This essay is a combination of two different sections contributing to the same strain of research. The purpose of the research and the research question are provided. The following section of the essay is a literature review of the information pertinent to the subject. The subject is the efficacy of public schooling.
Education Research
It appears that the school systems are failing here in America. Every year test score trend downward as a continual new stream of information floods into the public consciousness. More schooling and more intensive schooling efforts have shown little if any progress in recent decades and before any more money or energy is thrown at these problems indiscriminately, a tactical pause to contemplate the situation seems in order.
New problems arise everyday in the schooling system as the complexity of the world increases seemingly exponentially. The purpose of this research is to take a view point that steps back at the situation and looks at general trends and questions the very purposes of compulsory school. To do this properly it is necessary to take an unbiased and objective reexamination of the efficacy of public schooling.
By all measurable standards of decency, it appears American society is in some sort of decline or devolution. The problem is that no one wants to truly accept responsibility for one's own actions and a society of over-dependency and blame have riddled our cooperative attempts of relating to one another. It is therefore necessary to locate the place where many individuals of the society receive their intellectual and community programming: public schools.
The public education system is long overdue for a more progressive and aggressive standpoint in dealing with the problems of society. What we are taught in school often sticks with us for many years, if not a lifetime, and ignoring the benefits of a massive overhaul of this system is not honest, fair or prudent. While it is simple for tenured teaching professionals to ignore the problems and hold out until their pension begins to arrive, a real provocative and insightful inquisition into the schooling problems must be on everyone's interest list, young and old.
Research Questions
1. Is public schooling harming our society?
This is a very difficult question to ask ourselves as it demonstrates that infallibility of our own intellectual processes and shows that what we thought was always right may, in fact not be the case. Indicators of a strong nation, are seemingly absent in society as the health, spiritual presence and productive output of this collective nation seems to be dangerously diminishing as noted by the standards and quality of life evidence in the last twenty years. Constant war and fear blanket the public discussion portraying a dysfunctional family at a macrocosmic and national level.
This question is a general attempt at gathering a qualitative understanding of what's wrong with public school system. To do this, it is important to both gather existing data based on empirical examples to demonstrate the case that public schooling as an overall detrimental effect on the way people live and make a living. To help qualify some of this data, surveys or questionnaires can be randomly assigned to any members within the public school system. Other more precise and guided surveys can also be administered to other members of society. Investigations into alternative methods of education should also be introduced to provide some context and possible solutions or answers to the research question.
Ultimately this is a fact finding mission that attempts to breakdown and eliminate some taboos associated with self-evaluation and understanding. The temptation is far too great to believe that the school system is a great institution that has produced fine results and upstanding citizens. It is possible the emperor has no clothes and hard questions must be addressed to the overall purpose of the system, its methods and its direction. Society is responsible for its own survival and changing a course of action is difficult in the face of such pressures.
Literature Review
Boli, Ramieriez & Meyer (1985) provide firm groundwork for this topic as they discussed the history and origins of mass education as it has unfolded within American society. Their work explored the varying roots of the impulses behind mass education and the social theories that apply to these beginnings. The different inputs such as war, politics, eugenics, and human behavior are all incorporated in this work. This literature will help give background to the answering the question of the harmful effects of public education. Understanding the roots of our behavior are essential in understanding the present condition that the public school systems are currently experiencing.
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