Doss, Ann. “Education Advocate: NC On The Wrong Path.” Charlotte Observer. 21 March 2013: 2
pages. Web.
Dianne Ravitch is Education
Advocate and Author of “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,”
made a speech at UNC Charlotte. Ann Doss covers the story in the charlotte
observer. The speech she mad focused on “major public issues,” including the
amount of new state tests and how they are going to benefit testing and
technology companies and hurt students. There are 35 new tests coming to
schools this spring. MecklenburgACTS and UnTest, two local activist groups run
by parents are and UNCC students joined Ravitch to urge parents and members of
the audience to resist this new “reliance” on testing to rate teachers. However
Ravitch was able to praise the Superintendent, Heath Morrison for also taking a
stand against excessive testing. She even added him to the honor roll of her
blog after she read a few of his comments in a previous article in the Observer.
Doss does a good job of getting
her point across, even though she is basically covering the story of Ravitch’s
speech. Her thesis is “Increasing charter schools, giving public schools letter
grades, abolishing teacher tenure and piling on new tests – all moves that have been passed or
proposed by state legislature,” is strong and give the audience a good outlook
as to what the article is about. Doss is able to add other information to make
the cover story stronger by saying the new amount of standardized tests.
This source will help me most
with quotes that I can add to help make my paper stronger. Because Dianne
Ravitch is so involved with education throughout the country I will be able to
practice ethos by quoting her. She is a writer and author, as well as an
advocate and former official in the U.S Education Department. This argument works
well for the private school side of my paper because it makes public schools
look bad.
·
“Its
an effort to turn public Education into a profit making venture”
·
“Parents
are the sleeping giant, but when the students awaken, everything changes.”
·
“There
are so many terrible things happening in your state that I feel like a fireman.”
Kennedy,
Robert. “Why Private School.” Private
School Review. N.d. 20 May 2013. Web.
Going to a private school means many
extra opportunities for a child. More often than not, they will be higher academically
challenged, have a smaller class size, more exposure to arts, more funds to
their education, a harder push towards college, higher sense of values and the
list continues to go on and on. Private schools are most known for their high
tuition costs, however little to no scandal as to where that money goes. Children
rarely have to come home and ask their parents to buy a book or other school
supplies like the children from public schools do. Also at private schools
children have a better chance to interact with their teachers more often,
because of smaller class sizes. The opportunities for excelling in arts and
college continue to soar in private schools. Again, because of the funding
private schools are able to add music, dance, and theatre programs to their
curriculum at the snap of a finger. “According to NELS, students who had
attended private school in 8th grade were twice as likely…to have completed
a bachelor’s degree or higher by their mid-twenties. All in all, private school
is a very attractive option for a parent deciding which school their child
should attend.
Kennedy does a very good job at
explaining his argument. He pounds his audience with fact, after fact, after statistic.
In his first paragraph he lays out all the problems and costs a parent has when
picking a school for their child. He talks about expenses and for the rest of
his essay he is able to explain why private schools are worth that scary
tuition bill.
Because I have never attended
private school this gives me an inside scoop as to what goes on in private
school. All the benefits help me understand why this side of my argument can be
so strong. It also gives a great source of statistics for both private and public
schools. I feel like after reading this article I would want my child to go to
a private school if I could easily afford it. Using certain quotes from this
article will make the private school argument much stronger.
·
“Private
schools typically have more demanding graduation requirements than do public
high schools.”
·
“In
general a student given the opportunity to attend private school will most
likely reach a higher level of academic achievement.”
·
“Private
schools have the ability to create their own curriculum…administrators often develop
programs that emphasize the arts.”
Mack, Julie. “Back to School: Why
Public Education is Awesome.” MLive. 01
September 2012.
Web. 28 March 28, 2013.
The article first starts out
telling a story about an adopted teenage boy from Central America adjusting to
life in Michigan. Almost no one spoke his language. He grew into the idea of
public school and actually became very enthusiastic about it. He couldn’t believe
his schooling was free. Mack continues to talk about how the boy was thrilled
to be so lucky. Then she twists the article and calls out all the bad press that
public school gets. Then she goes on a complete rampage talking about what
public schools do for our country. She describes public schools as “one of America’s
gift to the world.” Public school is the
primary way to instill core values and a common culture to a nation of immigrants.
Public education not only helps individuals one by one, but also communities as
a whole. “A well-educated populace has more productive workers, higher incomes
and less dependence on public assistance programs; it’s linked to lower crime
rates, improved public health, and more stable families.”
Mack does an excellent job
arguing her point. She has no problem talking about the bad press public
schools get and exercising her ability of ethos by starting out a story with a
young boy. She steps back and looks a public school throughout the nation instead
of focusing on one, in a community. She chooses to end her article with “What a
privilege. What an opportunity. What a country.” Three very strong statements
that help the audience step back and realize that no matter which school they
go to, there is always one available for them.
I feel like my public school
argument is falling through the cracks and this cannot be a one sided paper.
Especially when I personally believe that public school is just as good a
private school, depending on the child. This article will help me show that
public schools are extremely effective and work well for a child.
·
“One
of America’s gifts to the world has been the democratizing of schools.”
·
“A
well-educated populace has more productive workers, higher incomes and less
dependence on public assistance programs; it’s linked to lower crime rates,
improved public health, and more stable families.”
·
“It
helped turned the US into the most powerful country in the world, fueling the American
dream and the vision of a Land of Opportunity.”