QOW - Click on the title of the post (American Government 3/14/11) to access the article “A Call to Action for Public Schools.” The article talks about the documentary “Waiting for Superman.” After reading this article and watching the documentary in class, answer the following questions: Why, in your opinion, is reforming public education a difficult task in this country? Secondly, explain the culture of education today. In your opinion, how do you view our educational system (as a whole)? What outside factors may influence for the better or worse student achievement in school? Finally, what can you, as a high school senior do to influence change in our educational system?

In my opinion, reforming public education is a very difficult task in this country because every school has different expectations and standards. Some schools may have very low standards while other have high standards and get the same reward in the end. Culture plays a huge part in how Americans live their lives. Many schools value extra curricular activities more than their education while in other countries education always comes first. I think that in order to make education in this country better, we need to have higher expectations for students especially when it comes to participating in after school activities and simplify the rules in the educational system. Their are so many rules surrounding this issue which is why it is so hard to come to an agreement.  I don't think that our education system is very good because very low achieving students get the same thing in the end as kids that rely try. I think that part of the problem is teachers because a lot of them don't care because they only care about getting paid and they know they will regardless of if they do they're job or not. We need to be able to fire these teachers that don't care. Teachers are only part of the problem, the other thing is students. Students are very unmotivated but you can't make them want to learn unless you teach them from an early age that education is important. Students that are unmotivated and don't try are only like that because they were raised thinking that everything in life will be easy so parents need to motivate them from an early age. For example, children from the documentary waiting for 'Superman' really valued their education more than anything because their parents have been trhough tough times and told their kids in order to make their lives better they need an education. Students at our school  don't know what it's like to live in poverty and not have a choice in if they want to continue their education which is why they are so lazy. These days, kids are always texting in class and doing other things while they should be working on school work. As a senior high school student, in order to influence and change our educational system I think we need  to set high expectations towards future graduating classes. If we set good standards then future graduating classes will want to exceed that and do even better.


Ripley, Amanda. “Waiting for ‘Superman:’ A Call to Action for Our Schools.” Time Inc. CNN. September 23, 2010. March 15, 2011.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2019663_2020590_2020592-1,00.html

Drake, Bruce. "Charter School Lottery Gambles With Kids' Futures -- and Often Loses." Politics News, Elections Coverage, Political Analysis and Opinion. Web. 17 Mar. 2011.

“No Child Left Behind Act.” New York Times. March 10, 2011. March 15, 2011.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/n/no_child_left_behind_act/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier