Rhetorical Analysis On Schoolwork

Improved Essays
Everything Wrong with School A hundred years ago, education for American children was a privilege, a rarity. Something that many people did not have. Now, almost every child in America sits through a mandatory eight hours of school in a public or private institution for five days a week, nine months every year; and after enduring this process for twelve consecutive years, students are prompted to further their education and attend college. A system so simplistic in idea, yet undeniably flawed for students. In Nicholas Lemann's article "Schoolwork" from the September 27th, 2010 issue of The New Yorker, he effectively uses logos and occasionally pathos to show the flaws in a system of education that does not provide the same level of instruction …show more content…
Lemann uses pathos to make the reader feel guilty about the neglect inside of the education system by pointing out the “heartbreakingly low quality of the education that many poor, urban, and minority children in public schools get.” By using the word “heartbreaking” he makes the reader feel a spark of sadness for the children who are overlooked in the American education system. Lemann uses just a hint of pathos to really make the reader think about the issues that are within the education system to hopefully make them try to make a …show more content…
There is much improvement that needs to be made. But as Lemann states in the last paragraph of his article, “In education, we would do well to appreciate what our country has built, and to try to fix what is undeniably wrong without declaring the entire system to be broken.” The system of education in this country definitely needs to be evaluated and improved and through extensive use of logical reasoning and sparse pathos, Lemann proves that this organization of learning still needs a lot of work. So, while we as American people should appreciate what is provided for us in comparison to the miniscule level of education provided in the past, we should most definitely strive to better the system that provides it for

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    America’s education system is no longer one of the best in the world. Americans may act like education is the most important asset a person can earn. However, our country is falling way behind many Asian and European countries because children are lacking education in almost every subject. Benjamin R. Barber, author of “America Skips School”, explains what really is wrong with our education in in his essay. The article explains what is wrong with America’s educational system because we are focusing on other inputs but, not school.…

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In today’s society, education equals freedom. Without putting forth more effort to properly educate children, the children will be easy prey for any person trying to persuade them. While many people do talk about the educational crisis in America, there is no effort from those people to change the situation. Benjamin Barber delves deeper into the problem in his article “America Skips School.” Barber explains exactly how American children have become intellectually inferior and supplies ideas to fix the situation.…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dhanishka Pohuja Professor Linda King English 1A- 40396 30 September 2015 Against School Essay: Prompt One “Divide children by subject, by age-grading, by constant rankings on tests, and by many other more subtle means, and it was unlikely that the ignorant mass of mankind, separated in childhood, would ever reintegrate into a dangerous whole (Gatto 3). ” It might be appalling to you to even read such a statement from Alexander Inglis, cutting students by the masses and grouping them into categories, however, what is more appalling is that subconsciously and unknowingly this is what has been happening in most schools. Ironically, in school students are taught to be open minded, nonjudgmental, and accepting of one another when in fact the school…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Reading through the article it is easy to tell that the author is explaining how people can associate happiness more from experiences, rather than tangible items. The essay follows the author as he discusses this idea with professors and researchers in the field of psychology, and presents this through the rhetorical devices of logos and pathos. He provides examples to support his claims, and shows that he is a credible source. Along with this he can draw the reader in as he explains why people have more happiness after an experience as appose to an object purchase. Throughout this article, the author is able to relay his ideas to his readers because of his accurate usage of the rhetorical devices.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Project SELF interests caught my attention since sophomore year. In May of 2017, an unexpected news from my father came out of blue. My father was fired from his job. I was speechless because I worried about the future. Although, I realized my father worked at the tender age of seventeen, and moved twice to the United States twice in order to give his family the best life possible.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The article “Miscalculation on Visas Disrupts Lives of Highly Skilled Immigrants” (2015), by Julia Preston, states the State Department and Homeland Security allowed the department to give anticipating immigrants news of them being able to take the next step to obtain a green card. The author provides background information about the situation, along with reasons as to why the incident occurred, and its impact on immigrants. Preston attempts to inform about the episode and provide an explanation to the immigrants involved, through the use of rhetorical appeals. Preston establishes ethos before the article starts, as she is a reporter of a reputable newspaper, which gives her credibility. She starts off her article powerfully by providing context for those who are unaware of the situation; in the beginning of September, the State Department told thousands of highly skilled legal immigrants that they “would be able to advance early to the next step: filing a formal application.”…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This paper focuses on an article in the Washington Post titled Why the Supreme Court should rule that violent games are free speech. The author of the article is called Daniel Greenberg and the paper will specifically focus on the way the author has employed a number of writing mechanics in presenting his arguments. Among the things to be highlighted include the way the author present himself as credible as possible. This refers to the use of ethos. The other thing to be seen in this case is the way the author has argued through the use of emotional speech.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    America's standard of public education has fallen into a deep decline over the last decade. School should be better constructed to teach kids how to prepare for adult life and the real world. Many of the things taught today in school have little to no value to students after they graduate. Curriculum should involve very crucial life skills such as people skills, critical thinking, and financial management. Our Education System barely does anything to cater to those needs, which sets kids up for failure later in life.…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As an educator and member of the Newark community, I would like to express my opinion on the need for police reform in Newark. When you came into office your platform was heavy with rhetoric to reform the police culture and practices of the Newark Police Department. I would wholeheartedly agree with you but to date, I have not seen many changes. I understand that this is a very large issue to tackle with many moving parts and pieces but I believe that the police culture can only begin to change only when police officers are stakeholders in our community.…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Everyday people view articles and stories that are produced by the media. Just one event can create hundreds of different stories explaining the event. Each type of media and each company produces a different story. It is so hard to distinguish which articles are telling the truth and which ones aren’t. The hardest articles to see the truth in are ones involving politics or large scale world issues.…

