In “America Needs Its Nerds” (1990) by Leonid Fridman argues that the United States makes it evident that they put social values over academics. Fridman expresses his frustrations with the customs that Americans have made traditions, which explains why so many students feel ashamed to have studied when they should not. Fridman is able to make his stance clear and sound candid. Fridman makes various bold statements which provide evidence and demonstrates about how often students feel ashamed. In order for Fridman to deeply involved he had to be triggered/affected by the issue; he makes it clear that it is not acceptable. Friedman's intended audience are that same people that value social learnings over academic learnings.
To commence, Fridman is stating that since Americans have been used to not mention how much time they averagely spend on academic work like homework they make it seem like spending to much time
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Since education not only is put second by society also by the culture; like society has put it in a way where one almost feels like a loser for studying too much and as for the culture how they pay more money to athletes than to teachers. Like, “... in America, where average professional ballplayer are much more respected and better paid than faculty members of the best universities” (43-46), which goes to show how Americans have their priority all wrong. Fridman makes is clear that his intended audiences is mainly the Americans and the parents, “How can a country where typical parents are ashamed of their daughter studying mathematics instead of going dancing, or their son reading Weber* while his friends play baseball, b expected to compete in the technology race with Japan or remain a leading political and cultural force in Europe” (47-53), which goes back to how the parents were raised and how they are now raising their children, which creates an endless
Both essays draw from the influence of education into the societal path into American mainstream society. Each school system is influenced by thoughts of bettering youth, but in much opposite ends of the spectrum. The French commission stated that the youth of America were offered the same curriculum in the hopes to form a united, equal society. America, as seen by the French, was a land of golden opportunities available to every child regardless of social standing. It was the basis for our country to survive. It safeguarded our standing in the world. Mike Rose’s school offered quite the opposite. It was a haven for long standing views on school being selective as to whom actually deserved the educa...
Education is one of the most widely debated issues of our country in this current day and age. Many people feel as though schooling is biased and unfair to certain students; meanwhile, others feel as though the schooling systems are not serious enough in order to properly educate students to prepare them for their futures. The three texts that will be discussed, are all well written controversial essays that use a great deal of rhetorical appeals which help readers relate to the topics being discussed. In the essay “School,” Mori manages to specify her views on how different modern education is in America as to Japan; meanwhile, in “A Talk to Teachers,” Baldwin presents his argument as to how all children, no matter
Chris Hedges, the author of the article “Why the United States is Destroying Its Education System” attempts to persuade his audience to agree with his argument through the use of rhetoric. In this text critique, I will thoroughly analyze the effectiveness of his article by highlighting important premises, tropes, ideographs, and narratives. He claims that the United States’ education system is on a downward spiral due to education reform and the influence of corporate power.
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,
Fass places most emphasis on the role of immigration and industrialization in the development of the aspirations, tensions and paradoxes of American education. In many ways, the problem of the immigrant at the turn of the 20th century gave birth to the ecclesiastical and liberal objectives of education. Before the development of the industrial age, an individual’s employment provided an important socializing experience. Industrialization greatly expanded employment opportunities, but the work was often brute manual labor with little educational value. Fass summarizes the reformist opinion of the time to be that “industrial labor failed to fit an older framework of socialization and did not serve as a force for social cohesion”(18)....
He then continues by discussing in detail the different aspects of both the British and American education system including the cost, the type of classes required for each system, and why each has their own pros and cons. Even though it seems as if Allitt prefers the British education system over the American one he suggests that the problem is not that one is better than the other, but that one type of education is not for everyone. While the British system may be better for “students who already have a clear vocational objective” the American liberal arts system might be a better option “for those who prefer it and don’t yet have a clear sense of direction
Although another reason, apart from how expensive it is, is the fact that the public industries want a certain manner of learning. The child could be music talented or physically talented but they are manipulated to learn from a book rather than expressing their own ways much. This is the case of the son of the writer, Robert Lake, from “An Indian Father’s Plea”. In which the cultural difference in both the native tribe and the society that is America has named the child, Wind-Wolf, a “slow learner”. With such case, the father argues that the child “has already been through quite an education compared with his peers in Western society.” Although the standards that we as a society have for certain age groups have increased and do not take into consideration the fact that there are many ways to be intelligent rather than knowing your ABC’S and what the Pythagorean Theorem is. These individual guidelines, such as Standardized test, help the teachers see where the student is academically, yet it is not an appropriate to categorize a child by the way they performed based on the test. Like the famous scientist, Albert Einstein once said: “everybody is a genius but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole
Academic excellence is the primary desire of every parent and student. However, there are varying perceptions of the role of education in the life of and individual. According to the survey carried out on the perception of the role of education in the life of an individual, it was established that eight out of ten students were of the view that they pursued education for the purpose of economic gains. Additionally, six out of ten students viewed education as serving the purpose of broadening their view and perceptions in life. Accordingly, the widening of the will help them rethink their ideas and values. This essay will focus on the reasons why students attend college and barriers to education in light of the book Rereading America.
