Tuesday, October 4, 2011

American Government 10/4/11

In Class - Continue and finish Stupid in America

Homework - Bring a current event tomorrow to class concerning the issue of education reform in the United States.

QOW - Considering what you have read, seen, or discussed in class, what is the biggest flaw in the American public education system?  Be sure to use complete sentences and thoughts.  Include a minimum of two outside sources and an MLA citation.  This is due by Saturday, October 8 by 11:59 pm.

Note - This is not an opportunity for you to criticize teachers and call them out by name.  Remember, this is the Internet and anyone can see your writing.

9 comments:

JaQuan17 said...

The biggest flaw in the American public education system would be people not knowing why it's no doing so well. There are many different guesses to why our nation is ranked so low in education. The main one I've heard over and over was lack of money. Not having enough money is no reason for the education system to get worse. In the video "Stupid in America" it showed countries that are more poor than the U.S. being ranked higher than us. So having a money issue is a nonfactor in the situation. It also displayed how some school spend money on things such as olympic size swimming pools and other sports like things that aren't a necessity.That clearly shows that the problem is not money. We aren't really sure what it is, but we need some dedicated people to find the problem and fix it immediately.


Andrews, Lewis. "A Coming Crisis in Suburban Schooling?" The American Enterprise 2006: 26,26-28. ProQuest Platinum. Web. 5 Oct. 2011 .

"The Crunch for Schools." The Washington Post: A.18. U.S. National Newspapers. Jan 02 2003. Web. 5 Oct. 2011 .

lyssa said...

America's biggest flaw in education i believe is the students and the teachers. People like to sit here and throw it all on one person,but when really its a double standard. Yes i think there are some teachers out there who really dont care if your learning anything. Yet again we have excellent teachers who do an outstanding job with their teaching cerditablitys i do agree that the school fundings are taken advantage of. I understand that some of the things are benifical. Yet our district doesnt know how to spend its money wisley. For the students, some kids are here to learn some kids want to joke around and have fun. When it comes around for grades and things like that the students want to sit there and blame the teachers for their bad grades when yet it clearly isnt their fault because it was up to them to show up to the class and take notes and study. School is NOT a daycare center!

wrks Cited
McNannon, Timothy J. "Teacher Education in America: Reform Agendas for the Twenty-First Century." Teachers College Record 100.1 (1998): 195,195-197. ProQuest Platinum. Web. 6 Oct. 2011.


Works Cited


Brimi, Hunter. "Academic Instructors Or Moral Guides? Moral Education in America and the Teacher's Dilemma." The Clearing House 82.3 (2009): 125,125-130. ProQuest. Web. 6 Oct. 2011.

Ambyrz said...

I believe the biggest flaw in the American public education is the fact that there is a, " lack of focus on results". Students are not required to meet high standards, therefore students tend to give up, because they see no point if it is so easy. Many students are not learning much at all." Most students are graduating with less knowledge and capability than similar students in other industrialized countries." I also believe if more parents were involved in the students life, not only would more people be learning but also graduating with a higher education. The kids that do know everything never get the chance to be challenged, because of the students who are on the border line of passing. Many people say that if we have more money the students can learn more. Its been proven in the movie, "Stupid in America". A school raised the money they needed, yet none of it went towards the education, everything was put to sports. Yes, some students may try doing better to become involved in the sport, but at the same time some of the coach's just want the player and don't care if they are passing their classes or not.


"American Public Educational System Problems." Public Services - Social, Religious, Scientific, Products, Environment. American Public Educational System Problems, 14 Dec. 1998. Web. 06 Oct. 2011.


Hood, John. "The Failure of American Public Education." The Freeman Ideas on Liberty. Foundation for Economic Education. Web. 6 Oct. 2011.

HookahAddict951 said...

There are many flaws in the schools now a days, but i think that the biggest problem that we have is that our teacher care way to much about getting paid instead of paying attention to the students performance in class. If the teachers would actually talk to a kid thats falling behind, then maybe the kid would feel like somebody actually cared about what they did or if they tried in class. Another major thing is kids are just starting to get lazier and lazier. They don't even try to do work, they just want to get to class and take a nap.


All of the biggest technological inventions created by man - the airplane, the automobile, the computer - says little about his intelligence, but speaks volumes about his laziness.
-MARK KENNEDY

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.
-KHALIL GIBRAN

Katrina Gawrys said...

I can’t just say there is one big or biggest flaw in Americas education system. There are many flaws teachers that don’t care, students that don’t care, how people use the money for schools, and the list goes on. I love all my teachers I have right now, because they all care, and don’t just sit behind their desks and give busy work. I really appreciate that. Money and how they spend money is something that really bothers me, because a lot of schools don’t know how to spend the money they are given properly.
I read in one of the Time articles that Palo gave us about how kids are bribed to do well in school. I think its kind of sad that it’s come to bribing kids to do well. I feel it works for some, but wouldn’t it be great if kids were taught to do things on their own without being bribed I think it would be. I really like what Mr. Palo said in his post about how “Life is full of educational opportunities.” I agree life is full of learning. People learn everyday in and out of school.

www.time.com/time/printout.0,8816,1978758,00
http://mikepalo.blogspot.com/

vinceb said...

