Everything academic revolves around the year-end state testing to the point that other subjects are usually neglected. Reading, math and writing are the main thrusts of schools, and are obviously important. However, critics state that children are not receiving well-rounded educations because of the emphasis on these subjects
Just ask Kyoko Mori. She went through both Japanese and American educational system. The Japanese system is much worse because not only does it have the same flaws as the American system, but it adds on to their mistakes by not allowing students to question the teacher. When students cannot question the teacher, they are not able to think for themselves and it further proves my point regarding us becoming robots. The largest flaw in this school system is entitled “reward.” This reward that students receive makes them study not for expanding their minds, but for some colorful sash that they will on graduation and a pointless title to put on your application.
Courtney Rosenthal Mrs. Crowe AP Lang- Period 3 25 March 2014 American Ignorance American high schools have changed for the worst since the evolution of the education system; initially, it was about actually receiving an education and gaining knowledge. But in today’s society, American high schools have developed into a flawed system that has adverse effects on its students. There are flaws in the inadequate system such as heavy testing and the teaching of irrelevant information. In order to mend these issues the education system needs to be reshaped and refocused to create a more constructive system. Throughout my personal career in high school, as a current eleventh grader in the public school system, I’ve found the testing
“ (Moore 141). While Moore focuses more on the advertising established into school and companies promoting themselves using schools, Gatto speaks more one the effect that this way of schooling creates the adults in the world. Also he explains how marketing on the school systems is keeping the adults nowadays very “childish” or young in the mind. (Gatto 149) According to Gatto if you strip children of all of their independence, and only develop their trivial emotions, they would never truly grow up. (Gatto 154).
He surmises that we are teaching children for what is happening now, and not for the future. We have no idea what will happen in the next five years, let alone when these children graduate. The first stage of creativity is searching for challenges (Ruggiero, 2012). Robinson has found that school systems today are so focused on educating for skill sets that they are stifling creativity. He feels this is an area of opportunity to fix existing conditions (Robinson, 2006).
These include confirmation inquiry, structured inquiry, guided inquiry, and open inquiry. They suggest that a student should not start with open inquiry because this is the least controlled of all. Rather, they suggest, students should start at confirmation inquiry. In confirmation inquiry, students are provided with the question, procedure, and the results (Banchi & Bell, 2008). Students are merely learning how to collect data and record.
Department of Education’s Assistant Secretary of Education, criticizes the Obama administration’s Race to the Top education policy agenda for following what she calls the “disaster” of Bush’s No Child Left Behind policy. Government control of education, she notes, has only led public schools to rely heavily on standardized test scores. Ravitch warns that, under the Obama administration, teachers are provided incentives and raises based on test performance, which results in class time being spent teaching test-taking skills or teaching to the test rather than on rich curriculum. Additionally, Ravitch criticizes the Obama administration’s reliance on charter schools as a way of reforming underperforming public schools, explaining that charters don’t answer the real challenges that face low-income or non-native speaking student populations. In the end, she warns that the outcome will produce students who are not able to comprehend complex knowledge and schools that limit history, science, the arts, civics, and many other components of the curriculum that provide college preparatory instruction.
We’ve all seen the typical classroom, rows of desks and chairs, a blackboard w/ chalk and educational posters. In my opinion, classrooms are very bleak and boring places of learning. Students sit for an hour a day trying to comprehend what the teacher at the front of the board is writing and trying to explain. At some point in that long hour they zone out into their own little world and forget by the time the bell rings what they were supposed to learn. John Holt writes in his essay “School Is Bad for Children,” explains “We need to get kids out of the school buildings, give them a chance to learn about the world at first hand.” (Holt, pg.67.)
It is for the purpose of labeling peers and deciphering which children are inferior, it is the social aspect of schooling. Lastly, the propaedeutic function teaches a minimal amount of children to manage the population to that the government can continue without being challenged. Initially I was taken aback while reading Gatto’s article, particularly in regards to Inglis six functions but upon further review and digging deep into my own personal experiences with the public education system, predominantly looking at my years spent in high school I would say there are some sad realities behind theses six
Now, as a college student preparing to become an elementary teacher and as mother preparing to place my children into a public school system, I’m fully realizing the injustice that is standardized testing. There are seemingly few accurate advantages to a process that takes away so much from our teachers and students. The tests are a poor measurement of knowledge and growth, and have become the major focus in all schools, leaving what should be the most important factor of education, the children, out of the