Where has American Education

Gone?

By: Abida Tasnim

Participation in Government
Glen Spoth
Period: 5

Where has American education gone? During the early and late 1900s America had one
of the best education systems in the world, but now America is ranked 22 out of 27 developed
nd

countries (according to dosomething.org). Why is that? With afterschool programs and free
school, Americans have the easiest access to an education anywhere else in the world. Yet they
dont take advantage of it. Though there has been a new method like Common Core to improve
the education in America, thats still not enough. America needs to evaluate themselves and
consider creating a new educational system.
People from around the world would sacrifice everything they had just to go to the
schools in America. Major research and discoveries were done in America. From the early and
late 1900s America has been known for having one of the best educations, but how did that come
to be? It started in the early 1800s when the Industrial Revolution was at its peak. New factories
were being produced every day and the need for workers increased. More and more immigrants
came to America with nothing on their backs. As a means to survive everyone had to work,
including children. At that time, there was no minimum wage so workers would work almost 16
hours a day to make about 15 cents or less. As time went on, many people realized that children
were being derived from their childhood by working long hours in a factory that was harmful to
them instead of getting an education. This began the child reform movement, no longer should
children under the age 12 should work. Business owners and manufacturing leaders werent
pleased with this idea and tried to ban children from leaving or quitting their jobs. Some would
even hide children less than 8 years of age when supervisors came for inspection. Eventually,
after years of protesting, the National Child Labor Committee was created in 1904 to make sure
that kids went to school instead of working in factories. Afterward, movements for colored
people, immigrants, and child with disabilities were created to ensure that in America, every

child had the right to get a good education no. Some states went as far as sending parents to jail
and confiscating their children when they found out that they werent sending their kids to
school. These were the struggles that children had to encounter for decades just to receive a
decent education, and over the course of 30 years, all that hard work has been ruined. Nowadays,
an overwhelming amount of students have no interest in a education anymore. With technology
becoming more advanced by the minute, students pay more attention to social media than they
do about education and going to college.
According www.neogaf.com, in 2013, it was concluded that students of Asian
background dominated the global education test, while America couldnt even reach being in the
tops 20 countries in any of the four topics, math, english, history, and science. What does that
say about Americans? That they cant surpass a poor 2nd class nation in basic math, reading and
science. Whats the point in funding schools of millions of dollars or creating Common Core
standards if they cant prove themselves in front of the world? The problem with American
education today is that Americans are relying on the government to fix their problems. When
something goes wrong in this nation, the people look to the government for help. When the
economy crashed in 1929-1939 during the Great Depression the people didnt try to fix the
economy themselves, the government had to step in and fix it for them. Same thing is happening
now, instead this time its not about the economy, its about education. In Dr. Vicky Wells novel
Yes, We Are Stupid in America!: A Former Principal's Reality Check on Why Our Public Schools
Are Failing, Wells discuss how the federal government truly has all the power in education. It
doesnt matter what new laws states are creating, the federal government will overrule them.
With students being pressured into learning new methods, there's no wonder why the dropout

rates have increased. Who would want to learn trigonometry in 7th grade, when they could be
learning square roots? Students would rather be on social media than learning trig.
Many believe that technology is the reason why American students aren't excelling in
school. Students pay more attention to social media than on education. With technology
becoming more advanced by the minute, students pay more attention to social media than they
do about education and going to college. An average student is supposed to study at least an hour
a day, but most dont even study half an hour (according to usnews.com). On the other hand,
students are able to go on social media for at least 8 hours a day. Students now believe that
school is something they have to get by and that its something to do to while they wait to
become famous. They pay more attention to how many likes they can get on their social media
pages, and dont care that they are failing more than three classes. They believe that if they can
become internet famous, then there is no need for them to continue school. What they dont
know is that their fame will only last for 5 minutes while their education is a lifetime. On the
contrary, some schools are adapting technology into their classrooms. Like the website Edmodo.
It is a website designed for students who are constantly on Facebook, it allows teachers to give
assignments to students through the internet and for students to contact their teachers outside of
school safely and quickly. Another way technology is being used in schools and education is
through Smartboards. Smartboards are a huge contribution to schools because now schools are
able to use technology in a positive way in classrooms, the only negative thing about Smart
Boards is that theyre really expensive and not a lot of schools are able to afford them.
According to dosomething.org, in 2010, it was claimed that almost 2,000 public high
schools across the U.S. graduate less than 60% of their students. One of the main reasons why
students drop out of school is simply because they cant afford it. Its clear that private schools

are expensive and not everyone can afford it, but even the students that are attending a public
school where there is no payment needed, they still have to pay for the supplies and materials
need for school such as, book, clothing, and school supplies. In 2009, 100 billion dollars was
supposed to be funded in public education by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act
(according to Dr.Wells novel). The money was supposed to be used to bridge the gap between
students achievement rates in America and achievement rates around the world. According to
Dr. Wells, the money isnt being founded in the right departments because there isnt any
improvement being seen. In fact the gap between American achievement rates and global
achievement rates just keeps increasing every year. Where did that money go? How come no
improvement is being shown? There needs to official members that keep track of school funding,
or else the wrong departments will receive that money and take advantage of it. In the website
ed100.org, 55% percent of school funding comes from state income tax and the rest comes from
federal funds and property tax, and those are not being founded properly. Many of schools in
America waste money on unnecessary reconstruction and materials, like school branding/
advertising, renovations on only one department of the school. In reality, the founding should be
distributed evenly to all the departments and benefit the school as a whole and not just one
certain aspect of it. Another reason why students are dropping out is because of the community
and peers they are surrounded by. Students in bad neighborhoods tend to have bad public
schools. Most of the students from these types of schools drop out of school to become criminals
or participate in gangs because they believe that an education wont get them anywhere thus
resulting future generations to drop out as well because that are being influenced through the
current dropout students.

