The common assumption that America is the leading nation in the world takes a hard hit in Amanda Ripley’s The Smartest Kids in the World, a book that explores the top education systems throughout the world, which are not that of the United States. After reading the book, it comes off with strong viewpoints, and makes you think critically about our education system. It highlights the PISA tests, both praised and criticized for their ability to calculate the knowledge and creativity and individual possesses. The book also features a unique narrative style involving three students from America embarking on journeys as “correspondents” to three of the tops ranking PISA countries. They, along with commentary from Ripley, highlight what makes these …show more content…
She provides an ample amount of background information on the formation of the PISA test, and the first round of its taking. This introduction also serves as an ethos for Ripley because we can see that she has put in a great deal of research, these facts help us to trust her with any further data she gives us throughout the book. She furthers her ethos in the following section when she takes the PISA test herself. While she might have no included this antidote, or her results on the test, it further helps us to build a connection with the author and trust that she is knowledgeable about the subject material at hand. While the larger part of her ethos is built at the beginning of the book, she does build in subtly throughout in the creative narrative style that she has decided to …show more content…
One of the biggest concerning the need for an increase in rigor in instruction in American schools. She discusses that in Poland students must stay in academic classes for an extra year and teachers are paid bonuses to engage in professional development work. She also notes that in Finland they “rebooted their teacher-training colleges, forcing them to become much more selective and rigorous.” In an article written by Sarah Tantillio on Only Good Books, she recognizes the validity of these statements, but comments that in America “the Common Core States Standards, which most states have adopted, they are definitely rigorous, But how they are implemented (and assessed) from state to state and school to school is still a Very Big Question.” Further in her article she points out the large population differences between Finland, Poland, and the United States, and how this affects our education system. However, near the end she recognizes that “We should not use our giant population and multi-dimensional governance structures as excuses.” It is clear that while the need for rigor, and unification is seen, it is also clouded by a complicated set of problems in our
This is a key part in schools today because it’s enforcing a higher bar of achievement for teachers and students (Catapano, 2018). Implementing standards into a school system that are internationally benchmarked means all states and countries have a way of measuring their academic performance. They can use this also as a tool to compile scores and understand the weaknesses to improve students’ knowledge. This provides teachers with various ways to assess their students more frequently through observations and informal assessments to understand the student’s comprehension level of the lesson material. It will help the teachers to strive to improve her test scores by adapting lesson materials to the needs of each
“Americans aren’t good readers”-Daniel Willingham. But are they? Daniel Willingham wrote the article “How to Get Your Mind to Read” to inform people about a problem in American schools: reading comprehension. He uses reasoning to explain that people don’t comprehend what they are reading because they don’t know anything about what they are reading.
In Grant Penrod’s “Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids,” the reader is presented with a piece concerning the attitude of society towards the academically gifted and intellectually advanced. Throughout the piece, Penrod brings forth the general claim that intellectual growth has been forced to take a backseat to the growing mindset that heightened intelligence is now a faux pas. Society as a whole has become less supportive of expanding our knowledge, and has moved from nurturing those who lead a quest for knowledge in favor of hindering them through a slurry of verbal and mental trauma. Within the first paragraph, Penrod exemplified that one high school in Arizona glorified their football team for coming home with the State Championship
In Grant Penrod's "Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids", he talks about how smart people are always degraded and hidden in the shadows of the popular people. He goes on to explain how intellectuals are stereotyped, beginning at a young age in school. He mentions how some public examples do not have to be smart to become rich and successful. Of course, if celebrities are well-off, they will have plenty of money to sustain in life and will believe that they do not need an education to be successful. He claims that people need to "lay off" of the smart kids.
(43). Berger gives some insight on what she thinks is the best way to invest in education. She states that she would reduce and adjust how often the standardize tests are and that parents are the ones that need to get involved in their kids’ lives for their children to succeed. Through this information not only students will see the damage that teaching to the test has done, but also the damage to society. The society needs to understand the importance of challenging a student in their education and not letting a student’s simply go through the phase of higher
If you were to change something about the education system in the U.S, what would you change? How would you critique the quality of education? Education historian Diane Ravitch answers these questions in her excerpt that was published in 2014, “The Essentials of a Good Education.” In her text Ravitch argues that the education system is flawed and that the vision of a good education is unfair and unequal. Ravitch supports her claim by providing examples of the negative effects of the educational system and using historical context.
