U.S. Public Schools: What's Wrong with Them
Paragraph 1 There are many people in the U.S. today who are not satisfied with the education that their children are receiving in the public schools. They are very worried about a number of developments that are taking place in the schools. However, not all of these people are worried about the same things. In fact, they often do not agree about the problem in public education.
Paragraph 2 One group of people is concerned about the quality of the education which young people are receiving. According to these parents, their children are not learning enough in school, and some researchers agree with them. For example, according to recent studies, the number of high school students who cannot read is increasing, not decreasing. Also the number of high school students who have difficulty with simple mathematics is increasing. Even students who graduate from high school and go to college show a depressing lack of knowledge. In a geography class at a large university, 40% of the students could not find London on a map and almost 9% could not find the city where they were attending college.
Paragraph 3 There are a number of possible reasons for the increase in the number of students who are not receiving a good basic education. First, classes are sometimes too large. In some city schools, for example, there are often between forty and fifty students in a class. Second, there are many teachers who do not know enough about the subjects that they are teaching. The college programmes which train future teachers are not always good and do not always attract the top students. But the problems are not always the fault of the teachers or the education system. Often students who do not want to learn behave badly and disturb classes. Finally, according to some people, television is also to blame for the lack of success of the public schools. Young people do not take time for their homework. They grow to depend on television for entertainment and information, and therefore, they cannot see any reason for reading in this modern world.
Paragraph 4 Clearly there are a number of different reasons for the poor quality of education that some students are receiving in U.S. public schools. Any solutions to this problem will have to answer at least four questions. How can we bring down the number of students in a class? How can we improve the quality of teachers and teacher training? How can we solve the problem of students who disturb classes? How can we fight against the negative influence of television? However, we do not have a great deal of time to find the answers to these questions. Already, as a result of their dissatisfaction with the schools, some concerned parents are taking their children out of public schools.
Paragraph 5 A second group of people is dissatisfied with the public schools for very different reasons. These people usually have very conservative beliefs about life. They do not like the changes which they see every day in American society, and they disagree with many of the ideas which their children hear and read about in school. For example, they object to the sex education classes that some schools give. For them, sex education is not a suitable subject for schools. They also object to schoolbooks that describe the lives of mothers who work outside the home or of parents who are divorced. They do not like history books which criticise the U.S. for mistakes which the U.S. made in the past.
Paragraph 6 These people have a solution to the problems of unsuitable books and classes. Their solution is not to take their children out of the public schools. They put pressure on the people on the local school boards. They also elect to the school boards people who share their ideas. Then the school boards will stop sex education and the use of schoolbooks that do not agree with their ideas about life.
Paragraph 7 There are, however, many other people who completely disagree with the actions of these conservatives. Thus, in the U.S. today there is a lot of discussion about very important questions in education. Who will decide school programmes and books? Does the government have the right to decide? Can teachers decide? Do only parents have the right to decide the things that their children learn in school? Watch the television and read news magazine; you will hear a lot of different answers to these questions.