Is there really a crisis in education
Páginas: 10 (2367 palabras)
Publicado: 19 de septiembre de 2012
Nov. 29th, 2010
Is There Really a Crisis?
When I think of the word crisis many negative images come to my head such as, disaster, crumble, and tragic events. Merriam Webster dictionary defines crisis as “an unstable or crucial time of state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending; especially one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome.” If youwould go to Honduras and ask a parent, a student, or anyone in general what their opinion of public education is, you would probably get negative responses such as; tragic, disastrous, careless, and teachers would probably get blamed for the crisis in education. La Prensa, one of the national newspapers in my country, implies in one of their articles about education crisis in Honduras, “[Teachershave become the stumbling block of the national education system. Through their actions, they only hurt children badly needing bread of knowledge.]” Most likely, if you ask around here, in the United States the answer would be very similar regardless of the different social context of both countries. I can understand how education in my country is seen as negative to society because of theeconomic and political problems in which it is involved, as La Prensa states on their article “70% of children have been denied the right to education” “[teachers] have been a long time outside the classroom by the country's political crisis, leading to school dropouts, apathy, and impaired self-esteem of children”.
When it comes to the United States I do not understand how teachers givethemselves the “privilege” of being careless and students the chance to be bored, when this country is filled with amazing resources I wish my country could have. It’s like a having a plate filled with food and throw it out because it is the same meal you had yesterday. Society in the United States complains about the crisis in their education when they themselves have caused it. Just like MikeCaulfield expresses on his article, is Not an Educational Crisis, Is a Social Crisis Education must Engage, “It’s not quite that education is in crisis. It’s that there is a general social crisis centering on inequality, with which education must engage.” In other words, the world is in constant change; social and global demands have become higher so society relies on education to keep up. When it doesnot, education diminishes. Consequently, students complain about boredom in schools when they are not eager to learn and view school as another level they must fulfill and teachers do not find the career fulfilling because they are not passionate about it and think of it as merely a job.
All throughout the media I have been reading and hearing about the crisis in education in the UnitedStates, and I always wondered what the news reporters were talking about. The United States of America is one of the most developed countries in the world and there is a crisis going on? I said to me, “if there is a crisis here, what will become of my country?” One of the facts that shocked me the most while I was doing some research for this essay was how Americans view this whole education “crisis”as a competition to be the first and the better always. In many of the videos I saw, such as A Nation in Crisis: America’s Education System is Broken, it showed many facts of what is the ranking of the United States in education around the world. One of the quotes in the video was “I fear of our competitive future as nation” Is it all about “competing and winning” or is it really to benefit theeducation system in the U.S.?
As continued my research, I found the video Good Transparency: Education in America. It showed very interesting facts about education in the United States. 50 million students out of 308.4 million people in America will attend public school here in 2010, and 30% of the population will graduate from high school. While in Honduras, regardless of the difference...
Is There Really a Crisis?
When I think of the word crisis many negative images come to my head such as, disaster, crumble, and tragic events. Merriam Webster dictionary defines crisis as “an unstable or crucial time of state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending; especially one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome.” If youwould go to Honduras and ask a parent, a student, or anyone in general what their opinion of public education is, you would probably get negative responses such as; tragic, disastrous, careless, and teachers would probably get blamed for the crisis in education. La Prensa, one of the national newspapers in my country, implies in one of their articles about education crisis in Honduras, “[Teachershave become the stumbling block of the national education system. Through their actions, they only hurt children badly needing bread of knowledge.]” Most likely, if you ask around here, in the United States the answer would be very similar regardless of the different social context of both countries. I can understand how education in my country is seen as negative to society because of theeconomic and political problems in which it is involved, as La Prensa states on their article “70% of children have been denied the right to education” “[teachers] have been a long time outside the classroom by the country's political crisis, leading to school dropouts, apathy, and impaired self-esteem of children”.
When it comes to the United States I do not understand how teachers givethemselves the “privilege” of being careless and students the chance to be bored, when this country is filled with amazing resources I wish my country could have. It’s like a having a plate filled with food and throw it out because it is the same meal you had yesterday. Society in the United States complains about the crisis in their education when they themselves have caused it. Just like MikeCaulfield expresses on his article, is Not an Educational Crisis, Is a Social Crisis Education must Engage, “It’s not quite that education is in crisis. It’s that there is a general social crisis centering on inequality, with which education must engage.” In other words, the world is in constant change; social and global demands have become higher so society relies on education to keep up. When it doesnot, education diminishes. Consequently, students complain about boredom in schools when they are not eager to learn and view school as another level they must fulfill and teachers do not find the career fulfilling because they are not passionate about it and think of it as merely a job.
All throughout the media I have been reading and hearing about the crisis in education in the UnitedStates, and I always wondered what the news reporters were talking about. The United States of America is one of the most developed countries in the world and there is a crisis going on? I said to me, “if there is a crisis here, what will become of my country?” One of the facts that shocked me the most while I was doing some research for this essay was how Americans view this whole education “crisis”as a competition to be the first and the better always. In many of the videos I saw, such as A Nation in Crisis: America’s Education System is Broken, it showed many facts of what is the ranking of the United States in education around the world. One of the quotes in the video was “I fear of our competitive future as nation” Is it all about “competing and winning” or is it really to benefit theeducation system in the U.S.?
As continued my research, I found the video Good Transparency: Education in America. It showed very interesting facts about education in the United States. 50 million students out of 308.4 million people in America will attend public school here in 2010, and 30% of the population will graduate from high school. While in Honduras, regardless of the difference...
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