Counterpoints of Michael Moore’s Idiot Nation

作者从这篇文章中，得知穆尔米迦勒透露了一个令人震惊的真相，关于如何在美国美国的文盲人口是惊人的。有人指出，超过四千万名美国人在美国不能够读或写上第四年级的水平。这一大群人是功能性文盲。

I have read an article titled Idiot Nation written by Michael Moore. From this article, Michael Moore has revealed a stunning truth about how illiterate the whole population in the United States of America is. It is stated that more than forty million citizens in Americans are not able to read or write above the fourth-grade level. And this large group of people is functional illiterates. 

Besides, what Michael Moore is concerned about is not only the group of people who are unable to write. The problem is that a lot of “well-educated” Americans would not bother to read a daily newspaper that is beyond the funny pages. Michael Moore has stated his doubt about how come a nation full of people that are incapable of reading can rule the world. Even the former president of the United States is mocked at. 

I personally disagree with Michael Moore for his extreme accusation about the American citizens’ illiteracy and the leaders’ indifferent attitudes about that. In the end, he has stated that the politicians and pundits are more responsible than educators for the poor performances. However, I would not agree that politicians and pundits are more responsible for the poor education because this is a big problem which cannot be blamed on a single individual. 

The poor education is the most significant topic that is frequently discussed in today’s society. A lot of other factors and people should be held accountable for the deterioration of education, including the parents who pay the large amount of tuition for the institutions, the society that has influences on students every second and even the student himself.  

 According to Dough Asma who started the IEARN project, he had mentioned that educators are the people who offer students the way to learn knowledge or to correct their false ideas. It is the school’s responsibility to hire qualified teachers who possess the experience and capacities to understand what students really need. (Net 1 )The problem of many American educators is that they simply imitate other countries’ teaching methods no matter whether they are advanced or illogical. In the end, students are put in confuse. (Banta, Trudy. W, 8) I believe that the person who is close to students, which means the educator is more responsible for the students’ education. Although in the article Idiot Americans, Michael Moore had mentioned that the uneducated president even proudly “encouraged” the students to be a mediocre student. It is mentioned that in one of speeches, he told the students in pride that he was the C students but he became the President of the United States. Apparently, from the perspective of the author Michael Moore, the former president had actually led the public to believe that as long as a person has belief and a strong will, he is able to guide the whole nation. However, what Michael Moore has concluded is gone too extreme. In my opinion, the former president made such a statement is because it is every adult’s to make sure the mediocre students should not feel diffident about their performances at school. In fact, the majority of students in the society are just mediocre. Most of them could not ace in exam and most of the educated fellows in a society could not point out a small nation of Europe on the map. However, I believe the principles of judging a student should not be based on his or her academic achievement or how many states he or she can name on the world map. 

According to Joe Cuseo, scholar from Marymount College, from his research Student Success: Definition, Outcomes, Principles and Practices, he mentioned that the best way to measure whether a student is successful can be concluded in several points. (Joe Cuseo, 5) For example, personal validation, self-efficacy, sense of purpose, active involvement, reflective thinking, social integration and self-awareness. 

Michael Moore had accused that a lot of presidents and politicians had set up a bad example for the students since they are also ignorant of many geographical, chemical or physical knowledge. For example, it is mentioned that President Ronal Reagan’s nominee for deputy secretary of state William Clark lacked the knowledge about foreign affairs at his confirmation hearing. “Clark had no idea how our allies in Western Europe felt about having American nuclear missiles based there and did not know the names of prime minister of South Africa or Zimbabwe.” Clearly, According to Michael Moore, these presidents should be held accountable for the citizens’ illiteracy just because he is not informed of the names of African presidents. Nevertheless, the responsibilities of politicians have in fact gone beyond remembering the names of different prime ministers and recognizing different islands from a map. Because honestly, except for geologists, the rest of us are only layman and are only able to tell where America or China is. According to Roles and Responsibilities of Politicians and Bureaucrats, the fundamental and basic principle that is guiding politicians and leaders is that of committing their full efforts to make sure they can realize public interest. (Ambrose, Stephen, 19) 

