2008 Woodie Awards
America's education system: FUBAR
Mike Graziano
Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: opinion
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The top of the PowerPoint said: "…A nation at risk…" It was referring to the United States, and I was sitting in my teachers, schools, and society class. As the class progressed and I learned more about the American education system, a lot of it I already knew (not the information or facts that my professor explained to us, but the main point of the entire discussion) we, the United States, are and have been a nation at risk when it comes to our educational standers. Yes I know, tell me something else I don't know you say. Well let's really think about this for one minute, what contributes to the fact that our education system for the last… What? 50 years plus has slowly been spiraling down farther and farther amongst the other nations in the world. Europe has passed by and continues to chuck along past us, China, Japan, and so many eastern countries also are surging past us. It also appears that we have a hindrance in comparison to those other countries. Unlike everyone else, our 50 states are the leaders of our education system; they decide what is done in their individual states. This is not a bad thing, but at the same time were not all on the same page at the same time.
During the Cold War, directives were passed to help further the education of American children in an attempt to keep us ahead of the rest of the world. From that point there were a number of other education directives that still to this day, are only running at half steam. Some of them never ever formulated. Goals 2000 being one of them, we as students don't remember due to the fact that we were just starting to get into high school, yet this plan was an attempt to get teachers to have more responsibility and to be held libel for their teaching. But beyond that there are many other things that contribute to the education system being where it is right now. I spoke with one of the secretaries of a department today, just making small talk. And we got into a conversation about my articles, I told her about how American education is slowly sliding down the hill and she agreed. She said: "Kids come to us not knowing how to read or write…" That is a scary thought, especially when European children in elementary school learn the basis of two other languages and start to formulate sentences when we are just learning about the alphabet.
During the Cold War, directives were passed to help further the education of American children in an attempt to keep us ahead of the rest of the world. From that point there were a number of other education directives that still to this day, are only running at half steam. Some of them never ever formulated. Goals 2000 being one of them, we as students don't remember due to the fact that we were just starting to get into high school, yet this plan was an attempt to get teachers to have more responsibility and to be held libel for their teaching. But beyond that there are many other things that contribute to the education system being where it is right now. I spoke with one of the secretaries of a department today, just making small talk. And we got into a conversation about my articles, I told her about how American education is slowly sliding down the hill and she agreed. She said: "Kids come to us not knowing how to read or write…" That is a scary thought, especially when European children in elementary school learn the basis of two other languages and start to formulate sentences when we are just learning about the alphabet.