Diane Ravitch Private Education Analysis

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What is a Proper Education? What do you expect to be taught in school? Would you expect to be taught a variety of subjects with in depth analysis or spend weeks or even months just preparing for standardized tests? Every reasonable person would expect that they will be taught a wide variety of subjects that will give you a balanced education which will give you a simple understanding for a wide variety of subjects. This type of education used to be the norm in both public and private education, but federal guidelines have made public schools cut back on the subjects that are not tested. The author, Diane Ravitch, implies in her essay that these guidelines are causing students to not receive a thorough education that they need in order to be …show more content…
Instead of relying on hard factual evidence to try to convince her audience of her point, Ravitch relies upon common sense. Ravitch uses pathos to appeal to the parents of the students by constantly asking the reader what they would want their children to be learning in school. Through these Ravitch tries to prove her point to the audience. In her essay, Ravitch’s uses logical reasoning to explain why students need to have a more diverse education if they are able to contribute to society. “We cannot provide equal educational opportunity if some children get access to a full and balanced curriculum while others get a heavy dose of basic skills (Ravitch 108).” Using logos, Ravitch makes the audience realize that it is simply unacceptable for a country as advanced as the United States to have such a huge discrepancy in education depending on whether or not you go to a private school. Private schools have the necessary funding in order to offer a wide variety of classes to their students. Public schools get funding from the government and hard economic times have caused their budgets to shrink. With a decreased budget …show more content…
She focuses her points on the demands parents have of the schools they send their kids to. “What do the most demanding families seek in a school? Whether they are parents in an affluent suburb or parents whose children attend an expensive private school, they expect their children to have much, much more than training in basic skills (107).” The appeal to the emotion of parents is obvious in this piece of text from the essay. Ravitch goes right at the parents by asking them about the education they want their child to receive. The statement, they expect their children to have much, much more than training in basic skills, immediately makes parents realize that they want their children to receive a full and balanced curriculum. The parents can then realize that they do not want their children to become mindless drones who cannot come to a logical solution on their own. Ravitch uses pathos more in her essay when she is talking about the difference in education between public and private schools. “In affluent communities today, such schools are the norm in the public sector, not just the private sector. They were once the norm in ordinary American public schools. Today, however, the No Child Left Behind law and the Race to the Top program have undermined this ideal curriculum and restricted it to only the most affluent communities (107).” This block of text gets the audience to think of how unfair

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