Here is where you’ll work on your drafts of Assignment 3.
Introduction Paragraph:
In the article “Dumbing Down Our Schools,” Ruth Mitchell states the argument of most classroom work found in large town and city high schools are below the academic grade level, except the Advanced Placement and honor classes. She brings up that high school students are doing the same activities that an elementary student would do. Mitchell has brought up convincing points that support her argument, such as statics. Her persuasive reasoning of low quality education taught at urban high schools seem logical to people that have witnessed it, along with an inference of students, teachers, policymakers, and parents not being concern if the right level of education
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is being taught in the urban high school system unless enrolled in above average classes. First Supporting Paragraph: Throughout the article, Mitchell uses sensible experiences and facts. Mitchell, a colleague, and a West Coast group called DataWorks have conducted research on the work that's been done in the classrooms. Mitchell says, “I found one out of eight assignments at grade level in two high schools.” This means that 12.5 percent of all assignments are at the correct academic grade level that the students are working on. The colleague has discovered that in “about 40 English classes,” he or she has “found one that the class” was teaching actual learning. Given this fact, why are the other 39 English classes not teaching the correct grade level of material? Teachers say “they have to teach students where they are.” Therefore if the student is a Junior, but his or her English level is the same as a seventh grader, then the teacher is being forced to teach at the seventh grade level. Doing this results in acceleration learning. DataWorks has noticed that Seniors in 14 different high schools were assigned assignments at the Sophomore level. So by the time they graduate and head to college, they have to enroll in prerequisite classes since the Junior and Senior grade level education was not covered. Second Supporting Paragraph: In the article's first and second paragraph, she describes classroom learning activities to be similar to what elementary and middle school students do. Some activities are “coloring shields that represent a Greek god or goddess” or “cutting out labels to be glued on paper in the correct order of photosynthesis.” This seems logical to myself and others that went through urban high school education, because these are the typically activities that are seen throughout the high school. Third Supporting Paragraph: Within the article, Mitchell describes a cycle of students, teachers, policymakers, and parents not caring about proper grade level education being taught in the urban high schools system, except the honor or Advanced Placement classes.
She says that “the public is largely unaware of the problem” of low level education taught in urban high schools. This implies that the public is not concerned if the students receive the correct level of education. This seems reasonable, because for student failure, teachers use the excuse of “lack of parental support” to the policy makers. The policy makers are accepting this excuse, but at the same time the policy makers don’t put in the time and effort in checking how the teachers are performing. For example, “policymakers don’t visit classrooms or, as we do, sit in on teacher meetings designed to help teachers reflect on their work.” This results in teachers are allowed to perform their job in how they want. For example, “teachers have been trained to think their work is done if they have delivered the material in the textbook, kept the class from bothering the principal and assigned grades that don’t fail too many students.” With this, teachers believe they are doing a good job even if students don’t learn anything. Mitchell makes another claim that teachers are blaming the “background” of students to the policy makers. Color students that speak “accented english” are contending with the “white middle class,” seem to be requiring elementary mechanics at the high school level. The students seem to be “capable of only drawing; as in need of discipline rather than encouragement. They are asked to make acrostics in middle school social studies; to write eight sentences in high school English class; and to fill out endless worksheets in math class.” The reasoning for students only able to do these activities is because the students “are not turned on.” Unmotivation to do well seems to be the problem, along with the nonsense
activities being seen in the classroom. For example, students rather nap instead of watching a movie. This low level of motivation to improve is seen in most classes unless students were eligible to be placed in the honor or Advanced Placement classes. Being placed in the honor or Advanced Placement classes, means the student are on the best path in high school. In the classes, students are being taught by “the best and most experienced teachers.” After graduating, these students were mostly known as “legislators and policymakers.”These types of people did very well for themselves because they all have memorable times of where a certain teacher has inspired them to be motivated in learning a certain area of studies. For example, some were content on learning about the art of poetry, or the breakdown of DNA. Conclusion: Mitchell’s article gives off a convincing view on how the problem of poor education is being taught at urban high schools. Unfortunately, the teachers make it seem like getting a student to be excited in learning a certain area is a challenging process, but at the same time the teachers are getting away with teaching a basic approach. The lack of support being put into the education system shows by the many excuses being executed within the school.