Besides, Michael Moore has also pointed fingers at the constant bombing of large amount of entertainment show from the media, saying that it is exactly these entertainment shows with uneducated host that had made a bad influence on students. According to Michael Moore, when more than five hundreds excellent students from prestigious American universities were handed the test that was thought to be high-school level, only half of them can answer them. Also, when students are asked to answer when the civil war took place, most of them could not answer them. However, when the questions about pop stars or pop singers were asked, about ninety percent of students immediately know the answer. For this serious matter, the entertainment shows had taken the blame because of Michael Moore. However, entertainment show is just one of the important forms that citizens rely on in order to have fun. What matters most for students’ success are only the teachers since teachers are the most influential school-based factor in influencing educational outcomes. Last year, some economists at Harvard University have released a study. This study is about the effectiveness of teachers on the students’ success and life outcomes. They had made the conclusion that usually, those students who have the most effective teachers stand a big chance of attending good colleges and earning more salaries. Also, many parents have complained the problem of having bad teachers in school who need to be firing. It is estimated that firing the worse ten percent of teachers can significantly improve educational outcomes. However, none of these measures had been mentioned to be taken. Therefore, to improve students’ ability, it is important to improve the teachers’ quality. As we can see, improving the crop of teaching talent can certainly affect educational outcomes in a positive manner. As a result, it is the educational bureau’s duty and the school H.R. managers’ duty to get rid of unqualified teachers. What is more, it is also essential to attract more talented individuals to the teaching profession. A lot of talented people are not willing to teach in school, believing that teaching job is way below their ability. However, it shall be noted that ordinary citizens have this notion because schools are not willing to provide teachers with a higher level of salary and other prestige just like the lawyers, engineers and other high level jobs. 

It is indeed unfair to put the blames on politicians for the poor performances of students. Politicians bear the responsibilities of running a state or a country, dealing with matters of citizens’ welfare, foreign policies and the war against corruption. When it comes to the poor performances of American’s education, a bigger blame shall be put on the staff in educational bureau, the members in schools and especially the administrators of universities. Since it is a known fact that many teachers are unqualified, it is necessary for the administrators to spend money on teacher training programs, so that teachers can be effective the moment they begin their first class in a school and it would not take a few years to wait till they can enter into the profession. 

Besides, in Michael Moore’s Idiot American, the duty of parents have never been mentioned. Throughout the articles, the author has been blaming the negligence of politicians, the poor funding of school libraries and how the widespread entertainment shows erupted students. However, parents are the one who spend most of time with students after they finish school. It is in fact their duties to support them to be self reliant, hard working and to make a big effort to get the best performance level. 

To conclude, Michael Moore’s point of view is biased. The one that is blamed for students’ poor performances should not only be the politicians, leaders and or the hosts from the entertainment shows. of course, the government indeed should establish better conditions to guarantee better education and the government should work hard to complete its obligations. A lot of problems should be addressed, such as the problem of the absence of security, absence of encouragement of the teachers, which means low salary and poor welfare. Also, the school and teachers are to blame as well. It is necessary to hire more qualified teachers and invest more money in the teacher training programs. In the end, the parents’ duties cannot be neglected because parents spend the most time with students and they are basically the role models for them. The improvement of students’ academic success depends on many factors. Besides, a student’s success should not only be judged by his academic knowledge as well. 

Reference:
Banta, Trudy. W, 2007, Assessing Student Achievement in General Education:Assessment Update Collections, John Wiley & Sons
Cuseo, Joe, Student Success: Definition, Outcomes, Principles and Practices, Marymount College 
Ambrose, Stephen E.2013, Nixon, Vol. 1: The Education of a Politician, 1913-1962, Premier Digital Publishing

Net One: Measuring a Teacher’s Effectiveness Goes Beyond Test Scores
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teacher-effectiveness-measuring-test-scores-elena-aguilar 


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