The Propaganda Machine History can be a source of great national pride or great national shame, but it is something that everyone should be truthfully familiar with. In “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong”, James Loewen point out that sometimes history can be taught in a way that hides the shame and promotes patriotism. The United States of America has events in its history that some teachers leave out in class, some events that do not paint the United States is a good light. Learning the true history of our past can help our nation prevent making the same mistakes in the future. Many people look to their forefathers for a source of pride.
Lee Bollinger most certainly did not deliver a proper introduction. An introduction is designed for one speaker to introduce another. “When you introduce one speaker to another, you want them to get interested in each other and to like each other: You want speaker and audience to be interested and feel warmth and friendliness. Also a speaker should give background information to enhance the speaker’s credibility with the audience (Hamilton Gregory, Public Speaking for College and Career).” Also and introduction should never insult or offend the next speaker. In lee Bollinger speech he accused Ahmadinejad of being petty and cruel and criticized his dictatorship as a president.
According to John Taylor Gatto and Michael Moore in “Against School” and “Idiot Nation” the American Schooling system deceives the public into believing that it is being educated when in fact both men agree the system is conforming Americans into childish consumers bereft of truly significant learning. Both of the authors discuss consumerism in their stories; John Taylor Gatto does not discuss it as indepthly as Michael Moor, but he does mention it on page 154, basically saying that school trained children to almost not think at all… (Gatto 154). Michael Moore speaks on consumerism for about a length of 22 paragraphs at a minimum. “The schools aren’t just looking for ways to advertise, they are also concerned with the students perceptions on various products… Companies conduct market research in classrooms during school hours. “ (Moore 141).
By showing to the readers that he was once a public school teacher it helps them see him as an expert giving his own expert opinion. He stresses that the public school system is doing the youth of this generation an injustice. He does this through analyzing the goals of education, not schooling. He uses the third goal a lot which is to make each person their best that they can be. He also says the today’s school system suppresses the word genius.
When school is in session, school officials have control over students and their behavior. However, the power of public school officials over students is not supreme. Public schools are under the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment which gives citizens protection of their individual liberties from governmental interference. Public school officials must obey the demands of the Constitution. The Supreme Court ruled in the 1943 case West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that school officials violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments when they punished students and their parents for the students’ refusal to salute to the American flag.
Taking Responsibility For Education Students rely on a number of things in their pursuit of a higher education; teachers, accredited institutions, and textbooks containing correct information. James Loewen, who wrote Lies My Teacher Told Me, brings up concerns for students stating US History lower-learning textbooks are not equipped with factual information. In Loewen’s text he brings to light some very significant US events he believes are not factual. When we think of studying history we think about learning specific dates, events, or wars that impacted our country. Not many people stop to question if the information they are reading or being taught is factual.
Goodman seems to believe it is the students and their parents, as Goodman states, “Perhaps the chief objectors to abolishing grading would be the students and their parents.”(p.213). I think parents main concern with abolishing grading would be the fact that they cannot see how their kids are doing in college. And I think a student’s main concern with it would be that they do not really know how they are going to be judged as far as knowledge of the subjects they are studying. Plus you have to take into consideration that they are the ones who are paying tuition (the reason the school runs in the first place). And in our society, testing has become the means for everything, even getting an entry level job.
Alexis Smiley Dr. Lowe EH 101-119 December 3, 2012 The Importance of Quality Education The article “In Defense of Elitism”, by William A. Henry III., talks about how he does not agree with letting every student into a college and they do not meet the main requirements as those students who are putting effort forth towards their education. Henry thinks that the schools should raise its standards. He also believes that democracy should demand that all citizens have an equal opportunity, but thinks the egalitarians are taking it too far by insisting all should finish equally. Henry's aversion contends that people cannot learn until they think they can do it; therefore, the starting point of education should build within the individual.
The debate surrounding the essay is in judging Twain’s depiction of the “negro” Jim and its relation to past and present racial discourse. Smith is writing at a time where most respectable circles condemn the practice of slavery, yet many still blindly accuse Twain of being a racist out of a lack of understanding of the novel. These “respectable” circles and the schoolteachers, literary professors, modern critics, and libraries they influence are the target of Smith’s words. They are the educated, the part of society that is most likely to come across Huckleberry Finn, and Smith argues that their blind outrage
Less Is More Professor Clay Shirky, utilizes his sixteen years of teaching social media at New York University as a point of reference to present analytical and sentimental appeals to convince The Washington Post readers of technology’s distractive nature, which should result in its ban from classroom use. In his article, “Why a leading professor of new media just banned technololgy use in class,” Skirky’s intent is to impress upon readers that productivity and concentration are adversely affected by disruptive technology. Professor Shirky begins his ethical appeals with the following statement: “I teach theory and practice of social media at New York University, and am an advocate and activist for the free culture movement, so I’m a pretty unlikely candidate for Internet censor. But I have just asked the students in my fall seminar to refrain from using laptops, tablets, and phones in class” (Strauss 2). Shirky immediately establishes his credibility with The Washington Post readers by acknowledging his occupation as a professor in the field of social media.