Education

I will admit that I experienced a feeling of dread when I reviewed the topics for this week’s assignment. Urban Education or Poverty? Initially, I did not find either of these two subjects appealing. My attitude regarding this subject matter stemmed from my belief that since my children are raised and out of the education system, I had no reason to be concerned with public education. As for the poverty topic, I have always worked hard to provide for my family and have never been directly exposed to people living in poverty. I did not think I could relate well enough to write about the issue. In the end I chose education and I was astonished at how much I learned about the American public education system.

Education as defined by the Merriman-Webster Dictionary is as follows:

1a: the action or process of educating or of being educated; b: the knowledge and development resulting from an educational process

2: the field of study that deals mainly with methods of teaching and learning in schools

This definition seems pretty straight forward. However, after viewing the Waiting for Superman video series it became very clear to me that at some point the people involved in America’s education system, administrators, teachers, parents and students, lost sight of the meaning of the word education. Although the videos only covered a small segment of America's public school system, the education system in our country is broken. The documentary highlighted several of the problems with education; these problems transcend location (urban or rural), gender, or race. The fact is students who attend public schools, no matter where they live and regardless of their skin color or gender, are not being educated. Unfortunately, as educators try to determine how to correct the problems faced by the system, America’s children continue to fall further behind students from other countries around the world.

Prior to this assignment I was aware that there were problems with the education system and like many, I believed the issues could be solved by investing money. However, as the producer of Waiting for Superman Davis Guggenheim pointed out, since the 1970’s the government’s per student spending for education has doubled. Obviously, spending more money is not the solution. In my opinion, the answer to a significant portion of the problem can be found in the video featuring Sir Ken Robinson, Changing Education Paradigms. Robinson claims that in order to solve the issues, educators are going to have to change their methods of teaching. He points out that in today’s society children are bombarded with information and technology. Traditional teaching methods are no longer effective at gaining a student’s attention. I also agree with Robinson’s contention that increasing a child’s ability to be creative is essential to improving their ability to learn.  

Modifying the methods used to educate children will stimulate their desire to learn. Ultimately, this will lead to a highly educated workforce, a critical factor in the United States’ ability to remain competitive in the global economy. Solving the problems that exist in the education system is essential to our country’s future.