The discussion of education in America Is one of the most important topics that our nation faces today. America’s economic future and ability to compete with the rest of the world depends on having a highly educated populace and well trained workforce. Our education system has had Its problems but feel that over time with the right elected officials, we can turn around and rank in the top ten to compete globally. Growing up and going to high school in Alaska, I never really thought much about education or the kind of education I was receiving.
It was only when I started owing to college that I really thought about it. I wondered why colleges made students take a core curriculum similar to the one you Just completed in high school all over again. I think we could provide a more productive education system in America if we hammered on core subjects like English, Math, Science, Humanities, Arts and Social studies In High School. Then, during college the students can focus more on the courses that they want to major in.
With college being so expensive if you cut out the core curriculum and focus on courses In your major It would cut down the time It sakes a student to get a degree and have them ready to enter the work force sooner, with a smaller student loan to pay back. Another Issue that I have with college Is that the text books are very expensive. When I was going to college at Central Connecticut State university I was completely broke after I had to pay for my text books. The college text book industry is highly unregulated and they can do whatever they want in determining the price of books.
A lot of the time new additions to text books are only done so that people in the text book industry can make more money and not at all for improving higher education for the student. Most of the revisions made to the texts books are minimal changes or are not necessary at all. With College being so expensive why does It seem that colleges try to nickel and dime the future of the country? If things are going to change In America we need to focus on getting our people educated and not so much on turning our unlettered Into a business. After reading Benjamin R.
Barber’s “America skips school”, “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”, written by Jean Anyone and “Literacy and the Politics of Education” by C. H. Unknowable I learned a lot from them. In Barber’s “America Skips School” he describes how America’s schooling system has truly failed our children. Not because we don’t have the teachers who care, but because our politicians and government are not willing to put forth the effort in making any improvements. Barber explains how we should raise our teacher’s salaries and eventually they should be closer to a stock broker’s salary to show that as a society we value education.
Another issue I learned, specifically from Ms. Anyone’s essay, is the need to make sure we don’t determine a child’s education based on their social class. Finding a way to educate our children equally will give them a chance to Improve their livelihood or financial situation. I read that children raised In an upper class society have a higher percentage of becoming more successful or wealthy because of the education they receive for being from that social class. In my opinion it only keeps ten roll getting realer Ana ten poor getting poorer.
In ten essay “Literacy Ana t Politics of Education”, C. H. Unknowable opened my eyes to the shocking truth of the loss of literacy we faced as both a nation and worldwide. The author sheds light on owe technology is crippling our youth by robbing them the necessities of preparing themselves for daily life. In this essay I disagreed with that claim. I believe the way technology is used could either hinder or help literacy in our country. There are many great games and ways to help children read and write with technology. It can make learning more fun and children can do it on their own.
But, if technology is only being used for video games and social media then the author is right, it could hinder our country’s literacy rate. As we advance technologically we need to educate people in what technology can offer us. Digital literacy is the way of the future. More and more universities have online programs to educate their students because it offers schooling to people who are not able to make it to traditional classroom settings. This is a way to offer the same education to all people no matter what their situation is.
A few examples of some people online schooling can help are single parents, full-time working students, people who are in the military and people with a medical condition. Everyone deserves to have a chance to a great education and I believe technology can offer that. As I analyzed the three essays I realized that there are APS in resources between the rich suburban kids and the poor inner city kids. Unfortunately right now money matters, and is dictating the type of education given to children. Even though money plays an important role I don’t think it’s the only answer to solving our problems.
Being disciplined, having quality teachers, obtaining support from your community, and building a culture of learning matters a lot. If we can focus on making some of the adjustments I mentioned above, I believe we will get a lot closer to closing the gap between the social classes and types of education our children receive. Thus, all children will be better prepared for success. When it came time for the research paper in Unit three I found myself struggling to find topics that would interest me. I wanted to find topics that were interesting but also touch on ideas most people don’t discuss when they talk about America’s education.
I felt that there were a lot of topics about America’s education system that weren’t recognized and I wanted to bring them to surface for discussion. In the first article, “The role of education in economic growth: theory, history and current returns”, by David Theodore R. Breton, the author tries to explain the importance of education in economic development from both a theoretical and historical perspective. Breton discusses that in order for countries to become successful and advanced they have to make education a number one priority. Human capital is what drives productivity and economic development (Breton).
The biggest hurdle a country faces when trying to achieve this goal, is getting there political leaders to put education first. The countries that have been successful in building a highly educated population are the ones who had political leaders that made it a priority. In the second article “Equality of educational opportunity: myth or reality in U. S. Schooling? ” by William H. Schmidt, Leland S. Conga and Curtis C. Mcknight, the authors explain the importance of mathematics and how it directly effects how successful a student will become.
In my experience math is a subject that many dislike but it is used daily by every single one of us. The authors explain that right now, 25% of our students in one school district take one mathematics course, Wendell more than AT students In another Olsten take more than four courses on mathematics. Schmidt, Conga, and McKnight state hat students taking four or more Math classes will have a better education resulting in better Jobs. This is very interesting because it shows the importance math has on our youth and that education is not being provided the same to all children.
With an increase rate in poverty, America needs to do a better Job at providing a basic education to all students regardless of family origin or socioeconomic status. I agreed with what the authors wanted to highlight in both of the articles I read. The best-performing school systems manage to provide high-quality education to all dents. Education is a great equalizer and an important investment for a country to make especially if we want to get rid of inequality across the world. Focusing on mathematics more in school is also something we need to look into.
The study of mathematics leads to a variety of important skills and careers that can help push society forward. In order to achieve the goal of a better education system we need to start lowering the cost of education to students attending college and have universal curriculums that are provided to all children from the pre-school level through the sigh school levels. With trying to improve our colleges and K-12 grades being at the forefront of education reform, I’m shocked that we haven’t made much of an improvement.
I feel strongly that part of this problem at the university level is the cost of college all together. I noticed that every year the price of college goes up in tuition prices even when oil, the housing market, and stock market fluctuate. Students use to think that going to college would be there ticket to their success, but with rising costs and being buried in debt and few Job prospects how can Americans intention to value education the way that we used to. Since students spend so much money on college and tuition cost going up every year, one might ask where does all the money go?
I know that Universities spend money on Scholarships, Sports Teams, Paying teachers, Administrative costs and building projects but where else? If we want to build a strong nation of educated and well-trained citizens we need to seriously start focusing on these issues. I think one solution to this problem could be to provide a more advanced education in high school on core subjects. High School ill then serve its purpose by making the students well rounded and ready to enter either the workforce or college for a more specific trade.
That way when the students goes to college they don’t have to spend time and money on the first two years taking the same core classes they took in High School and can focus on the classes that they want to major in. I also think that colleges should work and poll with the business sectors, commercial businesses, government needs and city and state needs to find out what Jobs are out there in the market so kids can better prepare themselves on what career path they want to take.
Doing this will help students who go to college with no direction look forward to finding a degree and career path that they will most likely land a Job in. Many college students right now are paying for school without knowledge of Job security afterwards. If our political leaders don’t find it in their hearts to actually step up to the plate and put some ideas that have been brought up into motion then this country will slowly slip away from us. Educating our youth and future of this country needs to be a top priority and we need to ensure that the people of this country get behind this effort.
