Education and America
Are Teachers Responsible? In his article “Kenneth Cole Gets Schooled” David Sirota writes, “Taking an honest look at America’s education system brings up queries about why other less economically stratified nations have unionized teachers and far better academic results than here in America (761)” Students in other countries such as Korea, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, and Canada have far better academic results than those in America, yet the teachers are not the one who need to be accepting all the blame for the failing academic standards. I am an elementary education major and have grown up as a teacher’s kid and have always found this statement and fact somewhat interesting. Now attending college I understand this statement, and reasoning behind it, a bit more as I have begun to receive a better education.
The ad created and sponsored by Kenneth Cole address the educational problem here in America. As Kenneth Cole has shown he believes teachers are the problem with our poor educational standards and performances, and sadly this is a popular opinion here in America. People would rather blame teachers because they are the easiest targets and most directly involved with students’ academic lives, rather than looking for other influences that maybe causing this problem. While this ad was not extremely popular among all people, it did cause people to look at the real root and problem with the system here in America. Instead of the teachers, I chose to place a majority of the blame on parental expectations and college admissions.
Here in America we are supposed to be the absolute best, yet other countries surpass us every day in education. According to Carlos Xabel Lastra-Anadón and Paul E. Peterson in their article “The International Experience,” “The U.S. has seen the percentage of its high-school students who are proficient trail that of 31 other countries in math and 16 countries in reading, according to a recent study by Harvard’s Program on Education
The ad created and sponsored by Kenneth Cole address the educational problem here in America. As Kenneth Cole has shown he believes teachers are the problem with our poor educational standards and performances, and sadly this is a popular opinion here in America. People would rather blame teachers because they are the easiest targets and most directly involved with students’ academic lives, rather than looking for other influences that maybe causing this problem. While this ad was not extremely popular among all people, it did cause people to look at the real root and problem with the system here in America. Instead of the teachers, I chose to place a majority of the blame on parental expectations and college admissions.
Here in America we are supposed to be the absolute best, yet other countries surpass us every day in education. According to Carlos Xabel Lastra-Anadón and Paul E. Peterson in their article “The International Experience,” “The U.S. has seen the percentage of its high-school students who are proficient trail that of 31 other countries in math and 16 countries in reading, according to a recent study by Harvard’s Program on Education
Cited: Toby, Jackson. "Increasing Access to College: An Educational Mistake." Academic Questions 15.2 (2002): 46-52. ProQuest. Web. 17 Sep. 2013. Lastra-Anadon, Carlos Xabel, and Paul E. Peterson. “The International Experience.” Education Next 12.1 (2012): 52-9. ProQuest. 11 Sept 2013. Sirota, David. “Kenneth Cole Gets Schooled.” Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings and Handbook. Third Edition Ed Richard Bullock, Maureen Daly Goggin, and Francine Weinberg. New York: Norton, 2013. 759-63. Print