The purpose of Rebecca Solnit’s “Abolish High School” is to criticize the present high school system along with the emotional and academic strain it puts on developing minds. Solnit’s intended audience is any educated person with the opportunity to voice their opinions on the current approach to schooling.
My perception was changed completely after reading this book, I never knew that so many schools were situated in the ghettos and were so badly overcrowded or only had two toilets working for about 1000 students, and no toilet paper. What really upsets me is the fact that within the exact same city limits, there are schools situated in the suburbs which average 20 per classroom and have enough supplies and computers for every child to receive one as their own. Of course the majority of these suburban schools are dominantly white and the urban schools hold the minorities. The dropout rates that are listed in the book are ridiculous. Most of the children drop out in secondary school and never receive a proper education because of the lack of supplies or lack of teachers' interests. The majority of the kids are black or Hispanic in the poor schools and the suburban schools hold the upper-class white children and the occasional Asian or Japanese children who are in the gifted classes. The small population of blacks and Hispanics that go to the schools are placed into the "special" classrooms and their "mental retardations" can be blamed for their placements. The majority of these students are not mental and they belonged in a regular classroom among whites and Asians.
In the article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto urges Americans to see the school system as it really is: testing facilities for young minds, with teachers who are pounding into student 's brains what society wants. Gatto first explains that he taught for 30 years at the best and worst schools in Manhattan. He claims to have firsthand experience of the boredom that students and teachers struggle with. Gatto believes that schooling is not necessary, and there are many successful people that were self-educated. He then explains the history and importance of mandatory schooling.
Botstein once argued in his book Jefferson’s Children that “the American high school are obsolete”. In detail, the dissemination that the current method of education has entirely strangled the scheme is an important issue which has to be scrutinized critically.
An article from the Los Angeles Times showed that the majority of Californians give California schools “a grade of C or below” and half think that the quality of schools will continue to decline (Watanabe). While the economic downturn affected the public school system in a negative way, it was not the sole root of its problems. It just simply exacerbated existing issues. Because of widespread discontent with the public school system, many different solutions to reform the mainstream public school system have been brought up in public discourse.... ...
In many low income communities, there are teachers that are careless and provide their students with poor quality education. These teachers are there just to make sure that they keep receiving their monthly paychecks and act in this way because they believe that low income students do not have the drive, the passion, or the potential to be able to make something of themselves and one day be in a better place than they are now. Anyon reveals that in working class schools student’s “Work is often evaluated not according to whether it is right or wrong but according to whether the children followed the right steps.” (3). This is important because it demonstrates that low income students are being taught in a very basic way. These children are being negatively affected by this because if they are always being taught in this way then they will never be challenged academically, which can play a huge role in their futures. This argument can also be seen in other articles. In the New York Times
The gap between the nation’s best and worst public schools continues to grow. Our country is based on freedom and equality for all, yet in practice and in the spectrum of education this is rarely the case. We do not even have to step further than our own city and its public school system, which many media outlets have labeled “dysfunctional” and “in shambles.” At the same time, Montgomery County, located just northwest of the District in suburban Maryland, stands as one of the top school systems in the country. Within each of these systems, there are schools that excel and there are schools that consistently measure below average. Money alone can not erase this gap. While increased spending may help, the real problem is often rooted in the complex issues of social, cultural, and economic differences. When combined with factors involving the school itself and the institution that supports it, we arrive at what has been widely known as the divide between the suburban and urban schools. Can anything actually be done to reverse this apparent trend of inequality or are the outside factors too powerful to change?
