大学英语高级写作synthesis-The American Compulsory Education Fails the Whole Society

大学英语高级写作synthesis-The American Compulsory Education Fails the Whole Society Zhang1 Professor Shuqing Advanced English Writing 11 November 2014 The American Compulsory Education Fails the Whole Society It is undeniable that education plays a very important role in America’s rise and the maintenance of its leading position. However, American compulsory education fails to cultivate excellent children nowadays. First, too much workload makes compulsory education become a routine only focuses on the achievement of the appearance of compulsory attendance laws. Second, its traditional teaching method depersonalizes children. Third, its unserviceable teaching contents become an impediment to children’s future lives. First of all, the whole country’s students bring tremendous workloads so it is impossible that schools can meet all the standards of compulsory attendance laws. So the only thing schools can accomplish is to ensure high rate of student enrollment, and the teaching part is doomed to fail. In “Are Compulsory School Attendance Laws Necessary?”, educator Samuel L. Blumenfeld states the situation of how schools are superficially implementing the laws. He affirms that schools just “fill classrooms with children” and “delude the public that education is taking place” (Blumenfeld 139). In this essay Blumenfeld clarifies the fact that students are just tools for schools to reach the laws’ standards, they do not receive competent management and education at school. For example, whenever encounter the difficult lesson most teachers just read the reference book to students and ask whether they understand. If students say no, then teachers will tell students to read the passage again and again until they have an epiphany to comprehend the author’s intension. Zhang2 Over time students find the class is boring and pretend to read aloud as if they understand so that teacher will pretend they all understand and jump to next lesson directly. Both students and teachers pretend they are working hard. Like Blumenfeld, in a debate about “Formal education (K-12) ought to be compulsory in the United States”, a debater contends the compulsory education has little significance on imparting knowledge to students. He opines, “Schooling has become a rite of passage and an unjustified one that it’s just something that every one has to go through. It takes away one’s free will and forces them to do things they’d rather not” (141). In this passage, the debater claims that the whole society treats compulsory education as a necessary which people must go through. Nowadays parents blindly believe the laws are all for their children’s own good and trustingly send their children and money to school because it is compulsive and convenient. Unfortunately, parents’ most cherished institution is actually failing their children. Compulsory laws put as many children as it can into schools, in order to achieve the unrealized leap forward, but it dose not consider the costs of the massive facilities and faculties. Since the lack of faculties, schools can only use parents’ money to make an illusion that children are well educated. Clearly, both of these scenarios given by Blumenfeld and the debater concur that compulsory education only has a good appearance of high enrollment but actually nothing helpful in children’s in education and management. Secondly, the unitary teaching method of compulsory education represses students’ personality and wastes their talent. All the students in school receive the undifferentiated instruction no matter they are smart or dull, interested or uninterested. This unitary teaching method ignores students’ individuality. In his passage “Human diversity and individualized Zhang3 instruction”, the dean of the Austrian School and libertarian political philosopher Murray N. Rothbard identifies the problem of how the inferior teaching method hurts the development of individual variety. He writes, “Regardless how the teacher instructs, at what pace, timing, or variety, he is doing violence to each and every one of the children” (136). In this passage, Murray claims that each student has interests and aptitudes in different subjects. So it is evitable that for each subject, there will have some students who are interested in, they will learn rapidly and eager to know more, but the rest students are totally not interested and lag behind. At this time, if teachers still follow the specified pace, students will all suffer the injustice. Some smart children will waste their chance to develop their specialty, and the dull children waste their time in something they are not interested. Since schools eliminate students’ innate talents and turn them into formative mediocrities, compulsory education is threatening children’s all-round development. Third, the unserviceable teaching contents of compulsory education become a great burden for students to develop to effective labors and guarantee their lives. The knowledge students learn at schools is becoming more and more difficult and so does the homework. In recent decades, students ate compelled to spend more time to learn superfluous difficult mathematics in school and long hour’s homework to do afterschool. The last thing they want is more school. In his sixth annual report card on American schools, Secretary Cavazos explains the terrible situation that compulsory education causes. He addresses, compulsory education leads to “a soaring dropout rate in Washington, D.C”, 1989 (Blumenfeld 139). This figure means a lot of children will not pursue further study and have little chance to find a gainful employment in fierce market competition without an advanced diploma. So Zhang4 compulsory education fails to help students to receive further education or get a good job. Some people may think that the unpleasantness of school is good for children, so they will adequately learn the difficulties such as excessive workload and unfriendly workmates they will face when they enter the society. It is good for children to learn to tolerant the unhappiness in their lives in the long run. But in fact, the great pressure has no good to children’s growth at all. Many parents have found out that schools greatly restrict their children’s freedom — far more restricted than most adults would tolerate in their workplaces. Teachers generally do not permit their students to speak or even drink when they are not asked to, and make them to do things when they have no intention at all. Moreover, the higher grade children move to, the more students develop negative attitudes toward the subjects taught of school. In school, they are often bored and anxious or both. And there is strong evidence that this will cause serious damage to their confidence before they will enter the society and find a job. Above all, American compulsory education dose not offer children a good environment to study and develop, instead, it only restricts students in the schools, depersonalizes them and obstructs the chances of further education or good jobs. If students have not been trained with efficient education, it will be difficult for them to have adequate life. Therefore, this is the country’s commitment to give the corresponding measures to resolve the problems in it. Education should be more diversified in the teaching method, and teaching content should be concise. What’s more, education should give children more freedom. Only in this way, compulsory education can produce a intelligent new generation. Zhang5 Work cited Blumenfeld, Samuel L. “Are Compulsory School Attendance Laws Necessary?” Freedom Daily. The Future of Freedom Foundation.Web. 20 Mar, 2010. 11 Nov 2014. “Formal education out to be compulsory in the United States.” debate.org. 17 Oct. 2010. 11 Nov 2014. Rothbard Murray N. “Human Diversity and Individual Instruction” Ludwig von Mises Institute. Web . 09 Sept.2006. 25 Mar 2010. 11 Nov 2014.