The American educational system is constantly ridiculed for its universal expectations of students, despite their predetermined dispositions. As the world is progressing, America’s educational system is becoming increasingly obsolete. High schools across the country have two serious flaws: placing unreasonable value in test scores and the failure to teach life skills. Leaving these problems untreated may be detrimental to the school system, however, a simple innovation could fix them.
High school is a subpar educational center in which test scores take precedence over learning. Diane Ravitch, the former Assistant Secretary of Education and research professor of education, openly voices her opinion on a specific reform program in her book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choices are Undermining Education. According to Ravitch, the NCLB program demands that all students - including those with special needs and those whose native language is not English - must be proficient in mathematics and reading in order for the schools and teachers to avoid consequences (Source 5). While this may encourage teachers to improve their
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curriculum and motivate students to put forth more effort, it does more harm than good. The unyielding focus on test scores has molded teaching into a form test-preparation rather than educating students. The multitude and importance of standardized tests support Ravitch’s claim that “test scores [have become] an obsession” (Source 5). Moreover, the emphasis on test scores has caused America’s educational system to remain unfluctuating while the rest of the country prospers. The majority of skills taught in high school are inapplicable to daily life.
Leon Botstein, president of Bard College and author, claims that the rules of high school aren’t the rules of life (Source 3). Students around the country excelling in the classroom may have little to no life skills. The American educational system should be concerned with molding students into responsible citizens and preparing them for their life outside of school. Instead, students are subjected to excessive testing, resulting in children that lack creativity and the ability to think independently (Source 7). From personal experience, high school gives students no insight to the work world they will soon enter. The current educational system in place across America leaves students ill-prepared for the life that lies ahead of
them. A viable solution to America’s educational crisis is a complete reconstruction. To form a well-educated society, students must be adequately prepared for their life after school. While this isn’t an easy task, it is possible. Students should be given fewer tests and subjected to a variety of teaching styles. To ensure they are learning the necessary information, students should take part in practice drills and class discussions. Alternatively, a teachers focus must be on the student’s ability to grasp and apply knowledge instead of measuring their ability to memorize information. If these approaches are implemented in high schools around the nation, there is a good possibility of increased knowledge. The American educational system faces a variety of issues. Schools and teachers across the country teach skills that are irrelevant later in life. They also embed unreasonable importance in test scores. These elements are interrelated. To improve the quality of American education, and American society, schools should teach through repetition and application rather than memorization. If students embrace education and knowledge, their quality of life will improve significantly.
Leon Botstein, the author of “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood,” serves as the president of Bard College, as well as a professor of arts and humanities. Botstein wrote this article after the tragic shootings at Columbine high school in 1999. This event triggered something inside Botstein causing him to think negatively about the American high school system. In the article “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood,” Botstein explains, in his own words, of the corrupt happenings of present day American high school (368-369). Although Botstein may have high credentials, he provides no evidence to support his negative claims and opinions about teenagers and American high schools.
From the beginning of high school, students strap on their seatbelts and prepare for one of the most vigorous races of their lives – becoming successful. With the rare occurrence of a break, kids are expected to keep on driving as fast and as powerfully as they can in order to get into a “great” college, which would be followed by graduate school and then an actual job that would make a lot of money. In American society, common values include working hard, determination, and being so productive that free time is not even a question. However, this philosophy is taking a major toll on American college and high school students. For at least 40 years, America’s future has been steadily growing unmotivated, tired, and hopeless due to the overemphasis on performing well in school. This phenomenon is appropriately expounded in William Zinsser’s “College Pressures”, which takes a look at the top four sources of tension that cause these feelings of dejection and agitation. After reading this article, I came up with a few solutions to this national problem. It is time to switch the harsh, over-encouraging green light of education to a comfortable yellow one. In order to make this ideal transition, directors of education across the country need to primarily reduce the amount of out-of-class assignments, lighten the grading system, and incorporate days in the school year that allow students to express their thoughts about school and provide useful feedback.
In Diane Ravitch’s essay, “The Essentials of a Good Education,” she explains how schools in 2008 made budget cuts on a variety of if important subjects in school, such as history and science, in order to spend more time on tested subjects like mathematics and reading. Ravitch believes that public schools are forsaking the importance of life and social skills that every student needs. A child’s knowledge should not be rank, rated, or labeled, according to Ravitch, because “it does not measure their character, spirit, heart, soul, or potential.” Ravitch blames reform programs such as “No Child Left Behind,” which requires states to test children’s basic skills, on the cuts made in important subjects, which she believes are key components of education. She also said that educated parents would not want their children going to a school
The ability for all children from varying walks of life to receive a well-rounded education in America has become nothing more than a myth. In excerpt “The Essentials of a Good Education”, Diane Ravitch argues the government’s fanatical obsession with data based on test scores has ruined the education system across the country (107). In their eyes, students have faded from their eyes as individual hopefully, creative and full of spirit, and have become statistics on a data sheet, percentages on a pie chart, and numbers calculated to show the intelligence they have from filling out bubbles in a booklet. In order for schools to be able to provide a liberal education, they need the proper funding, which comes from the testing.
The United States of America has placed low on the educational ladder throughout the years. The cause of such a low ranking is due to such heavy emphasis on standardized testing and not individual student achievement. Although the United States uses standardized testing as a crutch, it is not an effective measure of a student’s ability, a teacher’s competency, or a school’s proficiency.
