An Arguement of Standards
As a potential educator, I try to keep up with contemporary issues in education. Some of the more recent issues have been methods of teaching based on Stephen Gardner's multiple intelligences, e.g. musical, kinesthetic, intrapersonal, etc. Another issue is of course President Bush's education initiative. Bush wants to send kids in failing schools to different schools, even private schools at the taxpayer's expense. When Bush was governor of Texas, a similar program was initiated. In fact, "Higher standards and high stakes tests," claims a recent publication in Kappan, "have resulted in much higher dropout and failure rates...in Texas" (Gratz). Yet by even stating that fact I may put myself in a contradiction. I do believe whole-heartedly that standards, in most states and districts, are by far too low. In contrast, those areas with high standards implement them with no course of action and expect immediate and promising results. Karl Zinsmeister, I sense, would agree with me on that point. Zinsmeister is currently an editor for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a think-tank comprised of scholars from many different disciplines to analyze the actions of the federal governmen
Without the free flow of ideas the democracy ceases to grow and the people cannot make informed decisions about the future of their nation. However the setting of standards takes away one basic element in the democratic psyche. I was, in my opinion, a level zero, even stronger than the Level 1s. From the ghetto schools in major cities to the rural community schools of Kansas, all of those students need to know the basics. He tries to point out that this current generation, if you will, of teachers has brought a new philosophy into the classroom. In the United States, or in any other democratic state, the right to a free education is the key to the success of that democracy. No matter what your creed, sex, color, financial status, or potential career there are fundamentals that everyone needs to know. It also puzzles me that those students with low hurdles are the ones who are failing out of school. Zinsmeister claims that, "The real problem, is that college-bound youngsters over the past two decades have not received the quality education they deserve" (Zinsmeister). I too believe that many youth in today's America are not getting the education that they so truly deserve. Instead of focusing on the necessary material to be learned, teachers focus on how sensitive the information is to the feelings and self-esteem of their students. This philosophy of segregation reminds me of a line from George Orwell's novel, 1984, "Some animals are more equal than others. In high school I was originally place in all "Level 2" classes, 1 being the highest and 4 being the lowest. I was really surprised with what little homework was required in those Level 1 classes. But as a democracy we contradict ourselves.
Common topics in this essay:
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Stephen Gardner's,
Karl Zinsmeister,
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,
level 1,
2 classes,
1 classes,
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Acceptance Essays
