The Failure Of The American Education System

An American Education has drastically changed over time, and it is widely known that things have changed. Students in their generation and ones prior are acutely aware and morally affected about subjects regarding

Many high schools are spent huge amount of time and resources to prepare high school students to test or even being responsible citizen. Diane Ravitch in her essay “The essentials of a good education” tells about it, “More time was allotted to take practice tests in mathematics and reading. Because there are only so many hours in a day, there was less time for subject that were not tested” (page 106). She believes that if student spent whole day to prepare to test and get “A”, such school is a not really good school, even if gets high scores and the state awards it an “A”. Also many educated parent are would not tolerate a school that cut back or eliminate the arts to spent more time preparing for state test. If student will study well on each subject, for example good enough on math, writing and reading so he/she will not need extra class to prepare for test and spent his/he time and money. So Diane Ravitch believes that, our education system is in wrong way because they spent much time to preparing test. On the other hand, John Taylor Gatto in his essay “Against school” represent that, the problem of US education is not to give a knowledge, but conversely to make good citizens or workforce. He tells in his essay that US education system become like Prussian system, “Our educational system really is Prussian in origin, and that really is cause for concern. One of the very worst aspects of Prussian culture: an educational system deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens - all in order to render the populace "manageable."(117). In his opinion the education system problem was that they make people become predictable, and this is of great use to those who wish to harness and manipulate a large labor

For years our nation has been trying to improve the school system and upgrade public schools in particular; we have hired more teachers, we have the best technology with SMART boards and computers, and we have started standardized testing. Nonetheless, this all seems to be in vain; according to statistics, America has some of the lowest standardized testing scores in the world for the past couple of years. In addition, over half of all third through eighth graders enrolled in American schools have not passed English or Mathematics. If we done so much to improve our school systems, why is there more drop outs than ever and kids continuing to fail tests or classes? It is because, as Lessing describes in her quotes, we are only being taught what the teachers and our modern culture believe to be important; we are being taught exactly what the teachers were being taught by their predecessors. Students are placed in a controlling system where everyone, as aforementioned before, is being “molded and patterned” to fit in with the demands of today’s society. Our new organized ideas, such as systemized testing, are drowning out any curiosity-driven, energetic, and “fun” learning. For those few that are more “robust and individual” and encouraged to leave the system, forced to educate themselves by their own judgments. Because of the new strict, framework of schooling and standardized testing, the whole year is filled up with knowing specific knowledge needed for those tests; there is no longer time for creativity or innovate ways to teach the students. As Albert says in his introduction to Gatto’s Dumbing us Down, we have been placed in A Combine, comparing it to a strict psychiatric ward from famous novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest, where everyone is controlled and structured. We are taught in this way, so that we

Nevertheless, the situation can be changed if the whole school system revises the curriculums for the sake of students’ better development, which is the original intention of education. After that, tests should be based on the curriculums that schools are providing. How is it possible for students to achieve good grades while the test does not at all correspond to the courses they are taking? Although many people believe that the freedom of teaching and the freedom of learning are both significant, experts claim that a well-educated person has a well-furnished mind, “shaped by reading and thinking about history, science, literature, the arts, and politics”, and is armed with knowledge and skills that help him read, listen and also explain (Ravitch 16). Without basic knowledge and skills, people are unable to think critically, to debate or to question, let alone able to solve problems in tests or in their real lives. The continuous education reforms really expose the effort that America is always trying to make for its nation. Nonetheless, paying too much attention to testing other than curriculum will only lead to a blow up of its previous efforts.

I pursue my education in the United States with expectation to be awe-struck by American advanced education system where students are equipped with critical thinking, abilities to realize their full potential as well as freedom to express themselves. However, the situation I have experienced tells me otherwise. It is just like that of China. I have gone through all these troubles only to find it is not worth the trip. This set me pondering the flawed American education system that kills students’ creativity and aspiration to advance. The oppressive ambience of American schools stifles, intimidates and destroys students and turns them into the mouthpiece of one voice, that of schools, the pervasive corporations and the government. Funding is limited, curriculum creativity-smothering, and teachers oppressive. These problems, if left unattended, are hindering America from greater progress and a greater height that she used to enjoy academically, scientifically or culturally. Thus, in order to change the American public school system for the better, the government must grant more funds to improve teacher-student ratio and to enlarge access to more and higher quality resources; the schools must adopt alternative evaluation measures that incorporate portfolio assessment and peer reviews; and the schools must create more focused, logical and students-friendly curriculums to meet students’ growing demand for academic excellence.

