American Public Education - Obsessed with Being Average
A country's educational system is typically influenced by a variety of factors. Racial and ethnic attitudes, for example, can play an important role in policy formation and school administration. Language is a significant factor as well. Political and religious ideologies also are potent influences on the educational system. An average student’s registration into the educational system may be affected by such factors. What is the definition of an average student? What constitutes such a student to receive an “average” education? Mike Rose’s article “Tracking”, focused on the educational system and its effects on both normal and abnormal students.
One student affected by this system was Ken Harvey. He was placed in the vocational track due to the labeling of the educational system. Ken Harvey’s statement, “I just wanna be average”, was a desperate call for help. No doubt, his placement in the educational system had a negative effect on his life. “Ken Harvey was gasping for air”. As brought out in the article, “schoo...
This article points out the flaws in our modern education systems. Students should enjoy school and feel as though they are learning important things in the subjects offered. The classes can be altered to tend to the interests of children, so they can properly express themselves. School should be preparing children to be mature, how to handle hard situations, and ultimately prepare them for their future lives. Overall, Gatto’s article has its flaws, but it can be used to help improve the education system for upcoming
Juveniles are being taught that in order to have a nice car, branded cloths and the house of their dreams, by getting into an expensive mortgage, they have to be an employee of a huge corporation. In addition, they have to undergo to a prestigious school, study hard, have excellent grades in order to become popular and respectable in the world. However, many people would not become those super leaders, but these majority of people have a great role in the capitalism society of the US. As Gatto says, “We buy televisions, and then we buy the things we see on the television. We buy computers, and then we buy the things we see on the computer. We buy $150 sneakers whether we need them or not, and when they fall apart too soon we buy another pair” (38). Such results are in part of a wrong education that teenagers have received trough many decades. In addition, Gatto highlights that modern educational system has been working in a six basic functions methods that makes the system strong and unbreakable: The adjustable function, indulge students to respect authorities. The integrating function, which builds the personality of the students as similar to each other as possible. The diagnostic and directive function, which allows a school to set permanent scholar grades in order to determinate his or her future role in society. The differentiating function, which gives to the student a good education and after his or her role is diagnosed, they prevent any educational progress. The selective function, function that the system has used to prevent academic growth for the non-selected students. The propaedeutic function, which works in the selection of specific groups of intellectual adults to keep perpetuating the system all over again making it a continuous sequence. (Gatto 34). Gatto’s facts revealed the survival of the educational system for decades,
For decades, the steel industry has been one of the toughest markets on a global scale with most steel corporations ending up in bankruptcy. Foreign and domestic competitors, management issues, environmental issues, political agenda’s and technology have had much to do with the demise and more so of the success of the steel industry. The issues that this case focus on Nucor Corporation was of:
Within the walls of our educational system lie many adverse problems. Is there a solution to such problems? If so, what is the solution? As we take a look at two different essays by two different authors’ John Gatto and Alfie Kohn, both highlight what’s wrong within our educational system in today’s society. As John Gatto explores the concept if schools are really as necessary as they’re made out to be; Alfie Kohn analyzes the non-importance of letter grades within our schools. Although both essays are fairly different, they still pose some similarities in relation to the educational system in today’s society.
World hunger is a very important epidemic because of the risks or implications it imposes on the rest of the world. Juveniles are the utmost apparent victims of under-nutrition. 2.6 million children die as a result of hunger-related causes each year. 66 million school-aged children go to classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone. One in four of the world's youth are kept from growing due to malnutrition. In developing countries the proportion can rise to one in three. A strong maternal-infant bond provided through psychosocial stimulation is essential for positive child development. The formation of this bond at the beginning of life is an essential step that sets the stage for cognitive,emotional, and social development later in life. Feeding and other care practices provide opportunities for psychosocial stimulation and help to establish a positive attachment between caregiver and child.(WHO) Under-nutrition magnifies the effect of every disease, such as measles,diarrhea and malaria. Asia has the largest number of hungry people (over 500 million) however S...
The United States of America has placed low on the educational ladder throughout the years. The cause of such a low ranking is due to such heavy emphasis on standardized testing and not individual student achievement. Although the United States uses standardized testing as a crutch, it is not an effective measure of a student’s ability, a teacher’s competency, or a school’s proficiency.
