American Education System Analysis

Margaret Mead said, “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” In our society we value education over everything else. If one has a high education, then they will be able to make a better living for themselves. No school system is alike, some are better than others. The American education system used to be known as one of the leaders in education, having the highest graduation rate, and being innovative when it came to teaching styles. Now, it seems that it’s changing and other countries have taken it’s places as the best. This makes sense since the statistics show that most American students are losing to foreign countries. According to Paul Zoch in Doomed to Fail, Japan’s high school graduation was 90% whereas, the United

States had 69% for their graduation rate. He also compared the two systems, discovering that Japan’s is more rigorous, involves more school days, and additional fees in order to attend (176-7). With that a 30% difference, Japan has proven it’s superior to our educational system. The school system should enable free thinking, teach life skills, and prepare students for college. The American school system needs to make these changes and revamp their educational approach in order to increase the amount of students who have the proper knowledge.
We have to think creatively everyday, consciously and subconsciously because life doesn’t always go the way we want.

Free thinking is what encourages our creatively but it seems that school systems find it irrelevant. According to Tony Wagner in forbes.com, “[h]e identified five ways in which America’s education system is stunting innovation: individual achievement is the focus, specialization is celebrated and rewarded, risk aversion is the norm, learning is profoundly passive, and extrinsic incentives drive learning" (par. 9-14). Each point he made was to show what schools are currently focused on and how it affects the children’s thinking. In all of the points made, students are taught two things; how to the reiterate the information given to them and to not fail the class by any means. With this current system students are taught to follow directions, ultimately leading them to not think for themselves or how they can get to the solution. In Doomed to Fail, Zoch did researched about Jamesian’s psychology, basically stating a student chooses what interest their minds and learn those lessons. He reiterated James central idea: “That is for James the essence of education: to help students develop their minds in order that they may solve whatever problems life presents” (10). Later on in life, students will rely on people to find a solution to their problem instead of figuring out themselves. If school systems were able to stress the importance of the arts and have it as a daily class or create more real life situations in the class; students would be able to stimulate their minds and offer their opinions to

society.