One of the contributing factors in the decline of intelligent and worldly Americans is the absurd amount of importance placed on standardized testing in the education system. We wonder why Americans are so obtuse, and the answer lies in the dwindling education through experience and study in American classrooms. If there was more value in actual knowledge

Education is important for the future leaders. However, an education is more than achieving the “American dream” of receiving a high school diploma, bachelor degree, master degree, or doctorate degree. Moreover, education allows an individual to increase their knowledge of political issues, economic issues, and current issues. Furthermore, education gives someone the opportunity to acquire skills that will allow them to be constructive in society. America is ever changing; therefore, it requires one with the intellectual skills to understand the problems that occur. Identically, society requires a human being that has the capability to solve the problems and the capability to construct ideas in order to prevent problems in society. Uniquely,

Faith in education, and the conviction to provide it to all citizens, has been a constant principle of our Republic. The importance of education was present from the beginning of our nation, as illustrated by Thomas Jefferson’s observation that “the most important bill is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness." According to President Jefferson, a nation cannot be ignorant and free. The fight for freedom is not in the trenches, President Kennedy said, it is in our classrooms. Schools will determine if the future is one of freedom and enlightenment or one of subordination and false consciousness.

In conclusion the United States educational system has many flaws of not teaching the right material. Putting more value into the tests has created a problem with so many teachers teaching the material creating better scores but decreasing overall knowledge. Compared with many foreign countries around the world, compared to foreign countries the United States perform worse on many subjects on the test. Leading education to becoming a market resulting in an inequality of education. Rather than learning skills that will enable creative thinking with analytical reasoning

Our education system is due for a huge improvement. The topic of “learning” has been heavily discussed and debated for centuries. Rebecca Cox argues that its largest problem is intimidating instructors. Dewey argues the problem is useless information being thrown at students without encouraging critical thinking. Freire shares a similar argument, but also discusses the oppression tied to this teaching method. Hsün says there’s multiple phases in learning. Until you reach the lower phases, you won’t be able to learn efficiently. All are effective arguments worth looking at critically.

According to American educational Psychologist – Robert M Gagne – “The central point of any education is to teach people to think, to use their rational powers, to become better problem solvers. “

There is no doubt that the American education system has its flaws. It relies on textbooks, which has biased information. With schools being rated on how well their students perform on standardized tests, teachers are teaching the bare minimum so that the students are prepared when they take the test. This causes problems in itself; teachers and students lose interest in the material, as there is just so much to learn. The curriculum restrains teachers from teaching what they feel is important. Teachers are expected to teach by the curriculum and if they deviate from it, they risk losing their job. With these methods, students are not learning the material well, and they lose interest in school. However, these are not the only problems in

Education is essential to help kids develop the skills necessary to prepare them for the modern world. Furthermore, education endows kids with the ability to be independent, creative, and innovative learners, which can help encourage kids to take on greater tasks. However, most schools lack the support for greater student success because they have outdated textbooks, bad school facilities, and no student autonomy. Therefore, holding back students from realizing their full potential and rendering them vulnerable to challenges. In order for students to become greater critical thinkers the federal government must reform the educational system and increase school funds so that schools can replace older textbooks with new ones, improve educational facilities, and permit greater student autonomy

Education has always been a cornerstone of American society. However, the current educational system of the US as many issues. First, most public schools hardly teach many important subjects such as personal finance, entrepreneurship, and coding (Gerber). Furthermore, many schools are required to teach students about pointless material such as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Qin Shihuangdi, and Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Second, in subjects such math and science, America lags behind most developed countries due to many teachers teaching a subject based off a particular standardized test such as the End of Course/Grade assessment (Chou). Therefore, the issues of low test scores in comparison to other developed nations and teaching students the wrong material in the American educational system need to be addressed.

The American system of education is failing to develop critical thinking in children while also teaching them to be dependent and submissive to a higher authority. In this system, American children are being viewed as educational machines in a social hierarchy where they are at the bottom while also only being taught surface level information of any subject. American education instills in children a mentality where children have a fear of failure, lack confidence, have no passion for learning, while also losing their independence and ability to problem solve. All these issues which come from our education system lead to lower test scores compared to other developed countries and the eventual slowdown of economic progress.