English Composition
In Michael Moore’s essay, “The Idiot Nation”, he contradicts the general assumption of the American population that every person needs to access free education, and that high school graduates are urged to continue to college and subsequently help the country reach the goal of becoming a smarter nation. According to Michael Moore, this whole assumption makes America become a nation full of idiots. He argues that most Americans spend much of their time in things that are of less importance compared to those that they should actually put sufficient interests. For instance, he uses the example that an average adult American adult spends 99 hours reading a book compared to 1,460 hours watching television. He even calls the Americans fools who could elect a president who rarely reads his own briefing papers and thinks Africa is a nation, and not a continent. In supporting his idea of the idiocy of the American people, he refers to the decline of local American professionals. For instances he refers to the national teaching shortage, which forced Chicago to recruit and hire teachers from twenty-eight foreign countries such as China, France, and Hungary (p. 102). He even discredits the infrastructural facilities in most of the American schools, and the discouraged teachers (p. 156). I agree with him because he provides evidence for his points from previous studies, while comparing the American education system with systems from other developed and even developing nations. He uses a powerful tone that makes his essay interesting and thrilling to the audience.
In my opinion, Matt Groening’s thesis in the essay “School is Hell” is to emphasize on accurately describe the awkwardness, frustration and difficulties that students undergo while at school. The essay strives to explain our sarcasm about our time and interpretations of school. Both Moore and Matt appreciate the importance of school in their essays while also accepting the fact that education pose certain challenges to the students, who would wish to go for luxurious options.
I agree with you since you appreciate the fact that Moore uses accurate examples in his essay and that you have identified that he stresses on the use of brains, which you also realize is a major challenge to most students. Additionally, I appreciate the way you relate the two articles by mentioning that few students pay attention to studying because school life is boring.
Work Cited:
Michael Moore. Idiot Nation: Volume 24 of Pocket Penguins. City of Westminster, London: Penguin Books, Limited, 2005. Print.
