Essays on Paul Goodman

The education policy history of the United States has come a long way from its early beginnings. Fostering education has been a state function from the conception of the first constitution and is referred to as compulsory attendance. In order to fully implement the law on compulsory education, different laws have also been penned down with the purpose of finding solutions to fully implement the education law taking into consideration the background and economic status of the students. Bilingual laws, homeschooling, and ensuring access to public schools are just some strategies that have been implemented to ensure that all have access ...

There have been debates on whether education should be made mandatory in the United States of America or not. A hard reality has hit the Americans that their lead role in terms of literacy levels is slowly being watered down in favor of countries such as China and India that have really embraced compulsory education for their citizens. Therefore, the citizens from such nations are giving the US labor force a run for their money. This is not only linked to their skills in doing routine work but also their capability of analyzing and coming up with critical solutions to ...

Outline

I. Introduction: There have been debates on whether compulsory education should be adopted in the United States. II. Thesis: Compulsory education should be adopted in the United States III. Background Information: Compulsory education is a government policy requiring citizens falling within a certain age bracket to attend formal system of education. IV. Acknowledgement of counterarguments Those who have taken position contrary to compulsory education argue that it denies students ability to develop their own skills and talents. However, this is conditional depending on the flexibility of the education system. V. Reason #1: Forcing children to ...

Two Simple Proposals

Even after his death in 1962, Paul Goodman was remembered by the whole of America due to his contributions in various fields, especially in education. He was a vocal critique of the American kind of education, such that he looked for a way to change the system. He felt that the current system was not serving the need of the students but was just programming them to be what other people wanted them to be, rather than what they aspired to be (Friedebberg, 10). He therefore wrote a book entitled ‘Mis-Education’ in which he suggested two simple proposals of reforming the education ...