Examination of the Education System in Idiot Nation, by Michael Moore

Deresiewicz believes that “The purpose of education in a neoliberal age is to produce producers.”(1) In his introduction, Deresiewicz compares the ideologies of colleges from the 1920s to today’s thoughts. He concluded that “College is seldom about thinking or learning anymore.”(1) He also believes that there is only one value of education now and that is commercial. The other values are tolerated only when they pertain to commercial value. With the new beliefs in neoliberalism, Deresiewicz determines that “The world is not going to change, so we don’t need young people to imagine how it might.”(3) This leads to education just being about information rather than free thinking. He then goes into discussing how there are others who have come to the realization that not everyone can have high paying jobs as well. Deresiewicz concludes that students only care about the skills needed to start their career not obtaining general knowledge. Colleges teach their students to be leaders for their own benefit not the benefit of others. The neoliberal society, Deresiewicz believes, has begun to give students “a sense of helplessness”(5) so they have no

Our achievement ideology is based on the idea that the U.S. is full of opportunity and anyone can accomplish success in our society if they work hard enough. Many grow up thinking education is the ladder that will allow for this social mobility and all you have to do is be willing to work hard enough to earn it. But what about children who grow up thinking differently? Why do some strive for high paying careers while others refuse school and are seemingly ok with staying working class? MacLeod challenges the notion that America is the land of opportunity with research he conducted while in college. He uses the research of several reproduction theorists to show that schools not only are not great equalizers, as most think, but

In the article “Blue-Collar Brilliance”, Mike Rose’s main focus was to convey that there are forms of intelligence than just being intellectual. Rose, suggest that a broader perspective of education allow us to expand our understanding of what intelligence is. Rose explains what our culture views as intelligence: “Our cultural iconography promotes the muscled arm; sleeve rolled tight against biceps, but no brightness behind the eye, no image that links hand and brain” (Rose). In making this comment, Rose urges us to take a step back and to look society’s perception of blue-collar work as not as demanding or requiring as much brain powering as white-collar work. Often people do not realize that a person who has a blue-collar job is just as

Writer, Mike Rose, in his rhetorical essay, “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” voices his familiarities with family members that labored blue-collar jobs as well as a few of his occurrences as a student. Persuading his audience, Rose judges that blue-collar jobs require intelligence and that intelligence should not be dignified by the amount of schooling that one has received. Mike Rose not only analyzes his mother, a waitress, but nonetheless of his uncle, who started a job working on the assembly line at General Motors and accomplished enough to become a supervisor. Comparing the lives of his family and the author’s experience in receiving a higher education, Rose describes his experience in observing

Throughout America, the educational infrastructure continues to under-prepare students for future positions that require highly trained individuals to complete necessary tasks. In Daniel Bruno's “Entitlement Education”, he states, “It is not that his boss puts her foot down; instead, the job does. Our student finds himself not well prepared for it. He gets cheated because he is disadvantaged at his job---a job that he paid money to learn how to do” (252). Bruno also discusses in the essay on how motivated students are not fully prepared because the educational institute is attempting to cater to the un-driven ones. What Bruno covers in “Entitlement Education” is the staggering truth behind America's educational system. There are astonishing amounts of people at jobs who simply cannot perform their jobs to the necessary specifications. Its not necessarily that the

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

In Rereading America an excerpt by Michael Moore entitled “Idiot Nation” focuses on the collapsing educational system in the United States of America. Moore brings to light his view on the failures of the educational system and the lack of financing that has been caused from the top of the food chain. Politicians as well as American corporations contribute to the decline in education according to Moore. He attempts to give the reader a clear picture of where America places the importance of educational funding. He follows-up with detailed examples on what districts and schools resort to in order to gain financial support for their programs. Moore is quick to point out the irony of politics and education in America

Education has been the subject of some of the most heated discussions in American history. It is a key point in political platforms. It has been subject to countless attempts at reform, most recently No Child Left Behind and Common Core. Ardent supporters of institutional schools say that schools provide access to quality education that will allow the youth of our country to gain necessary skills to succeed in life. Critics take a far more cynical view. The book Rereading America poses the question, “Does education empower us? Or does it stifle personal growth by squeezing us into prefabricated cultural molds?” The authors of this question miss a key distinction between education and schooling that leaves the answer far from clear-cut. While education empowers, the one-size-fits-all compulsory delivery system is stifling personal growth by squeezing us into prefabricated cultural molds.

