What Our Education Needs Is More F's Essay

There was a time when America’s education system was top-notch according to the culture and society. With time, a myriad of things has changed, but unfortunately what has not evolved is the American education system. The country is still following a system which was not designed for the current global economic climate. Equality, as positive as it sounds is not as sufficient when it comes to education. The system treats students equally yet expect a similar culmination and outcome. Every child has his individuality and distinct abilities; one cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. Conversely, a few of the prominent reasons why the education system is failing are overcrowded schools, the rise of technology, and following the same old school hours.

Singleton carefully arranges his article in a way to further his argument. Singleton first shocks his reader by claiming what we need is more F's. Then with several short paragraphs he tries to prove his argument. He explains to the reader about the evolution and decline of the American educational system. How F's became D's then D's to C's and finally B's as an average grade. Then he hammers home his point by explaining how wide spread F's would reform our system. Parents would take an active roll in their kids education, teachers would have to excel if they themselves were not to become failures, the voters, politicians, and school boards would finally become aware of our problem when kids by the millions were held back. Then to sum up his argument Singleton states, "The single most important requirement for solving the problems of education in America today is a big fat F, written decisively in red ink millions of times in

America used to thrive on its education system and that is why it became one of the greatest nations in the world. Education is the backbone of our country, and we must give high priority to improve its current condition. Unfortunately, in the past couple of decades, the education system has been regressing. It has been on the decline and not as effective. The quality of education in a country has an influence on GDP growth, social cohesion and social well being in general. In order to improve the quality of education in the U.S., the following must be taken into consideration: the structure of our education system must be reanalyzed, we must compare and contrast our education system to systems of other countries with higher rankings, and finally, there must be a solution.

In the story “I Just Wanna Be Average” the author Mike Rose argues that society very often neglects and doesn’t see the full value and potential of students.

The education system in America has a long history of struggle and change, as we have grown as a nation we have experienced an ever-increasing rise in diversity. This diversity has caused rigidities between groups and all stratus of society and has been a major impact in debates concerning the educational opportunities in America.

The United States of America used to be known as one of the greatest countries to be apart of. From the jobs to the economy to education people loved to be apart of the American culture. The problem many Americans are facing today is poor education. Since America is viewed as a high profile country many people have prominent expectations on what they are receiving, specifically the education. The fact is that there are major problems with all levels of the education system today. Starting with early education, teachers are quick to say children needs to be medicated or put into special education. Proceeding to the general or high school education where kids are graduating but not prepared for what’s after. Lastly how higher education or college can hardly be afforded in today’s society. As a result of the failing education system, many parents blame the child or society when in actuality the failing system is corrupted by some teachers, lack of preparation, and lack of affordability in higher education.

The greatest country in the world still has problems evenly distributing education to its youth. The articles I have read for this unit have a common theme regarding our education system. The authors illustrate to the reader about the struggles in America concerning how we obtain and education. Oppression, politics, racism, and socioeconomic status are a few examples of what is wrong with our country and its means of delivering a fair education to all Americans.

In a progressively more globalized world that necessitates more effective educational practices, the U.S., once the biggest global force in education, has seen its dominance slowly slip out, and its educational status fall even lower than that of several third-world countries. The decline experienced in American school system academic achievement is not as a result of lack of funding, but as a consequence of the overall educational system watering down. According to Gatto, educating children through the existing public school system of America is crippling rather than helping them. From his essay, ‘Against School,’ it is established that the goal of the whole public school system is to limit people’s intelligence in an attempt to create a society that is manageable. Gatto continues to state that action is needed to change this situation. He supports his assertions using current and historical information about the American school system and his personal experience. After reading his article, one realizes that most of Gatto’s arguments are true. It is true that the American education system is making the students comfort to the government and society norms, which is why they are easily bored. This essay’s goal will, therefore, be to support John Gatto’s beliefs.

Carl Singleton writes in “What Our Education System Needs Is More F’s” that our education system is failing. Because our education system is failing, students are graduating from high school and college without being able to read or do simple math. “The immediate need for our educational system from prekindergarten through post-Ph.D. is not more money or better teaching but simply a widespread giving of F’s.” Singleton says. Singleton goes on to say that the F’s that should be given would only be given to students that failed to learn the required material. Students are, and continue to be passed rather than held back or failed. Singleton blames low-quality teaching on “…low-quality teachers who never should have been certified in the first place.” Once parents start to see that their child has in fact earned an F, they may become more of an active parent in the sense of setting boundaries and rules when it comes to grades and entertainment (taking away phone or TV privileges). Along with Singleton I believe that there should be a lot more stern F’s given to students that earn them. More F’s in the educational system would result in providing the world with literate graduates, quality teachers and active parents.

Education gives common people the means to turning dreams into reality. Education allows common people to open up their minds to various possibilities, that will arise from becoming educated. But, yet there are times where our education systems do not uphold student/learners to a high norm. Although, problems with education systems rarely occur, inadequate performance in school can be feasible if there are issues within the child’s household. Nonetheless, students who face inconsistent dilemmas, fail since they attempt to solve both problems.

Alison Kong EN 102 The education system in America is broken according to “Lives on the Boundary” by Mike Rose. In this excerpt Mike Rose gives the audience a greater understanding about the decline of the education system. Rose gives examples of how and why education should be equal for everyone. Also, that the importance of great books and a proper curriculum is very significant to our education system. Rose further explains to his audience that these “Great Books” don’t contain real experiences that students could eventually come across during their time at school.

In Michael Moore’s “Idiot Nation”, he argues that there is a lack of proper education in the nation, but this high level of “functional illiterates” has nothing to do with awful teachers (although some may be) or lack of motivation from students, but from a dysfunctional education system. Moore claims that the American education system has been neglected by political leaders and corrupted by corporations that schools turn to for aid. This claim may not sit well with many and may even be misinterpreted as rude or an attack, but, after reading his personal anecdotes, the many statistics he brings to light, and how corporations have changed the public school system, his claim is more understandable. With an active tone and the emotion of his own personal anecdotes, Moore’s emotions towards the thesis are emphasized in the passage. Applying the

This is important because the author wants to persuade his audience to agree with him and then follow his ideal solution. Singleton acts as if we all agree with his opinion and believe the same when there may be many people who disagree with his ideals. The author writes as if this topic is a joke and that the students don’t really matter and education systems should fail them to the point that they will drop out. There are some things said in the article that make it seem like kids failing is a joke when in all actuality education systems could be doing more to increase the A’s given. All of this is important because it and allows for readers to see exactly how Singleton feels and why.

Have you ever started packing your stuff to leave class, when your teacher calls out you name and tells you to stay for min to talk about you failing class? Students have different mind sets of learning and actually understanding something. When a student goes to school, each student have different needs to understand the material in the class. In the "Praise of the "F" word by Mary Sherry argues that many high schools students have been “cheated by our educational system” because they have been allowed to graduate even though they remain “semi literate”(519). Therefore she argues that education is not a priority unless you give them consequences for poor grades and by doing so teachers should fail them.

In an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education titled “What Our Education System Needs Is More F’s”, Carl Singleton argues that the key to American education is giving out more F’s. Singleton believes that giving out a greater amount failing grades will motivate students to learn the required material and push them towards achievement. He argues that the more failures teachers give out, the more students will have to deal with the reality that their lack of knowledge on the subject is the reason they failed to earn the passing grade. He also states that increasing the number of failing grades will force the students’ families to play a more active role in their child’s education. Singleton also believes that a rise in failure would result in more school funding to accommodate the failing students.