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Michael Moore Idiot Nation Summary

1330 Words6 Pages

In the article “Idiot Nation”, Michael Moore states that America is a society full of idiots who are falling behind in education compared to other countries around the world. Moore gives examples of how Americans could not figure out how to solve the simplest school problems in their heads, or had a reading proficiency past a fourth grade level. Even so, Americans do not have a clue to where half of the countries are on the map (Moore, 121-40). But is the American education system really that bad in making students fail to succeed beyond what is expected of them? Compared to one of the world’s best education system, South Korean students excel in science and mathematics (Alters, 4). President Barack Obama states that the American education …show more content…

The educational policy is for teachers to teach children and teenagers in all states the same curriculum, with a purpose for everyone to not fall behind in the area of attending college and have the skills for their career (Evers, 1). Although this may seem to be the best solution, students are not doing any better in learning the materials because teachers are only teaching the standards that are on the examinations. In the article “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”, Jean Anyon argues that in the working class schools and middle class schools, students are expected to solve a problem with minimal decision-making and get the right answer through finding it in teacher’s notes and textbooks (163-79). Anyon’s studies are not accurate because her data does not show the entire U.S population; however, her studies do show the problems within working and middle class schools (DeNavas, and Proctor, …show more content…

The common core standards require students to learn how to solve problems in mathematics and English through complex ways. Catherine Snow, a graduate from Harvard of School of Education, argues, “if you’re never teaching them complex stuff… they never learn complex stuff” (Turner, 1). It is true that by learning things the hard way will increase the child’s critical thinking skills and ability to understand the subject’s content. However, Snow misses a point of the downside of the common core. Teaching students a complex way to solve a problem without the basic knowledge in the first place will make the child even more confused on how to solve the problem. Common core standards should be taught in the dominant way to solve the problem first, and when the majority of the students understand the concept, other complex ways to solve the problem can be taught from a variety of choices to choose from. This process is time consuming, but it is a guaranteed way to increase the child’s brain level of understanding, since they are at an age that is still under developed and have trouble solving challenging

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