The U.S educational system’s purpose is to control the minds of its students that will be the future leaders of the country. Juveniles are being taught that in order to have a nice car, branded clothes 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 majorities of people have a great role in the capitalistic 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).
Richard Rodriguez’s The Achievement of Desire puts a very unusual point of view on how to look at the education system and how it affects the everyday person. Rodriguez talks immensely about the term he uses called “The Scholarship Boy.” He claims that the scholarship boy is technically defined as a student who is extremely talented but is changed by the school environment. This means that they (the students) can be extremely cultured at home but as soon as they start learning about other cultures through the education process, they change remarkably. Doing this can cause a lot of things to go right or wrong in the ones culture back home. It can cause problems between the kids and parents, siblings and siblings or even the parents at each
In Joel L. Swerdlow’s 2001 essay, “Changing America,” he writes about the current cultural differences among kids in high school. He goes on to talk about how you can gather a large variety of kids, coming from all over the world, yet they still somehow manage to develop the same “American Teenager” attitude toward life. The essay talks about how people used to view America as a “melting pot” of nations, and how over time that view is starting to change.
In Bell Hooks’s essay, "Keeping Close to Home," she suggests that the American educational system forces students to hide, change, or mask the values that they have when they first enter college. While this might be true for some students, this line of thinking does not hold true for me personally. I do not agree with her assertion for, and I have not changed since entering the University of Georgia. The University of Georgia has not placed any pressure on me to change my values due to the fact that I had very strong values when I entered the University, and those same values hold true to me today.
However, such accusations such as laziness and entitlement, although common, have been prevalent amongst those of college age as proven in “A’s for Everyone.” Shepard had investigated the cause behind this and had put the blame on grade inflation in the years prior to entering college, the pressure to get superb grades due to high tuition costs, and most importantly the belief that “effort” constitutes a grade bonus. However, if one has entered the school system in America, one could see the relative ease in which one could improve their grades through inordinate amounts of extra credit. Multiple students have heard and even seen fellow students ask their parents to even come in for meetings of which equate to blaming their child’s poor grades on the teacher and harassing said teacher to allow their child, soon to be a hardworking, productive citizen of society, to get the “grade they
In Conclusion, although I have a partial disagreement with some aspects of the article, it was with great pleasure I read it because I found the way in which the author relates education with many features of the American Culture innovate. Furthermore, it is impressive the way in which the author relates his life memories with the weakness of the field where he works. Events that most of us have experienced have been converted into strong arguments by the author. Education has been one of the pillars of modern countries. Thus, Mark Edmuson message should be taken as a foundation to future education strategies. The way in he expresses his thoughts shows a big desire to see an education system evolving in tandem with the society welfare.
This social institution strived on being compelling, considerate, and uncompromising, which they stayed consistent to most of the time. Critical thinking stayed consistently taught throughout my English and religion classes. But my schooling also taught me that my opinion is just as important as anyone else’s, which leads to Rouner’s opinions of people believe that their opinions can not be wrong (2015, 1). Many rewarding aspects came from being enrolled in a private school that I know many of my friends in public schools did not receive the opportunities to do. For example, having an optional class specifically dedicated to applying to different colleges, a class that taught you how to build a résumé, and many others. These opportunities lead others in public school to assume that myself and the other students at my high school were rich, snotty kids because we were at a private school. They assumed that we are all rich and thought we were better then them, which is far from the truth. These assumptions made