A child’s first day of school is often viewed as a rite of passage; the first step on the road to a happy and successful life. This is true for most children from affluent families who live in the best school districts or can afford expensive private schools. But what if a child’s first day of school is nothing more than the first step on the road to poverty and possibly even illiteracy? The documentary Waiting for “Superman” addresses many issues in a failing school system and the innocent children that system leaves behind. Although the documentary spends little time suggesting parents’ roles in their children’s education, it clearly shows that we must make changes to help children from low-income families and improve the teacher’s unions. Although our school system is in need of change, the film did not consider the part parental involvement plays in education, a drawback of the film. Education spending in our country has more than doubled in recent decades, but children in most states have proficiency rates of only 20 or 30 percent in math and reading (Weber 6). One must wonder if, with all of this extra spending and consistently low test scores, the problem goes beyond the school system and into American families. After all, even with small class sizes, the amount of one-on-one attention is limited for each student. Isn’t it up to parents to push their children to succeed? Amy Chua, author of the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother uses an almost militant form of parenting which – though highly controversial – demands nothing short of excellence from her children. While other children were allowed to ride their bikes or play video games with their friends, Chua demanded that her seven-year-old daughter practice t... ... middle of paper ... ...hem to a life of poverty and possibly an early grave. It is time that we make bold changes to our school system, changes that would encourage teachers to perform to the best of their abilities and provide our children with a type of freedom that only comes with a quality education. Works Cited Canada, Geoffrey “He’s the Angel of Harlem.” Newsweek Online. Feb. 2009. Web. Paul, Annie Murphy. “Tiger Moms: Is Tough Parenting Really the Answer?” Time Online. 20 Jan. 2011. Web. 16 Mar. 2011 Waiting for “Superman.” Dir. Davis Guggenheim. 2010. Paramount Pictures. 2010. DVD. Wallis, Claudia. “How to Make Great Teachers.” Time Online. 13 Feb. 2008. Web. 16 March 2011. Webber, Karl. “A Nation Still At Risk.” Waiting for Superman: How We Can Save Save America’s Failing Public Schools. Ed. Carl Weber. New York: PublicAffairs. 2010. 3-10. Print.
In the speech, “America’s Schoolchildren”, President Barack Obama uses Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in an effective manner to support his claim that every student should have an active role in the responsibility of their education. First and foremost, President Obama begins his speech with an anecdote from his life, “I get it. I know what it’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mom who had to work and who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us the things that other kids had” (Obama 72). In his statement, he give us a personal story from when he lived in Indonesia, that he too went through hardships of having his father leave his family when he was two, not always
The American public school system faces an education crisis. According to Benjamin Barber, American children barely surpass the lowest standards set for education, especially in literacy, throughout the county’s history. Barber supports the existence of this crisis in his essay “America Skips School”, but argues against a solution to remedy the numerous problems facing the system. Although he acknowledges no solution, Barber suggests a smarter flow of financial resources will address many of the issues, however, he fails to acknowledge the distribution of this money. Barber’s suggestion for smarter financial resources for schools can be effectively implemented through a structured committee focused solely on the distribution of money.
America’s public school system started off very rough, but through the dedication of many hard-working Americans, it was starting to shape into a system that allowed all children, regardless of race, gender, religion, or nation of origin, to have an 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 Davis Guggenheim’s documentary Waiting for Superman, he exposes mainly a one-sided argument against teachers unions, by stating the unions are a “menace and an impediment to reform.” His documentary explores the tragic ways in which the American public education system is failing the nation's children, and explores the roles that charter schools and education reformers could play in offering hope for the future. Statistics show our nation’s student dropout rates, diminishing science scores, math scores, and schools closing due to lack of funding, but numbers fail to represent the names and faces of the children whose entire futures are at stake due to the inability to enact change. Bianca, Emily, Anthony, Daisy, and Francisco are five students who deserve a better opportunity in education. By investigating how the current system is actually obstructing their education instead of bolstering it, Guggenheim opens the door to considering possible options for transformation and improvement. Guggenheim uses certain cinematic elements like interviews and cartoons, to influence an emotional response from the viewers and manipulate their opinion for the argument against its portrayal of unions.
Many individuals have been affected negatively by trouble makers in school. Troublemakers have either disrupted classes or bullied other students. Yes, trouble makers may harm one’s learning environment, but should they be kicked out of school? Though many individuals argue that troublemakers will not change and hold the class down, they should not be kicked out because they need help. Most of these kids that are disobedient do not know the distinction between right and wrong. We should not withdraw trouble makers from school, rather, we should help these troublemakers and teach them right from wrong. In the article “Let’s Really Reform Our Schools” by Anita Garland, she states that American high schools are disasters because there are troublemakers (694). She asserts that the withdrawal of troublemakers in schools would make the learning environment peaceful for students who want to learn
Helicopter parenting is a phenomenon that has taken the United States by storm! This style of parenting raises children to be dependent on their parents well into their mature years. Julia Lynthcott- Haims explains the four main factors that are responsible for this shift in parenting and childhood in the excerpt “The Four Cultural Shifts that Led to the Rise of the Helicopter Parent” in her book How to Raise an Adult. The “shifts” Haims proposes are juxtaposed with examples of how parenting has evolved to convey how the childrearing has transformed. The author attributes the helicopter phenomenon to four events that began in 1980s: child abductions becoming publicized, the idea that children were not doing enough schoolwork,
A Nation at Risk had excellent timing. It was commissioned when change was needed. The American people had become mollified to a failing school system. The American government had turned a blind eye to the state of the country’s school systems. A Nation at Risk identified the problems and provided routes to improvement to the people of America, the educators of America, and to the United States Government, assuring that everyone possessed a clear understanding of the shortcomings of education in America. It is hopeful that America will remain vigilant and constantly seek to improve the education that it provides its youth.