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “It’s not who you are that holds you back, It’s who you think you’re not.” “I Dressed Like Cookie for a Week to Get Over My Imposter Syndrome”, written on October 22nd, 2015, identifies the different traits that someone can use in order to feel successful. Imposter syndrome is having the feeling of being a fraud and having the lack of confidence in oneself. During this time, same sex marriage was being debated, therefore, imposter syndrome could have been an issue during this time. Jazmine Hughes effectively persuades the audience to step out of their box to become who they want to be.…

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Children in society struggle daily with meeting the educational expectation. Compared to other countries around the world, the United States’ high school mathematics program stands in 31st place, and 24th in science. (Desilver, 2015) The American educational system remains below the expectation, and unfortunately, relays no signs of improving. In his essay, America Skips School, Benjamin Barber argues that the reason for the education crisis falls on the hands of the adults, because of their lack of initiative in supporting the youth of America.…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    English composition was never my strong nor favorite because of my knowledge of the grammar and organization in my writing. Taking English 101 is a jump start for me, because last year of high school my teacher focused primarily on English literature. The course has introduced me to rhetorical analysis, and swatching (imitating author argument). Throughout the semester and all of the papers written I can say that it was a good experience to write at a college level and the expectation from college professors is good for future courses that involve writing essays.…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The Advancement of America’s Education System: a Blessing or a Curse?” In the real world there are situations and events that should not be made fun of, however, there are still minor flaws in society that should be pointed out. One of these flaws is how America’s education system is advancing however, public schools in poor regions are still not granted an adequate amount of funding. Another flaw within American society is how dependent this generation has become on modern technology. One journalist who efficiently managed to describe both of these issues is Peter Greene, a contributor of the Huffington Post.…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Summary Chapter 3 of the book A World-Class Education written by Vivien Stewart discusses the common elements of successful education systems. Stewart (2012) explained that countries like Finland, South Korea, Singapore and Canada are the top leaders in education because of eight elements of their education systems. The eight elements are: vision and leadership, ambitious standards, commitment to equity, high quality teachers and leaders, alignment and coherence management and accountability, student motivation and global and future orientation. Stewart (2012) also explained why the education system in the U.S are not doing as well based on the eight common elements.…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays