In Carl Singleton’s article, “What Our Education System Needs is More F’s,” he argues that students aren’t receiving the failing grades they deserve. School systems are to blame for the lack of quality in America’s education. No other recommendation for improvement will succeed. The only way to fix the American education system is to fail more students. According to Singleton, the real root of the issue is with the parents. Since the parents believe their children are passing, they don’t take an interest in their child’s studies. They allow the child to spend little time on homework and more time on other activities, such as watching television. When a child comes home with an F, then the parents will take notice. Only then will parents take an active role in their child’s education, instead of letting the schools do it all. The schools are failing the students by giving them passing grades they don’t deserve. Singleton doesn’t believe an increase in salary or a merit raise will improve the situation. The only solution is to fail students who do not master the material. Only then will parents take notice in their children’s education and will school boards take notice, since holding a child back and having them repeat a grade cost twice as much as passing them on to the next grade. …show more content…
Inglee says not to celebrate, because more than a quarter of students who graduate don’t meet the basic reading level (2013). According to Ganem it’s worse than that – a CNN investigation revealed that college athletes in basketball and football programs in public universities only read at an eighth grade level (2014). This is not a new phenomenon – illiterate athletes were pushed through the system and given passing grades to maintain their eligibility (Ganem, 2014). The giving of grades that weren’t earned isn’t reserved for K through
In the article titled “What Our Education System Needs is More F’s”, Singleton proposes a solution to the crisis of American education. As he argues, the main cause of the poor quality
Steven Singer attempts to contradict the narrative presented by many right wing politicians that claim the American school system is failing in his article, “U.S. Public Schools Are Not Failing. They’re Among The Best In The World” (Huffington Post February 13 2017). In this piece Singer works to argue the claims that have been made against the US public school system; he defends the system by listing the various positives in the system, and exercises pathos by shining light on how America guarantees the right of education to all students regardless of social class or race; Singer uses this point throughout the article by justifying the fact that our test scores are not up to par with other countries by reiterating the fact that because we
Is the U.S Education failing students? Many can agree to it based on a variety of factors. Poverty and parenting are big reasons why a student may not perform academically well. In the memoir Holler If You Hear Me by Gregory Michie, it revolves around a teacher that details his experiences teaching in the west side of Chicago and the impact of poverty and racism that it has on his students. Throughout the memoir, parent involvement and poverty play significant roles in the academic performance of his students.
Would you be happy if you had received an A in your class? Do you feel that you truly learned enough to deserve that perfect A? Students who are in either high school or college are forgetting the true meaning of having knowledge and being able to learn. People think that how well they perform in the classroom will justify how well the teacher teaches their students but necessary that might not always be that way. In Brent Staples piece, “Why Colleges Shower their Students with A’s”, he argues that there must be an end to the grade Inflation and continues by examining for a possible solution by using language techniques to emphasize the main point.
Unsatisfactory schools do not maintain suitable conditions for students to learn and they are not treated as well as students from other schools. An example of this is in Kozol’s Fremont High School when it states that, “Long lines of girls are ‘waiting to use the bathrooms,’ which are generally ‘unclean’ and ‘lack basic supplies,’ including toilet paper” (Kozol 707). Student who have the desire to go to college hit dead ends in the school. One of the most impactful parts of the passage was when Kozol quoted Fortino saying, “You’re ghetto, so we send you to the factory” (Kozol 710). This shows the distrust that students in low-income areas feel toward our education system.
If you were to change something about the education system in the U.S, what would you change? How would you critique the quality of education? Education historian Diane Ravitch answers these questions in her excerpt that was published in 2014, “The Essentials of a Good Education.” In her text Ravitch argues that the education system is flawed and that the vision of a good education is unfair and unequal. Ravitch supports her claim by providing examples of the negative effects of the educational system and using historical context.
