Who Will Teach For America Analysis

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The average student goes to school from kindergarten through twelfth grade. That is, at least, approximately thirteen years of our lives devoted to primary and secondary schooling to prepare us for college and the world beyond. Therefore, students should get the most out of those thirteen years. Every student should be able to receive a quality education, an education that is meaningful and worthwhile. In order to reach and attain quality educations, it is necessary to have adequate funding available and emphasis on the right aspects of education.
In preschool, students learn through songs, finger painting, and making macaroni necklaces. This, in addition to life skills, teaches the concept of creativity. However, as students work their way up through grade school, their lessons and displays of creativity slowly decrease. In high school, most projects have strict guidelines that restrict our creative side. The question is how this truly helps the young people of our world. Creativity vanishes. Students are all pushed to become robot machines, racing to be the best and the brightest. The strict rules of all of the education standards erase the creative aspect out of us. These obligatory curriculum are all set so students have to learn a multitude of facts perceived as knowledge so then when they are tested, they can hopefully be deemed at least average. The effects on society and individuals that either do not perform well in school or drop out are very overwhelming. We are running an education system where making a mistake is the worst thing you can do. Students become frightened to be wrong. They do not think outside the box to answer creatively. There are not standardized tests to judge creativity or other aspects of life. Even though research shows that IQ scores are up, creativity and abstract thinking is down. This could be due to the fact that there are kids in public schools which emphasize standardized testing. Not much is being done to encourage creativity and problem solving compared to the efforts put into routine memorization. The effects of all of this after high school are overwhelming for both the students and society. “We are all born with immense natural talents but our institutions, especially education, tend to stifle many of them and as a result we are fomenting a human and an economic disaster” (Robinson). This economic disaster Robinson talks about is not having proper education for our jobs and thus not being able to support our economy. If the students who dropped out in 2008 had stayed in school, the nation’s economy would have already profited about $319 billion throughout their lifetime. The problem, however, is not just in careers, it is also in college. If students do not receive a proper education in high school, it is almost impossible to be expected to find any success in college.College degrees are almost necessary to avoid facing automatic unemployment. Studies show that the unemployment rate for college graduates in 2010 was about 6.8% and the unemployment rate for just high school graduates is a staggering 27% (Webley). Part of Cedric’s struggles comes from the fact that he goes to an inner-city school, with improper funding. This is a growing problem even locally. “A survey of school districts by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators found, 44 percent reduced elective course offerings and 70 percent increased class sizes. More than 30 districts said they either reduced or eliminated full-day kindergarten or pre-K
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Instead, they reflect a difference in attitudes that the American system could benefit from observing. In the book, Who Will Teach for America?, author Michael Sharpo suggests that Asian students are raised to see a direct correlation between their academic success and their futures. Naturally, the family plays a large role in a child’s educational life, often heavily pressuring the student to succeed.
America could benefit from the observation that an intense interest, both of the parents and the children, is what inspires many Asian students. The question becomes one of involving parents in their children’s education. Naturally, different groups of parents will place different levels of importance on their children 's’ education, and different children will have different educational needs and

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