ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY

M Naufal F Sahab/16717194

According to the article “McDonald’s or IBM?” by Damien Jackson, educational policies in United
States have been changing in response to an increasingly competitive global marketplace. The new
education policies have had harmful effects on many students, especially in North Carolina that recently
implemented a new policy that asking eight graders to decide their future by choosing one of four high
school “pathways”. The courses they take in one of the pathways will prepare them either to attend four-
year college or university, to enter community or technical college, or directly to enter the job market
upon graduation. The fourth path is for disabled students. Once students decide, they must fulfill their
particular requirements to receive a high school diploma. A parent’s signature is required on the selection
form. A student’s parent said that the new policy is like categorizing kids by eighth grade and telling some
“you’re going to work at IBM” and the rest “you’re going to work at McDonald’s”. I personally agree with
the author, that the new educational policies are going to harm many students.

In the article, it was written that the major problem with the pathways program is the age at
which students are required to make decisions about their future. For most students, eighth grade is an
awkward and uncertain time of physical and emotional change. Few eight graders are mature enough to
recognize their individual talents or plan for their futures. “I cannot see how this will not be a disaster,
you’re asking kids in eighth grade to make a decision that’s going to greatly impact the reminder of their
lives” says Dr.Charles Payne, a professor of African-American Studies and History at Duke University who
studies urban educational policy. I agree with Dr. Charles, why would we ask kids that mostly even have
no idea about how it feels to work as at technician, no idea about many majors that they could take in
college/university, and many else, to decide which pathway is the best for them in the future. If we take
a comparison to educational policy in Indonesia, we were asked to choose just between science/social
class just before high school (which is when we’re one or two years older than those eighth graders) that
should be related to majors that we’re going to take at university. In the end, still, many of us, escpecially
the ones that took science class, decided to take majors that is related to social class because they’re
struggling in science subjects or even because they just realized that they weren’t interested in science
knowledge at all.

The other problem is the effect on kids who wants to go to college but not good in academic
standing in middle school. Based on the article, we know that Mary Phillips High School in Raleigh, N.C.,
teaching kids with family or emotional problems who didn’t perform well in elementary or middle school.
“It’s going to have a big impact on our kids” says Loretha Peacock, a guidance counselor at Phillips. I agree
with her, the students Mary Phillips High School in Raleigh, N.C and other schools that had problems but
actually have motivation to go to college, have to bury their dreams because they usually behind in credits
when they arrive so they won’t be able to fulfill the requirements. They need time to be comeback from
their “nightmare”, they might be better than students in other school by 2 or 3 years. With this new policy,
their comeback will be pointless cause they won’t get what they want, what they deserve after such a
hard and long process.

The new policy is actually good for creating employees that mastered their area. By choosing
pathways since early age, kids will focused on their own path, the ones that choose to enter the job market
upon graduation could start to research about job prospect and learn soft skills earlier than the ones that
choose to attend a four-year college or university. But, in my opinion, the main purpose of education is to
educate human beings, to make every people know what they had never known before, not to create
employees for business importance like the new policy seems purposed. Every human should have equal
chance to be educated. Many people feel that this new policy will hit minority populations, “African-
American and Latino kids are commonly tracked into lower level math classes,” says Daniella Cook, who
analyzes education policy for common sense foundation in Raleigh, North Carolina. She says this is
because minority students’ school often have fewer resources and less qualified teachers, and these
students face languages barriers and discriminations. She is concerned that the new policy “will lock out
a whole generation of Black and Latino kids from four years colleges. I think she is right, with their
conditions that are explained above, they won’t be able to fulfill the requirements, and if it doesn’t
change, the whole generation won’t be able to get the chance to go to college.
 In conclusion, I agree with the author point of view. The new educational policies have had
harmful effects on many students, asking an eighth grader student to make a decision that is going to
impact their future is absolutely pointless. By implementing those policies, the minority and the students
who doesn’t perform in elementary and middle school will have a lower chance to go to four years
college/universities. Therefore, their chance of pursuing their aspiration is lowered. United states should
re-examine their new educational policies, as this only creating employees, not educating human beings.