Argumentative Essay: Educational Reform Essay, Research Paper

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?