An Academic Crisis Of The K 12 School System

In a May 2003 persuasive article published by USA Today titled “College isn’t for Everyone”, the author W.J. Reeves states “about 15 million people in America are enrolled in college.” This is a staggering amount considering the fact that many people are in college for all the wrong reasons. About half of the Americans enrolled in college are there because they feel they owe it to their families. Only a small number of Americans in college actually feel it is necessary for successful lives. In this article, Reeves recollects on his experiences as a college English professor at an institution in New York. He speaks of how he believes that many students truly do not want to be in college. You can tell this by his stories of tardiness,

Starting in college is a new step into adulthood. Throughout colleges, there are an endless supply of knowledge to gain and learn in classes. Even in the school library is countless materials to gain knowledge; however, students have taken a different path. When a college student approaches their new lives, there is an unlimited opportunity to be distracted. Without a parent or guardian reminding students to focus on their studies, college has distracted students from gaining knowledge. It can go from hanging out with friends to playing games all night. With an abundant ways to get distracted, college nowadays creates interference towards a student’s ability to learn. We can easily get distracted from the task at hand. One individual, however,

Students lose focus when their teacher makes comments such as “You’ll need to know this for the test” or “Pay attention you’re going to need to know this”. Students are more likely to view it as a chore. “Study after study has found that students – from elementary school to graduate school, and across cultures – demonstrate less interest in learning as a result of being graded” (Kohn, 167). Therefore, students don’t take on challenging tasks. Instead, they will look for the easiest possible route. “Thus, students who cut corners may not be lazy so

In a progressively more globalized world that necessitates more effective educational practices, the U.S., once the biggest global force in education, has seen its dominance slowly slip out, and its educational status fall even lower than that of several third-world countries. The decline experienced in American school system academic achievement is not as a result of lack of funding, but as a consequence of the overall educational system watering down. According to Gatto, educating children through the existing public school system of America is crippling rather than helping them. From his essay, ‘Against School,’ it is established that the goal of the whole public school system is to limit people’s intelligence in an attempt to create a society that is manageable. Gatto continues to state that action is needed to change this situation. He supports his assertions using current and historical information about the American school system and his personal experience. After reading his article, one realizes that most of Gatto’s arguments are true. It is true that the American education system is making the students comfort to the government and society norms, which is why they are easily bored. This essay’s goal will, therefore, be to support John Gatto’s beliefs.

Many students go through their academic career struggling to balance school and personal life while maintaining focus in the classroom. In the passage, “In the Praise of the ‘F’ Word,” Mary Sherry argues that the only way for unfocused students to become motivated in their academics is for teachers to threaten them with a failing grade. We should disagree with the author because many students struggle with obligations outside of school, personal problems, and family responsibilities. Therefore, many students would not improve their studies once they receive a failing grade, but instead, become overwhelmed with failing and attempting to balance numerous other responsibilities.

In chapter 5, Reforming America’s Schools, I learned many things that affect me as an educator. An important fact that interests me was that there are four goals that schools should follow. The first one is academic, including a broad array of knowledge and intellectual skills. The second one is vocational, aimed at readiness for the world of work and economic responsibilities. The third one is social and civic, including skills and behavior for participating in a complex democratic society. The fourth one is personal, including the development of individual talent and self-expression. This will affect me as an educator so that I can follow and do my best to complete these goals. Now I am aware of what should be done in a classroom.

12 years, 2040 days, 16,320 hours, 979,200 minutes, this is the amount of time American students spend on the first step of an education (K-12). After spending this massive amount of time in school you would think that students are leaving with a good education, right? But the sad reality of it is that American high school students graduate with a mostly irrelevant education and it is crippling them in the real world. I am a student at Denver south high school in Colorado, so I have been able to witness this issue first hand. Although Denver south has an impressive level of diversity of different ethnicities, cultures and ideals that adds a lot to the experience of a high school education, our curriculum is still far from what is should be. I 've witnessed students sitting at desks sleeping, playing on there phones or doing something completely different from what the class is doing, not saying that I do the same thing. Being a senior I was required to take a civics class, this class consists of mostly lectures that rarely interact with the class, for me this class is a study hall where I finish homework assignments and where I finished the majority of my college application I was able to do all of this while still maintaining a A, isn 't their a problem with this? The majority of teachers, and parents think that this is the student 's fault for not being motivated to learn and to resist boredom, on the contrary I

In his op-ed, “Are Kids Too Coddled?,” author Frank Bruni argues that children need to be exposed to the harshness of reality. According to Bruni, “praise… can lessen motivation and set children up to be demoralized when they invariably fail at something” (par. 25). By showering children in praise even when they are not successful, students will never learn the importance of hard work. There is no reason to put in effort to go above and beyond expectations if mediocre work receives the same amount of acknowledgement. Due to the excess of undeserved praise, Bruni believes that “students have an inflated sense of their academic prowess” (par. 26). Students expect to get good grades without studying and working hard. In order to reverse the damage caused by sheltering our children, Bruni argues that an application of more rigorous standards in school is necessary to make America’s children “ready to compete globally” (par. 29). By setting higher standards, students will be able to learn more and attain true academic excellence.

