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Teresa/Jiang Xiaodan
Professor: Luciana Lew
Writing: Literature Review-Rough Draft
6 August 2014
Issues in Education
The foundation of one country lies in education. Education is extremely
important when it comes to a countrys strength because education cultivates talents
who master the advanced technologies and make contributions to society.
Nevertheless, nowadays several issues about education have bothered people in four
main aspects: childrens attitude towards school, parenting-related education, the
overall view about school, college education and online higher education.
One of the issues human beings are puzzled by is childrens attitude towards
school. It is almost widely acknowledged that those who are brought up in an
unhappy family will be more rebellious and hates school more than those who are
not. However, Lynda mentioned in her essay that she walked to school in the dark
without a second thought when she felt panic at home and once she saw the outline
of her school the feeling of panic eased (69). Lynda also felt incredibly happy to see
the janitor and staffs and when she her teacher, Mrs. Claire LeSane, she immediately
ran toward her teacher crying from relief (70). All those familiar and ordinary
pleasures for Lynda, who was ignored by her family, come from school. Meanwhile,
Nguyen, who was wrapped in the warmth and kindness of her family, was afraid of
going to school or even hated school. She got good grades because she wanted to be
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invisible in class. She had learned the trick that the better-at school the student, the
more the teacher will let him/her alone (90). Nguyen also thought of school
experience as a kind of torture because of the insult came from both her teachers
and classmates, her own imagination of despise and her own sense of shame (91).
Parenting-related education, to some extent, is also the victim of
preconception in education. The overwhelming majority of people think highly of
parenting-related education but Lynda has set a diametrically opposite example.
Lyndas parents had a financial problem about feeding their large families so they did
not pay attention to Lynda and her brothers education. But the hatred for home
happened to result in the love for school as for Lynda (69). It was tricky that the
particular brand of neglect in Lyndas home allowed her to slip away and get to her
nice teachers and school (69-71). On the contrary, even though Nguyens stepmother,
who was well educated and also a distinguished educator, made every effort to get
Nguyen bilingual education, she still did not like to go to school and even dropped
her classes (88-89).
Prejudice of education also has spread out in peoples view about school.
School, in most cases, is considered as home of knowledge and security for children.
Nevertheless, the school which Lynda had classes was shabby (69). In addition,
people in Lyndas country were informed cutting the budget for public schools was
necessary and all creative activities must be the first to be deleted when lacking time
(71). Moreover, Nguyens third grade teacher even did not show respect to her and
when she won the spelling bee competition, the teacher judged her by her identity
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of a foreigner (91). School is bad for children to some degree. Holt states that
inappropriate teaching is a waste of time for both teachers and students (72). The
most serious problem existing in school is that schools separate learning from living.
But the truth is that children learn from experiments, their experience and people
around them. However, schools believe that the only way children learn is from
teachers and classes. Therefore, schools force their students to be indifferent and
focus on what they want students to do, think and be.
There are also problems in college education. First of all, college costs are
continually rising and rising even far faster than inflation or family income.
Consequently, this phenomenon brings out the question that is college really worth
the money. Cheever points out in his essay that while parents and students are
paying high for the college education, they are perhaps making the bad investment.
Because of graduate student teaching assistants rather than professors teaching the
course and grading the papers as well as unmanageably large classes, students are
not guaranteed better services in schools (114-115). Yet another issue about college
education that raises peoples concern is that colleges do not work hard at serving
students long after education. Although students learn a variety of courses with
plenty of disciplines, they are less trained to be professional and expert in their
particular work field or specializing area. Steinberg explicitly indicates that in one
2008 survey of more than 2000 businesses in Washington State, employers said
entry-level workers appeared to be most deficient in being able to solve problems
and make decisions, resolve conflict and negotiate, cooperate with others and listen
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actively(117). He also suggests that a number of jobs actually do not require college
degrees. More specifically, college degrees are required alone in two jobs: accounting
(a bachelors) and postsecondary teachers (a doctorate) among the top 10 growing
job categories (117).
Online higher education also has fallacys presence. Many look upon online
higher education as perfect and even expect to substitute it for traditional campus.
Nevertheless, Neem maintains that individual learning online is unpractical. He
proposes that context shapes people. Immersing students in a learning foremost
environment is the most important feature of campus that online learning cannot
imitate. Beyond that, campus not only provides opportunities for its students with
interactive relationships with their classmates and teachers but also helps broaden
students human horizons instead of only communicating and accessing information
online (102-103). As a result, college campus has its own advantages and privileges
that online education cannot mimic. Dwyer made a list of responses of six 2011
college graduates to the question whether college worth the money or not. Munson,
one of the students, said that college is not shaping students for their careers but
rather for society. She was different from the person she was at the first year of
college because classrooms of college were a social boot camp of sorts (122).
The four main respects that people hold about education are childrens
attitude towards school, parenting-related education, the overall view about school,
college education and online higher education. Children in unfortunate families are
not always rebellious. Furthermore, parenting does not always relate to school
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education. Apart from that, there are still problems in schools. College education is
not worthwhile in some ways. In addition to these, the overvaluation of online higher
education also has its erroneous perceptions. In conclusion, the current education
has a mountain of problems due to various factors.

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Works Cited
Barry, Lynda. "The Sanctuary of School." The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas.
Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 8th ed. Boston: Pearson,
2014.69-71. Print.
Cheever , Daniel S. Cheever, Jr. "Is College Worth the Money?" The Blair Reader:
Exploring Issues and Ideas. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 8th
ed. Boston: Pearson, 2014.113-115. Print.
Dwyer, Liz. "Is College Worth the Money? Answers from Six New Graduates." The
Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R.
Mandell. 8th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2014.121-124. Print.
Holt, John. "School Is Bad for Children." The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas.
Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 8th ed. Boston: Pearson,
2014.72-76. Print.
Neem, Johann N. "Online Higher Education s Individualist Fallacy." The Blair Reader:
Exploring Issues and Ideas. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 8th
ed. Boston: Pearson, 2014. 102-105. Print.
Nguyen, Bich Minh. "The Good Immigrant Student." The Blair Reader: Exploring
Issues and Ideas. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 8th ed. Boston:
Pearson, 2014. 87-94. Print.
Steinberg, Jacques. "Plan B: Skip College." The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and
Ideas. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 8th ed. Boston: Pearson,
2014.116-119. Print.