Problems with the American Education System
22 September 2018
The question of whether the education system in America is failing today’s youth has come up many times in the past few years. Although people have complained, not many things have been done to fix things. The way children are taught to read is misguided. In class, high school students are constantly bored, and dissatisfied by the outdated material.
According to James Baldwin, in a speech addressed to teachers in New York City, on October 16, 1963, the purpose of education should be to create self-aware humans, people who will look at the world around them and make decisions about it on their own. The paradox that is a result, however, is that if schools succeed in creating individuals capable of independent thought, those individuals will quickly recognize the wrongs in their society and will try to change them. As Baldwin observes, “no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around”.
Babies and toddlers develop and reach their milestones at their own pace. They learn to talk, walk, and toilet train at different times. The age babies learn to walk can span from nine months old to fifteen months old, averaging around twelve to thirteen months and no one rushes them to learn these things (Nelson). But when it comes to school and reading, all children are expected to learn to read at the exact same time and at the exact same rate. This is harmful to the child, as they can experience the shame of failure, the pressure to keep up with peers and possible disapproval from their teachers and parents.
Many high school students have dropped out due to negative environments or boredom at school. One justification for boredom in high school is the reading requirements. High school english classes require students to read classic novels, like Steinbeck’s Mice of Men, Elie Wiesel’s Night, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc. Teachers are more focused on teaching values with literature, rather than teaching literary values of the content (Prose).
The American education system pushes through hundreds of thousands of students every year, but this system is outdated and needs a major overhaul. There are a large majority of current students, grade kindergarten to high school that cannot relate to the content being taught, experience unrealistic expectations and overall lack of knowledge for current age issues and social media.