The essay, The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher, by John Taylor Gatto addresses educational curriculum with a cynical truth that transpires around the United States. His brutal honesty grasps the reader by using common sense and a hint of sarcasm to appeal to humor. The main point of his argument in my perception, states that we must develop children to be critical thinkers and not always agree with authority. By allowing the schooling in a child’s development expecting them to not question an adult’s words does lead to a population that has accepted being dumbed down. Following what has been indicated, a direct quote positions people deprived forever of finding the center of their own special genius (Gatto, part III, pars 3).
Against School by John Gatto is an essay that attempts to persuade the reader that public education fails to educate its students. The main way Gatto tries to persuade his audience is by presenting anecdotal evidence and by showing the historical narrative to the education system of the Untied States. Gatto attempts also attempts to reach out to his audience by referring to commonalities in the public education system that have been experienced by many people. Overall the essay is persuasive but lacks any practical authority. The first thing the author does is provide background, background on himself and the situation with education in the United States; and, this is what the author primarily does.
I’m going to write more on Grant Penrod article ‘Why We Hate the Smart Kid’s’. I agree with Penrod, he is trying to let us know academics is just as important as the athletes are. For many student’s school is the best time for them. You have some who come to play sports and some who come for the academics. In any high school, you have a lot of different groups or cliques like jocks, stoners, nerds and many more.
The United States relies on Common Core State Standards to guide students to excel in an era of global competition. However, do the Common Core State Standards, or CCSS, allow students to compete against top performing countries such as Canada? In a study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Program for International Student Assessment, the United States performs sub-par in comparison to the global standards. As a former superpower in education, the United States should be able to compete with the European Union, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Canada. As these countries widen the disparity of instructional quality, key differences must be explored, especially in the mathematics and literature, to revise Common Core State Standards.
After examining Dr. Carol S. Dweck’s article, “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids,” we can see that she makes a compelling argument for her Scientific American audience through the use of key rhetorical strategies. The first technique she employs involves strong organizational structure. To start her piece Dweck begins with an anecdotal story of a student picturing the changes of his mind-set throughout his school years. In Describing jonathan story, she explains, “A brilliant student, Jonathan sailed through grade school [...] In the seventh grade, Jonathan suddenly lost interest in school, refusing to do homework or study for tests.
Achieving an accurate education system is not an easy function for any nation. The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way by Amanda Ripley, is a wonderful book that focusing on the important of the education and how can the changing on the education system and schools reforms change the whole country for the best. This book had a positive impact on me, it gives me hope that each country in the world can create stronger and more creative education system; a system that can achieve students and serves both equity and rigor. Importantly, that can happen if we think first what are our educational problems and how can we resolve them in a smart and wise way that can help us to have magnificent results that benefits everyone, the
Not only is the Finnish high school graduation rate at 93% but, for several years, Finland has scored in the top five and occasionally even number one in the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) study. The main difference between Finnish and Canadian high schools lies with the obscurely contrasting amounts of work. Generally, in Canada, Grade 12 students can expect to write an average of a test per week and receive nearly daily homework; that does not include the immense amount of projects, presentations, and assignments that students need to do if they are taking a full semester of classes. Meanwhile, in Finland, students rarely do homework or tests until their teens and even at the high school level, it is a tiny amount compared to that of Canada. It is a fairly hard journey for students to spend the majority of their days working on school material such as homework, assignments, or studying for tests while having to balance that with their free time, work, and extra-curricular
Three objects that have played a role somewhere in Divergent are The Ranking List, the Aptitude Test Serum, and tattoos. Each of these items show a significant importance,
Mamamia also states that “The 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) measures the numeracy, literacy, and science skills of half a million 15-year-olds around the world… Australia’s ranking fell in all subjects from 15th to 19th in Mathematics, 10th to 16th in Science and 9th to 14th in 2009.” This shows how far we are falling behind other countries, whereas Asian countries like China, Singapore, Korea and Japan are pulling ahead of Australia. Our students of the 21st Century aren’t getting smarter.