McQuiston 1 Makayla McQuiston English 111 Lucia Elden November 12, 2013 The Quarrel with Education

Todays education is at a cross road. Everyone knows there is something erroneous with education in the school system today, however, will they choose to find a new path to take and go straight, or will they go left again and continue around a track, in circles keeping left. The education system is so blind sighted that unfortunately they keep going left. Children are not actually learning to savor and apply the material theyve learned, and simply everyone in the education system knows it, even the students as well. The students walk class to class, gather information, pass the tests, and forget it. And the number one dispute lies within there. They gather information to pass the tests. Students are not learning to apply information, they are just learning to memorize and recall it. Yes they picked it up for a brief period of time, however that time passes quickly and they believe the material is no longer relevant after that. Why? The importance is not stressed by the teacher, nor are the students taught the importance of why they need the information, and when an educator is asked their immediate response is, Its for the test! And if asked why they need it after that, You need it in your job for the future! but how will they use it? In what situation? As a high school student its never exactly learned. There is an long list of aspects that contribute to these conundrums, Mike Rose, a respected instructor of UCLA and author, shared some views he claims are the central issues of education today in his book, Lives on the Boundary. His arguments were central around the education of writing and how students are unprepared for college writing; however his theories are concrete in the issues of college transitioning and relate to subjects other than writing. He

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states, Students are coming to college with limited exposure to certain kinds of writing and reading and with conceptions and beliefs that were dissonant with those in the lower-division curriculum they encountered (14). He is signifying that students attend college underprepared, because they were limited to the genres of reading and writing in the high school level. He suggests the curriculum doesnt address the weaknesses nor nurture the strengths of students work. This is accurate, because in high school there is a lacking of creativity in learning due to the ACT. The ACT is looking for concrete straight forward five paragraphs; with a minimum 5 sentences each, an introduction, 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion; with transitioning words between each; and an argument either for a subject or against a subject. Teachers are successful in teaching this skill to students throughout high school in order for students to be successful on the test; however the writing tactic is not necessarily used in college writing. There are so many genres of writing skipped in high school needed for college due to the stress of a certain writing skill used within one test, a writing skill that will not be used in college. Rose emphasizes, They needed practice writing academic essays; they needed opportunities to talk about writing and their reading; they needed people who could quickly determine what necessary background knowledge they lacked and supply it in comprehensive ways (14). Rose believes that students are lacking the needed support and learning necessary for college. Teachers are not providing adequate academic writing to prepare students for the college academic writing such as critical literacy, where theyre obligated to criticize a piece of literature; however they learn the ACT standard essay and how to summarize but they are not learning how to cite information accurately, because they dont use sources as often; and they fail to present essential information in a way understandable to different ethnics.

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He further claims, the policy documents and the crisis reports was that they focused too narrowly on test scores and tallies of error and other such measures (14). He suggests that this error in the system of education does indeed lead to the loss of important information needed by students to lead lives in the college academic environment and potentially affect their success in life, and it is all due to the over stressing of tests. Education is about the tests scores rather than why the error was made, and what could be done about it, not only that but since the tests are so stressed they only memorize the information and dont learn to apply it to situations or savor the material learned. Something must be done to mend these disputes, and improve education for students. Theodore Sizer, one of the worlds most prominent education-reform advocates, would approve of these declarations. Sizer in his article, What High School Is, explains that subjects come at students in a random order all before lunch, then the bombard continues again after lunch. He observes: The student rushes from class to class to collect knowledge. Savoring it is implied; but is not to be done much in school, nor is such meditation really much admired. The picture that these familiar patterns yield is that of an academic supermarket. The purpose of going to school is to pick things up, in an organized and predictable way, the faster the better (265). He is suggesting that students go to school, absorb information; it is suggested that the information be stored and kept, however it is not stressed the importance. The goal of the school is to have students pick up the information in the fastest way possible. He states, Tests measure whether the picking up has been successful (266). He explains the main priority of the teacher is to cover subjects. They do it in the fastest manor possible, with little marriage between

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subjects covered, requiring only the ability to memorize and recall the information for tests. There is little demand to test the students ability in applying the knowledge learned to life situations. However, the demand for memorization for tests is crucial These issues are agreeable between Rose and Sizer, however, some may disagree. For instance, Bell Hooks, a successful writer and professor, on the other hand, believes the issues of education today are central around the teacher. In her article, Engaged Pedagogy, she quotes a teacher who had most inspired her teaching, that approach to learning that is rooted in the notion that all students need to do is consume information fed to them by a professor and be able to memorize and store it (254). Hooks believes the issues of students inability to absorb necessary material needed is solely the teachers fault. She believes students are not inspired to learn unless the teachers themselves go against the normal assembly line approach to learning; where students only learn to memorize information and repeat back the information like an answer machine, but the information is lost when they move onto a different subject because they werent inspired to keep it. She mentions, During my twenty years of teaching, I have witnessed a grave sense of disease among professors (irrespective to their politics) when students want us to see them as whole human beings with complex lives and experiences rather than simply as seekers after compartmentalized bits of knowledge (254). Hooks advocates that professors now, rather than try to connect with their students, teach their students in the easiest, quickest way possible, and get it over with, no matter what subject. They dont have the desire to inspire their students learning and connect with them. In return the students dont put forth the effort to keep the information, because it wasnt taught in a memorable way.

