Essay/Term paper: Argumentative essay: educational reform

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Argumentative Essays

Argumentative Essay: Educational Reform


Since the early 1980's, the issue of America's faltering public school
system has become a serious concern. The crisis in K-12 education is one of the
biggest challenges facing the nation. There is a great deal of evidence to show
this problem. The pathetically low results of American students through
international test scores is one obvious fault. Another is the failure of many
students to demonstrate their knowledge of basic skills and literacy. It is
surprising that such a long time has passed without any sufficient effort put
forth to correct the problem. Even more surprising, is the fact that some deny
that such a problem exists.
The failure of the nation to adequately educate the students of America
has an endless list of negative effects. With the lack of proper education,
generations of kids are growing up without the basic, essential knowledge to be
able to compete in the workplace. As a result of this, the U.S. stands a chance
in losing its superpower reign of the world. Therefore, it is not only a social
concern, but also a major economical issue.
Another alarming concern is the high rate of student dropouts. Now,
instead of all students receiving a poor education, some are not getting one at
all. The main cause for this is the students'lack of interest in school. So
much of the teaching that goes on today is based on rote and memorization. Not
all learning can be exciting, and sometimes memorizing things is necessary.
Although teachers should find other ways of getting the information to the
students. When students are taught like this, they get bored and tired of
school, and this is why they dropout. Obvoiusly, if they drop out of school,
they probably aren't going to earn there degree. However, if more kids do earn
their high school degrees, the country would have less unemployment. More
people in the workplace then leads to a stronger and more stable economy. If
our society could find a way to keep more kids in school, our country would
prosper, and the educational system on a whole, would be much better.
Inner-city inequality produces a great deal of problems in all aspects
of life. One way it shows up continuously is in education. Although many
people realize this problem, nothing is being done to improve it. Statistics
show that wealthy school districts offer much better opportunities for their
students. This increases the gap in the social status of America by educating
the wealthy and leaving the others with the low paying jobs. This could quite
possibly wipe out the entire middle class, leaving a huge gap between the upper
and lower classes. While we accept inequality as a problem, we have not yet
acted upon it seriously enough. Until some serious action is taken, and
poorer schools are offered better oppourtunities, the education in America has
no chance at becoming better.
Of course with such a highly diverse population, all people are not
going to agree with each other. Those people that do not acknowledge the
nation's educational program to be defective must have their own reasons for
believing what they do. They might bring up the fact that the educational
system has been good enough to make the nation the most powerful country in the
world. Therefore, why change something that has produced such excellent
results? What they fail to realize, though, is that the other first world
countries are constantly trying to catch up with the U.S. So we must take
precautions, constantly improve the education, and not take our power for
granted.
Everything we live for was not just handed to us. Our forefathers
worked extremely hard to put us where we are today. The world is always
evolving and advancing technologically. Therefore, our generations of America
must also work hard to keep up with the advances. Unfortunately, we have
slipped behind in the area of education. Although we will not find a simple
solution to our faulty educational system, something has to be done. What
better place to start then accepting the fact that it is the biggest challenge
facing the nation today?