Argumentative Essay On American Education

Education is taken advantage of every day, but do we ever realize its true values and the opportunities it provides? Education and literacy, provide the key in furthering one's self into new things. Education provides the opportunity to explore one's rights, further ones in their career, and provides independence in a dependent society.

Studies show that America is lagging behind in education. Nowadays expectations for students are getting lower and lower, and many times we are being told to not compare ourselves to others. Parents are encouraging kids to play instead of study, and to enjoy life. Some parents and even some teachers are saying that ½ an hour of homework is too much. But how can kids reach their full potential and contribute to the society without working hard and challenging themselves?

Just think about this one tiny effect. Imagine that you are about to start school at the age of five, and once you arrive you see that kids around you are more prepared, confident, and eager to learn. These young smiley five year old faces don’t make you happy. In fact, this makes you depressed, and saddened. Early education, also known as preschool is of vital importance. Preschool or an early educational establishment is a group of people offering early childhood education, before the age five. They offer enriching courses for children, and help prepare them for the transition into elementary school. Children who use the opportunity of an early education have a huge advantage. On the other hand, children who don’t enter preschools seem to lack in certain areas, and lag behind. Many children in our country do not attend preschool at the age of three or four, and directly enter kindergarten without the early learning opportunity. This issue of a less advantage situation could eventually lead to a bigger disadvantage when it comes to learning. Many parents aren’t willing to send their children to preschool in their early years as it is over expensive and unnecessary for a three year old to enter school. I, on the other hand, disagree with these people. If children learn from early on, there won’t be any need to worry about others who have advantages. I believe that early education should be mandatory, and since many people can’t afford preschools, public school districts should have their own preschool grade for all younger students.

Conversely, the Supreme Court struck down a school board policy requiring any school employee who became a candidate for public office to take a leave of absence. Laws or policies prohibiting all public employees from running for any political office have been struck down as overly broad. Several courts have held that public educators, unlike public employees who are directly involved in the operation of governmental agencies, have the right to run for and hold public office. The Utah Supreme Court, for example, ruled that public school teachers and administrators were not disqualified from serving in the state legislature.

Public education in America needs reforms to adjust to today's fast paced, technology based society. "Changing Educational Paradigms Animation" by RSA Animate and "Reinventing Education for the 21st Century" by Tony Wanger, prompted me to wonder how does teaching problem solving and critical thinking skills in schools socially and economically benefit students? Both of these videos touched on critical thinking and problem-solving skills and their importance in educating today's work force, but Tony Wanger blew me away with High Tech High, a Sandiego high, middle, and elementary school dedicated to teaching problem solving skills to a wide range of students (Wanger). This school system was an excellent model of students working on their own to create, utilize problem solving skills, and display their hard work. This gave me the idea that we need to shift our education to focus on critical thinking and problem-solving skills to better benefit students entering the work force.

There has to be a reason why we immediately associate a British accent with intelligence. Out of the 23 larger countries in in the world, only Spain and Sweden have lower graduation rates than the United states, with the UK being in the top 5. This might be an alarming statistic for some but in the US, the citizens almost expect it. With our alarmingly low graduation rate of 76%, the U.S falls far behind on the academic scale. Some Countries even call upon the United States to use other Western schooling methods as a mold for ours. The ever powerful United States of America shows a clear deficiency when being compared to Europe’s education system.

I believe we should always be optimistic when regarding the future of American education. Yet, as we continue to grow further apart as a nation, it will have a negative effect on education. We are not safe, and for many students there is no security, so when you are fighting to survive, education is pushed further away. We already know that the family, the home and the neighborhood affect a student's cognitive abilities, so what's next?

During this year’s presidential election, tension has been stronger than ever between candidates with opposing views on budget and economy. Will the money go towards military and defense, or social programs and education? Donald Trump, a republican businessman, and Bernie Sanders, a democratic Vermont senator, have conflicting views about how we should spend money. Trump wants to construct a border wall with his money, focus more on military than social programs, and cut funding for the Department of Education. However, Sanders, with more liberal values, plans to fund colleges and social programs, including unemployment and healthcare. I agree with Trump on the issue of budget and economy because he believes in simplifying the tax code and

Albert Einstein said “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Are we judging a student’s intelligence by these common core subjects? We learned at a very young age that we are all different, so why can we not be tested differently. Is there only a certain way we can be smart. Although the United States gives everyone a chance to test, which is good, but brings down the overall ranking as a nation, because of standardized testing, the long hours of school and the fact that children are being left behind causes the American school system to plummet.

"The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see." -Alexandra K. Trenfor. Honestly, at this point in life I feel like our public education system has been designed to fail students. Teachers don't have the power to teach children lesson on life anymore. We have to teach children to copy-and-paste and learn to regurgitate answers to pass a standardized test that doesn't even properly display how much a child as excelled. Children are going to be illiterate if they're not taught properly. They'll never be able to know how to deal with real world problems or survive financially with how the education system is right now.

The United States of America has portrayed itself by being the “land of opportunities” where everyone can “achieve success” by being determined, hard working and having the courage to grasp the rudder of their lives and lead themselves through the right path. In this nation, the American Dream is viewed in many different ways depending on individual’s culture and background. The higher education for Latino immigrants has been a concern to many people, especially those that want to achieve it. While some individuals believe that the DREAM act will result in a college graduate generation of hard working individuals who will strengthen the economy, others say they do not deserve it or that it will only encourage continued illegal immigration.

Over the years education reform has taken various forms due to the differing motives of reformers themselves. In the past, education reform desired to revolutionize the existing system (seen in Plessy v. Ferguson, the School Act passed in 1647, etc…), but as of late America, has desired to reform (change) our existing system. IN doing this, America acknowledges public education (as well as supports) being the primary source of education for America’s youth. Today’s reformers aspire to make public education in America more effective, with higher standards (thus resulting a higher achievement scores), and a higher focus on students’ needs. Overall, the one similarity between all education reforms is the idea that small changes in education will

The education reform failed to come through on its promise to aide failing students and schools, consequently punishing them for their shortcomings and making it even harder for them to succeed. In a personal interview with Miss Broesamle, a third grade teacher and district test coordinator, said that “low performing schools often end up losing things like art and music and even P.E., opportunities [that] can help in [tested] academic areas, due to budget cuts and to make space for test prep time, are always looked at as the first ones that can go”. The single biggest criticism of No Child Left Behind is that the federal government lacked the funds and personnel to support the reauthorized education law. According to GreatSchools, a national

Education, ironically everybody has the wrong mindset that educations is only get at a school, and it was very extraneous that when I was browsing the meaning of education on internet, I found that Google defines education as, “The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university.” Did you read that? If not let me make it clear to you, “ESPECIALLY AT A SCHOOL OR UNIVERSITY.” It is very strange to me that most people have the ideology that education is especially learned at an institution, but for me education can be learn anywhere because it is nothing else than the willingness of a person to discover new concepts of the complexity things that are around us. There is a very interesting quote that

Education today is seen as the foundation to a brighter future. However, how safe is the electricity when the walls and floors are cracking? In the start of modern civilization, education was seen as a privilege to the few in society who could afford it.