How to Educate Our Children - Essay Example

Outline: This essay discusses different problems faced by the American education sector and the methods sought for overcoming these problems. The initial part of Task1A reveals the fact that the education process in America has deteriorated since 1990, and this situation is represented by using the term “Nation at risk”. The author discloses this fact with clear evidence. This risk is continuing till now. There are many reasons for the deterioration of the education sector. They are lack of knowledge in basic reading and math skill. The second reason is the increased number of students who drop out from schools without completing education, insufficient funding, incompetent teachers, crowded classrooms, lack of governance and son on uncertainty In 2002, President Bush enacted an act called NCLB Act (No Child Left Behind), which is used for evaluating the performance of students, teachers and schools in America. This act has certain advantages and disadvantages. The total score of NCLB Act is considered as the basis for the achievement of a student in an education year and the grade obtained by each school is considered as the base for allowing funds to the schools. After enacting this act, teachers are more focusing on the ways to get high scores in standardized test rather than teaching the entire subjects. The test scores obtained by school and students help for getting books and other facilities for each school. As per this act, class size should be small and teachers should focus to give basic building blocks to each student which is essential for the quality of education. Author expresses his opinion about this particular subject in the conclusion part. According to his point of view, the best way for improving the quality of education is focusing individual students, because different students have different learning capacity. Teachers should have the right to test the students in more than one occasion in a year and this testing should be conducted based on individual student’s capacity. Sessions B-1 to B-7 discuss about the conclusion part of the Task1A. This session evaluates opinions and suggestions given in the conclusion part specifically, that is about author’s point of view and in general. The next session of this essay focuses on the topic critical thinking. Critical thinking has three parts. Asking questions, reasoning out the questions, and believing the results are those three parts. There are many misconceptions about the critical thinking, like it is a negative thinking and emotionless thinking. Emotions play a vital role in critical thinking by motivating people’s thinking. There are mainly five factors which impede critical thinking. Those factors are TV news, newspaper, magazines, movie, and sometimes educational practices come under this category. This also mentions about the concept like “sponge” and “panning for gold”. Those two methods are used for getting information by thinking or asking questions. Critical thinking can be done either in “weak-sense” or in “strong-sense”. Here the differences between those two methods are clearly mentioned. Reasoning of the questions should contain some elements. Those “Elements of reasoning” are purpose, questions at issue, assumptions, implications & consequences, information, concepts, point of view, and conclusion & interpretation. Critical thinking should follow a standard. “The standards of critical thinking” include seven factors. Those factors are clearness, accuracy, importance & relevance, sufficiency, depth, breadth, and precision. The last part of this session discusses about the fallacies related to critical thinking. Those fallacies are incorrect assumption about the reasoning, getting distracted from relevant information, and supporting the conclusion. According to Williams, between 1983 and the early 1990s 10 million students reached their senior year with no basic reading skills (Williams, 2006).(provided by customer) According to the survey Home schooling method become popular and has increased 16 to 36 percentages between the period of 1985 to 1997((Pfleger, 1998). By Ingersoll’s viewpoints, 15 percentages of teachers leave the school within a year and 30 percentages within three years and 40 to 50 percentages leaving within 5years. (Ingersoll, 2002; smith and Ingersoll, 2003). Session 3A-3B discuss about the quality education to all children especially for vulnerable children. The educational tools like sufficient funding, sufficient teachers, teachers’ training and high stake standardized tests are very essential for providing quality education to the children. Session 3C discusses about the problems of overcrowded classrooms. A jam-packed classroom would destruct the learning and teaching atmosphere of students as well as teachers. A classroom with full of students creates disciplinary, concentration and understanding problems. Session 3D discusses about the importance of classroom length, teachers’ training and essential tools for learning students. This chapter perfectly narrates the necessity of high stake standardized tests. The session 3F discusses about the two educational theories for providing quality education to all children. These theories are prepared by Thomas Howell and Monty Neil. According to Howell, inefficient teachers and their teaching are the main obstacles for quality education but Monty Neil feels that the federal law should support students and instructors instead of grueling them. Session 3G describes about three assumptions to improve the quality of children’s education. The chapter 3H reveals the current education problem by the help of many researchers. According to researchers’ statistics, high poverty, inexperienced teachers, and increase in home schooling are the prime factors which prevent quality education to all children. Session 3I discusses about the solution for quality education and session 3J reveals the drawbacks of solution or conclusion. In this essay, chapter 3K analyzes the different opinions of people such as parents, teachers and government about the current education problem. Session 5A reveals the importance of computer and internet in our day to day life. Computer provides lot of information and makes communication possible with the help of internet. Computer makes a man perfect and provides lot of job opportunity. This chapter suggests that students should learn the computer at the earliest. Session 5B discusses about the students’ real learning experience and influence of technology. Today, students are fully depending on technology; they cannot do the work without the help of computer or calculator. Today, U.S is facing the problem of quality education. The ratio of drops out is increasing day by day. George Bush, the president of United States had taken the initiative to implement new teaching strategy to prevent students’ dropout and to provide quality education to all children of United States. The new policy called No Child left behind is the preliminary step for improving quality education. This kind of new strategy would definitely help to bring back United States yesteryear educational magnificence. Read More