Education in the classroom
Public Education
Reconsidered
A mericans lives across the United States are
connected through one aspect: 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 needs 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 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 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. Brenda Straley, an
expert in the teaching field, 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, headaches, and avoidance
of school.
Mabiot expresses his beliefs stating
“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?”
Later in Mabiot’s article he continues talking 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. 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 the 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. Today teachers teach to the test, make all
students learn the same things, and simplify the
curriculum, leaving no child 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 eradicating differences in
students” (Carr). 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 working in groups and with
others on tests and exams. He believes that if you are
expected to work with people in the future, then working
with others on a test should not be considered cheating
Students do not fit in a “one size fits
all” environment. Students learn in
different ways and at different paces.
Something that the current education
system tends to ignore.
(paragraph 3). The lack of collaboration is teaching
students to be independent, which may not be a
completely bad thing. A problem arises when in twenty
Pros and Cons
years former students are working and do not know
how to ask for help on a task that they do not fully There are many
understand or need help on. Students are not learning
differing points
that everyone has their strengths and their weaknesses,
these strengths and weaknesses should be used to of view when it
compliment each other to produce the best outcome comes to
possible.
The phrase, “great minds think alike” is often standardized
stated. Although this may be true in some instances, testing. Many
great minds are really those that do not think like
everyone else. In the 1800’s before the discovery of the people focus
light bulb, there were many great thinkers. Not all of on the
them had the idea to create a lightbulb. One of them
did, but not all of them had that same exact idea. Each
information
great thinker had other ideas of their own. People are that can be
individual and these differences should be celebrated
evaluated from
and used to help create something new. “[M]any
school leaders have become so keenly focused on these tests
finding and implementing educational approaches to while others
produce evidence of strong academic performance on
standardized measures of success... that as a society, we think about the
seem unwilling or unable to broaden our view of the effects the tests
purpose of an education”(Grinell and Rabin 748). The
future of the United States lies in the hands of public are having on
schools and educators, education should take the the students as
responsibility of taking the knowledge and uniqueness
of each person and rethink the way that students are
individuals.
tested, how they are prepared for college and life, and
how students are taught.
Citations
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. EBSCOhost, 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. EBSCOhost, 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.