The United States test scores are dropping drastically, especially in math and science. Out of 36 top countries the U.S. is ranked last in math, and ranked 28th in science. One of the apprehensions is that we have an extraordinary amount of technology, and kids are easily distracted and do not use them for learning purposes. Another apprehension is that parents are starting to get a little easy going when it comes to schoolwork. I believe that parents should set priorities straight in their children’s life.
In Alfie Kohn’s essay, the argument of grade expectations being too overvalued rests on a chain of assumptions, but can be argued. Alfie Kohn’s essay portrays that he wants students to find a variety of different purposes in school, and questions the idea of grades being too centralized. In detail, Alfie Kohn explains how students go to school not for the right reasons, but for the wrong reasons instead. For example, the author writes, “They’d scan the catalogue for college courses that promised easy A’s, sign up for new extracurricular-activities to round out their resumes, and react with gratitude when a professor told them exactly what they would have to know for the exam so they could ignore everything else” (para. 8).
Elona Kalaja Professor Eleni Saltourides ENG 101 Critical Analysis Paper February 21, 2018 Flunking vs Students In the article, “In Praise of the F Word” Mary Sherry argues that flunking students is a method that has been effective in the past and is still effective todays day, and anyone needs to see is as a positive teaching tool. Sherry indicates that flunking students is a method that motivates students to study more and to be more responsible for what is their responsibility. Students challenge is not to get an A or B, but to succeed or to fail.
So all in all, in the process of trying to achieve high grades, student neglect relationships, moralities, and happiness. In essence, the notion that high grades lead to a successful life compels students to primarily focus on grades and sacrifice sleep, family, religious beliefs, and other necessities to
The essay “In Praise of the ‘F’ Word” by Mary Sherry explains some flaws Sherry has noticed in our education system. These observations are from her teaching perspective, and from her son’s own experience in high school. Sherry claims that some students that have earned a high school degree should not have because they are “semi literate.” She starts out her essay by stating this bluntly, but further explains herself as it goes on. Sherry is an adult literacy grammar teacher, and often faces students that wish they could have had a more beneficial experience in high school.
The current plight of the American education system is partly due to a serious shortage of teachers who can effectively instruct the students on the material and skills expected of their grade level and beyond. One reason may be because the current requirements for all teacher candidates are quite soft, as in many states, candidates are subject to only a number of requirements, including a bachelor’s degree, the completion of teacher training, an exam of school content knowledge, and other certifications (“Teacher Certification and Licensing Guide”). The most likely reason, however, of low-quality instruction in school is due to an inherent lack of intrinsic motivation and discipline in many teachers to do their best for students to excel in school and life, and if the teachers are too lazy and incompetent to do their jobs, students are more likely to follow that example and do so likewise in their own lives. This is shown in a chapter from Theodore R. Sizer’s book Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School called “What High School Is,” where a story is told from the perspective of Mark, a typical high school student in the United States, including
Students that get advanced scores on tests are able to move ahead and have better opportunities in their schools, but students that don’t score well are left behind, sometimes barely moving from grade to grade. When making changes to the schooling system, Thomas Jefferson said “twenty of the best geniuses will be raked from the rubbish annually” (Congressional Research Service, 269). The president of the United States of America, when setting up a part of the education system, said that only some of the extra-intelligent students would be taken and given amazing opportunities. He himself said that they would be taken from the rubbish,
Our educational system is failing us. The United States of America is supposed to be the “greatest” country in the world but statistics are showing that our government/educational system is failing us; children/young adults of the nation. Being a student of a middle ranked school in Arizona, I personally have had a first-hand feel for how good and/or bad teaching affects students. Just in high school I have had teachers that would just assign websites as our lesson and even teachers that sit at their desk for the whole hour; don’t even go over the mindset, homework, and maybe only show one problem so that we’ll know what the homework will be like. Until sophomore year I didn’t even know the differences between you’re, your, too, and to.
" Education in America has become a customary task. Going through elementary school, then high school and then college has merely become the normal thing to do. Many students may not even think about or acknowledge what they are doing; they are just doing what they believe they are supposed to do. This concept causes students to not fully engage in