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Education Today, Essay Example
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Nowadays education is one of the most significant problems for the U.S government and citizens. Statistics shows that today about 40% of Americans have not read a single book over the course of a year (Jacoby). According to current research, 17% of adult D.C residents lack high school diploma, and most high-school dropouts are conditioned by poor reading skills; 30 million of U.S citizens are unable to fill a job application or read a book to their children (2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Survey). Considering the effects of illiteracy and lack of education on U.S economy, this is more like a nationwide disaster than the personal problem of those, whose educational level is lower than it could be. The emergence of video as the main national entertainment, lowering the prestige of intellectual knowledge, and allowing businesses to pursue their interests in educational sphere, has led the American nation to the point where a great percentage of Americans are not much more educated than medieval peasants were. One fifth of the U.S citizens think that the sun revolves around the Earth (Jacoby), and this problem cannot be solved by adding Astronomy as a required subject in high school curriculum. The road towards making Americans educated lies through conquering “arrogance about the lack of knowledge” Susan Jacoby writes about.
Hundreds of millions of Americans do not now the geographical location of Iraq. This is neither because of the lack of maps in U.S stores, nor because of problems using Google Maps. The reason is that, according to Susan Jacoby, about 50% of Americans believe they do not need to be able to locate the countries, where important news is being made. An enormous amount of facts are nowadays labeled as unimportant, as, in most people’s opinions, these circumstances do not have anything to do with their lives. Jacoby calls this tendency anti-rationalism, stating that it has penetrated all spheres of life in the USA. In other words, the real problem is not in the lack of knowledge; it is ignorance of the significance of this knowledge that makes the situation with education so grave. Yet, this problem cannot be solved just by changing school or college curricula; initiatives should be taken on the governmental level in order to restore the prestige of independent thinking and intellectual power.
Jacoby puts a considerable share of blame for the poor educational situation on video, stating that it has made people unable to concentrate for long periods of time. It is true that watching TV requires less attention and intellectual effort than reading a book. Therefore, books have lost their position as a recreation mean. Today most Americans read books either because are they required to do so in their educational facility or for some professional need. Yet, loosing the ability to concentrate is not the only harm TV brings. Television is one of the most important advertising means for businesses, and the content of TV programs and shows is mostly formed by those, who seek to get profit by selling their products. Television and movies have formed an absolutely new system of values, an ideology of the contemporary world, which is often referred to as consumerism.
Moreover, past two decades are marked by the businesses efforts to promote consumerism in educational sphere. Kennel writes that the introduction of Structural Educational Materials (SEMs), free curricula that includes advertising elements, which is produced by businesses and distributed on a free basis in American schools, has allowed companies to reach children avoiding the key obstacle – their parents. Schools, which suffer from financial troubles and shortage of qualified teachers, accept these materials readily, thus allowing businesses to raise their loyal customers from childhood.
Yet, despite of all the warnings from culturologists and sociologists, the U.S society successfully functions even though its citizens are less educated than their ancestors were. American colleges and universities produce millions of specialists in all spheres of sciences, arts and humanities. American graduates work all over the world, and U.S diploma is considered to be prestigious in most countries, as hundreds of thousands of foreigners attempt to enter U.S colleges and universities yearly. The focus of U.S education is on the specifics of the learner’s future profession, and though the curricula sometimes lack general knowledge, graduates are usually able to perform in chosen profession at a decent level.
Nevertheless, the real essence of education is not about staffing a certain amount of specialized information into the learners’ heads. It is rather developing the ability to think critically, to build causal relationship between different phenomena and events, and make independent decisions. Contemporary educational system is ignorant of these things, as general knowledge is often considered to be useless even by educators. This ignorance of general knowledge is a result of consumerist ideology created and promoted by businesses, whose greatest concern is profit. Television and movies encourage people to buy things they can, and desire those they cannot afford. The sense of living has concentrated on purchasing things. Children are taught to purchase since their kindergarten years, as large businesses supply schools with free advertising-filled curricula. In general, the USA is a nation of consumers nowadays, and the next generation of consumers is approaching the counters. Some may say that this is the moving force of economical processes within the country, but the truth is that people, who are aimed at consuming, cannot become loyal citizens of their own country, as patriotism is of no more use to them than the knowledge about the structure of our solar system. Initiatives should be introduced on a governmental level in order in order to change the nation’s understanding of the real meaning of education.
Works cited
Jacoby, Susan. How Dumb Can We Get? Incurable Insomniac. Blogspot.com. 17 Feb.2008. Web. 14 Aug 2010.
Anner, Allen. D. Today’s Class Brought to You by…Tikkun Magazine, January/February 2008. Web. 14 Aug 2010
U.S. Department of Education. 2003 National assessment of adult literacy survey, 2004. U.S. Department of Education Website. Web. 14 Aug 2010
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