Vincent Bacani, Period 3

The United State's biggest flaw in the education system is the imbalance and the unfairness of the grading system. Teachers and the school staff believe that tests show how well educated a student is, but there are problems to that belief. For instance, a student with good grades, who does his homework, project, and other assignment well, but when a test is given, that person might lose focus or get anxious, and then he will do average or poorly even if he did study hard. While a student who is lazy and rebels in a class, might get an pass and even get advanced on the test. The rebel student should not be passed in the class just because he got advanced on the test. There is also a chance that the rebel student might have cheated on the test and he was able to pass. Another example is an average student with average grades, a C student, and if he fails the test, then he does not pass the class. It is just unfair for every student, in using tests to evaluate them. Another problem is, tests are used to evaluate teachers. What if the teacher was really good and favored by most other classes, and one of her class are just filled with lazy students who receives an F on their tests, wouldn't he or she get fired? Tests are the biggest flaws of the education system. I think the school system should find a new way of passing their students and teachers, not just tests.

Works Cited:

Smith,Nicole. Weaknesses and Problems in the American Educational System. Article Myriad. 2010. Web. October 8, 2011.

Evanswood, Anna. 5 Problems with Today's Educational System. Hub Pages. Web. October 8,2011.

Thanushi said...

There are numerous flaws in our nation’s education system. Funding itself is not the utmost reason behind our declining educational status. Several studies have reported that even with an influx of monetary funding, students don’t show much improvement in their work. A central problem is due on fact to the low standards this nation has for their students. This is in part owed to “stay ahead in sanctions of the No Child Left Behind Law” (Stoltzfuts). Several states such as Maine and Oklahoma have lowered their math and reading skills so as to help more children pass under this hypocritical law. Another flaw relies on the overemphasis of standardized testing. Rather than teach the subject matter thoroughly, teachers are forced now to teach the test. This results in many children not truly learning the subject matter, as well as many thus relying their overall ability on this one single test, despite circumstances that might have influenced children on that one specific day. A lack of competition amongst schools enables school districts not only to force someone to go to their specific school due to their five digit zip code, but to then have a less “push” to excel individual student, due to no one competing against them. The reasoning behind school not being run as businesses seems preposterous. Like all business, if schools were run this way, competing against one another, districts would take more effort to help individual children pass and become successful. The more competitive, the more success you will witness. Tenure is also one of the greatest problems hindering teachers from helping push students. With such difficulty in firing teachers due to this, more teachers are able to be more lax in their curriculum, and therefore care less about their children. Tenure itself should be eliminated, so as a means to protect the student’s progress, not the teacher’s job. Several daunting problems hinder the U.S.’s educational system.

Mark. “The Fundamental Flaws of the American School System (Education Debate Part 1)”. Publius Endures. Blogspot. 4 Dec. 2007. Web. 8 Oct. 2011.

Stoltzfuts, Perry. “Lowering Standards and the Decline in U.S. Education”. Associated Content. Yahoo!. 20 May 2010. Web. 8 Oct. 2011

MÉLISSA said...

There’s many flaws in America when it comes down to education. A big flaw that grabs my attention is the teachers. I believe that many of the teachers aren’t there for a student but, for a simple paycheck. Are we just trying to fill classrooms with inadequate teachers? Don’t get me wrong theres lots of teachers who deserve the respect and honor to be called a teacher but, theres others who just promote their business and give busy work. In my experience I have had many teachers who teach the students to pass a simple test. When we pass the class we try to remember what we actually learned. We finally reliazed we didn’t learn anything other then to pass a test. Were being prepared to achieve basic standards, are we always going to reach for basic? In class, we been reviewing the steps it takes to fire a teacher, honestly theres really no way to fire a teacher. I had a teacher who honestly didn’t care to be there. She gave us busy work and let us “share’ our answers during a test. To some student its cool, easy A. But, when I think of mine and my younger brother’s educational future, its bad. I don’t remember learning anything in that class then what her business was. In the article it talks about how many of the teachers don’t reach the professional requirements. Wow, what are we coming to? I hear many politics and the president talk about education and how students should go to college. We get enrolled in college and were not prepared to reach that standard because we been taught to reach basic. Sometimes you need to step back and take a look on the fact how the system works. Being evaluated every other year is ridiculous! And it doesn’t end there, we have talked about how theres been a case where the teacher raped or harassed a student, and didn’t get fired! Are you serious? Am I suppose to feel safe about going to school? What if one of my teachers is a rapist or any sort of a perve. I believe they should evaluate the teachers more and also reward the good teachers. A theres horrible teachers there great one too! Sometime you get a bad look on one side of the coin and you forget to look on the other side. Before anything we should inspire the student who want to succeed and teach them there not bsic and just there to warm up the seat.



PETER APPLEBOME. “Education Panel Sees Deep Flaws In Training of Nation's Teachers”. The New York Times. September 13, 1996 Archives

MatthewEllis said...

To me the biggest flaw in education is just the mind set of our teachers and students. Students in school aren't driven to get good grades when in reality if you put in a little effort you will pass easily. Yes some students do have trouble learning but thats why classes are seperated in AP classes, Honors, and regular. In regular classes me myself could sleep through them and good a good grade so if some of our fellow students put effort in, im sure they could pass with average.I believe how smart students are deals with their own drive to get it. In an internet observation people were comparing public vs private schools and saying how much better private schools are. to me in reality they are better but only because they watch there students more closely and give them inspiration to get good grades. Teachers on the other hand don't always give all they can while in class. They complain how classes are to big or how they don't listen and mainly about the money. To me i believe even with a mass amount of students you teach those who want to learn and reward good grades. Those who struggle but want to learn teachers have to give extra time to help them. There are many teachers who I see that do this but ther are also those who won't ever do this. Many different things can help cause the horrible education levels that are occuring.


Chen, Grace. "Public vs Private Schools".http://www.publicschoolreview.com/articles/5. web. 4 December 2007. 10 October 2011

Leung, Justin. Flaws in Education: “You’re so lucky that you got that teacher." http://canyouth.com/2011/08/flaws-in-education-youre-so-lucky-that-you-got-that-teacher/. Web. 0 October 2011