The Value Of Public Education

“‘The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves’” (Strauss). Our founding fathers wanted our nation to be an educated nation. There were many who believed that only a chosen should be educated, but there were those who saw education to be more pervasive. During the 1800s Horace Mann revolutionized the ideas with public education; however, today we now face an education system lacking in religious classes, group projects, and outside stimulation.

Thomas Jefferson remains one of the first advocates for public education, which was later termed the Common School Movement. He recognized the inequality in education, for the wealthy stood the only ones capable of affording an education, thus the poor stayed poor and the rich stayed rich. Jefferson aspired to change the apparent injustices in the education system. He felt all children possessed the right to and education regardless of prosperity, heritage, and circumstances. Even though Jefferson remained not able to create the change he so desperately sought to make, he never stopped trying and since education stayed revolutionized, for his persistence in equality. James Conant, former president of Harvard University stated, “In short, as I view the American scene of the 1960’s, I am ready to declare without hesitation that Jefferson’s proposals have become incorporated in the pattern of our educational structure” (Mercer, 1993).

With class starting at 8:30 AM, extracurricular activities extending well past 8 PM, students working in after school jobs, trying to keep up on the constant demand of homework: high school students put getting a solid eight hours of sleep or even a quick power nap, at the bottom of their to-do lists. "Over-packed schedules and 12-hour days are draining already sleep-deprived teenagers. In high schools where most students go onto college, the pressure to excel inside and outside of the classroom leaves students with little time to relax." ("Power Napping," 1996). Lack of sleep is accepted as a part of high school. We've all seen our classmates fall asleep during a history lecture or video. The problem is that students are forced to stay up most of the night finishing projects and papers or studying for their tests the next day. Some argue that if teenagers would manage their time better, they could sleep enough at night, but with the competitiveness of students and the many activities they are involved in, they don't have a lot of time left.Sleep loss can take a devastating toll on the mind and body at any stage of life, from early childhood to older adulthood. But for teenagers, who are at a critical stage of development, skipping out on sleep can be particularly dangerous.In the teen years, when development continues the sleep deprivation effects of brain and body development are significant. Naps in school are usually frowned upon, but it

Over the centuries, education has changed based on the demands of the citizens during a specific time. As Americans become more informed (educated), their opinions, ideas, and thinking change. America’s expectations concerning public education have evolved as well. The demands that are placed on states, districts, and leadership are becoming more intense; yet, our culture still believes that public education is faltering.

Education is an issue that touches everyone’s lives in one way or another. Whether you are a parent, student, teacher, taxpayer, or employee, the effects of education on society can be seen everyday. For this reason, public schools are a top concern among political leaders. Over the past twenty-five years, confidence in the nation’s public school system has dramatically declined. While the public for the most part seems to support their school district, criticism is not lacking. Recent years especially have shown dissipating support. It appears that the prevailing view is that public education, as a whole, is in bad condition and is in need of a renewed effort to fix it. Private schools seem to fare

The quality of students’ homework is much more important than the quantity of students homework and data collected during recent studies has proven that homework is not making the grade. “. . . American students are entangled in the middle of international academic rankings: 17th in reading, 23rd in science, and 31st in math according to the most recent results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)” (Murphy-Paul). Students should not be given an excessive amount of homework because the pressure of having to complete excessive amounts of homework every night is quite daunting for most students. Knowing how much homework is the right amount correlates with age and grade. An 8th grade student should not be given a myriad of homework that would keep her awake past midnight completing assignments. In any case, there should be a limit on the amount of homework all teachers give to students because an excessive amount of homework would eventually cause students to become uninterested in school and learning, which could result in poor test scores and low ranks in international academic rankings. In order for students to carry out daily activities throughout the day restfully, teachers must be able to provide homework that does not exceed the appropriate amount of time needed to complete it, which is based on grade level. If teachers are too clueless of a students health due to excessive amounts of homework, many students will develop cases of sleep

But we simply do not have enough time in the day. Some students don’t get home to almost seven after sports are done, some have jobs and don’t get home until seven o’clock… Before we know it, its eight o’clock and we still have three hours of homework to do. Going to sleep at eleven and waking up at six is not enough sleep for students. Because of all the work we receive in school, we need more time to sleep and make sure our mind set is in the right place. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, if you don’t get enough sleep your brain will not absorb information you learn.

