A Nation at Risk: Prioritizing Youth Education

The youth of the nation are both the backbone and living representation of what the future will hold. A teacher once told me, that the reason why she teaches is because the knowledge she gives us will greatly affect the world and she hopes it is for a positive effect. Education is essential for a nation to survive and thrive. What that education consists of is determined by what society views as important for the future. Therefore, why is it that the government is more concerned about funding and the other nation 's views than on the young 's people is education. Terrell Bell said the reason for A Nation at Risk, was to convince the Regan administration that the Department of Education is necessary. A Nation at Risk was a masterpiece of propaganda

It is understandably that not many will remember all of what they learned in those four years. The popular show, Are you smarter than a fifth grader, is prime example of how little we retain as the years pass. It could be contributed to way we are taught "recitations, one student at a time,” (Bracey 1). This problem of retention does not only happen over the years but also over the months, like summer break. Teachers face the mind-numbing problem of having to reteach incoming students before they can start the required lesson. Sometimes it is just a touch up, the fundamentals, but most times, it is as if painting on blank canvas, starting with nothing and having to create something within 10 months. The students mind is comparable to an Etch-A-Sketch, drawing, shake, and repeat. Moreover, in the whole duration of this rinse and repeat, the schools are detraining with the little funding it receives. Between 1945 and 1957, we see critics start to attribute the learning problems to school in decline. They are right, the school is in decline, but it is not the teacher’s fault it is the governments and their lack of funding and