Analysis Of Leon Botstein's Critique Of American High Schools
864 Words4 Pages
Devin Kolarac
Williams
AP English
6 October 2014 p163, Question 1
Write an essay explaining whether you agree with Leon Botstein’s critique of the American high school.
The current American educational system is broken and must be rebuilt. Botstein’s evaluation of the American high school is accurate. The typical school environment experienced by students has hurt several classes of students dating back to the 1990s. American high school’s hurt students by having these groups within the educational system. Along with this, Botstein argues that the American high school is too lengthy, causing students to be impatient for graduation. Students are forced into an educational institute for seven hours a day, 180 days a year, while becoming less motivated in life. However, Botstein does propose a fix to end this problem. Botstein begins his article by talking about the outrageous shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. He links the cause of this tragic event to how students are interacting in schools. There is…show more content… “Too many opportunities have been lost and too much time has been wasted” in the yeas of education required to graduate. While in the process of maturing, students today spend a good portion of their life waking up 7 in the morning to attend lectures for hours a day. It has been proven that young people have been maturing significantly faster than they did in the 20th century. This change in maturity calls for reform. Requiring students to wait until they are eighteen to graduate causes them to lose interest in education. America would produce smarter, more attentively motivated students if the time frame of public schooling was shortened. People today endure thirteen years of required education even after they become matured young adults. The system has been producing less motivated students as time goes on, due to the long, wasted years of