76-100G

May 5, 1995

Today's American schools are drastically different from those of yesteryear. Although, the new enhancements do not necessarily benefit or even enhance a nineties education as many Americans feel they do. Asian beliefs about schooling are that schools must be "functional rather than comfortable" (Stevenson/Stigler, 131) There is a significant portion of United States' educational dollars that goes into the construction and renovation of schools in hopes of building the most well-equipped schools that we loose sight of the true education that needs to be provided.

Our Asian colleagues are perplexed why we spend so much money on janitors, for example, when children can help keep the school clean and the money could be better used for activities that support the primary purpose of education--classroom learning. (Stevenson/Stigler, 133)

There are substantial ideological differences in the models and methods for education in America from those of Asia, specifically Japan. The Japanese educational system is a centralized system, on which the education ministry controls the curriculum being presented in the classroom. The benefits that can be achieved by a centralized school system are in great number. Specifically though, "'the reduction of individual differences among children.'" (Stevenson/Stigler, 134) allows for each child to "acquire certain basic information and fundamental skills" (Stevenson/Stigler, 134) by reducing the number of "inequities" (Stevenson/Stigler, 135) that are a direct product of our current American schooling system. Suppose that the American system of education, curriculum and funding, came from a centralized and federal source, not the individual school boards: everybody would learn the same information at the same time, with the same text books. Would there be a need for the SAT test anymore? By having a set curriculum, the different tracks that have now been set up in our public schools would become obsolete. There is no need to break down the class and allow students to be "separated into different classrooms according to their presumed levels of intellectual ability." (Stevenson/Stigler, 151) There is something to be said about the individual, and allowing children to blossom at different points in their academic careers, but each student needs to gain the same amount of knowledge and be pushed to achieve this knowledge. It was proven in Japan that when students were given praise for their accomplishments, but pushed to do even better they succeeded. It was also proven that American students and their parents are more apathetic towards our current educational system.(Stevenson/Stigler, 123):

American children have less reason to study hard. Why should they spend a great deal of effort at their studies when just a little effort yields approval and praise? We should not be surprised that American children, satisfied with doing so little, fare poorly in their academic achievement compared to children from other countries where standards are high and devotion to academic studies is high.

In general, Americans do not want to face the grim facts that our position and strength as a nation, comparatively speaking, is slipping on the whole. The main problem that we are faced with is that "satisfaction is high and performance is low...we have cause for serious alarm." (Stevenson/Stigler, 128)

The main indicator of our current problems with regard to education lies well beyond school ratings and student ratings, it lies in the rate of literacy that exists in our country to date. Our students are not coming out of our schools as literate as they should. What is literacy? Literacy can be broken down into two different categories, each with respective definitions: cultural literacy and functional literacy. First, cultural literacy, which is in reality true literacy, is one's vast knowledge of culture and history. A culturally literate individual has a remarkable ability to interrelate different encounters and situations with other people, and can tie history, the arts, music, current news, among other things with individually encountered events, books, shows, and pictures. On the other hand, a functionally literate person can not be classified as fully literate. A functionally literate person can read books, street signs, and words, but there is a basic lack of understanding that occurs in a person who is just functionally literate. Culture in general has been lost for the most part in many students' education

Classic literature, art, and music are essential characteristics of one which has been liberally educated and possesses a sense of culture. This culture is mandatory in allowing students to live in a "wider world." (Barzun, 136) Society in general has become a lot more specialized than it used to be in relation to jobs but it is essential to have a vast knowledge of a multitude of information if one hopes to fully succeed in the world

The work itself is a struggle with a mass of jargon, conventions, and numbers that have no meaning outside the specialty. The whole modern world moves among systems and abstractions superimposed on reality, a vast make-believe, though its results are real enough in one's life if one does not know and follow these ever shifting rules of the game. (Barzun, 136)

