Besides, Michael Moore has also pointed fingers at the constant bombing of large amount of entertainment show from the media, saying that it is exactly these entertainment shows with uneducated host that had made a bad influence on students. According to Michael Moore, when more than five hundreds excellent students from prestigious American universities were handed the test that was thought to be high-school level, only half of them can answer them. Also, when students are asked to answer when the civil war took place, most of them could not answer them. However, when the questions about pop stars or pop singers were asked, about ninety percent of students immediately know the answer. For this serious matter, the entertainment shows had taken the blame because of Michael Moore. However, entertainment show is just one of the important forms that citizens rely on in order to have fun. What matters most for students’ success are only the teachers since teachers are the most influential school-based factor in influencing educational outcomes. Last year, some economists at Harvard University have released a study. This study is about the effectiveness of teachers on the students’ success and life outcomes. They had made the conclusion that usually, those students who have the most effective teachers stand a big chance of attending good colleges and earning more salaries. Also, many parents have complained the problem of having bad teachers in school who need to be firing. It is estimated that firing the worse ten percent of teachers can significantly improve educational outcomes. However, none of these measures had been mentioned to be taken. Therefore, to improve students’ ability, it is important to improve the teachers’ quality. As we can see, improving the crop of teaching talent can certainly affect educational outcomes in a positive manner. As a result, it is the educational bureau’s duty and the school H.R. managers’ duty to get rid of unqualified teachers. What is more, it is also essential to attract more talented individuals to the teaching profession. A lot of talented people are not willing to teach in school, believing that teaching job is way below their ability. However, it shall be noted that ordinary citizens have this notion because schools are not willing to provide teachers with a higher level of salary and other prestige just like the lawyers, engineers and other high level jobs.
It is indeed unfair to put the blames on politicians for the poor performances of students. Politicians bear the responsibilities of running a state or a country, dealing with matters of citizens’ welfare, foreign policies and the war against corruption. When it comes to the poor performances of American’s education, a bigger blame shall be put on the staff in educational bureau, the members in schools and especially the administrators of universities. Since it is a known fact that many teachers are unqualified, it is necessary for the administrators to spend money on teacher training programs, so that teachers can be effective the moment they begin their first class in a school and it would not take a few years to wait till they can enter into the profession.
Besides, in Michael Moore’s Idiot American, the duty of parents have never been mentioned. Throughout the articles, the author has been blaming the negligence of politicians, the poor funding of school libraries and how the widespread entertainment shows erupted students. However, parents are the one who spend most of time with students after they finish school. It is in fact their duties to support them to be self reliant, hard working and to make a big effort to get the best performance level.
To conclude, Michael Moore’s point of view is biased. The one that is blamed for students’ poor performances should not only be the politicians, leaders and or the hosts from the entertainment shows. of course, the government indeed should establish better conditions to guarantee better education and the government should work hard to complete its obligations. A lot of problems should be addressed, such as the problem of the absence of security, absence of encouragement of the teachers, which means low salary and poor welfare. Also, the school and teachers are to blame as well. It is necessary to hire more qualified teachers and invest more money in the teacher training programs. In the end, the parents’ duties cannot be neglected because parents spend the most time with students and they are basically the role models for them. The improvement of students’ academic success depends on many factors. Besides, a student’s success should not only be judged by his academic knowledge as well. |
