Theodore Pierce Larkin

Professor Rick Rubinson

Sociology of Education
9/10/13
The Garbage In/Garbage Out Crisis in Education
The US is home to the most confident students in the world, and yet, the US ranks 33 rd,
27th, and 22nd in reading, math, and science, respectively, well below OECD student averages.
Despite this mediocrity, the US spends more on education than any other nation in the history
of the world. Educational movements such as former president Bushs No Child Left Behind
project and President Obamas Race to the Top project have both failed to significantly change
outcomes. Most agree that authentic, evidence-based reform is a necessity, but it has remained
elusive. Why?
Answers to why? have come in part from the writings of George Will, Robert
Samuelson, and Etienne LeGrande, writers who realize that no matter how ivy-covered the
buildings and no matter how Dewey-esque the teachers, the ultimate outputs depend on inputs.
Garbage in? Garbage out! Will, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, focuses on the contingency
between African American home life and education in his essay For black children, daunting
divides in achievement and family life. Will suggests that black 8th graders watch over twice as
much television as Caucasians in part, because only 35% of African American children share a
home with two parents. Over 70% are born out of wedlock. Referencing PF Fagan, Will writes:
Out-of-wedlock birth has been shown to decrease the health of newborns, increase newborns
chances of dying, retard children's cognitive development, decrease educational achievement,
decrease job attainment, increase behavior problems, lower impulse control, warp social
development; and increase the crime rate in a community. Quoting Barton and Coley, Will notes
that an average 4-year old in a professional family hears about 20-35 million more words than the
average child in a working-class or welfare family. Will concludes:About 90% of the difference
in schools' proficiencies are due to five factors: the number of days students are absent from

school, the number of hours students spend watching television, the number of pages read for
homework, the quantity and quality of reading material in the students' homes and, much the
most important, the presence of two parents in the home.
Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson begins his article School Reform's
Meager Results by stating that the waves of "reform" haven't produced significant educational
gains. While a majority of the public may believe that schools and teachers are responsible for
the students lack of success, Samuelson, like Will, suggests that the real cause of failure is
inside the home, and in particular, inside the apathetic minds of students themselves.
"Students, after all, have to do the work. If they aren't motivated, even capable teachers may
fail." Motivation comes from many foundations: inquisitiveness, parental expectations,
ambition, stimulating or challenging teachers, peer pressure and the aspirations to get into a
good college. Samuelson explains that in a 2008 survey of public high school teachers 21%
judged student absenteeism a serious problem and 29 % cited "student apathy."
Echoing Samuelson, Etienne R. LeGrands article entitled "How to motivate students
when culture attacks ambition" also underlines the decline in student motivation as the main
reason schools fail. LeGrand goes on to references a few alarming statistics: One in five
students says he doesnt try as hard as he can in school because he is worried about what others
will say and only 32% of teens say their friends believe its important to get good grades while
just 20% say its important to go to one of the best colleges. Le Grand explains that the
motivational ability of teachers is also undermined from both negative student peer pressure
and negative stereotypes of school being uncool.
This trinity of commentators all highlight the lack of educational incentive among
students who don't enjoy school, don't apply themselves in school, and as a result, don't do well
in school. George Will suggests the real genesis of the unmotivated student is the domestic
situation, the ubiquitous TV, and the absence of parental example, guidance and

encouragement. Samuelson and LeGrand echo these concerns, and place the locus of
responsibility with the students themselves. Collectively, all three commentaries point to the
cancer of domestic apathy and a lack of student motivation (both at school and at home) as the
most important obstacles to meaningful school reform.
The charter school movement described in Waiting for Superman also highlights a lack
of proper home life for kids, students dropping out at young ages, costs of college/ private
schools, and egregious government waste. The No Child Left Behind movement is a federal law
that mandates a number of programs aimed at improving U.S. education in elementary, middle
and high schools by increasing accountability standards. The letter of this law focuses solely on
increasing standardized test scores rather than the spirit of discovery and true learning. The
Race to the Top movement focuses on educational reform through competition at the State
level. As exemplars, state winners are supposed to inspire other states and provide motivation
that will trickle down to individual students. Will, Samuelson, and LeGrand would applaud
such a strategy, if it only worked.

Both No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have turned schools into factories
where kids are taught how to take tests and taught to compete. This removes elements of
creativity, discovery, and excitement from the learning experience. Teachers are left to focus
on numbers rather than sowing the seeds of curiosity and knowledge building. As expressed in
Waiting for Superman and the commentaries by Samuelson, Will, and LeGrande, the US needs
to implement a system that turns all American schools, regardless of the students ethnicity,
parental marriage status, school location or economic situation, back into a place where kids
are not only taught facts but are motivated to turn off the TV, and to turn on their curiosity to
learn, to read, and to experience the eye-opening wonders of the world around them and the
beauty of how and why things work.