Cultural literacy provides somebody with " a vast store of vicarious experience" (Barzun, 137) which can in turn help with decision making in the future. We, as a nation have been failing recently in our quest for cultural literacy. Becoming aware of your surroundings, having a broad amount of knowledge regarding current events, and having a general understanding of the principles and foundations of society are the first steps to becoming culturally literate. For example, if you are someone who knows the streets in your community pretty well, it is easy for you to ask for directions. If you have seen a show before on television, or you have read a novel, you have the ability to tie something new to a past event. One would have the ability to draw parallels between certain things that some other people would not be able to draw. Hence forth, Hirsch's article on "Literacy and Cultural Literacy" cites some extremely moving examples of the aforementioned. Hirsch's father wrote business letters that often times alluded back to previous writers, or in this case playwrights. Specifically,

These allusions were effective for conveying complex messages to his associates, because, in his day, business people could make such allusions with every expectation of being understood...the timing of sales and purchases was all important, and he would sometimes write or say to his colleagues, "There is a tide," without further elaboration. (Hirsch, 9)

"There is a tide" alludes back to the passage from Julius Caesar. If you are a member of society which either had not read Julius Caesar, or better yet, read it and can not remember it, you would be at a loss if you received this letter. (Hirsch, 9) That is one prime example of functional versus cultural literacy. Another example of cultural literacy portrayed in Hirsch's piece relates to newspapers and magazines. There is a specific amount of information that a newspaper or magazine editor would expect his/her readers to have maintained as an educated member of society. Hirsch proceeds to affirm,

Books and newspapers assume a "common reader," that is a person who knows the things known by other literate persons in the culture...Any reader who does not posses the knowledge assumed in a piece he or she reads will in fact be illiterate with respect to that particular piece of writing. (Hirsch, 13)

Jacques Barzun stated that the "reader and writer must be at one," in order for that to occur the reader must be culturally literate.

The problem of illiteracy starts in today's schools. Over time literacy rates have tumbled to rock bottom lows. There are more and more people in America who can not read or write than ever before. (Kozol, 9) Furthermore, it is questionable if what is being taught in our schools today is actually what should be taught. There is a substantial number of students who are graduating without any concept of geography or history skills. (Hirsch, 8) A report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has found that "we must modify our approaches to education so that all children can learn to reason more effectively about what they read and write, giving them thinking skills to analyze, elaborate upon, and extend the ideas with which they are dealing." (Applebee, 2) There is evidence that "...all but a small percentage of the nation's young people can understand what they read and can express their ideas at a surface level. But minimum literacy levels are not enough-not for successful participation in many of the school, work, community, and leisure activities in which today's Americans participate." (Applebee, 9) This is solid proof of an adequate amount of functional literacy, but not enough cultural literacy. Functional literacy just manages to scratch the surface on the level of literacy America desperately needs.

Parental feedback, and how American children see themselves in school play a big role on the overall success of the school system. We, as a nation, cannot even begin to reform our current school system until we establish that there is a substantial problem that needs to be fixed. Is there a high enough value set on academic achievement? (Stevenson/Stigler, 201) If we come to the general consensus as a nation that change is necessary, a centralized school system must be implemented, with local chapters for parents and students with problems. We need to as a nation show respect to the educators who are employed to teach our youth. There has been an increasing feeling that teachers are inferior, and that if pushed hard enough, parents and students can get their way. Harsher discipline and repercussions must be brought into the classroom, but used only at the proper time. We do not need to beat or physically punish students, but it is essential to teach what is right and wrong and responsibility. Teacher salaries should be increased as a symbol of societal worth and importance. If society does not value its educators, why should its students? From the student's standpoint, there needs to be more leisure incorporated with school. The task of attending school should not be nearly as arduous as it is to date. "American children offer clear cues that we are asking children to sit still for too many hours in a day....Recovery from the task of listening and learning requires regularly spaced intervals of rigorous play." (Stevenson/Stigler, 213)

By America becoming more culturally literate, and American citizens stressing reform in our current schools, we as a nation educationally can grow and reach the level other competition nations are now at. In order to maintain the substantially strong position of power we are currently at, we need to stress the revamping of the core part of our society. By valuing our educators and emphasizing the benefits of our technology [without losing sight of the big picture] we as a nation can grow and continue to prosper.

The closest American approach in recent years to a national discussion [on education] was the meeting in 1989 of the governors and President Bush to establish "ambitious national education goals--performance goals that must be achieved if the United States is to remain competitive in the world marketplace and our citizens are to reach their fullest potential." (Stevenson/Stigler, 201)