What’s Wrong with the American Education System?
In many fields, the United States is often referred to as the world's best nation. It may be one of the greatest, but in education, it's far from it. Of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 34 nations in total, it ranks only 14th in art, 23rd in science, and 24th in literacy. Despite America’s status as a country, America’s education is failing because of the large emphasis on technology entering the classroom, decreasing government funding, and the flaws of the students, parents, and teachers.
Parents have a very massive influence on a kid's education, which leads people to blame the parents for an inadequate schooling system. The MetLife Study of an American Teacher says, “Parents report that schools with high parent engagement perform better on a range of measures.” Parent engagement usually pressures students to do well and meet their parents’ expectations. Unfortunately, in recent years parent involvement has diminished. The same study concludes: there are significant declines in the percentages of teachers and parents reporting that most or many parents take too little interest in their children’s education, fail to motivate their children or leave their children alone too much after school. When parents stop emphasizing the importance of education, a student is less likely to excel in their school work. The lack of motivation from their parents can lead to students who do not greatly concern themselves in their education. The outcome will most likely be lower grades and students who do not care about their school work.
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Teachers’ demeanors can offer assistance or harm their students’ inspiration, accomplishments, and well-being. Recent studies further emphasize that educators’ negative demeanors can hinder scholarly accomplishment and supplement students' mental state and physical indications of stress. Instructors who utilize mortification or mockery can leave a child feeling disparaged. Teaching characterized by fear and terrorizing can be destructive to the student's future academic success. Teachers who are harsh in their display of authority or are indifferent toward their students or lessons can leave a lingering feeling of negativity with the student.
Another key issue with the American Education System is the lack of government funding in some states. School funding varies due to the fact that more than half of the financial support for public schools derive from the local property taxes. This means that the amount of funding that the community provides varies according to their wealth. This is only the case when is comes to America. Other countries provide equal per-student funding from general tax revenues for all schools throughout the country. When there is inadequate funding for the school it will show in academics. Schools that are predominantly white and upper class have the best programs, with great buildings and amazing academic scores. However, schools with the majority being minorities are almost always run down and lackin in more than one way. Whether it be not having certain programs or the buildings being in bad shape, students that come from poverty stricken communities tend to have lower academic scores. The government funds on things that do not need more money in. For example, Louisiana State University has the money to build a $28 million dollar football locker room but does not have the money to fix its library. I ask myself, “Why is our education system more focused on profits from sport teams, textbook manufacturers, and other groups than the quality of students’ education?”
Research shows that money matters for student achievement. Funding for education should not only go into the academics portion of the school but also for resources that students can utilize to help themselves. At the moment we have an institution that is having a hard time meeting the funding requirements for academics let alone support networks at schools. For example, in the article “Homeless on Campus” Eleanor J. Bader speaks about how common it is for college students to be homeless and how much more difficult their lives become. This topic is something that does not get enough coverage by college institutions. Bader gives examples of many students struggle with homelessness and talks about how they overcame those struggles. She brings light onto this national problem and suggests that colleges should do more to help these battling with homelessness and other non academic issues. Mary Jean le Tendre, a retired Department of Education administrator and creator of the LeTendre Education Fund stated, “As far as I know, no college has ever asked for help in reaching homeless students”. I agree with her and I too believe that funding for schools should help with problems such as this one. Colleges should offer more affordable housing and cheaper meal plans for their students. Not only will this benefit the struggling student, but it would also increase that college’s academic scoring since obstacles that stop struggling students from increasing their academic scores will be out of the way. Now we just have to tackle technology.
Technology can be seen as helping force in education, but can also be regarded as an issue within classrooms. Many educators view technology as a helping source for students. It has expanded access to education because now books, images, and other information are available at one’s fingertips due to the internet. In the traditional classroom, the educator is the essential wellspring of information, and the students inactively get it. This model of the instructor as the 'sage on the stage has been in academics for quite a while, and it is still used to this day. However, now in numerous classrooms today we see the instructor's job moving to the 'guide on the side' as students assume greater liability for their own gathering and learning of information.
Technology can be a great way to have students on the same level at school, but what about at home? Some students have no access to internet at home and inevitably fall behind. Also, technology can enhance cheating. Imagine how much easier it is to cheat now with the increasing use of technology. Cheating in the education system is not new. As long as there have been some sort of academic assignment, there has been cheating. The way that cheating looks have changed over time, though, particularly now that technology has made it easier than ever. Cheating in classrooms is a big reason why technology is an issue with education, but so are our phones.
In the article, “Does Texting Affect Writing?”, the author Michaela Cullington describes texting as an activity that everyone takes part in multiple times a day. The author then goes on to describe what textspeak is and how it is being used. In the following paragraphs, Cullington depicts teachers’ concern with textspeak leaking into their students’ writing. She then provides examples from teacher's experience with students having textspeak ooze onto their essays. The way we text and converse with our friends on our phones can cause problems with our learning and can lead to us messing with our academics.
The American Education System is not perfect by any means. Technology makes it easier for students to fall behind and cheat. Parents’ and teachers’ attitudes can have lasting effects on students and their academic scores. Government funding for schools should be equal throughout all schools and help struggling students on all campuses. As a nation, we need to ask ourselves, “how can we, as a nation, improve this messed up organization we call the education system?”
Work Cited
- Admin, ERN. “The Effects of Unequal School Funding.” Educational Research Newsletter and Webinars, 30 Sept. 2002, https://www.ernweb.com/educational-research-articles/the-effects-of-unequal-school-funding/.
- Bullock, Richard H., et al. “Homeless on Campus.” The Norton Field Guide to Writing, W. W. Norton & Company, 2019, pp. 764–769.
- Bullock, Richard H., et al. “Does Texting Affect Writing .” The Norton Field Guide to Writing, W. W. Norton & Company, 2019, pp. 131–138.
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