Dear President Obama:
I am writing to ask you to inform you of some issues in our education system. This is vital for the future of our children; I think we need to address these issues now. First of all I think you really need to sit down and take a look at our education system. There are a lot of problems to many for me to even talk about today, but you need to re-evaluate the way our whole educational system is implemented. The first thing I would like to bring to your attention is being that we need to make sure every school is taught the same way. The second thing that needs to be discussed is that the how much funding a school gets is based on test scores and how well the school scores. Schools are focused on getting better test scores than actually teaching.
For starters why should some children be taught one way at one school and then in the next town over the kids are learning in a totally different way. For example in my readings I came across a very good writing about the social classes of schools he writes about four different social classes in the education system. The working class school (most of the families are below federal poverty lines) “work is following the steps of a procedure. The procedure is usually mechanical, involving rote behavior and very little decision making or choice”. (pg 177) Another thing he mentioned about the lower class school is how they did a science experiment in the class performed, by the teacher then the answer was wrote on the board for the class to copy. Giving the students no chance to come to their own conclusions on what the results of the experiment were. The second class is the middle class (is made up of blue collar workers and higher paid workers). “The middle-class school, work is getting the answer right. If one accumulates enough right answers, one gets a good grade. One must follow directions to get the right answer. (pg 180) In this class the children are basically taught to follow orders because they are thought to grow up and work in a blue collar job and having to follow bosses orders. The third affluent professional school (parents who have a higher income and are mostly professional) “In the affluent professional school, work is creative activity carried out independently. The students are continually asked to express and apply ideas and concepts. Work involves individual thought and expressiveness, expansion and illustration of ideas and choice of appropriate method and material”. (pg182) This is the best out of all the classes the children learn in an enriching environment and have choices they also get involved in their education. The fourth class is the executive elite school (fathers are executives in major corporations) “In the executive elite school, work is developing one’s analytical intellectual powers. Children are continually asked to reason through a problem, to produce intellectual products that are both logically sound and of top academic quality”. (pg185) Looking at this you can see how differently our children are being taught based on were there go to school. This needs to change and I think you are the perfect president to do something about it. President Bush did take one step in the right direction with the no kid left behind act but that barely touched the surface of the problems that we have.
The second problem that I think you need to take a look at is the money issues with education. School has become all about test scores, no more about teaching skills required. The main focus in schools now is to make sure all students pass tests such as the SAT. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act doesn’t make much of a difference either, students learn how to take a test, not necessarily anything else other than techniques needed to correctly answer questions. You can have a student study every little detail for the SAT. But it doesn’t mean anything when you put them in the real world. Students aren’t evaluating and criticizing what they learn anymore. money is the cause of this problem. Money is the primary cause schools are about testing rather than about learning. More specifically, it is how the government distributes money to the districts that causes this problem. The government distributes money to schools in the district according to their respective students’ grades on tests. Better scores on tests is more money for the district. No it has come to the point where school isn’t about learning anymore. It’s all about memorization of information and getting good test scores.
School didn’t intend to be a foundation of testing rather than teaching relevant issues for people’s lives.We need to make them conscious of this, we are being tested for the wrong reason. The test is just telling the teachers what they want to hear. Money has always been one of the biggest issues with the education system but now it has become a fight for who gets more money based on. How are your children supposed to get the best education if they are learning from old texted books? How come we have money for guns and supplies for the war in Iraq but we can’t give our schools money for highly qualified teachers or for new books and supplies. If we don’t care enough to give the children supplies and books why should they care and go to school. Teachers don’t care about teaching because there are not receiving high enough salaries, and also aren’t being given the supplies necessary to deliver a quality education to the students. Also I think we need to have more governmental regulations on were and how the schools spend the money there are given.
Well thank you for listening to what I have to say about how to reform our education system in America. I have pointed out that all the children need to be taught in the same manner no matter where they go to school. I also briefly discussed are money problems in the educational system. I hope now that you are aware of the issues at hand you can make a change for the better.
Thank you for your support.