Final Essay

Tram Nguyen

Chabot College, English 7

Education

According to a report of Board Education, every year, only 69 percent of American high school seniors earn their diploma. Thirty three percents of 2.75 million students dropped out of college. Forty percents of 4.5million college student leave higher education without getting a diploma. Education in America is falling. It is getting close to a level of poverty. Some people say American education system is lacking and America’s schools are stinking. Is it true? Why is education in America falling? What is a successful education?

As a support for this essay, I would like to introduce to you a wonderful book about a journal of an America young man in finding an answer for an equal life, Into the Wild. The book is written by an American writer and mountaineer, Jon Krakauer. It is a real story about a journal to Alaska of Christopher McCandless. Jon Krakauer writes his book bases on information from a notebook that Chris brings along with him through his journal and his family. After graduating with high grades from Universe in 1990, Chris started his journal to find out who he was in this life. He gave away his college fund of $25,000 to Oxfam, and abandoned his car. He left all the things that his parents gave him and started to travel by using his own strength and money. In Chris’s journal, he walked along the street and got helped by his friends who helped him to understand what he wanted in life. After two years traveling, Chris achieved his dream. He walked into the Alaska wilderness. Unfortunately, he just lived in there for one hundred days and died in 1992. The whole story is a fantastic adventure that deeply impresses people who read it.

Another support I am using for this essay is the Passion Project movie. It is a short movie created by a Chabot College student, Skye Ontiveros. Within thirty six minutes, nine college students show their thought for passion and meanings behind it by using their personal experience and idea. Family, fear, teachers, and classroom, the movie also points out lacks and effects of these elements to college students.

In this essay, by using these two supports, I want to answer those questions I asked above. Base on that I want to show you my ideas for today education in America.

First of all, I want to discuss my ideas about the lacks in American education system. There are three lacks, lacking in schools, in teachers, and in student.

Schools in American have so many requirements. In our current society, money is the first thing people always concern when they come to school. But to be able to complete school, we have to spend so much money to pay for all school requirements. To get into a course they want, students have to complete some other courses which they think is not necessary for them. For example, to be able to graduate, students have to complete their general education courses. But not many students know why would they have to do that? So they choose to drop from school to save their time for money. There are also many people choose to not concern and try to pass these course because they want to be at school. But will there many people remember what they learn in these classes. I believe the answer would be a ‘no’. They just want to quickly complete all the requirements their school gives out, so that they do not waste their time and money.

The next lacks is lacking in teachers. Nowadays, many teachers do not fulfill their job as a teacher. As Emily says “Today teacher just teaches and doesn't interact with the student.” They share to students papers and words they think can help their student to gain knowledge. But they do not learn what their students think about it. They do not show their love for what they teach. They cannot instill their passion to their students. For example, the case of Jeff Bliss, the student at Duncanville High School, he stood in front of his class and ask his teacher “ does he know how to teach” As a student, Jeff was so disappointed in the way his teacher teach him. Not just him, there are many other students also are disappointed to the current teaching system.  Teacher was not passionate enough in their teaching. They cannot make their students feel the comfortable in studying.

Not only teacher is lacking, but students of America education also is lacking. They forget how important school is. School is not just where you come to take a degree to get job. It is not where you come to be seen as a normal person. It is where for you to find out what difference about you to other, and to learn how to work with others. As in case of Christ in Into the Wild, he did not realize the meaning of school in his life. He chose to stay away from it and denied what he studied at school. Thus, school cannot help him to find his path for passion. Every student has a reason for them to not care about school. Just like in the Passion Project, students said “Students choose to drop out of school because they scare of taking risk.” Yes, risk is also a reason. But all of these reason are just selfish reasons, students have for them to realize the importance of education in school. They all just care for themselves. They forget that schools need their collaboration.

So now, how do we improve education in America? The only answer for it is we have to shove problems we are having in today education. If we cannot fix these problems, we never can develop our education to a better way.

To shove problems in America education, schools have to ask for advices from their students. Students have been “students” for many years.  They are the most experiences one in this interaction about teaching and learning. Students always know what problems America has in its education, and they know what they want to have. As in the Passion Project, professor asks students who are students of America education to find an answer for passion in today society. He asked his students to answer for problems in a society. So why students cannot be ask to give advices for schools. It is necessary for his school to know what the teacher is doing in class, and how the students feel about it. By asking and listening to the student, the school will find it easier to identify issues and improve education quality.

Schools ask students to have advices for improving them, so they need to do their best to help student to find their passion. Students know that they are responsible for their learning themselves, but they cannot find what they need to learn if they do not have passion. In the “Passion Project”, Romeo said, “if you don’t know ourselves, how we know what we want in life?” Passion is really important for students. America education needs to do more work to help students in finding their passion. Just by knowing what they want, students can find for them a successful education.

Another way to improve America Education is teacher has to change. They need to be able to change their mind and move around in their teaching way. As in the Passion Project, students said, “teachers should consider the nature of things…understanding their nature will dictate how we teach them”. Teachers have to realize that students need for more explanation about why they need to understand this subject. Teachers have to be able to understand and accept their ideas. Thus, they can find an effective way to teach their students.  

So far, we already discussed about how to shove problems in education system. So what is a successful education? Success is to do a good job to serve people. A successful education is an education can accept their student to try everything to find their right path to their goal. As in the Passion Project, Karina said, “it’s becoming more of you need to have this certain type of goal versus these different little pathways so you can explore different things”. Students can easily find their goals, but it is hard for them to find their right path. A success education must be willing to let students try all paths they think are right. So they can learn from their mistakes and learn no regret in their life. There must be no limit for student to try and learn all these paths. If we limit student in their journal of finding their path, they can become like Chris in Into the Wild. Students need to try all and test all, so they can improve their skill in their future life in a society with lots of dangerous things are waiting for them.

Education in America can be in their way of falling because they let them self to be lack in how to build a good teacher, a good student, and a good school. But if it knows to shove its problems and learn from it, it can become one of the most successful education in the world.