Rough Draft for paper #3

American society idealizes itself as an individualistic society; our founding fathers even wrote the Bill of Rights in order to protect our personal freedoms. Unfortunately these holistic ideals have been perverted into a society that focuses so heavily on individualism it has led to a materialistic and apathetic sense of self. Recognizing one’s self as separate from society and community festers a feeling of alienation and isolation, that when you have an issue you must bring it upon yourself to handle your problems and not to rely on others around you. Community is lost in the wake of new ideals of individualism and at its core is the perversion of our education system. We are tailoring our education to the needs of the individual, producing ignorance and an inflated sense of self being. In the early to mid 1900’s our education standards were emulated by other countries, but today we are viewed as ignorant and overconfident.  If I could alter the course of our K-12 education system it would be to eliminate the concept of individualism within our schools instead focusing on community, discipline, and making teachers, students and community members accountable for the education of our children and youth. 

Focusing on the individual is creating disconnect from society. The more we look into ourselves the more we distance ourselves from our community and the issues that should be addressed as a community. Current educational reform has been focusing on individual rights, and freedoms. Many people view limiting our student’s individualism is also limiting their freedom. In fact the movie Waiting for Superman focuses in on charter schools and how they develop students potentials as individuals, yet even Guggenheim admits that most charter schools do not perform above the standards of other public schools around them, only a select few achieve above and beyond. He also states some startling statistics, “every twenty-six seconds a kid drops out of school. These drop out are eight times more likely to go to prison, fifty percent less likely to vote, more likely to need social welfare assistance, not eligible for ninety percent of jobs, are being paid forty cents of a dollar earned by a college graduate, and continuing the cycle of poverty.” Is the issue one of simply poor education, or is there a lack of community involvement? If individualism is isolating our students, and in turn alienating them from our communities why are they being pushed in the direction of independence and self reliance? It would only make sense to in turn push our children to help each other to succeed, create an environment that nurtures community outreach.

Part of reforming our education would involve creating a more disciplined atmosphere. Students would be required to wear uniforms, and teachers would have their rights to discipline their students. Wearing uniforms would help to refocus students from worrying about what they and their peers are wearing to their actual study. It is argued that uniforms remove student’s sense of individuality and freedoms. This is not true because in reality the styles students wear only feed into their need to conform to specific groups. Corporations have fed into these fads and conformities, profiting and exploiting youths need to fit in. In 1995 Longbeach, CA reported findings after implementing school uniforms an overall crime rate drop of ninety-one percent, and eighty-one percent of teachers felt that school uniforms improved the school environment, ninety-five percent of the teachers saw an improvement in student behavior.  Discipline is a word most commonly associated with physical repercussion, but when I speak of discipline it is in regards to self discipline. Students need to be taught self discipline, not only at school but within the household. Society as a whole has become so self conscious and worried about the politically correct way to treat an individual, especially in regards to children and youth. Political correctness within the classroom has removed teacher’s abilities to address behavioral problems, and in turn the power has been handed to the students. If the teacher says something that could be even remotely construed into being inconsiderate or belittling the students have been given the power to negatively affect that adult’s career. Although it is true that students should be able to address any serious issues within the classroom, manipulating the system as a weapon or a means to transfer the position of power from the teacher to the student is counterproductive to a healthy learning environment. Students should practice self discipline within the classroom, and teachers should be returned their powers to enforce discipline and respect.

In Waiting for Superman a lot of blame is placed on the teachers and the education system, not the student or community. The blame cannot be placed on one specific group, but must be placed on parents, community, teachers and students equally. Teacher’s sense of individual rights and unions has created a beast. This beast is in the form of teachers with tenure, specifically the ones who have become complacent in their teachings. Some teachers are so complacent they have forgotten the true intent of their profession, teaching children to become capable members of society. You can see this in the movie Chalk, when one of the history teachers actually pulls a couple of his students aside to ask them to be less smart. He is so enveloped in his campaign to become the teacher of the year he lost touch of what was really important, his students. He manipulated his students to do his bidding and belittled those who shone to brightly. Even with such atrocities within the teaching realm there is blame to pass on.  As Mike Rose puts it our community has been too busy trying to band aid our education problem, implementing temporary solutions instead of curing the education problems, using the problem for political gains, and putting all their hopes of reform in the ideas of few individuals. It takes a community to build good teachers (what it means to be a good teacher) and it takes a community to raise a kid. Teacher’s efforts can be crippled by a parent’s misguided intent, while a parent’s influence can be rendered obsolete in the face of an apathetic community.

Ultimately our education system will prosper only from unity, not focus so much on the individual. Nurturing a sense of community within our school system, and eliminating the potential for self segregation will not only improve student academics, but also provide a sense of being. Individualism is a concept that is not deeply understood by children and youth, they need to be provided discipline, structure and support within our schools.  Washington post reported that in 2004 a quarter of Americans felt that they do not have anyone to confide in, in contrast to 1985 when half Americans felt they had someone to confide in. This sobering statistic shows a suffering community, only through setting aside our differences and focusing on each other as team members can we change the mindset of our children ultimately setting the course for a successful educational system.