Labaree discusses how the United State’s education is in a school syndrome, as people in America want schools to teach society’s ideals as well as let people express their individuality. These two demands are polar opposites that cannot be achieved. As the focus goes towards balancing these in hopes of improving society as a whole, the bettering of actual student learning is put on pause. Labaree talks about the beginning of education reform, in the 19th century, being the most successful in developing society; however, as education reform continued throughout time, its effectiveness wore off. He then addresses how the desire for education reform is more about improving society than it is about learning. He finishes his argument by providing possible solutions to fixing this problem, but states that fixing this problem will never happen because no one is willing to give up both demands. Overall, Labaree goes in wonderful detail explaining the problems of education reform. What made me choose this article was that he addressed the desire that people have on school systems in promoting both society normality and individuality. This correlates well with my topic in whether public school systems promote conformist ideals or individuality.
Not only is nuclear power friendly to the environment, but it is almost always available, and many countries are starting to use it more. Renewable energy sources like solar and wind en...
Although this system is rigid, it can be manipulated enough to allow some movement if an individual will put in the time and effort it takes to learn how to do this. This movement cannot happen, however, if the person does not realize that this system is not absolute. When an individual is made to believe that they belong somewhere they will often not try to change that. Mike Ross wrote an article entitled “I Just Wanna Be Average” in which he describes his experiences at a vocational school and it’s effects on his motivation and view of himself. In this article, he states that a “student will float to the mark you set” (Ross 185). At this vocational school, he was expected to do poorly because it was decided that he was not intelligent enough to handle regular classes. Because this viewpoint surrounded him, he began to view himself as someone who was less than the average person. He would produce mediocre work and put in as little effort as possible while still maintaining a passing grade. When everyone around an individual believes that they can only be what the social system says they are, it makes it hard for them to imagine that they can be something different. This results in that individual only amounting to what is expected out of them, creating the illusion that these social structures are not only absolute but the only description of a person that is needed in order to assess their value. This can be perpetuated by rumors that are spread about them, making them fall lower in the hierarchy. Then if they try to fight back these rumors will only escalate, which creates a vicious cycle in which many people cannot escape. To break out of this cycle, an individual must realize their self-value and that they cannot be defined by a social order in which they are placed in by individuals who have
In an essay, Anne Wheelock, a prominent education critic writes, “Tracking does not result in the equal and equitable distribution of effective schooling among all students. Instead, tracking allocates the most valuable school experiences -- including challenging and meaningful curriculum, engaging instruction, and high teacher expectations -- to students who already have the greatest academic, economic, and social advantages…” This having been said, I found my high school experiences to be much different than that.
According to No Kid Hungry, “1 out of 5 children go to school every day hungry.” This issue of childhood hunger in America is an issue that needs to be more addressed than it is. Sure, there is a lot one can do through organizations. There is donating, volunteering, and just talking about it, but not enough people are doing it. It is not enough to try and decrease the amount of children that are going hungry. It is not enough to help these families who cannot feed their children. It is not enough to end hunger. We maybe be able to stop it, and the answer may be looking towards school.
In conclusion, education is broader than just falling into what the contemporary school system has to offer. Both Gatto and Graff proved this by explain how conforming students to certain perspectives of education limits their potential in other educational branches that interest the students. Also, curricula should bring a balance between making a school a place for obtaining information, and accommodating the educational demands for each individual student. It is imperative to understand that reforming the academic system, by fine-tuning schools to have its students learn what exactly they are interested in, will lead to having students accessing their full intellectual potential.
Quantitative research may be seen as the less contentious of the two because it is more closely aligned with what is viewed as the classical scientific paradigm. Quantitative research involves gathering data that is absolute, for example numerical data so that it can be examined as unbiased as possible. The main idea behind quantitative research is that it is able to separate things easily so that they can be counted. The researcher generally has a clear idea of what is being measured before they start measuring it, and their study is set up with controls. Qualitative research on the other hand is a more subjective form of research, in which the research allows themselves to introduce their own bias to help form a more complete picture. Qualitative research may be necessary in situations where it is unclear of what is exactly being looked for in a study, while quantitative research generally knows exactly what it is looking for. Questionnaires and surveys are quantitative socio-legal research, because it is the collection of numerical data, or data that can be easily being turned into a numerical form. In terms of analysing quantitative data, Excel is the b...
This essay reviews a selection of the literature on healthcare-related inequalities, with the aim of illuminating how we can differentiate between fair and unfair, and between avoidable and unavoidable, inequalities in health. This essay also reviews some of the more common methods used to measure healthcare inequalities and discusses their limitations. Some policy considerations are provided at the end.
We are told the children of today are the future, and we should put more value on education, but some children are demotivated and some are motivated in our education system. Some popular assumptions on why some students succeed are they are intelligent hard-working students. The popular assumptions why some students do not succeed are they are at risk by a culture of inherent violent. All students should have the same resources, and the same treatments.