber assumes that 9/11 would empower more people and help produce a better education system. Doctor Barber stated ‘’in the aftermath of 9/11, it was particularly those public-official-citizens. All citizens because in what they do, they are committed to the welfare of their neighbors, their children, to future generations.” (Barber 420). I believe that 9/11 has had more negative effects than positive, and education has not profited from the tragedy that occurred more than ten y...
If a person saw a hole in the roof of their house and then went away saying “ I hope that gets fixed” others would ridicule and call them a fool. Barber argues the people of America have done this in the case of education. In his essay “America Skips School” Benjamin Barber discusses the problem of how education has steadily declined and determines something must change. He discusses some solutions he thinks could fix them. Yet, some appear illogical. Barber’s argument uses the phrase “If we were serious” followed by an illogical solution as a call to action.
We live in a society where we are surrounded by people telling us that school/education and being educated is the only way to succeed. However, the school system is not up to the standards we want it to uphold. There are three issues we discuss the most which are the government, the student, and the teacher. In John Taylor Gatto 's essay “Against School”, we see the inside perspective of the educational system from the view of a teacher. In “I Just Wanna Be Average”, an essay written by Mike Rose, we hear a student 's experience of being in a vocational class in the lower level class in the educational system when he was supposed to be in the higher class. Both Gatto and Rose give their opinions on how the educational system is falling apart. Today the government is only trying to get students to pass, making it hard for teachers to teach what they want. Students are affected everyday by the school system. They sit there - bored - and do not think that the teachers care, making the
The human mind is perhaps the greatest object on the earth, animate or inanimate, but without the proper training, the mind is a relatively useless tool. Through the development of formal education systems, humans as a whole have tried to ensure the training of all minds so as to continue prosperity for the world. Most of the time, though, education systems do not realize the harm they are doing to developing minds and the subsequent negative consequences. Among the largest of these inadequate education systems is the American primary schooling system. The American education system is in fact failing; it continues to deplete children of their natural creativity and thirst for knowledge while preaching conformity, which in turn creates an ill-prepared and incompetent public.
In his piece titled Idiot Nation, Michael Moore depicts many faults of the American education system. One quote that caught my attention was “teachers are politician’s favorite punching bags” (pg. 160). Teachers in the public school system are grouped together as the number one predicament when it comes to America’s lack of worldly knowledge. He goes on to discuss the much more egregious and omnipresent issues. I enjoyed Moore’s counter arguments, because I have always disagreed with this myth without knowing the actual problems in our schools.
In Conclusion, although I have a partial disagreement with some aspects of the article, it was with great pleasure I read it because I found the way in which the author relates education with many features of the American Culture innovate. Furthermore, it is impressive the way in which the author relates his life memories with the weakness of the field where he works. Events that most of us have experienced have been converted into strong arguments by the author. Education has been one of the pillars of modern countries. Thus, Mark Edmuson message should be taken as a foundation to future education strategies. The way in he expresses his thoughts shows a big desire to see an education system evolving in tandem with the society welfare.
Education is one of the cornerstones and pillars to the establishment and preservation of democracy. In history, countless scores of philosophers and political thinkers believed that only an educated citizenry can take on the quintessential task of upholding democracy. Thomas Jefferson, the primary writer of the Declaration of Independence, stated that “an informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will.” A renowned defender of public education, Jefferson proposed plans for an education system that included grammar schools in his presidency. As a result of these relentless policies for education, the United States expanded on the concept of public instruction through the establishment and upkeep of a practical education system. The United States continued this tradition and established a reputation as one of the best education in the world. Currently, this is no longer valid as other countries such as Finland, China, and South Korea are competing for the dominant position through rigorous reforms that aim to boost student performances (“Best Education”). Meanwhile, the American system is inefficient, inhibited by political obstacles and gridlock while Finland, the top ranked country in terms of schooling, is continuing to improve. According to the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) examinations that tested pupils across a variety of subjects such as reading, mathematics, and science of 2009, Finland’s students were ranked among the top (“PISA 2009”). The American students were ranked below average for industrialized countries in the world, revealing the reality of the educational crisis in the country. Finland’s education system, compared to the Americans, offers major differences that greatly ...
“If you would just get up and teach them instead of handing them a packet. There’s kids in here that don’t learn like that. They need to learn face to face. I’m telling you what you need to do. You can’t expect a kid to change if all you do is just tell ‘em.” Texas student, Jeff Bliss, decided to take a stand against the lack of teaching going on in his class (Broderick).
The American public school system faces an education crisis. According to Benjamin Barber, American children barely surpass the lowest standards set for education, especially in literacy, throughout the county’s history. Barber supports the existence of this crisis in his essay “America Skips School”, but argues against a solution to remedy the numerous problems facing the system. Although he acknowledges no solution, Barber suggests a smarter flow of financial resources will address many of the issues, however, he fails to acknowledge the distribution of this money. Barber’s suggestion for smarter financial resources for schools can be effectively implemented through a structured committee focused solely on the distribution of money.