He argues children cannot have the expectation placed on them to rise to their full potential when the building they learn in has structural problems and leaks. Barber describes some inner-city schools as “...leaky, broken down habitats…” (Barber, 2016, p.216). People need to change the buildings and make them better. Children recognize the disregard that they face and will lose the will to care if they see that no one else cares about their education. If the leaders in the community do not care for the education of the adolescents then they cannot expect anything different from the adolescents themselves. The essay suggests that all schools should reach the same levels as the rich high school in the suburbs. “If we were serious, we would upgrade physical facilities so that every school met the minimum standards of our better suburban institutions.” (Barber, 2016, p.216) Although Barber’s argument remains illogical, the ide that all schools should meet the standards of the wealthiest schools, the fact remains that something must change. Barber does not provide a solution to create the necessary change, but he leaves that up to the reader, causing them to have to take action and think about what must be done. Again the phrase “If we were serious” comes as a call, yet people must become serious or nothing will change for the
Within the walls of our educational system lie many adverse problems. Is there a solution to such problems? If so, what is the solution? As we take a look at two different essays by two different authors’ John Gatto and Alfie Kohn, both highlight what’s wrong within our educational system in today’s society. As John Gatto explores the concept if schools are really as necessary as they’re made out to be; Alfie Kohn analyzes the non-importance of letter grades within our schools. Although both essays are fairly different, they still pose some similarities in relation to the educational system in today’s society.
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.
Imagine seeing 10,000 of your classmates walking out of your school because they wanted a better education - a better way of life. In the 1960s’ Chicano students were being “pushed out”(Esparza) of school or being pushed towards vocational programs. East L.A was home to schools were “one out of every four Chicano’s completed high school”(Esparza). Instructors and the school board alike did not have an interest in helping Chicanos finish school to become someone other than a laborer and was expected of them to keep being a laborer. In “Taking Back the Schools”, Sal Castro a high school counselor claims, “I think the bottom line is the lack of concern of the teachers towards the kids and whether the kids were really getting an education or not...the reality set in that the teachers weren’t really concern for the kids.”(Esparza).
The purpose of Michael Moore’s article is to focus upon the different insights of a society and to point out all of its flaws. As a college dropout himself, he blames the education system and tells the readers about its loopholes. He blames the ills of America on it being represented by ignorant high ranking officers and blames the people for electing ignorant presidents who keep bragging about everything and end up looking stupid. On the other hand, Gatto who was a teacher for almost three decades claims the students as well as the teachers were equally bored at the s...
School funding is systemically unequal, partially because the majority of school funding comes from the school district’s local property taxes, positioning the poorest communities at the bottom rung of the education playing field. A student’s socioeconomic status often defines her success in a classroom for a number of reasons. Students who live below the poverty line have less motivation to succeed, and their parents are less inclined to participate in their child’s education, often because the parents cannot provide support for their children. Although it’s logical that school districts from poorer communities cannot collect as much funding as the richer communities, persons stuck in these low-income communities often pay higher taxes, and still their school dis...
Education is an integral part of society, school helps children learn social norms as well as teach them how to be successful adults. The school systems in United States, however are failing their students. In the world as a whole, the United States is quickly falling behind other countries in important math and reading scores. The United States ranked thirtieth in math on a global scale and twentieth in literacy. This is even more true in more urban, lower socio-economic areas in the United States. These schools have lower test scores and high dropout rates. In Trenton Central High School West, there was an 83% proficiency in literacy and only 49% of the students were proficient in math. Many of these students come from minority backgrounds and are often from low income families. There are many issues surrounding these urban schools. There is a severe lack of proper funding in these districts, and much of the money they do receive is sanctioned for non-crucial things. Schools also need a certain level of individualization with their students, and in many urban classes, this simply does not happen. While there are many factors affecting the low performance of urban schools, the lack of proper funding and distribution of funds, the cultural divide between teachers and students in urban districts, along with the lack of individualization in urban classrooms are crucial reasons to explain the poor performance in these districts. Through a process of teacher lead budget committees and further teacher education, urban schools can be transformed and be better equipped to prepare their students for the global stage.
Once a school system drops their efforts to integrate schools, the schools in low-income neighborhood are left to suffer; not to mention that segregation in schools leads, not only to the neglect of schools, but the neglect of students as well. Resegregation quite literally divides the public schools into two groups “the good schools”, that are well funded, and “the bad schools”, that receive a fraction of the benefits-- more often than not the groups are alternatively labeled as “the white schools” and “the black schools” (and/or hispanic). Opportunities for the neglected students diminish significantly without certain career specific qualifications that quality education can provide-- they can’t rise above the forces that are keeping them in their situation.