It is a well known fact but there are many people including counselors, parents, teachers, and friends who resist saying it out loud for fear it will sound like discouragement and negativity: college is definitely not for everyone. The pressure on high schools students, especially those that excel, to attend a college or university is enormous. And in the case of a bright, industrious and motivated high school student, attending a college or university is an obvious career choice. For those students, it's only a matter of what university to attend, whether one's SAT score is high enough, and the availability of the money. Then there are the millions of high school students who are not really personally motivated but are being pressured by their counselors, teachers and parents should they attend college if they really don't care? This paper examines those issues.

Effective education has seemed to diminish throughout the years. Students and professors no longer hold themselves to a high standard to achieve a high quality education and also to later be rewarded with an honorable career. Academically Adrift, written by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, is a scholarly book that goes into great detail on the decline in our education system. They discuss three points in chapters one through three that create an effective argument; the current attitudes and lack of effort at our colleges and universities, the effects that a student’s background has on their level of achievement, and emotions on their academic success. The effectiveness and foundation of this book was established in chapter one and was expanded

What can be defined as school in America or who created and contributed to the modern school system? My fundamental question was what are the significant contributions (and who contributed) to America’s present school system? Schools in America have gone back years since 1635 starting in Boston, Massachusetts which lead to the first school being named the Boston Latin school. With the opening of the first school many teachers and leaders focused on religious values instead of specific subject areas as we would today. However, there have been changes in the way we teach the future generations that are different from the 1600s. In order to see these changes we have to take a time machine back to the 1800s, 1990s, and 2000s. The 1800s brought Americans the common school movement, Horace Mann, the Committee of Ten, and the Prussian system in America. In addition great advancements have been made in the school system, but not as much advancement has been made since the 1800s. This can be a problem as the internet and technology blossomed in the late 1990s and today many teachers have questioned if we should really teach the same way we did almost 180 years ago. From the past we have gotten common core, standardized testing or teaching children as if they are on an assembly line which all come into question in today’s school system. Programs such as KIPP or Khan academy are showing how children can be in classrooms that are more student led. Also first year teachers can find a way

University education, fraught with superstition and tremendous expectations of its young applicants, has lost its true meaning in all of the surrounding noise. In its current state in the United States, ‘going to college’ has been oversaturated in capitalism – especially in the recent decades with skyrocketing tuition rates (Cain). The perception that every accomplishment should have monetary value has seeped into American culture; even side-projects and hobbies come with the expectation of doubling as an extra source of income. This attitude has resulted in a resounding consequence, as “for large numbers of college students the purpose of college is to qualify them for a good job” (Longwell-Grice). This determination accounts for students’ personal drive and motivation towards schoolwork,

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), American students ranked 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading when compared to students in only 27 other industrialized countries in 2012 (Broad Foundation). In addition, the United States, who used to have the highest graduation rate among these countries, has now dropped to number twenty-two out of twenty-seven (Broad Foundation). These statistics are staggering and should be alarming to Americans. What has happened within the education system to cause such a decline in the education being received by students? Perhaps, the education is not the real problem though; the problem is that students are struggling to find interest and relativity in what is being taught. One of the greatest reasons for this occurrence is the simple fact that teachers are disconnected

Yet still take the initiative every day to get up and work on school work and for some of the millions of students go into a campus! But what truly drives a college student to want to learn? Is it the need for a batter paying job? Is it to benefit your family? Or to maybe just tell yourself “ Hey I did this!” I think it could be all three but when it comes to most high school students getting overwhelmed with the things that are going on in their home lives and bring it to school when they should be paying attention. “High schoolers dropping out can be attributable to the social climate, particularly those elements dealing with student participation and the severity of the problem environment.” (Pittman, Haughwout, December 1987) As we age we realize that college is going to be required of us at some point so why not do it now. We as college students psych ourselves up for this awesome experience, to find that it is stressful and way harder than we thought college was going to be, we learned in high school. So, we go into everything blind thinking one way to find that it is another. But no matter what gets in some of our way we keep going knocking out one class at a

Growing up, I hated school. The sinking feeling I got hearing people talk about academics was distressing. Every time I heard the words “mathematics” or “language arts” used in speech I would cringe reminding myself of what I struggle with. Looking back at this struggle, I realize that it helped define the essential components of my personality. Without this hardship, I would not have the resiliency, enthusiasm, or diligence that I have today to face my educational and real - life endeavors.