A popular trope of public interviewing is to ask U.S. citizens on the street basic questions about the world and the nation so as to reveal the all-too-common ignorance of many Americans. This seems humorous at first, but rather frightening when the fact is considered that they will be standing in a voting booth come election time, "armed with a ballot," as writer LZ Granderson put it. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently released their findings from the Survey of Adult Skills, in which the literacy, math and computer skills of 5,000 adults from 16 to 65. The results were compared to similar studies from twenty-one other nations. The United States ranked 16th in literary proficiency. Such results are comparable to the U.S. Department of Education's 2009 studies, which estimated that some 32 million adults lacked the proficiency to read a newspaper. Granderson develops this point by noting that the man most "credited/blamed" for the U.S. government shutdown--TX Senator Ted Cruz--quoted Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham" during his filibuster against Obamacare. According to a Gallup poll regarding America's top problems, dysfunctional government was ranked as the most prevalent issue, with the economy, unemployment, the deficit and health care following, in that order. The best catalyst for extended academic success, which carries over into real-world success, is early childhood education. America ranked 28th in a report of the international percentage of 4-year-old children receiving early education.
28th, that is, out of all 38 countries that participated in the report.
I'm very glad that this issue is being brought into more national views. Education in America needs some serious work; already, though, it is far too disregarded an issue. What world is this where someone is paid millions of dollars to play games and throw balls all day, but teachers may find themselves, at times, barely scraping by?
This article was published today, October 14, 2013. This article was written to get a point across: we need to focus on education. That we do, and the LZ Granderson's main idea, that much of America's citizenry is simply ignorant of some important basic facts, is conveyed clearly. I'm with Granderson--those man-on-the-street interviews are painfully hilarious. That is, until some of those people are given the power to decide who our next president will be.
Article: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/14/opinion/granderson-dumb-america/index.html?hpt=us_mid
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ReplyDeleteI greatly enjoyed your post. I agree that the American education system is deeply flawed. Not only does our society undervalue teachers, it propels a classist society, in which children are chosen from a young age to be smart or not and if not, put into boring classes that encourage them to shun intellectual curiosity. I am referring to the ridiculous notion of Pre-AP classes. Furthermore, richer neighborhoods have better school districts nation wide, which only exacerbates the divide between both class and race. The statistics you mention about America's literacy ranked internationally, although extremely disturbing are not surprising. In short, I completely agree that America’s disease is a lack of intellectual prowess and educational proficiency. I have one tiny bone to pick with you or possibly Granderson. First of all, Senator Ted Cruz was reading "Green Eggs and Ham" to his daughters. Although, this is grossly off topic, I feel that it needs to be qualified in that he was not actually relating the story to anything of political significance. Second and most importantly, his ridiculous and idiotic (in my opinion) speech was not a filibuster. It had no actual significance in politics. It was just a deeply stupid speech. It was only significant in that it made Senator Ted Cruz very famous, thus it influenced public opinion, which in the case of Obamacare, is worth nothing. Despite these two tiny quibbles, I am in thunderous agreement with your main point.
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right regarding Ted Cruz and his speech. It is merely referred to as a filibuster because if it's ludicrous length. And while he did indeed read the book to his daughters, the tomfoolery comes with the fact that he did so in a political setting (though without direct political intent) and with the irony of it all: he read a book about trying things before dismissing them while in the middle of a law that had not yet gone into affect.
DeleteBeing the son of a teacher has taught me a lot about things. And I do believe that you're right, Carson. For as much as they do, teachers are grossly over looked. I think that's something that needs to be changed
ReplyDeleteIt's sometimes embarrassing to be American, being that we're so behind in literacy rates and whatnot. Even a little bit shameful.
ReplyDeleteYour point about how sports people getting paid too much is unbelievably true. They get paid millions of dollars a year and waste all of it on big fancy cars and mansions and most end up broke while teachers, the people who really deserve those salaries, barely make it by each year. It makes me really mad how football and basketball and other sports are a higher priority than our own nations literacy rates and education system.
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