In “Idiot Nation,” Michael Moore discourses on the collapse of American education system and the three main reasons behind it: politicians’ ignorance, shortage of teachers, and the rise of Corporate America. Moore first points out how ignorant the President and politicians are by stating that the President cannot simply identify whether Africa is a nation or a continent. Next, Moore attributes the lack of funding in education to the fact that politicians prefer to build bomber than to improve our education system; this leads to shortage of resources, overpopulated classrooms, and decrease of books available for students. He then notes that the low salaries of teachers, which are caused by the insufficient funding of education, result in

The purpose of education evolved to a wrong way. Our society is expressing a wrong idea that our student should go to university so that they can make good money. Conard, in his essay, expressing a same idea that education is improving economics. He claims that “it’s no secret that innovation grows America’s economy. But that growth is constrained in two ways. It is constrained by the amount of properly trained talent, which is needed to produce innovation. And it is constrained by this talent’s willingness to take the entrepreneurial risks critical to commercializing innovation. Given those constraints, it is hard to believe humanities degree programs are the best way to train America’s most talented students” (Conard). Conard’s argument shows

The future of America as a superpower depends on educated people who can develop political, financial, and military strategies to keep the country strong. Fridman questions how a country where parents are ashamed of children who choose intellectual activities over sports and social events can maintain its world-class status. Indeed, it seems that soon football players will control the government and the academic will be spurned and forgotten. The intellectuals and academics are ostracized for their desire for education and information and compared to an outcast street performer through the term ‘geek’. Fridman develops his argument for the return of respect for those who desire knowledge through real-world examples, and thought-provoking

In todays workforce there are a lot of things that employers are looking for and most if not all students are not fully prepared for what will be expected of them. Tony Wager, Author of Rigor Redefined says, “Even our “best” schools are failing to prepare students for 21st-century careers and citizenship” (Wagner). It is a problem that has lead to studies of what hiring companies are looking for and what people are lacking. What we have found out is that the American educations system is letting our students down buy not teaching student what they need for success in todays global economy. Our school systems have been focusing on the scholastic side of educating our students and somewhat neglecting the more social skills that they also need to succeed. This is why we have college students with straight A’s but is physically afraid of public speaking or lake the ability to be an affective team leader in-group activity. We need to reevaluate how and what students are learning at all leaves of education so that we can produce better more prepared students that will be ready to hit the ground running in the work force.

Today, a piece of paper verifying one has graduated from a university can hold a significant amount of leverage over another person’s thirty years of experience. Society has developed to directly relate intelligence to one’s level of schooling. However, in “Blue-Collar Brilliance” Professor Mike Rose opposes the notion of intelligence being measured by levels of education and degrees. After years of close observation, Rose proposes that blue-collar and manual labor occupations offer just as many opportunities for intellectual growth as the average classroom (97). Critics of blue collar jobs fail to realize that they can be just as enlightening as higher education and white-collar jobs; because the skills learned by these workers help them grow

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” (Albert Einstein). One of the most intelligent men to live believed us Americans are unwise. The United States is becoming much more stupid than any other country through the lack of priorities in our education system. The problem we face today are the amount of illiterate people walking amongst us. In Michael Moore’s Idiot Nation, he informs the reader with shocking statistics about how unintelligent us students really are. The problem with our education system is the political leaders pay difference to teachers, school funding problems, and corporate funding.

We have all heard the expression that “education is the key to success.”. It makes sense, right? The more education you have, the more successful you will be. In some ways that is true. The education we get prepares us for our future and our future outcomes. After all, there is a direct correlation between education and social economic reward and that people with high education usually live happier, healthier, and wealthier lives. Those individuals who obtain higher education and the skills that they learn will later lead the individual to work in high-status and high-paying jobs. We assume that they make an astonishing amount of money and everyone lives happily ever after right? In our world today the “American Dream” is lost, is just that, a dream. We are taught that if you “play by the rules, work hard, apply yourself and do well in school and that will open doors for you,” and you will be successful and all that other crap we are told in school , TV, news, radio and practically everywhere else. Although everyone deserves the right to education and the “key to success” the truth of the matter is that education inequalities exist and not everyone is getting the same level of education or the same opportunities either. The group in America that obtains the best education is the upper class while the lower class students are left with lower odds of education.