Lost In America Summary

In the article, “Lost in America,” Douglas McGray effectively attracts attentions to the issue of how American schools are more concerned with learning math and science than foreign subjects like language or foreign cultures. Ironically, McGray asserts that more schools in America are becoming less concerned with teaching language and cultures despite the growing globalization. McGray advocates that learning multiple languages will be beneficial for those working overseas as well as other careers. The article’s target audience is aimed at those concerned with changing school’s curriculum to include various language education. A well-known writer for multiple magazines, McGray published this article in Foreign Policy magazine intending for the

McGray uses statistics to bring the issue into focus for the audience, so they can see how drastically foreign education changed in a short period of time. The article discusses the change from how in the late 1940s, “more than 90% of kids who studied a foreign language learned French, Spanish, or Latin” (). Then later describes how “two thirds of American students never studied a second language by the year 2000” (). This brings into focus of how things have changed in the American school system. In between these quotes, McGray discusses how a 13,000 high school students learned Chinese, thinking that China would be the next world power (). The statistics demonstrated by the quotes are used to inspire the audience to get back to a place where learning another language is encouraged. The quotes demonstrate the beginning of the decline and ignorance of languages in America. McGray uses the statistic of 13,000 children learning Chinese to show the influence outside countries have on American education. The author also uses this to show how this influence inspires students to learn and how just learning about a countries culture will incite students to learn its language. Statistics speak for themselves in McGray’s article to communicate the difference that time and experience has on foreign

His audience consists to those who have the power to change education: education policymakers, parents, and educators. McGray reminds the audience that the lack of students learning another language is a problem and isn’t going away anytime soon. McGray starts his argument by holding a mirror up to the audience in the form of the anecdote of the clueless Christina, then builds his argument by using expert opinions to build the support for his issue. Finally, statistics are used to offer a comparison between time periods. McGray engages the audience by cleverly demonstrating the issue and proceeding to explain why things need to change. The audience is the key to this change, teachers can incorporate unconventional subjects in lesson plans as McGray shows with the example of Eugene Astilla (). According to McGray, America needs more students to learn about multiple cultures and languages as it will be vital to their future. It will be help in careers overseas and in making or breaking deals in government. It would be beneficial to learn from other countries to better our own. McGray successfully demonstrates that even though the problem of lack of languages spoken in America has been presented many times before in the past, doesn’t mean it has to stay a current issue of