Education: How the Nation Stays Afloat and the Students Sink American culture plays a critical role in how our educational systems were designed. American culture has created the myth that is, without a formal education, success, creativity and individuality are impossible to achieve. However, schools are not assisting the students in their pursuit of success and individuality. The educational system was produce with another mission in mind; suppress the student’s intelligence and creativity, increase funds with Corporate America by manipulating the handicap schools and assign each student a social role and aid them in developing that role only. Schools are not as helpful as we may have perceived, they discreetly create docile citizens by giving the illusion that the system is developing each student.
Americans do not care about have integrity as long as they win. Winning is the ultimate goal and it does not matter what do they do to succeed. A student, which Mark Clayton interviews, states that college students cheat because although it “[may] not be a good answer, but none the less it is an answer.”(198). The problem with this philosophy is that people expect integrity from others even when they lack it themselves. For example, students expect teachers to grade fairly even though they plagiarized the work they are handing in.
What It Means To Be A Educated Person In America In today’s society, being well-educated means you’ll get your dream job, house and family o so it seems. In his essay “ Idiot Nation” Michael Moore argues, his view on the failures of the educational system and the lack of financing that has been caused by politicians as well as American corporations contribute to the decline in education. The author uses humor to address the faults in schools, while he presents his view points on the educational system in America and lacks credibility and effectiveness that is found in non-subjective essays that reports solely on factual evidence while remaining impartial. Being educated in America means that a person is to a certain level of knowledge that not many people have like History, Economics, Algebra, Physics, Phycology and other intellectual information or knowledge. Attending 2 year college to receive associates and then transferring to a university is seen as a very prepared and smart person, but isn’t always as it seems.
These communication technologies have not broadened their appreciation and knowledge on topics such as history, civic values, and philosophical questions. In a sense these technologies have “stupefied” these individuals. Overall Bauerlein argues that these “digital natives” are not using these modern technologies to gain knowledge, but instead to interact with each other about topics such as pop culture or downloading new video games. Mark Bauerlein is a professor of English at Emory University and worked as a director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts, where he oversaw studies about culture and American life. “The Dumbest Generation” is Bauerlein’s most recent work, but his is the author of five other published works.
This undermines the entire ideology behind education; that one that works hard and is eager to learn will be rewarded by a prestigious transcript and will be able to do well in life. The idea of purchasing a fake transcript shows how Americans don’t value these concepts of working hard and achieving both social and personal success. Another problem exposed through Murphy’s text is how Americans don’t value their own personal and internal spirituality. Murphy references a spokesman for the Catholic Church and his response to the idea of purchasing outsourced prayers from India by reiterating his statement that “The prayer is heartfelt, and every prayer is treated as the same whether it is paid for in dollars, euros, or rupees” (Murphy 541). This shows a lack of understanding and true spiritual understanding on the part of both the Americans who purchased these prayers and the churches that sell them by even considering the idea that have value in the world of money rather than the world of spirituality.
Diversity in America In David Brooks’ People Like Us, Brooks states that Americans really do not care about diversity even though they talk about it. He claims that “it is human nature for people to group together.” People will tend to group together by race or social distinction. Brooks claims that we are responsible for segregating ourselves and that by doing so we are choosing to separte ourselves from those that are different from us. We might be a diverse nation as a whole, but block by block we are relatively a homogeneous nation. Brooks argues that we are a “congealing pot” that tend to gravitate to like-minded, like-cultured people.
One belief portrayed by the American Dream is that the United States is essentially classless, and the differences that do exist are not due to economic standing because regardless of your economic standing everyone is offered equal opportunities by the law. But this belief, along with many painted by the American Dream is a mere myth. All Americans do not receive the same, equal opportunities, people do not pick to be poor or to struggle with their everyday lives because they are not offered any
The influence of the minority proves to in turn promote the government unresponsive to the needs of the vast majority of the population, prompting middle and lower class Americans to believe that their vote does not matter and cannot make a difference. Becoming politically active takes resources and skills, which is disproportionately bestowed on the economically well-off by higher education and occupational advancement. Americans with lower wages and education vote less due to their lack of these
No Father Figure Fathers are not monsters. Blankenhorn affirms that fatherlessness is becoming the number one problem in American families, because fathers are leaving their homes, and their children are growing up without a father. But, that doesn’t mean fathers are the ones to be blamed by society. Even though, numbers show that fatherlessness is getting drastically large, we can not judge all the father population as a whole. The notion of what makes a good father may be a cultural concept, but that doesn't mean that there is necessarily only one way to be a good father.
For Adorno, media's influence, its lack of objectivity and monopoly should not be taken lightly. The culture industry gives the illusion of being informed and involved, while in reality the consumer of mass media is being reduced to minding himself with his own petty matters. According to Adorno the public refrains from criticizing the media because they are dependent upon it. They need the culture industry in order to achieve pleasure and satisfaction and cannot imagine their lives without it. The culture industry preserves its power by presenting "the good life" as reality and through false conflicts that trade him for his real ones.