Analysis Of The Article ' Dumbing Down Our Schools ' Essay

In the article “Fremont high school”, Jonathan Kozol describes how the inability to provide the needed funding and address the necessities of minority children is preventing students from functioning properly at school. He talks to Meriya, a student who expresses her disgust on the unequal consideration given to urban and suburban schools. She and her classmates undergo physical and personal embarrassments. Kozol states that the average ninth grade student reads at fourth or fifth grade level while a third read at third grade level or below. Although academic problems are the main factor for low grades, students deal with other factors every day. For example, School bathrooms are unsanitary, air condition does not work, classrooms have limited

This audience is typically heads of household that would have children in schools and would generally relate to the high school experiences discussed throughout this article. As Botstein pointed out, “Often the high school outsider becomes the more successful and admired adult.” These successful adults can see the viewpoint of the author through their own lenses and also realize that their success was not directly tied to the learning they gained in school but to the harsh realities they faced once they moved into adulthood. Although Botstein highlights the various problems faced by students in high school but to effect change he needs to gain the support of the parents, in addition to wealth. The only way to effect change in the American school system is to be driven by both the student’s parents and the individuals that can influence the school board.

The President of Bard College, Leon Botstein, wrote the opinion piece Let Teenagers Try Adulthood (1999), argues that American high schools should be abolished. Botstein uses school cliques and brain development to develop the argument. The author's purpose was to argue that high school are dangerous to kids mental health and the school system should be modified in order to keep children safe from wrong ideas that are often present in high schools. The audience of the opinion article are school officials and people who have the power to change the educational system.

In the writing Fremont High School by Jonathan Kozol he discusses the reality of urban schools and how they are unable to obtain the proper education. At Fremont High School children are not always able to eat during their lunch period, the proper education needed for college is not obtained, the school reflects institutional discrimination, and the building is overcrowded limiting course offerings for children.

Let’s do away with the school system. In “Against school, John Taylor Gatto says, “They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said that they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around” (Gatto 608). Gatto uses his article “Against School” to talk about how the school system is not necessary. He uses certain rhetorical strategies and personal experiences to do so. In “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto uses his personal experience in his thirty years of working in the school system and some rhetorical strategies to convince people who have children in the public-school system that kids do not need to be put in the system to have an education.

“Essentials of a Good Education” is an article by Diane Ravitch regarding the No Child Left Behind legislation and its effect on public schools in America. According to her, since that legislation was put into place, schools have cut funding to subjects that don’t get tested. This has taken some of the most ambitious students in the schools in poorer communities and put them at the same level as the students that don’t care about school and don’t try. That keeps the ambitious and advanced students from reaching their full potential in school. Although Ravitch makes good points about her opinion, she doesn’t consider any opposing opinion and she cites little to no sources for her information.

Schools lacking social utilities that are needed to promote the academic status of its students is an issue. Whether these benefits should be kept opened or closed is widely debated in most societies. The condition of such schools is an important issue because it determines the future of its students academically. Some issues facing schools include social, public and economic issues; this essay will consider arguments concerning the social, public and economical causes of this problem through the use of Jonathan Kozol 's "FREMONT HIGH SCHOOL", which was written to expose the poor conditions in Fremont high school and seek in the improvement of the school system.

Attending a magnet school which based its education in the arts I never realized how drastically different my curriculum was than that of other middles schools. The difference went beyond middle schools in my district or state, but affected me closer to home—at my high school. In middle school, education more frequently came from collaborative coursework rather than ‘traditional’ lesson plans. The transition to high school was difficult because it seemed that students focused on social status and school administration focused on standardized testing scores. When looking at my education compared to course readings, I have found that despite my two schools being in the same school district and city, they each proposed different notions as to how schools should be ran and what makes education valuable.

Botstein starts his argument by stating the various parts of the high school experience that are harmful and pointless to students. The first is the “untouchable” category which consists of coaches and high school athletes whose exclusive ranking is based off of the team’s success rather than their own educational achievements. Secondly, Botstein addresses teachers and curriculum that “hold so little sway” over the minds and attitudes of students, since the average student is constantly worried about growing up, popularity, and their friend groups. Next, Botstein claims that the “primary reason” high schools are flawed and broken is that the teens in the twentieth century era are maturing “substantially earlier” than in the past decades. Lastly, Botstein develops a new method for teenager’s education experience by eliminating the 10th through 12th grades, permanently making high school obsolete. If Botstein’s plan is achieved, teenagers will have many different options to choose after their secondary schooling. Students would be able

For my entire life of schooling, both my parents and I would agree that I constantly complained about the educational systems in which I was enrolled. But when I actually take the time to think about everything I have been through, I realize that I have indeed had an excellent education. My schooling was full of opportunities and experiences, all of which contributed to the person I am today; adequate education has been an indispensable facet of my being. Sadly, not everyone has had this same privilege. And now as a college student, I am becoming even more aware of this sad fact. Looking around me in such a diverse city as Chicago, I find myself being more and more grateful. When I read Jonathan Kozol's Fremont High School, this these

The trivialization of high school in the present educational organization for teens has been posited in the public; however, it is one vital issue that is being debated.

Education is always a controversial topic. Especially that topic is about high school to educate. Rebecca solnit emphasizes that high school has a inaccurate system to educate, it identity students that who they are in the rest of life, people should escape from it. Also high school like a jail, you have to conform or take the punishment.However, I disagree with her, because I believe high school is an important part of life, and high school direct ways for students to be successful.

The human mind is perhaps the greatest object on the earth, animate or inanimate, but without the proper training, the mind is a relatively useless tool. Through the development of formal education systems, humans as a whole have tried to ensure the training of all minds so as to continue prosperity for the world. Most of the time, though, education systems do not realize the harm they are doing to developing minds and the subsequent negative consequences. Among the largest of these inadequate education systems is the American primary schooling system. The American education system is in fact failing; it continues to deplete children of their natural creativity and thirst for knowledge while preaching conformity, which in turn creates an

Secondary education is a highly debated subject. Many critics of secondary education say that inner-city high schools and students are not receiving the same attention as students from non inner-city high schools. Two of the biggest concerns are the lack of school funding that inner-city high schools are receive and the low success rate in sending inner-city high schools graduates to college. Critics say that while inner-city high schools struggle to pay its teachers and educate its student’s non inner-city high schools don’t have to deal with the lack of school funding. Also students from non inner-city high school are not being given the opportunity to attend colleges once the

According the most recent national assessment recorded in the Washington post, “the nations high school seniors have shown no improvement in math and reading performances since 2009.” In the most recent years, education has taken a huge downfall. Since 2010, over 45% of students drop out. Many students have problems with the grading system, so many different testing programs and having to follow a set of rules and not expand on those rules. The education system needs to induce more creativity, enforce the ways on how education is important and elaborate more on the rules of grading.