 #1 (permalink) Wed Aug 31, 2011 1:13 am Analyze an Issue Essay |
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Hello, I am needing some help discovering what I need to improve on my essays. Any feed back is appreciated. This an Analyze an Issue prompt that was done in about 30 minutes.
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| Issue: The issue of a national curriculum is one that has been debated from many decades. With education a primary concern of many parents, employers, and politicians, it has not lost its controversy.While it is true that requiring students to follow a national curriculum can have downsides, in general the benefits of such program outweigh any disadvantages. |
Although some interests argue otherwise, instead believing it a weakness of the system, a standardized curriculum for students would help create a more unified culture and society by presenting its members a shared history. If all students learn the same history, it is perceivable to believe that they will have stronger links to each other because they share something. A good example of this is Germany. Before 1872, what is now Germany was for hundreds of years a collection of small states and principalities who all had seperate allegiances and laws. After it was unified, it was one of the first states to create a national curriculum in order to prepare the next generation to protect the state, not just militarily but intectually and culturally. This it did, sometimes with devastating effect, but the point stands that Germany after instituting a national standard for schools became a more powerful state and society.
One of the greatest examples to show a disadvantage of this system is also Germany because it presents an important caveat in providing a national curriculum: it should not be abused. The curriculum is not to be used as a tool of aggression, as it was in the early 20th century. Both in World War I and World War II, schools in Germany were teaching their students the virtues of warfare through slanted views on history, geography, and literature. The logic behind this is clear, they wanted more motivated warriors and citizens to help them win their conflicts. But this thinking only does the state a disservice in the end. A national curriculum instead should be used to better society by creating a more informed populace. Teaching them heavily in warfare and motivating them to extreme patriotism through biased history only leaves them and society hurting when the task of living a normal life begins.
While clearly a national curriculum does have its disadvantages, it could be abused by political leaders and educators, the overall benefits of a stronger state, and if used correctly a more educated society are clear. The argument for providing one to a nation is valid and should procede. |
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Timodeus
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Liu Yiqing