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Michael Moore's Idiot Nation

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As Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Education provides essential information for surviving, without learning there would be no progress in the world. Being a privileged child growing up, I always attended well attained schools with limitless opportunities, but after reading essays such as, “Idiot Nation” by Oscar winning film writer and author, Michael Moore, and an American critical thinker, Jean Anyon with her essay “From the Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” and seeing through the eyes of Mike Rose, a professor at UCLA who grew up in a struggling background, in the essay “I Just Wanna Be Average”. I quickly began to realize …show more content…

In the essay “Idiot Nation”, Moore conveys the idea of how in today’s generation education diminishes the drive for learning because of budget cuts, creating a lack of student passion towards the subjects. His example of America’s lack of desire for improving their educational backround can be seen in this statistics, “99 hours a year an average American adult spends reading a book – compared with 1,460 hours watching television” (Moore 123). According to Moore, all Americans create themselves in being “ignorant” and “stupid” when it comes to basic knowledge. However, throughout Moore’s essay the reader may question the validity of what he says because of his sarcastic and domineering tone towards the “stupidity” of all Americans. The U.S does not prioritize education, and Moore provides legitimate facts that support the underfunded school systems. Schools decrease learning material by allowing “70 percent of those who graduate from America’s colleges are not required to learn a foreign language” overall limiting all American college graduates by only speaking one language opposed to the rest of the world being able to speak multiple languages. The government underfunds teacher’s salary’s, therefore, having no motivation to do their best in inspiring the future generations to become successful limits our society as a whole. One of Moore’s best points to support the lack of governmental intervention on education can be seen in the money the government spends on their own officials, such as a Congressman who makes around “$145,100” compared to the “average teacher salary of $41,351” (Moore 129). Moore’s essay may be a bit extreme and over exaggerated, but the facts he includes makes his essay very important. He gives the reader access to very important information many Americans would

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In the book, “Rereading America,” written by Toni Cade Bambara along with Gary Colombo and Robert Cullen, Bambara focuses on the challenges and desire to teach by contras of what you don’t have and what you can achieve. (Bambara, pg. 253-259) It is without doubt that even though a cookie cutter theory is used in most schools; there will be certain social economical neighborhoods in which a teacher or adult will have to vary the process of communication in order to get his or her point across with dedication and teach the love for learning. Ms. Moore had been a wise educated woman who did not avoid the challenging attitudes of children going up in a disadvantaged economical community.

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Leonid Fridman characterizes the typical American mindset this makes the text easily understood and relatable for the readers. Because the problem at hand is mainly geared toward Americans he brings up the fact that, “In most industrialized nations, not least of all of our economic rivals in East Asia, a kid who studies hard is lauded and held up as an example to other students.” He is showing the reader that in other countries they praise the children for their academic efforts unlike the US that use derogatory language like “nerd” and “geek” when referring to the academically achieving people. He also compares the jobs of individuals from other countries to show the divide between the American mindset and the mindset around the world. Fridman states “In many parts of the world university professorships are the most prestigious and materially rewarding positions but not in America…” Friedman says this so the readers are aware of the rift between America and other countries of the world especially their view of intellectual

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Steven Singer attempts to contradict the narrative presented by many right wing politicians that claim the American school system is failing in his article, “U.S. Public Schools Are Not Failing. They’re Among The Best In The World” (Huffington Post February 13 2017). In this piece Singer works to argue the claims that have been made against the US public school system; he defends the system by listing the various positives in the system, and exercises pathos by shining light on how America guarantees the right of education to all students regardless of social class or race; Singer uses this point throughout the article by justifying the fact that our test scores are not up to par with other countries by reiterating the fact that because we

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Education Reality in America “All systems of the society are meant to serve the mind, not the mind to serve the systems,” by Abhijit Naskar. The Rhetorical situation in the essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid” by Jonathan Kozol happens to be the differences in school systems by ethnicity rates. It is interpreted by the speaker that minority races are shown by the government they are not equally important because they have a lack of funding, old school buildings, and only are introduced to the races they see every day unlike the white schools who are introduced to various ethnic groups. The readers would refer to the speaker as passionate about the government making an effort to fix the school

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Levine claims that these children are looking up to gang members and drug dealers as a way of life, knowing that their are no educational requirements to fulfill these positions (20). These poor students are simply seeing school as a must do for the time being, and not seeing the the value of the education they could be receiving if they had a better role model to look up to. Similarly, Graff asserts that students are not connecting with Shakespeare or the French Revolution, these students do not value the information because it does not pertain to them; However, sports, fashion or dating interests these students and have values to them (245). Schools and colleges are not connecting the dots.

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Barber uses logic in arguing for mass public education, quoting two of the most influential founders of our democracy, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Barber knows that in a democracy, the people decide what is best for the nation, and if the nation is uneducated they will make the wrong decisions. Jefferson and Adams warn about those “tyrannies” of an uneducated society, which is why Barbers claims are truthful that education allows people to “think critically and act with deliberation”(6). To answer the question of how a society achieves equality and opportunity for its citizens, one should totally disregard William A. Henry’s callous remarks and illegitimate claims in his essay, “In Defense of Elitism.” His reasoning for selective educational opportunities tries to divide our country, which will discriminate individuals, amplify class

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It is evident that political leaders have become blinded by power and money, that they have become ignorant towards important matters such as the education system. The country needs to shift its focus onto things that actually matter, not things that allow an illiterate person to lead a successful life in this country, such as technology. Moore has done an excellent job of expressing deep concern for the upcoming generations. American society needs to reevaluate its priorities and reset its standards in order to excel as a country.

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The idea of classroom causing problems for America’s society is elaborated when President Johnson explains that many children in America don’t have enough money to afford school. “There your children’s lives will be shaped. Our society will not be great until every young mind is set free to scan the farthest reaches of thought and imagination.” In order for a society to be great, education is the foundation; schools are where child learn about their world, and what it is they will do in the future to earn money to live a good life. And to better prove his idea Johnson states, “Each year more than 100,000 high school graduates, with proved ability, do not enter college because they cannot afford it,” then questions what will happen in years when time has become elapsed to conclude any efforts are needed to come into play for there to be a Great Society.

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Throughout history, rules and/ or the church commissioned work to control the masses, giving them visual rules and regulations on how they should live to make it to heaven. I feel Moore is taking somewhat of an opposite approach where he is displaying his disgust to those who are trying to manipulate and control society. Moore is bringing attention to the fact that Texas, one of the biggest history book suppliers for public education, has been altering our history for years. History as we’ve been taught isn’t exactly what happened, instead it is what the authors and publishers want history to be. In an education foundation course I took, we studied this extensively; the history we know is not the history of the United States, instead it is the history per Texas.

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