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Her statements hold some truth. Students and teachers do not have a connection, however, that may be due to a factor. Rose believes all the issues of students education is linked to the over stressed importance of tests such as the ACT. He states, Many of the lower-division courses they encounter-their general education or breadth requirements will involve little writing or speaking or application, will rely on so-called objective tests that, with limited exception, stress the recall of material rather than the reasoned elaboration of it (20). He is proposing that the importance of tests such as the ACT are stressed so much to teachers that education becomes all about memorizing and recalling information for the tests rather than the reasoning behind the information, and why students need it for the future. The students do not know how to apply the material they learned, because there is either no longer time to share the importance, or it is no longer considered important. They only need it for a test, and it is not necessarily the teachers fault, but the fact that as society advances the demand for education increases. There is so much information being taught now, that never existed before and the amount of information being crammed into childrens heads for tests is ridiculous. They dont have the time to learn how to apply the material in the short amount of time provided to learn it. However, they must learn to memorize and repeat, memorize and repeat, and memorize and repeat information for a test they might not even use. They miss out on information they need in the process. These issues only continue to advance. Sizer, would add now that the tests are stressed so much, it leads to the bigger issues of why the application is missed, and it involves the sole systematic process of the school. He emphasizes:

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Coverage within subjects is the key priority. If some imaginative teacher makes a proposal to force the marriage of, say, mathematics and physics or to require some culminating challenges to students to use several subjects in the solution of a complex problem, and if this proposal will take time away from other things, opposition is usually phrased in terms of what may be thus foregone. If we do that, well have to give up colonial history. We wont be able to get to the programming. Well not be able to read Death of a Salesman. There is no time. The protestors usually win out (266). Meaning the issues also lie in the fact that the educational system has been one way for so long that when change is suggested, everyone ducks and hides. They make excuses for why the changes suggested will not work. It would be suggested that they, themselves, are afraid for what the change would mean, whether for selfish reasons, or the freight for what the change would mean, thus leading back to the cross roads. They continue to go left. The solution may be in front of them but they are so comfortable running left and continuing the circle they will not, or refuse to see the alternative way. For example, Jack Meziro, a well-respected Emeritus Professor of Adult Education, sums up how this is an issue in his article, The Transformative Learning Theory, As we move into the next century and more technologically sophisticated industry and service sectors, work becomes more abstract depending on understanding and manipulating information rather than acquiring it(271). Meaning plainly that the way information is being presented to kids is not preparing them for college or the workforce that awaits them. The system only requires them to acquire information rather than understand it to a full extent and manipulate it.

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These issues presented relate to Platos Allegory of the Cave. Although Plato centralized it around philosophers and non-believers of philosophy, his allegory can also be compared to education. The cave could represent education used today, the sheltered home. The shadows and game could represent the parents and teachers who believe in the school system, because it was the same system of which they were taught, not knowing the difficulties presented within it today, or not trying to understand them. The escape could represent the teachers and observers who see the issues of school education today, and present their beliefs on the issues. The return could represent the scenario where the escapees present the issues they feel need adjusted, but the shadows and game shy away from their beliefs because the change would mean the cave would need to be readjusted. However the cave once changed could be indeed a house. A new course of education that can better society. What is believed to be the most central issue of todays education contrast between the philosophers; for Rose, the issues lie within the schooling of students, the lacking of instruction and guidance, and value of the education provided; for Sizer, the problem lies in the fact that the schools goals of education are agreed upon, but lack definition, leading to lost information, the tradeoff of information, and the lack of stress in the importance of material learned; for Hooks, the issue of education todays education is how schooling resembles an assembly line approach of education, and the lack of creative learning and connection between students and teachers; for Meziro, the issues in education are that education is centered around the memorization and recall of information, rather than learning to apply the information, although, they almost all agree on one issue. Tests are so stressed that the education system becomes about the memorization of material, and not the application of it, and that is in fact a tremendous conundrum. However, the controversy of education seemingly never ends.

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Works Cited
Bio.True Story. Bell Hooks. 2013. 17 November 2013 <http://www.biography.com/people/bell-hooks41040>. Fox, Margalit. Theodore R. Sizer, Leading Education-Reform Advocate, Dies at 77. 22 October 2009. 17 November 2013 <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/education/23sizer.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>. Hooks, Bell. "Engaged Pedagogy." Pearson. Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st Century. Boston: Longman, 2013. 253-258. Mezirow. "Transformative Learning." Pearson. Exploring Relationships: Globalization and learning in the 21st Century. Boston: Longman, 2013. 268-274. Plato. Phylosophyzer. 21 September 2012. 4 November 2013 <http://philosophyzer.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/the-allegory-of-the-cave-by-plato-summaryand-meaning/>. Rose, Mike. "The Politics of Remediation." Rose, Mike. Lives on the Boundry. New York: Penguin Books, 1989. 167-204. Sizer, Theodore. "What Highschool Is." Pearson. Exploring Relationsihips: Globalization and Learning in the 21st Century. Boston: Longman, 2013. 259-267.