The United States School System In America Skipss School By Mary Sherry

The United States school system is in danger of becoming unsuccessful. A shocking 1.2 million student’s drop out of high school each year. There are other issues too such as the seemingly short amount of time students spend in school and parent’s not getting actively involved. According to Benjamin R. Barber author of “America Skips School,” black males are more likely to go to prison than to go to college, two out of three African Americans will end up dropping out of school and one out of four of them will end up going through a correctional system rather it being juvenile or prison (228). The United States went from ranking as one of the top developing countries with the highest high school graduation rate to being ranked 22nd out of 27

Sherry teaches adults and soon figures out that a lot of them were unpleased with the education they received and did not feel like they learned what was necessary in school. Sherry’s students felt like they were passed on to the next course because they were good students, or never caused any trouble, or the teacher didn’t want to deal with them anymore. Sherry stats that “Tens of thousands of 18-year-olds will graduate this year and be handed meaningless diplomas” (215). This statement is debatable because diplomas are not meaningless to the tens of thousands of students that graduated. Diplomas are a symbol that shows the student had the determination to continue and not drop out when times got tough like some of the other students might have. Later on she writes about a personal experience with her son who was a senior in high school and was not doing well in his English class. When Sherry goes to the school to talk to his teacher Mrs. Stifter she finds out why her son isn’t doing well and that his teacher will not make any exceptions or go out of her way to make sure that he passes and says that she would fail him. Afterwards English became his priority and he passed with an A. This was just one example of how getting threatened with a failing grade can still work if teachers would commit to it. Making it the student’s choice to either

She’d read to me in the dining room on winter afternoons in front of the coal fire, with our cuckoo clock ending the story with “Cuckoo,” and at night when I’d got in my own bed. I must have given her no peace (Welty 298).

This is a good example of a mother teaching her daughter how much fun reading can be and how it can take you to new places and expand your imagination. I remember my mother taking me to Barnes and Noble all the time to try look for new books. The books would end up being scattered all over my house, they were in my room, the living room, under the couch, and even in the bathroom. My mother would always make me read after school, then she would read to me before bed and I loved it. It’s because of her that I can just sit down and read a good book for