Article Contrast/Comparison
According to Andrew Delbanco’s article, education is a key aspect for increasing competitive sustainability of any country. Future inventions and product development will be possible if quality education is provided. Delbanco dwells on the challenges facing the American education system and American citizens. The author points out the various functions of education to the society. First, the necessary skills to facilitate daily existence are imparted on us through elementary education. Secondary education takes this notion higher and equips us with moderate skills applicable to particular occupation. However, the current secondary school education is not enough to provide such skills. This calls the need for college education. Simply put, Delbanco suggests that the quality of education has declined when compared to the same level at the beginning of the 20th century.
Another major point is the increasing cost of college education. This leads to compromise in quality of education delivered because of over enrolment, lack of enough teacher support, and minimum opportunities for student interaction. Delbanco also points out the importance of technology in helping to curb for problems facing the current education system. Delbanco describes ways in which higher education can benefit the United States, and the modern society as a whole. He also points out that the current generation does not see the immediate value of higher education.
As opposed to the views presented by Andrew Delbanco, John Taylor Gatto argues that the current education system ‘cripples’ the current generation of kids. To him, education is not the problem but rather the school system. Boredom is the word that he uses to summarize his experience as a teacher in Manhattan. He holds a low opinion on schooling in America by comparing it to boredom. He even goes to an extent of comparing school to a prison system where individuals are locked up and not given a chance to experience growth. Thousands of students are packaged into a building in the name of schooling. Gatto argues that schools concentrates in teaching students information that they already know. To support his arguments, the author quotes his own experience as teacher and as student.
Gatto goes further to argue that the US education system is an adoption from a Prussian system and culture. Mediocrity describes such a system because it produces mediocre intellectuals, ensure docility, and produce incompetent graduates. For instance, Gatto cites the basic functions of the education system as presented by Alexander Inglis. These basic functions were developed to engage pupils in boring educational material, define their roles in society, and keep them grounded to the normal functions of society. The education system also humiliates weaker students while those lucky to pass through will be taught leadership and management skills to rule over the weaker ones. To Gatto, school was aimed at separating and demoralizing people to lower levels. Textbook answers and monotone teaching is a common place in every institution. This leads to the point of the economic purpose of education in benefitting large corporations. In summary, Gatto suggests that the education does more in oppressing people than in educating them.
Jean Anyon, in Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work, targets the curriculum in the US education system. Unlike Gatto and Delbanco, his article focuses on the implications of the education curriculum. Touching on the teaching process, handling of assignments, and conducting lessons, Jean Anyon manages to point out the differences in the education system for students from poor and affluent schools. The author points out that those students from elite and professional schools tend to have more control in their learning processes and this allows them to think critically. As such, discovery of information, creativity, and analysis of information becomes easy to apply. In Jean Anyon’s arguments, most public schools in the US education system provide different educational experiences and knowledge.
Jonathan Kozol’s article focuses on the strategies used by the American education system to develop diversity among public schools in America. The author tackles the issue of unequal attention allocated to suburban and urban schools. Unlike the previous articles by Jean Anyon, Gatto, and Andrew Delbanco, racial discrimination and minority issues seem to form a major part of the discussion in Jonathan Kozol’s article. Kozol shows that the entire education management structure is unequal in every aspect. First, Kozol argues that institutional discrimination and isolation is rife among many schools in the US education system. Schools in elite neighborhoods receive more funding than those schools located in poor neighborhoods. For instance, Kozol points out that urban schools composed of Blacks and Hispanics are less superior to suburban schools that are predominantly white. Second, segregation within the society is to blame for the increasing inequalities within the education system. Despite the increased publicity of diversity among most schools, social classes still define the nature of education quality.
The last article by Mike Rose tells a narrative about educational experience in the US educational system. Like Delbanco’s article, Mike Rose blames the secondary schooling system for most failures in society. The author cites the vocational program as average because most teachers in the program were either incompetent, unprepared, or underprepared. The system does more in killing potential and creativity rather than contributing in its development. The system is designed in such a manner that failure to excel in school system leads to a student being categorized as being normal. The author argues that such experiences almost ruined his experiences as a student. Mike Rose supports Delbanco’s argument that teachers and students in the US education system lack motivation.
Provision of basic skills, knowledge, and basic information by the education system are some of the factors that contribute in transforming students to become average. Certain structures of the education system such as tests and evaluation criteria can place a student at the average position for extended periods. With further stories and strategies on how Mike Rose managed to overcome his tribulations, it is evident that the education system should not be allowed to determine the education category of a person. Staying in the average category is not a pleasant experience and the education system should at least develop criteria that will enable students to set their own standards. The essay by Mike Rose raises important questions concerning the motivating factors in the education system.
Similarities
There is no doubt that all the five articles focuses on aspects of the US education system. All articles raise interesting questions about the US education system. The different authors address inequality, benefits of education, education structure, curriculum inequalities, and teaching processes within the education system. The first similarity is the issue of inequality in the education system. Jonathan Kozol’s article focuses the effects of unequal development and attention of suburban and urban schools. Other than development, the issue of segregation among racial lines leads to the formation of different social classes. Similar to Jonathan Kozol’s article, Jean Anyon’s article addresses the problem of inequality among different US system. Anyon found out that inequality in the educational curriculum leads to the different social classes. Schools in every social class category produces different qualities.
The second similarity among the authors is the lack of quality and focus in the education system. Andrew Delbanco and John Taylor Gatto seemed to agree that ‘boredom’ is a term that can be used to summarize the current education system in the US. Delbanco argues that lack of teacher motivation leads to compromised educational quality, declined teacher support, and minimum opportunities for student interaction. On the other hand, John Taylor Gatto seconds this opinion by arguing that the education system is filled with Mediocrity because it incompetence’s in the structure in which knowledge is impacted to students. Most failures in the American society can be attributed to failures in the education curriculum. This argument is support by experiences presented by Mike Rose in his article, I just wanna be average’.
While authors addressed a different factor in the US education system, all their focus seemed to center on the shortcomings of the education system. A number of shortcomings have been addressed by each other. For instance, Mike Rose addressed the implications of the education structure that develops students of average category instead of using a multiplicity of strategies to bring out the best in each student. Andrew Delbanco focused on the problem of decreasing quality and necessity of secondary and college education. Delbanco argued that the current quality of secondary and college education is inferior when compared to the same quality at the beginning of the 20th century. Jean Anyon targets the consequences of the different classes and education curriculum. Jonathan Kozol’s article addressed the effects of racial discrimination and minority issues among urban and suburban schools. Finally, John Taylor Gatto questions the benefits of the current education system. According to Gatto, ‘the school system is the problem and is in dire need of a transformation.
Work Cited
Anyon, Jean. Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work. Journal of Education. 162.1 (1980)
Delbanco, Andrew. College at Risk
Gatto, J. Taylor. Against School: How Public Education Cripples our kids, and why.
Kozol, Jonathan. Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Education Apartheid. Harper’s Magazine. 311.1864 (2005)
Rose, Mike. I Just Wanna Be Average.
