H. L. Mencken's Analysis
Picture thirty desks, a chalkboard with a teacher standing in front of it, three students sleeping, eleven students on their phones, six students paying attention, and ten students daydreaming; this is a typical classroom in the public education system. In 1924 H.L. Mencken, a German-American journalist and a cultural critic, wrote about what he felt the objective of the public school system was. He stated that public education was a means to push many down to the same level and to put originality at rest. In agreement with H.L. Mencken’s statement it is evident that in classrooms all across North America students are continuing to be taught in an atmosphere of an old educational model. This is not allowing students to open up to their full
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Mencken said, “That the aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence”, (Gatto 35) and we see this evident in classrooms all across North America. Students are becoming increasingly bored with the standardized way of teaching, where a teacher stands in front of the classroom and teaches the lesson plan, using an old curriculum model which has not been updated to meet the needs of today’s world. If you look into any classroom today you would find many students on their cell phones texting, sleeping, or being disruptive in class and they are uninterested in what is being taught. More and more children are being prescribed medication for ADHD as stated in Ken Robinson’s Education: Changing Paradigms lecture for reasons that they are becoming distracted and disruptive in class (Robinson, Education: Changing Paradigms). The reason why students are becoming easily distracted in schools is the fact that the education system is not teaching them what is relevant in today’s society and the lessons being taught are not being taught in a way that students find interesting. The public education system needs to be updated to become more modernized to meet the needs of today’s students. This assembly line way of learning does not help the students achieve what they set out to achieve and also, it does not refrain from the copious amounts of distractions the students have
Mencken said, “That the aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence”, (Gatto 35) and we see this evident in classrooms all across North America. Students are becoming increasingly bored with the standardized way of teaching, where a teacher stands in front of the classroom and teaches the lesson plan, using an old curriculum model which has not been updated to meet the needs of today’s world. If you look into any classroom today you would find many students on their cell phones texting, sleeping, or being disruptive in class and they are uninterested in what is being taught. More and more children are being prescribed medication for ADHD as stated in Ken Robinson’s Education: Changing Paradigms lecture for reasons that they are becoming distracted and disruptive in class (Robinson, Education: Changing Paradigms). The reason why students are becoming easily distracted in schools is the fact that the education system is not teaching them what is relevant in today’s society and the lessons being taught are not being taught in a way that students find interesting. The public education system needs to be updated to become more modernized to meet the needs of today’s students. This assembly line way of learning does not help the students achieve what they set out to achieve and also, it does not refrain from the copious amounts of distractions the students have