Some people dont believe that the American education system and schools are the reason
why American students are failing and giving America a bad reputation. Rather its the
immigrant students are at fault, because people believe that immigrant students that attend
American schools cant handle the schools requirements,, therefore they give schools and
American educational systems a bad name. They believe that foreigners cannot meet the
educational standards in America, because what theyre thought here in the states is much more
difficult and different from what theyre thought back in their previous country. This causes the
immigrants to fail in class which results in the American education system as a whole to look
bad. According to usnews.com over the course of 19 years, the number of immigrants attending
school has increased by 51 percent. That's 18.7 million more foreign students in America! It can
easily seen how foreigners are to blame, but are they really? The Public Policy Institute of
California has stated that in the state of California, there are currently an equal amount of
immigrant students excelling in high and graduating from high school than there are of born
American students. Immigrant students are able to adapt to Common Core Standards much easily
than American students. In fact they even believe that maybe within 5 years immigrants will
excel and do much better in school and be more likely to graduate from high school than born
American students. So are immigrants tarnishing the name of the American education system or
are people using it as an scapegoat?
One country that doesnt use immigrants as a scapegoat and are superb in education is
Finland. Currently Finland has the fourth best education system in the world according to
fairreporters.net. About 50 years ago Finland wasnt even mentioned in the top 100s. So whats
changed since then thats caused them to be in the top 5? Well for one Finnish students actually
enjoy going to school and learning and teachers actually enjoy teaching the curriculum. Also the

American education system and Finland's educational system are polar opposites. According to
the website theatlantic.com, while in America all students learn general subjects from k-12 and
decide their majors and interests in colleges, Finland teaches their students general subjects from
k-5 afterwards students start to focus in one specific subject and take other classes as extracurricular classes. For example, a student in America might have more interest in math and
science than other subjects, and would like to take more of those classes, but the schools won't
allow it because it doesn't follow their standards. This may result for students to have bad grades
and not succeed. In Finland, if a student has more interest in English than any of its other classes,
then that student will have more classes that teach those English and a few classes that dont, so
when that student goes to college, they have an idea of what they want to be or major in. The
Finnish government has admitted to having a bad education and was willing to fully change that.
America has yet to admit that theres something wrong with their system and believe that it only
needs fixing. Finland has reached this success by completely getting rid of its old methods and
creating a simple idea. This simple idea of theirs is allowing students to learn what they want and
has allowed Finland to have one of the best education systems in the world. Why cant America
follow this concept and create a good educational system.
To really improve American education, the government needs to step down and let the
states handle it. That means changing Common Core. Many people believe that Common Core is
the sole reason why educational system is corrupted and failing. While Common Core is not the
most comprehendible thing out there because it causes students to be more confused and be more
likely to fail in school, but if the American nation wants to move forward and be a top leading
country again in education, they must challenge the students and make them adapt to the world
standards. On the other hand, Common Core gives too many standardized tests that stress out

children and causes parents to be outraged. Either Common Core needs to be introduced to every
single school in the nation or need to be taken away from all the American schools, because
America cannot have half of the nation participating in Common Core and the other half dont
have to partake in it at all. Another solution is to let the state Governments have control over it
instead of the federal government. This needs to happen because every state is different and are
founded differently, therefore they each learn differently based on the resources theyre given as
well as the weather condition each state is under. America needs to follow the footsteps of
Finlands educational system, and allow kids to learn what they want to learn. If they follow
Finlands educational system, then theyll have less drop out students and more students
attending to and graduating for colleges and universities. If America wont take the in the
consideration of changing its education system, then students are left lost and have no interest in
learning anything anymore, and teachers have no point in teaching.
Overall Americans need to be aware of whats going to happen in the course of the next
10 years when the dropout rates in high increase to 60% and when the only people attending
American colleges will be foreigners and immigrants. Who knows, maybe the American
education will be so horrendous that no other nations will want to come here to study and
teachers will have to either work in McDonalds to pay of their student loans or go to other
countries to get a decent teaching job. There needs to be new policies and regulations added to
American education system, or a whole new system of learning needs to be create if America
still want to be considered a 1 first world country at all.
st

Bibliography:

"The Best Education Systems In The World In 2015 | Fair Reporters." Fair Reporters
RSS. N.p., 15 Oct. 2015. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.

"11 Facts About High School Dropout Rates." 11 Facts About High School Dropout
Rates. N.p., 2014. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.

Kurtzleben, Danielle. "New Report Shows U.S. Lagging on Education Indicators." US

News. U.S.News & World Report, 11 Sept. 2012. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.

"Asian Nations Dominate International Education Test." NeoGAF. N.p., 2015. Web. 10
Jan. 2016.

Partanen, Anu. "What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success." The
Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 29 Dec. 2011. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.

"8.3 Who Pays: Where Californias Public School Funds Come From | Ed100." Ed100.
N.p., 2012. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.

Wells, Vicky. Yes, We Are Stupid in America!: A Former Principal's Reality Check on
Why Our Public Schools Are failing. Bloomington: IUniverse, 2013. Print.

Camera, Lauren. "The Increase of Immigrant Students Tests Tolerance." US News.

U.S.News & World Report, 5 Jan. 2016. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.

Haynie, Devon. "Number of International College Students Continues to Climb." US

News. U.S.News & World Report, 14 Nov. 2014. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.

"IMMIGRANT EDUCATION." The Journal of Education 89.3 (2213) (1919): 65-66.

Http://www.ppic.org/. Public Policy Institute of California, 2011. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.