Zeenath and Ocrullo (2012) indicated that university students procrastinate because of its affective consequences. External factors, such as peer influence and coping strategies, surrounding them also contribute to this. Furthermore, the way of teaching of the professors also affects the performance of the students toward the tasks given to them. Procrastination is the reason behind the poor academic performance and unhealthy lifestyle of the students. However, even if the individuals receive negative consequences, they still choose to

The students of this generation appear to be a bunch of lazy, depressed, unenergetic zombies, but is this entirely their fault? After a considerable amount of investigating it appears as if their lack of energy could be due to sleep deprivation resulting from early school start times. When later school times have been compared to those schools that start earlier, there are significant changes in the behaviors and results that students emit in a school environment. Schools should have a later start time that is better suited to the biological needs of adolescents as a way to aid them in achieving a higher quality education.

Despite Congress’ failure to institute meaningful education reform following the Revolutionary War, a few American leaders began voicing support for a more extensive and structured public education system. One of the loudest voices was Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson argued that democracy required all the citizens of a populace to have sufficient education so that they could be well informed and vote accordingly. Jefferson did not, however, want to infringe on the rights of parents or local communities to educate their children. Instead, he proposed that everyone could be educated in the way they saw fit as long as they passed certain national examinations. ((Jurgen Herbst, “Nineteenth-Century Schools between Community and State: The Cases of Prussia

Many high school students wander into school each day shuffling around and trying not to pass out in their classes. In order to cut back on sleep-deprived teens, we must follow through with this solution; it would give students enough time to go to bed early and wake up at an appropriate time. According to Sleep Foundation, teenagers require eight to ten hours of sleep and are not getting that with the current schedule. Many teenagers have discombobulated biological clocks and need the opportunity to adjust their sleeping schedule as they see fit. If this plan were to be put into practice, more positive attitudes would emerge from schools all over America due to their fulfilled need of sleep, which would give teachers, students, principals, counselors, and even parents a more productive start to each day. On the other hand, I realize that the opposing side of this intelligent solution may proclaim that some teenagers would abuse this and go to bed even later, but people must also realize that a large amount of teenagers who wish to succeed academically would gladly not abuse this and respect this privilege; although there would be some teenagers to mistreat this, it is up to the maturity level of the student, and they choose whether they want to succeed or

To conclude, we can see how not only does more sleep make us prepared and more focused for the school day, but how it also affects our positive sleeping patterns, our ability to learn, and the amount of stress that our bodies receive. We see how many liable resources were used to conclude that sleep truly is one of the most important factors in a student's everyday life and supports the idea that school should begin later for the most positive results. Starting school later will truly minimize bad sleep patterns and habits, increase the amount of learning and lastly, put less stress on our minds and

Parents and teachers constantly tell students that they should concentrate on school and homework, but how can they do so when they cannot focus? Most of the time this lack of focus is caused by sleep deprivation which is induced by school activities and work, both of which cannot be avoided. Schools expect students to wake up early, be lectured for 8 hours, and then stay up late with sports, music, and/or homework. These tired students with large workloads have risks to their bodies and minds. Allowing schools to start later would be beneficial to students’ health, safety, and academic performance.

For five days out of every week, teenagers fall under a monotonous routine that they must follow even though it may not be preferable. The routine consisting of waking up early, trying staying awake to learn during school, and then working until the next school day with minimal sleep does not consider anything about the teenagers’ health. Not only does waking up very early in the morning damage the health and wellness of students, but it also has an impact on the grades that they receive in school. The stress and focus that students have in class is dependent on the amount of sleep they get each night. It is also unjust to force parents to have to wake up before normal work hours to bring their children to school. More time in the morning allows students to get the sleep they need while staying on track with the work schedule of adults. Schools in the United