Andrew Kulinski Megan Keaton February, 26th, 2013 Eng 112 Visual Analysis The public education system

has been under a heavy amount of criticism over the past two decades. It has been a common topic in todays political world. The public education system has drastically fallen in global competitiveness leading to reforms such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. One question has hardly been answered concerning education. Is America on the right track to fix the problem in education? The most recent federal and state governments answer to this problem has been reforms in public education. Reforms such as nationwide annual standardized testing to ensure academic growth. After so many years since this problem began, one cannot help but wonder if education is heading in the right direction. The first picture that takes a stance on this argument is a political cartoon. The cartoon features a large board with four oddly shaped holes in it. Next to this board are three small children waiting in line to attempt to cram their heads into these small holes. Standardized tests, the intelligent way to test intelligence is written on the top of this board. Next to these three small children is the teacher with measuring tape and a clip board. The one child attempting to cram his head is obviously struggling very much and is not able to put his head through the hole. The teacher standing next to the students exclaims Ah ha! You dont fit the standard! That proves public education is a failure! This cartoon is a metaphor for standardized testing in public education. The holes in the board represent the triviality and the lack of purpose of the standardized tests. The sentence written on the board represents the governments purpose of the test being a way to measure academic growth and capabilities. The speech bubble coming from the teacher shows how standardized testing being used to show whether or not the public education system is improving. Even the small details in the characters tell a lot about what message the author was trying to create. Simple things like the way the teacher is illustrated tells a lot. The teacher is old and is wearing a dress shirt and tie. This says that the school system is old fashioned. The way that the student struggled to put his head in the hole shows how some students simply are not able to excel on certain tests. The other students waiting in line seem nervous representing the pressure schools put on students to do well on standardized tests.

This political cartoon says that the government does not have the correct solution to Americas failing education system. It says that standardized tests are forcing students to take a test that is not measuring their intelligence in any way. It also shows the pressure put on students by teachers to do well on the test. This comics message is that the way academic growth is measured is ineffective. In other words, standardized testing is being used as false crutch to measure academic growth. According to this comic, the changes made in education have only worsened the problem. The second picture takes the opposite stance of whether or not the education system is on the right track to improve education. It is a photograph of a group of young students learning the alphabet using tablets. These students in the picture around the ages of five or six seem very focused and interested to learn. All have their eyes locked on the screen of their very own tablet seeming very intrigued by the piece of technology in front of them. How rare is it for a group of children to be as focused as they are in this picture? The tablets the kids are using all have the same program running. It is a colorful program that looks to be designed specifically to catch the attention of a child. Having a computer program specialized in teaching children how to use the alphabet is very effective. This picture is showing the improvement of education through technology. Instead of note books, three ring binders, and scantrons, only an ipad and the curiosity of the student using it will be needed in the classroom. This picture does not say that education is failing. Evident by the focused and intrigued children, the use of technology in the classroom is improving education. Rather than using out dated textbooks and handouts, technology will bring the classroom to the 21st century. This picture tells whoever is looking at it that technology is attracting the attention of children and teaching them at the same time. The colorful program on an ipad is much more exciting compared to an old textbook. The focused children who are learning from a device that creates such an interest says that technology is improving education. Both of these pictures have a point on each side of the argument. One says that the reliance of standardized testing is leading education down the wrong path. The other says that with the rapid growth of technology, education is changing and improving. Both have valid reasoning and give new information and insight on the argument.

All of the children are completely focused The programs are very colorful which is appealing to children The teacher is helping one of the students in the background

Children look nervous The teacher is bald has classes and wearing formal cloths The student is struggling very much The text is all caps