Savage Inequalities: Education In The 21st Century

Schools in the 21st century are supposed to embrace the ideas of collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. Educators have allowed previous skills such as handwriting and spelling to fall to the wayside as computers have become a commonplace in the public sector. The question looming over the heads of all education experts is how to balance the use of technology, critical thinking, student passion, and problem solving while trying to raise the United States’ current international standing in education. In order to make education meaningful to the students teachers need to find a way to effectively integrate technology into their lessons while still fostering critical thinking. In the 21st century it is imperative that

Jonathan Kozol author of Savage Inequalities: Children in America 's Schools and recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships explains that the educational system in America is not equal:

School are encompassed by two very different kinds of institutions that serve entirely different roles. Children in one set of schools are educated to be governors; children in the other set of schools are trained for being governed. The former are given the imaginative range to mobilize ideas; the latter are provided with the discipline to do the narrow tasks the first group will prescribe. (212) Kozol’s research supports the idea that if students are taught the value of hard work, problem solving, and determination they will be

In order to answer the question of how technology, critical thinking, problem solving, and student passion impact the education in American teachers should dissect the needs of the current generation. America has “a tendency to look around at what others are doing and use them as a standard of comparison” (Schwartz 21) but with education that is not acceptable. Policy makers and educators need to ensure that students receive a relevant education where rigor is paramount while embracing problem solving. Educators need to teach students to use technology responsibly as the internet is loaded with fake news, satire, and unsubstantiated facts that many have trouble weeding through. If teachers use technology correctly, they can give students more choice over their learning because “when people have no choice, life is unbearable”