The documentary “Waiting for Superman” investigated the ways in which the American Public Education system is failing our nation’s children. It highlighted the roles that Charter Schools and education reformers could play in an effort to offer hope for the future. Moreover, the movie depicted the dropout rate of high school students and schools closing due to lack of funding. The families of five children, who were enrolled in public school, shared their personal stories. These families have taken the necessary steps to provide their children with the opportunity to obtain a good education. The children themselves aspire to be great, and desired the opportunity to one day be able to attend college. They feared, however devoid of a good public
A child’s first day of school is often viewed as a rite of passage; the first step on the road to a happy and successful life. This is true for most children from families who live in the best school districts or can afford expensive private schools. On the other hand, what if a child’s first day of school is nothing more than the first step on the road to poverty and possibly even illiteracy? People are continuously saying how children are the future and we must nurture them in order to ensure a bright future for our country. The current education system in the United States is extremely under achieving. The documentary “Waiting for Superman” addresses many issues in a failing school system and the innocent children that system leaves behind.
High school and college dropout rates are at an all time high. Secondary school students are told throughout high school that if they don’t go to college then they will never be successful. Going to college doesn’t always make a difference because many career choices such as teachers and lawyers are highly contested and result in either no job or low salary. Low pay deters teacher’s motivation and they tend to work part time jobs to supplement their income. Public schools standards are comparable to a kangaroo court’s procedure; private schools are known for better teachers, environment, and test grades. The major problems in the public school system include the lack of funding, lack of resources, and lack of standards.
School funding is systemically unequal, partially because the majority of school funding comes from the school district’s local property taxes, positioning the poorest communities at the bottom rung of the education playing field. A student’s socioeconomic status often defines her success in a classroom for a number of reasons. Students who live below the poverty line have less motivation to succeed, and their parents are less inclined to participate in their child’s education, often because the parents cannot provide support for their children. Although it’s logical that school districts from poorer communities cannot collect as much funding as the richer communities, persons stuck in these low-income communities often pay higher taxes, and still their school dis...
When Amy Chua, a professor at Yale, wrote her personal memoir in 2011 called Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, controversy arose regarding the topic of an extreme parenting type called a “Tiger Mom” (Tiger Mom). When The Wall Street Journal posted an excerpt from Chua’s book on their website, it received over 7,000 comments both positive and negative including death threats (Extreme Parenting). In her book, Chua describes is forcing her 7-year old daughter to stay up all night without bathroom or drink breaks until she was able to play a certain piano piece (Extreme Parenting). Her daughter rebels, drops violin, and takes up tennis (Luscombe). Extreme parents exert great pressure on their child to meet expectations, and if they are not met, the child may be punished (Hatter). The MacMillan Dictionary defines a tiger mom as “a very strict mother who makes her children work particularly hard and restricts their free time so they continually achieve the highest grades,” (Tiger Mother).
Even in this time of struggle, with billions of dollars going towards various war efforts overseas, America still has managed to keep taxpayer investments in education higher than that of funds for national defense (U.S Department of Education). In the 2004-05 school year, there was an estimated amount of 536 billion dollars set aside from taxpayer investment for education purposes. Without a doubt, education is a priority for the American government, and if these funds are used in the correct way, there is no reason why each and every kid in the United States shouldn’t be getting a quality education. However, the organization of the financial system is flawed, funds are not handled proportionately at the state level; rather, this system favors the wealthier districts and hands more funds to them while the less wealthier districts are handed a smaller pool of funds. This really affects America’s quality of education, which also reflects upon how America fairs on the world stage when it comes to competition in education with other countries. The disorganization of funds in the United States can be seen in the Hoover City School district, which has bought every student in that district an iPad for use in school. The first problem with this is that this school district does not even have a viable bus system that can transport students to and from school. Secondly, not even 20 miles from this district lies the Birmingham City School district where a little more than half the students are graduating, compared to Hoover City Schools where a bit more than 90 percent of the students are graduating. If anything, the state should be working towards improving educational standards in lower-income communities rather than debating on the log...
This great experience for children is because, “a century ago, the ‘school to the parents’ movement in the Netherlands… [that established] a system of education” (Williamson, 2). Most Americans would agree with the Netherland’s education system because everyone wants a better education for their children and young adults. Compared to the Netherland’s education system, the USA’s educational system is lagging behind. It is because people living in poverty stricken communities does not think about their child’s education too much because they have to work three shifts a day in order to earn enough money to put food on the table. The middle and rich classes of Americans do not feel that it is an urgent problem that needs fixing because they have enough money and time to improve their child’s academic skills with tutors, after schools, summer schools, and time to personally spend with their child and work on homework or study before a test . The problem of not having education as a priority makes the ever increasing gap of social inequality increase even more. One way to fix this problem is to persuade the government to make a special budget for classes during summer for the students that want to do better in