Declining Literacy: America's Neglected Education Crisis

The American education decline continues to plummet. The generation today knows less and is less literate than their parent generation. People blame this decline for so many different reasons, but those people can all agree on one common denominator—children are not learning in the classroom. Benjamin Barber, in his article “America Skips School”, argues many reasons why children are not learning in the classroom. His overall thesis was “the reason for the country’s inaction is that Americans do not really care about education—the country has grown comfortable with the game of ‘let’s pretend we care’” (Barber, 2014, p. 2.). Barber thinks America lost her focus about educating her young to become educated citizens. Rather, her young care and

Besides the classroom, nowhere in modern society emphasizes learning for the sake of knowledge. In society, the people who receive praise are the ones who did not have a solid education. America has become obsessed with success stories that forgo education because educational knowledge no longer contains any value. American leaders do not make an extra effort to try and fix the failing education system, so if the world powers of America do not care to make progressive improvements for the education system, why should citizens of America even care about the education system? The students in school have picked up on these thoughts and instead of listening to the classroom teacher the students listen to the world teachers. Barber defines these world teachers as “the nation’s true pedagogues, are television, advertising, movies, politics, and the celebrity domains they define.” (Barber, 2014, p. 2.). These leaders have different values than the values set as the standard by the education system. The education system values wisdom, knowledge, critical thinking, and the ability to articulate one’s thoughts and ideas convincingly. While the American system contrasts these ideas: “We honor ambition, we reward greed, we celebrate materialism, we worship acquisitiveness, we cherish success, and we commercialize the classroom. . . We recommend history to the kids but rarely consult it ourselves. (Barber, 2014, p. 4.). This reasoning lays the foundation for the destruction of the school system. Adults do not find value in education, but they encourage their children to try and find value in area the adults do not. Children have caught on to this and decided the absolute best option for them to success is to flee the classroom setting and surround themselves in the world where they can learn firsthand the steps to become successful. The societal influence cultivates children more effectively than the classroom