America's Education Plan

Sometimes we let our desires cloud our reality. The proof is always there, yet when the truth is too harsh we tend to keep faith in it possibly not being the truth. With each generation of children getting an American (public) education, it seems like the curriculum focuses more on passing tests than educating our future citizens. There are two main arguments that are supported by facts and unfortunately those facts are a poor reflection on our society. The way our government sees it, under-performing schools should be closed down and teachers "punished" for it. They use standardized testing to determine each schools' performance and an educators livelihood hangs in the balance. Is that fair? Not really since there are many factors as to why a certain school may have more students failing than the others and it probably has nothing to do with the actual teachers and their techniques. Maybe the school doesn't have enough school supplies, space, or teachers which is very common in these impoverished neighborhoods all over America that has schools closing at an alarming rate. This burden often falls onto the shoulders of everyone involved in said school, so they need to come up with answers with close to no resources. Well these teachers have to defend themselves for their rent, groceries, and student loan payments depend on it. The very legitimate argument these educators have is that education is not something solely done in the school. Where are the parents, why aren't they doing their part to enforce the basic educational values they received as a child? As a parent I'd be a fool to think that it is anyone else's sole responsibility to teach my child. We live in a world where responsibility is not a common attribute and people only think about the immediate future. Yes Sianna is my spawn, but she is a citizen of this world who will possibly make life decisions that will determine how every single one of us will live in the future. If she becomes a criminal because of the people she is around and my values and life jewels I gave her weren't enough, she may end up making someone who never cared for her welfare a victim who shunned her and it will affect/effect that person's family drastically. Or maybe one of her teachers who really inspired her will have a family member who suffers from some illness and that'll be the impetus behind my daughter becoming that doctor who cures said disease which effects millions of people. I mean those two examples are quite extreme, but exactly how far-fetched are they regarding our society? America's goal isn't our goal, period. The education system and it's standardized tests have been directly linked to studies which determine where prisons are built. States receiving funding to build prisons based on how low their scores are. America's goal is not a nation of educated people with hopes of living the "American Dream." America's goal is a nation of poor people with skill-sets which only allow them to go so far in life and keeps them dependent on the government. Starbucks and McDonalds are a dime a dozen, even more so than churches now. There will always be room for cashiers in this world as long as the citizens of this world don't value education; America banks on that, literally.