作者从这篇文章中，得知穆尔米迦勒透露了一个令人震惊的真相，对于如何在美国美国的文盲人口是惊人的。有人指出，超过四千万名美国人在美国不能够读或写上第四年级的水平。这一大群人是功能性文盲。 I have read an article titled Idiot Nation written by Michael Moore. From this article, Michael Moore has revealed a stunning truth about how illiterate the whole population in the United States of America is. It is stated that more than forty million citizens in Americans are not able to read or write above the fourth-grade level. And this large group of people is functional illiterates.
Besides, what Michael Moore is concerned about is not only the group of people who are unable to write. The problem is that a lot of “well-educated” Americans would not bother to read a daily news that is beyond the funny pages. Michael Moore has stated his doubt about how come a nation full of people that are incapable of reading can rule the world. Even the former president of the United States is mocked at.
I personally disagree with Michael Moore for his extreme accusation about the American citizens’ illiteracy and the leaders’ indifferent attitudes about that. In the end, he has stated that the politicians and pundits are more responsible than educators for the poor performances. However, I would not agree that politicians and pundits are more responsible for the poor education because this is a big problem which cannot be blamed on a single individual.
The poor education is the most significant topic that is frequently discussed in today’s society. A lot of other factors and people should be held accountable for the deterioration of education, including the parents who pay the large amount of tuition for the institutions, the society that has influences on students every second and even the student himself.
According to Dough Asma who started the IEARN project, he had mentioned that educators are the people who offer students the way to learn knowledge or to correct their false ideas. It is the school’s responsibility to hire qualified teachers who possess the experience and capacities to understand what students really need. ( 1 )The problem of many American educators is that they simply imitate other countries’ teaching methods no matter whether they are advanced or illogical. In the end, students are put in confuse. (Banta, Trudy. W, 8) I believe that the person who is close to students, which means the educator is more responsible for the students’ education. Although in the article Idiot Americans, Michael Moore had mentioned that the uneducated president even proudly “encouraged” the students to be a mediocre student. It is mentioned that in one of speeches, he told the students in pride that he was the C students but he became the President of the United States. Apparently, from the perspective of the author Michael Moore, the former president had actually led the public to believe that as long as a person has belief and a strong will, he is able to guide the whole nation. However, what Michael Moore has concluded is gone too extreme. In my opinion, the former president made such a statement is because it is every adult’s to make sure the mediocre students should not feel diffident about their performances at school. In fact, the majority of students in the society are just mediocre. Most of them could not ace in exam and most of the educated fellows in a society could not point out a small nation of Europe on the map. However, I believe the principles of judging a student should not be based on his or her academic achievement or how many states he or she can name on the world map.
According to Joe Cuseo, scholar from Marymount College, from his research Student Success: Definition, Outcomes, Principles and Practices, he mentioned that the best way to measure whether a student is successful can be concluded in several points. (Joe Cuseo, 5) For example, personal validation, self-efficacy, sense of purpose, active involvement, reflective thinking, social integration and self-awareness.
Michael Moore had accused that a lot of presidents and politicians had set up a bad example for the students since they are also ignorant of many geographical, chemical or physical knowledge. For example, it is mentioned that President Ronal Reagan’s nominee for deputy secretary of state William Clark lacked the knowledge about foreign affairs at his confirmation hearing. “Clark had no idea how our allies in Western Europe felt about having American nuclear missiles based there and did not know the names of prime minister of South Africa or Zimbabwe.” Clearly, According to Michael Moore, these presidents should be held accountable for the citizens’ illiteracy just because he is not informed of the names of African presidents. Nevertheless, the responsibilities of politicians have in fact gone beyond remembering the names of different prime ministers and recognizing different islands from a map. Because honestly, except for geologists, the rest of us are only layman and are only able to tell where America or China is. According to Roles and Responsibilities of Politicians and Bureaucrats, the fundamental and basic principle that is guiding politicians and leaders is that of committing their full efforts to make sure they can realize public interest. (Ambrose, Stephen, 19)
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