Education Controversy

The year is 2012. In the movie Back to the Future II, two years from now, in 2016, Marty McFly travels from the past to save his family’s future. The future is almost upon us, and yet it would seem that our education system has changed little since Back to the Future hit theaters in 1985. “We still have same teachers, in the same parts, in the same schools, with the same level of knowledge, with the same equipment’s, and much the same standard of parental support” (David). Ironically, we have been steadily implementing policy after policy, increasing standards and accountability, promoting oversight and rule… the list goes on, and yet our progress seems minimal, our educators complain of underfunded classrooms, and our legislators complain of underperforming schools. The question of “how to improve our education system” is not getting satisfactorily answered because our system is not broken, merely underdeveloped. The truth is that America has made paces in improving its education technique or system; the problem that remains is for us to entrust our educators with the greater pliability and autonomy that they need to excel.

President Donald Trump stated that “education is the civil rights issue of our time”. On this issue, I cannot disagree with him. I too believe that education is the civil rights issue of our time, undoubtedly. There are many other issues that could be rationalized as “the issue of our time”, such as LGBTQIA concerns, police violence, continuing racial issues, war, income equality, the justice system, or many others. But, the reason I believe education is at the forefront, is because the above-stated list can all be traced back to a failing education system. To go further, all of the above issues could begin to start showing improvement, if we invested more time into our education system. While I do agree with President Trump on the issue,

The study group would also provide a sense of influence as students would feel that they are not only being influenced by their peers and their motivation or study tactics, but that they are influencing others to become more practical or efficient in their studying. Students may also notice that this group helps expand their recourses that they are sharing. The group would provide a place to network with other members, creating a higher sense of integration and fulfillment of needs. Altogether, the presence of shared emotional connections, influence, and integration and fulfillment of needs, all add to creating a higher psychological sense of community in the graduate program at

This project was quite expeditious due to the number of alternate subjects studied within the constraints of school. This made it quite difficult to complete because time limits were evident and tested. This could have had a substantial impact on the project itself, however, it did not because of skill and precision. Working individually could be beneficial in certain circumstances if one is smart, advantages might include independence and personal idea. Although, it was not easy coming up with good ideas and multi-tasking in different areas individually. In addition, working in a class group was helpful due to the amount of

People can motivate you to get started or keep you motivated to write. It can be an effective tool when writing because you can get frustrated with yourself or not know where to go with an idea. Not only does it help create ideas, collaborative learning teaches you real world skills. These skills include how to properly communicate with others and teach you how to work with people you don’t necessarily get along with. Most likely your future will involve working with others in some form or another. Ms. Olson agrees, saying, “Yes, every student needs to be able to work well together with others and I think working together in a classroom is the closest experience to the real world job collaboration you will get while in school.” Researchers have looked at the benefits of collaboration and the ways it can help you. In the study the researchers discovered or identified two important benefits of collaborative learning. Xiao Han T. Zeng, the research scientist, shares with us that “Collaboration plays an increasingly important role in promoting research productivity and impact” (Zeng par. 1). These are just two of the identified benefits of collaborative learning.

This paper is designed to address four major controversies concerning the practice and effectiveness of the current United States education system and discuss potential solutions to these issues. The four controversies we will be addressing are;

He discusses how working in groups to solve problems can prove to be more beneficial than working alone. “For Bruffee, knowledge as a social construct means that “learning occurs among persons rather than between a person and things.” (398) Bruffee discusses the education of how “Students

NAPLAN gives measure through which governments, training powers and schools can figure out if or not youthful Australians are meeting imperative instructive outcomes. It seems that teachers are pressured into taking time out of regular curriculum in order to satisfy the demands of the National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy testing, on this basis NAPLAN has proven to be a controversial issue for Australian education as testing can cause stress and a range of adverse consequences to the education experience.

One issue that is currently causing a big debate in my school district is health education. Just this year, the school district has approved that sex education must be taught in all schools and is not optional. Many parents thought they would be able to decline the sex education classes; however, the classes were included in the curriculum of health education. As a result, every student must take all of the sex education classes because they are listed within the health education curriculum. In addition, the school board has also voted and approved that students 7th grade and above will also be educated on gender identity and transgender issues (Shapiro, 2015).

In today’s society, we realize the importance of education and how it will benefit all to have an adequate education that will give the best opportunities. However, individual states have jurisdictions over the curriculum and funding over the public education. This means that California students may have a higher academic standing than Utah. The 14th Amendment and other various versions have brought upon the issue of equal, free and adequate education Yet, it has been denied several times because it is not federal jurisdiction and they has no power in this issue. The main reason the Amendment is being denied because of the definition of what is a citizen. Is someone a citizen because they were born in the U.S.A. or moving to U.S.A. and

Education is a fundamental provision that needs to be considered in any society. The reason as to why it seems to be regarded to be fundamental in the life of human beings is because it imparts sanity to the [person who has acquired some education as compared to the person who has not acquired education. The literate person tends to behave in a different way like the one illiterate one. Education in the past was delivered in a different way unlike the current generation that is basically full of computerization. Eleanor Roosevelt is one of the writers who take back to the ancient days of 1800 where the education system was different when we approached

A controversial policy issue within education policy and equality is the affirmative action. This policy, “is mostly about ensuring that all people have equal access to opportunity and success” (Cengage). The reason this is crucial is because it attempts to make sure that every student will have an equal opportunity to carry out being a student, and learn to their full potential. This policy helps to attempt at reversing negative effects from years of discrimination, as well as help those with disadvantages in the workplace and at school. Affirmative action involves reaching out to minority communities in order to assist individuals in those communities to take advantage of employment as well as educational opportunities (Cengage). Some examples

2. Cooperative learning directed towards focusing on students’ team work while doing their project assignments.

“I just don't understand! Why you have to be so simple? Answer me Elizabeth. “Why would you sit there and pee on yourself?” and you think I am going to clean that mess up, well you thought wrong.”

Education reform is a topic that every student, parent and teacher should be interested in because it effects everyone in the community. Many different approaches to education reform have been tried, and even though they seem to work for the time being, there are always more improvements that need to be made. One of the best ideas that has been discussed in the most recent years is getting the parents and students more involved in the actual reform process. Many school administrators see a problem with involving students, even though they are the ones most affected by the changes within schools. Student’s opinions should be taken into consideration because they are the ones who see what happens inside the school and within the classroom, and are the most affected by it. Involving parents and students in the reform of their schools will improve the quality of education, improve parent and teacher relationships and reduce parent and student complaints.