Summary Of Idiot Nation By Michael Moore

“Idiot Nation” is a passage written by Michael Moore. In the passage Moore talks about his ideas and opinions on the American education level and schooling. His opinion is that American schooling and education is not at the level it should be. He also believes that no one is doing anything to help it get better. He supports these opinions by using memories from his past experiences. He uses quotes from different people and magazines to back his opinions too.
Throughout this article Moore uses pathos, ethos, and logos to help build on his claims about the American school system and the education level of the country. Most of Moore’s article was pathos, but there were some ethos and logos. The terms pathos, ethos, and logos are Greek terms people …show more content…
One quote he uses is from political writer Noam Chomsky. Chomsky said, “’if you ever want proof the American people aren’t stupid, just turn on any sports talk radio show and listen to the incredible retention of facts. It is amazing-and it’s proof that the American mind is alive and well’”.(122) He also uses a quote from Chester Finn, a former assistant secretary of education in president bush’s administration. Finn’s idea was that if you made a ten-most-wanted list of who’s killing American education, you wouldn 't be sure who to put higher: the teachers union or the education school faculties (128). Moore also uses quotes from the New York Post, Michael Chapman, Investor’s Business Daily, Douglas Carminen from the Montreal Gazette , and Peter Schweizen, National Review(129). Moore used the quotes fairly well for the subject he was speaking about at the time, but his point seemed to shift around throughout the article. It was almost like with each new thing he talked about his point changed a little. For example, Moore’s quote from Noam Chomsky was about trying to make politics as interesting as sports so that people would retain the facts about it, while Moore’s quote from Michael Chapman was about the estimated range of bad school teachers. I understand that they both have to do with American education in a way, but I don’t see how they connect to support his point of American education going …show more content…
Really, this deals with just about everyone who grew up in the United States because most people have had some type of experience with the education systems. Whether it was being in school before, being in school now, teaching school, or being an administrator, most people have had some experience with education. Throughout the article Moore talks about his past and his experiences. That left this article very vulnerable to extreme bias. It somewhat seems like this article was built on the bias of Moore since most of it is his views and experiences. He used the persuasive tools pathos, ethos, and logos. Moore uses these tools, but doesn’t use them very well. His logos more times than not, was not directly linked to his main point. His ethos in the quotes he used was also not always directly linked. Last, most of the time his pathos sounded like he was trying to insult people more than persuade them. The tools were not used well as he used them in this article, but they had the information and the ability to be. I do not think that the information in this article was utilized in the way it could’ve