Flaws In American Public Schools

Ashley Walden

Professor Amanda Walzer

English 100

10 February 2014

Falling Through the Cracks in American Public Schools

American novelist and university professor John Gardner once wrote, “All too often, on the long road up, young leaders become servants of what is rather than shapers of what might be.” In my experience with the American public school system, I have seen too often that students have become indifferent, disenfranchised and stripped of the colorful aspects of their individuality that could spark a future change in the world. Students are faced with the unparalleled pressures of this 21st century American culture demanding all at once too much and too little of them both inside and outside their classroom walls.
But to what extent are the students responsible for their mediocre to low performance or their indifference towards learning?
The American public school system is built upon a foundation that is crumbling under the weight of a myriad of seemingly endless challenges; and as the achievement gaps in our performance as a country continue to widen our future leaders face a sobering reality of their own inability to compete with their international peers.
As a modern international “super power”, the United States has, according to some, always boasted of their citizens, democracy, our military prowess, and so on to be the best of the best. We imagine ourselves to be in the place that everyone else in the world is wishing they could be, and this belief has indeed become the cornerstone of patriotism in our country. However, in the case of our public education system, when we consider the facts and statistics of the our true performance matched up against several other developed countries, the United States and it’s students show shockingly low performances in every major subject on standardized tests. For example, in Marian Wright Edelman’s article, “Cuts in Education: A Failing Choice”, she mentions, “The United States ranks 24th among 30 developed countries in overall educational achievement for 15-year-olds. A study of education systems in 60 countries ranks the United States 31st in math achievement and 23rd in science achievement for 15-year-olds.”
What is most difficult about these statistics is determining exactly what is causing such low performances, and what to do to fix it. Educational professionals and government officials may find inspiration and help tackling this problem by looking to those countries at the top of these achievement lists for guidance. According to Stephen Tung’s article “How the Finnish school system outshines U.S. Education”, elementary school teachers in Finland are revered and highly respected in the same regard as doctors or architects. Teachers are also appropriately compensated for their expertise, which includes a three-year master’s program required for anyone to even consider stepping into a classroom to teach. Comparatively, teachers in the United States must complete a bachelor’s degree certificate program but no post-graduate studies, and it is common knowledge that an elementary school teacher’s salary is hardly worthy compensation for their efforts. In my experience as a previously employed educational professional in the elementary school setting, many teachers seem to do just enough to get through their day and have become jaded and indifferent to the impact they have on the lives of their students. When teachers became complacent because their profession only asks so much of them or they simply don’t have the energy to make that extra effort, the students in turn tended to lose interest in completing assignments, engaging in classroom work, or even showing up to school at all. If the teachers are our children’s captains on the sea of knowledge but are asleep at the wheel, how much can we realistically expect our kids to be learning?
Overwhelmed teachers juggling 35 students on their own face enough daily challenges that would understandably deter almost any sane college student from considering teaching as a profession, and federal education budget cuts at public schools is only making matters worse. Students are receiving less and less academic support as the years go on in favor of balancing the bottom line. Schools across the country are considering going from 180 to 160 instructional learning days to allow for budget cuts, and several other states have also reported contemplating making school weeks only 4 days long as well as cutting all funding for summer school programs. (Edelman) Our students need more quality instruction time, not less, to be able to have a chance to improve their academic skills and provide themselves and their families the type of support needed to be successful in school. If students are being cheated out of several weeks of school and the opportunity to continue their learning during summer and after school programs, it is wishful thinking to assume that students will be prepared to continue on in their next grade when fall rolls back around. More time off school and learning also gives students the impression that education is unimportant, and the lack of boundaries given by the school system can inadvertently cause apathy and delinquent student behavior when school is in session. In Thomas Friedman’s article “Obama’s Homework Assignment”, a teacher shared a shockingly true response from a student in reply to an inquiry as to why the student didn’t complete their homework; “I know you’re a really good teacher, but you don’t seem to realize I have two hours a night of Facebook and over 4,000 text messages a month to deal with. How do you expect me to do all this work?” If we are not showing students that they are our priority by giving them every opportunity to succeed, how can we expect these same students to prioritize their own education?
Even when students and teachers are having a productive day of learning and everything is operating according to plan, another major problem in our educational foundation is the curricula and the school day structure itself. Students are drilled and quizzed on specific, shallow information on their subjects while teachers most often retain order and authority in the classroom by demanding conformity and respectful silence from their students. Many schools have cut recess time in an effort to squeeze in as much instructional time as possible, and for those students with behavior or academic issues often their recess is withheld as a form of punishment. As a result, students continue to struggle in the classroom with focusing and controlling their behavior, prompting a national phenomena of skyrocketing numbers of children being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorders, usually stemming from their performance in class. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, educational dollars are not viewed to be spent wisely on recess time or on Physical Education, simply because of the fact that all that is required of students, teachers, and principals is to perform well on standardized tests. We have not seen value in teaching students to be truly well rounded and are not giving them the opportunity to excel, simply by eliminating what is deemed not important to spend time on at schools. Again, when compared with the success of international students, we see that in Finland where students are third in reading and sixth in math, Finnish students are given a 50 minute long recess daily, little homework, and no yearly standardized tests. (Tung) Students should be taught to think critically, participate in project-based learning, to collaborate with others and learn how to take a risk and learn from mistakes while inside the classroom. These learning opportunities spark the imagination of students, inspire them to want to know more about the world, and also to learn how to cooperate with others and work on a team. Sadly, the priority of our public education system is to avoid being fingered by the federal government as a “low performing school” as determined by student achievement on yearly standardized tests, the consequences of which range from school closures, mass firings of teachers and principals, and federal intervention. (Rizga) Teachers teach to the test to avoid these negative repercussions, and students are forced to learn their curriculum in a preconceived and preapproved manner. There is little room in the curriculum for freedom to amend lessons to include various types of student learning, and outspoken or opinionated students are often considered a classroom liability.
The American public school system is built upon a foundation that is crumbling under the weight of a myriad of seemingly endless challenges; and as the achievement gaps in our performance as a country continue to widen our future leaders face a sobering reality of their own inability to compete with their international peers.
Teachers are underpaid, overworked, and given little respect and gratitude for the work that they do which can lead quickly to apathy and indifference in the quality of instruction their students receive. Students must try their best to stay motivated despite the seemingly inescapable obstacles presented to them by their teachers’ attitudes and curricula, school day procedures, and the lack of support from extended learning programs after school and during summer months due to government spending cutbacks. Students are also taught only one specific way to learn and to prove their academic growth, and this does not take into account any individual skills or merits outside of test taking abilities. American public school students in turn have become less motivated to participate in class, do their homework, or even attend school at all. The weathered and weak foundation of the traditional American public school system has become an even more perilous danger to our youth as more time goes on, and many students are not lucky enough to escape falling through the cracks that our system we so desperately cling to has
created.

Works Cited

Edelman, Marian Wright. "Cuts in Education: a Failing Choice." Washington Informer 24 Nov. 2011: 22+. Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 9 Feb. 2013.
Freidman, Thomas L. “Obama’s Homework Assignment.” The New York Times. 18 Jan 2014. Web. 9 Feb. 2014.
Rizga, Katherine. “Everything You’ve Heard about Failing Schools is Wrong.” Mother Jones. Sep-Oct 2012. Web. 9 Feb 2014.
Tung, Stephen. “How the Finnish School System Outshines U.S. Education.” Stanford News. 20 Jan 2012. Web 9 February 2014.