Summary Of Benjamin Barber's 'America Skips School'

740 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Problems with education

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. Despite Barber’s plan for the spending of education funds, he lacks a plan for the source of the money. In …show more content…

The oversite committee then evaluates the success of their money allocation and incentivize the success of the public school’s education. “Americans do not appear ready to pay the price.” (Barber, p. 215) Money is the most powerful motivator, and if the success of school districts reaps the benefits of more financial resource, educators will fight to be the best. This new desire to be the best, is possible with the equalization of opportunity from the allocation of funds to the poorer schools. The race to the top would already be won by the larger, richer, and more powerful school districts without those foundational funds. “Because we believe in profits, we are consummate salespersons and efficacious entrepreneurs.” (217) Barber’s essay supports the idea of incentivized results. Not only would districts compete with other schools, but their standards would be raised year after year in consequence to the oversite of the

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Class In America By Gregory Mantsios

    607 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Gregory Mantsios many American people believed that the classes in the United States were irrelevant, that we equally reside(ed) in a middle class nation, that we were all getting richer, and that everyone has an opportunity to succeed in life. But what many believed, was far from the truth. In reality the middle class of the United States receives a very small amount of the nation's wealth, and sixty percent of America's population receives less than 6 percent of the nation's wealth, while the top 1 percent of the American population receives 34 percent of the total national wealth. In the article Class in America ( 2009), written by Gregory Mantsios informs us that there are some huge differences that exist between the classes of America, especially the wealthy and the poor. After

    Read More

  • The Pros and Cons of California's Charter Schools

    2349 Words  | 5 Pages

    California is one of the largest states in the country and has one of the biggest state budgets, but in the past several years, its school system has become one of the worst in the nation because of enormous budget cuts in efforts to balance the state’s enormous deficit. The economic downturn at the end of the 2000s resulted in even more cuts to education. It is in environments like this one in which students from poor backgrounds become most vulnerable because of their lack of access to support in their homes as well as other programs outside of schools. Their already financially restricted school districts have no choice but to cut supplementary programs and increase class sizes among other negative changes to public schools. The lack of financial support from the state level as well as demands for schools to meet certain testing benchmarks by the state results in a system in which the schools are no longer able to focus on students as individuals; they are forced to treat students as numbers rather than on an individual case by case basis. An article from the Los Angeles Times showed that 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 already existing issues.

    Read More

  • The Common School Case Study

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    America’s public school system started off very rough, but through the dedication of many hard-working Americans, it was starting to shape into a system that allowed all children, regardless of race, gender, religion, or nation of origin, to have an education.

    Read More

  • Unequal Education in America: Urban vs Suburban Education

    2470 Words  | 5 Pages

    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?

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis: America Skis School By Benjamin Barber

    887 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Death And Life Of The Great American School System By Diane Ravitch

    1088 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the text, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, author Diane Ravitch explores her ideological shift on school reform and the empirical evidence that caused this shift. Once a proponent and contributor of testing, accountability, choice, and market reforms, Ravitch’s support began to diminish as she realized that these current reforms were not viable options. She came to realize that the new school reforms focused entirely on structural and managerial adjustments and that no focus was given to actual learning.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of An American Childhood By Annie Dillard

    912 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning of Annie Dillard’s story, “An American Childhood,” she describes playing football and how she and her friend Mickey were chased after throwing snowballs at a man’s car. The author compares the chase scene and the description of football to convey that in both it is “all or nothing”.

    Read More

  • Analysis of School Funding Consideration

    976 Words  | 2 Pages

    In order to develop a better job with school finances the administrator had to dedicate time, and consider many factors not just the monetary aspect, but also, an administrator has to have are where to allocate the funds, the amount available, and resources provided. Also, the importance that the financial system sees public education as an important source for the future of the children and their investments are guide tours the education (Rose, 2013). Finances at schools allows them to obtain programs to enhance the education and encourage to keep a good attendance. All schools and districts need to be somewhat strong financially in order to provide students with a higher quality education as well the technology advantages.

    Read More

  • The American School System: In Need of Change

    1025 Words  | 3 Pages

    Webber, Karl. “A Nation Still At Risk.” Waiting for Superman: How We Can Save Save America’s Failing Public Schools. Ed. Carl Weber. New York: PublicAffairs. 2010. 3-10. Print.

    Read More

  • The Segregation of America's School System

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems of schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement. Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s problems. Most important, money cannot influence student, parent, teacher, and administrator perceptions of class and race. Nor can money improve test scores and make education relevant and practical in the lives of minority students.

    Read More

  • Will School Vouchers Improve Public Schools?

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bob Chase, president of the National Education Association of Washington, D.C., strongly holds that voucher schools are, in fact, not the answer to improving America’s public schools. Rather, Chase asserts that investing tax dollars in improving public schools is a far more advantageous step in the way of progress for the school system. Moreover, Chase writes that an overwhelming majority...

    Read More

  • The American Education

    1841 Words  | 4 Pages

    After reading Joel Spring?s book, and reflecting on some of the issues facing our schools, it is apparent that our educational system requires much attention among our nation?s leaders. While the system has transformed in many beneficial ways, we are still plagued by the growing problems of society. I look forward to reading another book by Joel Spring, and developing my evolving understanding of the educational system within the United States.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Class In America By Gregory Mantsios

    394 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the article, "Class in America", Gregory Mantsios shows us how what class individuals are in affect their lives more than they think. The author thinks Americans, don’t like to talk about class no matter is upper class, middle class, or lower class. He describes four beliefs about class in America and then he used statistical evidence to refute them. In this article I have deep feelings about the class. Here have two points first of all I thinks the class that you are in it will affect your life whatever you admit it to yourself or not another point is the class you are affects how you are succeeding in school it all affect your future. Class, will affect in the future what job you will find, what kind person you will meet. For example the

    Read More

  • Failing Urban Schools

    1882 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On School Funding

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    Proper school funding is one of the keys to having a successful school. Americans believe that funding is the biggest problem in public schools. School improvements revolve around funding. There needs to be funding not only in the successful schools but also the schools that aren’t doing as well. In documentary, Waiting for Superman, it talks about how smaller class sizes will help students. Funding is what will help the smaller class sizes. State funding mechanisms are subject to intense political and economic scrutiny (Leonard). Studies have shown that funding is inversely related to accreditation levels (Leonard). School funding needs to be increased, but there must be accountability as well.

    Read More

More about Summary Of Benjamin Barber's 'America Skips School'

Open Document