The issue of "choice", like so many other novel educational reform attempts, serve once again to highlight the fact that something is desperately wrong with the current educational system. While everyone seems to be fully aware of the need for change, no one really knows where to start. In the process of making sense of this need to pin down the problems that beset education, many end up latching on to any novel idea that even vaguely offers the hope of finally bringing that educational calm and success everyone so desperately longs for. The problem with this hit-and-run approach is that it almost always ends up fragmenting the communities and societies that should in fact be pooling their energies and resources on the issue of educational reform. Name me ANY reform movement, and I'll show you at least two camps for each of them - one "for", and one "against".
The proponents of educatonal choice have, over time, carefully built up their pool of arguments in support of its implementation. To fully understand this perspective, and before I share mine, I have selected a collection of quotes from various proponents of educational choice which should present, albeit statically, the central issues underlying the concerns of these and many other students, parents, and teachers. In the process of reading them, please try to focus on the issues they represent rather than the emotions that presently drive them.
"It is time to develop political muscle for parents and children. We know that our urban public school systems are hopelessly broken. We know that unless the parents of children in public schools are able to threaten to enroll their children in competing private schools, the public schools will never be held accountable."
"Lessons must be learned from Voucher Bill Defeat", Joseph Walsh
"The most recent National Assessment of Education Progress reading test reports that 30% of high school seniors, 31% of eighth graders, and 42% of fourth graders couldn't reach "basic" reading levels. Those students who have spent from four to thirteen years in school, don't have even "partial mastery" of the reading skills expected at their grade level."
"The High Cost of Rationing Literacy", Martha C. Brown
"There is no more important issue today than the education of our children. We could possibly disagree that our society - crippled by gang violence, teen pregnancy, and welfare dependancy - would experience a Renaissance if every child received quality education?
There has been a lot of controversy over this issue mainly because of the importance of an education in a modern society. School choice initiatives are based on the premise that allowing parents to choose what schools their children attend is not only the right thing to do, but is also an important way for improving education. Instead of a one-size-fits-all model, School choice programs offer parents various options from which to pick the educational settings they believe will work best for their child. However, there is
In the text, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, author Diane Ravitch explores her ideological shift on school reform and the empirical evidence that caused this shift. Once a proponent and contributor of testing, accountability, choice, and market reforms, Ravitch’s support began to diminish as she realized that these current reforms were not viable options. She came to realize that the new school reforms focused entirely on structural and managerial adjustments and that no focus was given to actual learning.
Why would anyone wish to withhold support for a program that has the potential to revolutionize the, often, insufficient American education system? This question has undoubtedly entered the mind of proponents of education voucher systems across the country. However, despite the pressure placed on legislators everywhere, close scrutiny of the real issues should not be clouded by public fervor. It is my belief that, after a thorough examination of the merits of such programs, school vouchers would be a gross detriment to both the American education system and the nation itself.
This change will have a big affect on our public schools. As I alluded to earlier, the groups are more protective of the...
Wheeler, Timothy. “There’s a Reason They Choose Schools.” National Reviewer 11 Oct. 2007. Rpt. in Practical Argument: A Text and Anthology. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 618-20. Print.
The idea that vouchers give parents a choice of schools for their children is simply incorrect. The only people who have any real choice in the matter are the private...
Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said:“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” Mr. Roosevelt was indicating that education is key to ensuring a positive future for our country. Years have passed since his presidency, and many can argue that America’s educational system has improved, but that still remains to be seen. While it is true that education has gotten more focus in recent years, as highlighted by the “No Child Left Behind Act,” it does not mean that the system is fully developed enough to aid all of America’s children. Now, the average American is just that: average. Children generally receive B’s and C’s, average grades, in school if they are lucky enough to be in a good school system. Literacy rates are lower than they seem, and not enough people are properly motivated to do well in school. Forms of entertainment and parental influence, which also play a large role in the development of children into successful, productive adults, are not where they should be with respects to education. Much more needs to be done to improve the educational system of the entire country. Preschool should be made mandatory to help individuals reach their full potential and achieve what only a minority of today’s society is currently capable of.
“Literacy is at the heart of a nation’s future . . . and the family is at the heart of literacy. The home is a child’s first school . . . a parent is a child’s first teacher . . . and language is a child’s first subject.”
... to changes to the current United States public schools. However, the people in charge of making the changes are the ones who profit and will probably never change their mindset. The school system needs to be changed entirely, but solutions to this problem simply aren’t out there. Experimentation needs to be done in certain school systems to determine the most successful method. Until then, the United States of America will continue to support a failing school system and will continue to produce uneducated adults.
Betts, Julian. Getting choice right: ensuring equity and efficiency in education policy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2005.
(2014) exclaimed that why do 62 percent of parents think the Common Core is not perfect for their kids, despite it has fascinated some entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates and the secretary of education. In a case in point, parents should get more involved in the education of their children if they do not approve of measures being used. She agrees to the idea of a federal government using incentives to adopt their specific education program, but then again she only sees that parents complaining and not taking action. In another context, “parents have no choice about whether their kids will learn Common Core, no matter what school they put them in, if they want them to go to college, because the SAT and ACT are being redesigned to fit the new national program for education”. (Pullmann, J. 2014, September 24, p. 1). In fact, Porter (1989) states that the Common Core standards became as opposing to teachers and teaching occupation, and the tactics are not good strong enough for enabling teachers to be dependent. The teacher is often understood to be the planned without rules. Moreover, some voices against the criticism of the common core, they believe that it is meaningless because districts are still permitted to select which material goes out with stem the basis stated by the Common Core
A variety of choices can make life much easier. Students are not given the option to select any courses that best suits their ability; due to the system believing it is best to dictate a singular educational path for every student. For example, according to an american essayist and author of “On Education” Ralph Waldo Emerson “By your tampering and thwarting and too much governing he may be hindered from his end and kept out of his own. Respect the child. Wait and see the new product of Nature...Respect the child”(273) Emerson uses continuous repetition of the word “respect” as teachers should respect students as any normal human being and not treating them as if they are inferior beings. Emerson advises that teachers should not force students
This book, Dare The School Build a New Social Order by George Counts, is an examination of teachers, the Progressive Education Movement, democracy and his idea on how to reform the American economy. The book is divided into 5 different sections. The first section is all about the Progressive Education Movement. Through this, George Counts points out many downsides and weaknesses of this ideal. He also talks about how he wants teachers to lead society instead of following it. In the second section, he examines 10 widespread fallacies. These fallacies were that man is born free, that children are born free, they live in a separate world of their own, education remains unchanged, education should have no bias, the object of education is to produce professors, school is an all-powerful educational agency, ignorance rather than knowledge is the way of wisdom, and education is made to prepare an individual for social change.
“…we do believe that how we bring up out children has a most profound effect upon how our society is behaving and how we deal with each other as human beings.”
A time approaches in every person’s life when they must come to learn new things. Speaking on behalf of all those who have attended school at some point in their life, I must say that most do not like it for its educational significance. Today’s youth undervalue the worth of America’s public school system to the point of shame. Hard-working, underpaid teachers and professors prepare to educate these ingrates as their living, and it’s exasperating for the students to not even care. I must be fair though and call attention to the fact that not everyone shares this loathe for education and schooling.