Benjamin Barber's Americans Skip School?

“More than 3,000 youngsters will drop out will drop out today and every day for the rest of the school year, until about 600,000 are lost by June. One in four will pass through the correctional system, and at least two or three of those will be dropouts.” (Barber pg. 209) In Benjamin Barber’s essay, “Americans Skip School,” the American Educational Systems underlying problems are revealed and expose society’s ignorance to the importance of receiving an education. Statistics display the quantity of students in America that drop out of school and become criminals, nonetheless Americans continue to sidestep the issue. How can we expect students to listen to their teachers when they lack guidance and encouragement from their parents? Skewed moral

Parents and guardians are the foundations of a child’s morality. If a juvenile grows up without a guardian present, they are consequently more susceptible to media influences than teachers in the classroom. Barber studied the hours of kids in and out of school, “Our kids spend 900 hours in school and from 1,200 to 1,800 hours a year in front of the television set.” Children without a parent present believe the influences they view on television more than what they learn in the classroom. But, if a guardian teaches their child about the value of education, children will be active in the classroom and will be motivated to achieve academic excellence. But, if a parent takes an active role in a child’s life, and they expound on the importance of education, their child will strive to value education as well. If a parent is present in a child’s life and deems education unimportant, this will cause their child to not value education either. Barber did a study on what seventeen-year-olds know and what forty-seven-year-olds know and the results were the same. In response to the study, Barber says, “The illiteracy of the young turns out to be our own reflected back to us with embarrassing force.” Children look up to their parents and if parent’s value materialism, but preach about school, children ultimately value materialism because of their

Barber says, “If we were serious, we would upgrade physical facilities so that every school met the minimum standards of our better suburban institutions.” Upgrading poor schools to the standard of rich schools will not change the education results of students. If children from the poor community lacked the value of education and their school upgraded facilities, the results in the classroom would be the same failure as in the poor facility. Barber states that if we do not grant poor schools upgrades we are “assuring failure.” (Barber pg. 216) Granting poor schools money will not assure success and failing to grant poor schools money will not assure failure. Both poor and rich school students have to take the same amount of classes to graduate, the quality of building they learn in does not affect the motivation of success. If anything, students of the poor community possess more drive to reach success because of where they come