Something I have always known since I was a little kid is that the educational system in this country is a complete fraud. American schools claim to live by the ideal of No Child Left Behind, but millions of students get cast aside each and every year. In schools these days, it is obvious which students are the elite—those that are raised up and motivated to go to college—and the ordinary student— those that are somewhat ignored throughout their schooling and are lucky if they even earn a GED. As a recent graduate of high school, and a product of this country’s educational system, I have had the opportunity to develop my own opinions regarding the myth of education in our society. Based upon my observations going through the school system, and the various arguments posed by several authors in “Rereading America”, I strongly believe that schooling in this society caters solely to students in the elite category while ostracizing students that do not live up to the elitist ideal.
“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).
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the American educational system has undergone much transition in response to our changing society. Though there have been many problems raised throughout the years in regard to what our school systems should be teaching our children, there have also been many developments.
The United States has proven to be a world leader with their powerful military, democratic government, and stringent foreign policies. There is one category however, the United States struggles to be number one in, education. As shocking as this may sound, the public school system in America is not superior to other developing countries. I have witnessed this scandalous phenomena firsthand, engrossed in the public school system from kindergarten to freshman year of high school. The student body and the school administration is morphing into a nonproductive system with a zombie-like attitude. American students lack academic drive and curiosity compared to European and Asian countries because the standard for academic success is constantly lowered. Americans must reform the school system and change their perspective on how important an education is to the rest of the world.
President George Bush signed the ‘No Child left behind’ law in 2002. The intent of this law is to guarantee every student, in the American school system, is offered the same opportunities. There are many benefits NCLB offers to students in America’s schools. One benefit is an effort that supports learning in the early years, thereby preventing many learning difficulties that may arise in students, later in the learning process (Department of Education, 2004). For example, the National Institute of Health estimates that 15 percent of the U.S population has some type of learning disability (Department of Education, 2002, p.74). Suppose these learning disabilities are detected earlier in school, some students may receive therapy and correct this disability. Some facts that show how important early learning is for a students development are: Children who enter school with language skills and pre-reading skills (e.g., understanding that print reads from left to right and top to bottom) are more likely to learn to read well in the early grades and succeed in later years (Department of Education, 2004). ‘NCLB’ targets resources for early childhood education so that all children begin their education with the right start. The category of Specific Learning Disability, its definition, assessment, and eligibility criteria, are currently the subject of much discussion (Department of Education, 2004.ii) Nearly 3 million school-age students are currently receiving special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) due to identified specific learning disabilities (SLD) (The Advocacy Institute, 2004). With so many children suffering from disabilities, many would believe ea...
High school and college dropout rates are at an all time high. Secondary school students are told throughout high school that if they don’t go to college then they will never be successful. Going to college doesn’t always make a difference because many career choices such as teachers and lawyers are highly contested and result in either no job or low salary. Low pay deters teacher’s motivation and they tend to work part time jobs to supplement their income. Public schools standards are comparable to a kangaroo court’s procedure; private schools are known for better teachers, environment, and test grades. The major problems in the public school system include the lack of funding, lack of resources, and lack of standards.
In 2002, President George W. Bush passed the “No Child Left Behind Act” which tied in schools’ public funding to standardized tests and enforced the tests in elementary and high schools every year by state education departments. This law also began to put more emphasize on standardized tests which has diminished our level of education and the law “made standardized test scores the primary measure of school quality” (Diane Ravitch 28). Bush hoped this law motivated more students to do well on these exams and teachers to help them prepare better, but it ended up hurting many schools in the process. These exams like the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) should not play such a prominent role in schooling and the government should not make tests the main focal point.
Throughout Botstein's except he explicitly states all the social awkwardness and naive behavior happening in high school. He suggests the best option is to have young adults be sent into the adult world to process that environment at a young age. “16, young Americans prepared to be taken seriously and develop the motivations and interests that will serve them well in adult life”(Source C). Student's will be able to develop skins by trial and error, however, American children will lack at least 4 vital years of learning subjects that will expand their knowledge of subjects such as biology and algebra. We would be unable to expose students to topics they might find meaningful, important or passionate about. Sixteen or fifteen being thrown into the world puts kids with zero guidance or idea of a career path. If anything children should have more time to decide their final career choice and be able to view all options. Having a positive education should lead the students to face life with courage once completed. Also, have a sense of justice and fairness based on in-class discussions as well as enrichment on controversial
George F. Will’s “College President’s Plan: Abolish High School” conveys ideas that had never crossed my mind. He states, “For various reasons, some rooted in American history and others reflecting recent developments, education has become, for the moment, the most salient social concern and therefore the most potent political issue.” Will introduces Leon Botstein, who doesn’t actually option to abolish high school, just to change the structure of our schools in general. Botstein says that high school was created for 15- to 18-year-olds who were still children. In today’s society, those children are now young adults who are physiologically and psychologically more advanced.
School plays an important role in our lives. Many people will spend more than fifteen years at school in order to get the qualifications that are required to work in a specific field. Those years are broken down into several levels, some of them being more enjoyable than others. Two very important levels that people go through are high school and college. Even though some think that these levels are almost the same, there are significant differences between them. The cost of high school is not the same as the cost of college. Also, some differences apply from an academic point of view. Typically, the social environment also differs from high school to college, which can be related to the question of freedom versus responsibility.