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Annika Peterson

Jackie Burr, Instructor

English 2010, Period 5

12 April 2018

Reconsidering Public Education

Americans lives across the United States are connected through one aspect, that aspect

being the education system. The United States, commonly referred to as the superpower of the

world, falls behind when it comes to educational rankings,

especially when falling behind more than 20 countries in

mathematics (DeSilver). Attending public schools, students

are taught all of the same exact concepts. One might say,

that is not a problem, and that is the definition of fair. Life is

not fair, ​and​ not all students are the same. Why should

students be taught the same exact concepts? Public

education has a need for reconsideration in the way that

students are tested, prepared for the future, and educated.

In order to assess student learning standardized tests

have been created and put into place. These tests consist of

multiple choice questions and ”tend to ignore higher-level

thinking skills and discourage divergent response”(Harris).

Resulting in student memorization of a few answers for the

time being and then those facts being thrown out before
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exiting the classroom. Students do not retain a majority of the information that they learn to pass

these tests, when in the long run, it would be better to teach less to these students and have them

remember most of the information rather than cramming all of it down their throats and having

them forget it by the end of the summer. In a personal interview with Brenda Straley, an expert

in the teaching field, she commented that there are overwhelming negative impacts and aspects

of standardized tests. Straley relayed experiences with her previous students expressing that

these tests cause a lot of students and teachers anxiety causing headaches and avoidance of

school.

“Governments claim to want to reduce the number of children being excluded from

school. So why are their curriculums and tests so narrow that they alienate any child whose mind

does not work in a particular way?”(Monbiot). Mobiot in his article continues to talk about the

lack of change in education despite government desires.​ Over the past 100 years, many aspects

of life have changed and developed. Humans have stepped foot on the moon, Iphones have been

invented, cars have been improved and so on. Almost every aspect of daily life has been

renovated and changed as time has gone by. Yet, education lacks these changes. Yes, schools

utilize more technology and laptops and students can now earn college credit while still in high

school, but the systems and the procedures have not experienced that renovation. Teachers still

use lecture style teaching as was custom for the 1800’s schools.

The purpose of the 19th century schools was to produce factory workers. Workers that

did the job they were told to do. Retaining a similar model for schools today and “having a

single-minded emphasis on STEM risks turning our young people into robots”(Cunha). Colleges

are looking for unique people. Students who have individual talents and go above and beyond.
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Today teachers teach to the test, make all students learn the same things, and simplify curriculum

so that no child is left behind. Expecting students to make a good impression on colleges while

teaching that life is fair, and that no work or retainment of knowledge is required after tests is

outrageous. Schools create standardized students for an individualized world. Future employers

are not going to want employees that throw away what they learned throughout the week during

the weekends. Jane Greenway Carr expresses her concern that schools are at “risk of of

eradicating differences in students” (Carr). The many years of schooling are not helping students

prepare for college or life. Colleges want the above and beyond students. How can we expect

students to go above and beyond if all we do is teach the basics to pass a standardized test.

Closely observing schools across america, it is evident that these schools are setting up students

to fail, rather than letting them fail on their own and learning from their mistake of misbehavior.

Failure is the best teacher. Yet all through school, teachers feel as if they cannot allow students

to fail because they came crying to a teacher to let them retake the test to get their grade up.

To provide for an alternative way of testing, George Monbiot considers how if in real

life, working is all about collaboration and teamwork, why then is working in groups and with

others on tests and exams considered cheating (paragraph 3). This is teaching students to be

independent, which may not be a completely bad thing. A problem arises when in twenty years

they are working and do not know how to ask for help on something that they do not fully

understand or on something that they need help on. Students are not learning that everyone has

their strengths and their weaknesses, these strengths and weaknesses should be used to

compliment each other to produce the best outcome possible.


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The phrase, great minds think alike is often stated. Although this may be true in some

instances, great minds are really those that do not think like everyone else. In the 1800’s before

the discovery of the light bulb, there were many great thinkers. Not all of them had the idea to

create a lightbulb. One of them did, but not all of them had that same exact idea. Each great

thinker had other ideas of their own. People are individual and these differences should be

celebrated and used to help create something new. “ [M]any school leaders have become so

keenly focused on finding and implementing educational approaches to produce evidence of

strong academic performance on standardized measures of success... that as a society, we seem

unwilling or unable to broaden our view of the purpose of an education”(Grinell and Rabin 748).

The future of the United States lies in the hands of public schools and educators, education

should take the responsibility of taking the knowledge and uniqueness of each person and rethink

the way that students are tested, how they are prepared for college and life, and how students are

taught.
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Sources

Carr, Jane Greenway. “Why Are American Schools Obsessed With Turning Kids Into Robots?”

The Atlantic​, Atlantic Media Company, 2 Feb. 2015.

Cunha, Darlena. “The Educational Strategy That's Turning Students into Unimaginative

Robots.”​Quartz​, Quartz, 29 Jan. 2016.

DeSilver, Drew. “U.S. Students' Academic Achievement Still Lags That of Their Peers in Many

Other Countries.” Pew Research Center, 15 Feb. 2017.

Grinell, Smith and Colette Rabin. "Modern Education: A Tragedy of the Commons." ​Journal of

Curriculum Studies​, vol. 45, no. 6, Dec. 2013, pp. 748-767. EBSCO​host​,

doi:10.1080/00220272.2013.813079.

Harris, Karen H. and Wilma S. Longstreet. "Alternative Testing and the National Agenda for

Control." ​Clearing House​, vol. 64, no. 2, Nov/Dec90, p. 90. EBSCO​host​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=9705111327&site=ehost-live

Monbiot, George. “In an age of robots, schools are teaching our children to be redundant.” The

Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 15 Feb. 2017.

Straley, Brenda. Personal Interview. 12 April 2018.

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