America. A free,
independent country. A country with a
dream. And, a country with a failing public school system. We spend the most on
education than any other country but one, and yet results aren't being shown.
For example, in the most recent PISA test, our country was one of 65 tested in
three categories (math, reading, and science), and for one of the categories,
we ranked 31st place in our scores (with Shanghai, China being first
in every test category). While our education isn't the worst in the world, we aren't the best; we are just mediocre. If we are a country full of rights,
privileges, and money, why are we behind when it comes to education? The flaws
of the educational system in America stem from lazy teachers /tenure, and a lack
of successful schools.
Poor teacher performance is one of the flaws of the
educational system. Lazy teachers, in my opinion, become lazy because of
tenure. Tenure basically ensures a teacher’s position until they retire, making
it hard to fire them. This extremely flaws the public school system in America
because it gives teachers the opportunity to not care as much as to whether
students learn what they teach or not, since they just have a permanent job.
While this is not true with every teacher, some will take advantage of the fact
that they cannot get fired unless they do something horrible or drastic. If we
as a nation could find a way to motivate teachers to teach students (for
example, salary increases for teachers with student improvement or regular
examinations of teachers with tenure to ensure their job is still being done),
then we would be one step closer to improving our educational status in the
world.
Built upon the foundation of the lazy teachers, there is a
lack of successful schools in all of America, which is another one of our
flaws. There are only so many good and hard-working teachers to teach, so not
every school can be successful. This is especially true in less fortunate
neighborhoods and cities, where students often enter in lottery-like drawings
to be admitted to a well-performing school that has a student population limit.
The students who don’t get in often end up in unsuccessful schools nicknamed
“dropout factories”, which are schools where more than 40% of the students
dropout (according to the documentary Waiting
for Superman). It is a heart-wrenching process as one’s possible future is
held in the hands of luck. All that these students want is to be able to create
a future for themselves, and it is not fair to deny these students of a chance
of knowledge. If even one part of our nation does not have full access to
decent education, then the entire nation’s educational level is lacking when
compared to other countries. When the amount of successful public schools is
increased in our country, fewer students will be denied the chance to learn and
education in America will be even closer to improved.
The American public school system has many flaws, caused by
teachers and educational institutions, and it needs to be fixed. All of the
federal provisions thought up to fix our system (for example, No Child Left
Behind) are not working. When it comes down to it, reform begins with us, the
students. Sure, there are always going to be those teachers with no drive to
teach or care to what a student learns, and there will probably always be kids
who don’t get to have the top notch education that they want. But, we are the
next generation. We need to be able to become competitive with the rest of the
world for jobs, etc. This starts with us simply paying attention in class and
actually trying. If the problem is with the teacher, we can inform the
principal and superintendent, and if needed, to an even higher authority. When
the teachers are motivated to teach better (with changes in tenure, for
example), then our country will have more successful schools. And with more
successful schools, our educational level as a nation will ultimately improve. You
can say that it is like a positive domino effect. Once we as students are inspired
to learn, we can better navigate our future and improve our country’s
education.
.Sources
“Waiting for ‘Superman’.” Dir. Davis
Guggenheim. Paramount Vantage. Sep. 2010. Documentary.
Hood, John. “The
Failure of the American Public Education.” The
Freeman| Ideas
on Liberty. N.p., Feb. 1993. Web.
Jason, Gary. “The
Continuing Disgrace of U.S. Education.” American Thinker.
N.p., 2011. Article.
This was my original topic!
ReplyDelete