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Julian Mucha
Professor Thomas
UWRT 1102-017
23 November 2015
While composing this thesis I initially struggled with what sources I would utilize in the
composition of the thesis paper. I wanted to incorporate as many facts and credible sources that
would support my points that Americas education needs to improve. I also wanted to make sure
that I included the ways that other countries educate their students and combat problems in their
countries in order to achieve success and cement their places as dominant educational
powerhouses. The feedback I received at the peer conferences was very constructive and I sought
to use more sources besides Wagner to push my point across. I decided that my best course of
action was to simply pour my thoughts onto paper and work from there. I found this to be a very
effective strategy in order to combat writers block. I felt more comfortable as I wrote and simply
used more factually based sources to supplement my ideas and the direction in which I wanted to
take my paper.
Thesis
Education is a vital part of developing the youth in the United States. However, currently
the education system present in the United States is failing the countrys youth. The United
States is lagging behind countries such as Finland and Japan, two countries that are powerhouses
when it comes to educating the youth in their country. The policymakers in the United States
believe that the best way to educate our countrys students is to bombard them with tests in order
to improve our education relative to the rest of the world. For example, the 47th annual PDKGallup poll regarding Americans views on education in the United States found that 64% of

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Americans believe that there is too much of an emphasis put on standardized testing (Strauss).
The findings of the poll state that most Americans disagree with the policy that teachers should
be assessed based on the standardized test scores of their students. It also found that standardized
testing was the least important form of effectiveness. Also found to be very ineffective was the
Common Core, a plan to compare standardized test scores of students between the states.
Although the Common Core is not federally mandated, it does provide funding to states who
would rather receive federal funding for adopting these standards.
Innovation is also a very vital part to improving the state of an economy in a country.
People opposed to reforming our education system may say that the education provided in the
United States greatly encourages innovation in our nations children. Tony Wagner, a Harvard
Innovation Education Fellow, may disagree with this belief. According to research conducted by
Mr. Wagner, one of Americas key advantages, the ability to innovate, may be at risk as a result
of the education provided in our country (Swallow). He argues that instead of trying to fill the
heads of children with knowledge as our education is currently focused on, it should be focused
on developing innovation skills and a motivation to succeed. According to his book there are
seven skills that a student must develop in order to be a successful innovator. He lists them as
Critical thinking and problem solving (the ability to ask the right questions), collaboration
across networks and leading by influence, agility and adaptability, initiative and
entrepreneurialism, accessing and analyzing information, effective written and oral
communication, and curiosity and imagination. These points are thoroughly vital to teaching
our children how to be successful as citizens and as workers. The education system seems to
focus more on useless information rather than fostering growth as individuals and failing to

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properly prepare the students of the United States for their future. Innovation is pushed behind
key qualities such as innovation, creativity, as well as a hunger for success.
Wagner then goes on to identify five ways that Americas education is cutting down on
innovation. He states that individual achievement is the focus. Although most students spend a
majority of high school and college focused on improving their GPAs, the biggest importance is
should be an emphasis on teamwork he argues. He claims that innovation is a team sport. This
is a point that I can rally behind. All throughout high school and even so far in my tenure in
college, the biggest focus is on GPA. Nowhere else was GPA the biggest focus than applying for
college. One of the most key factors behind admissions to a university is the students GPA.
Innovation should be an effort performed by everyone in order to better our country as a whole.
Teamwork is also a very effective skill when it comes to todays work environment. Wagner then
claims that our educations focus on specialization should not rewarded as it is. He claims that
specialization should not be encouraged and argues that students should cross disciplinary
boundaries and exploring problems and their solutions from multiple perspectives. The ability
to look at a problem from various perspectives is a very useful tool when it comes to problem
solving. Specialization is in fact detrimental to utilizing multiple fields of learning and
innovation in order to approach a problem from various directions. Sometimes a problem
requires a fresh approach in order to properly solve it. Approaching a problem from the same
direction because that is the way one is taught to solve it due to a specialization can harm the
individual as opposed to an individual who uses a variety of approaches. Wagner then states that
risk aversion is the norm. Our education system seems to be terrified of making mistakes.
Mistakes can be seen as a plague in the learning community. Students may be terrified of
participating in a profound educational conversation for fear of making a mistake or being

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wrong. This is very problematic because some of our best learning comes from learning from
these very mistakes. Innovation as Wagner claims is grounded in taking risks and learning via
trial and error. Some of the most successful ideas have not been created from the first
opportunity but from a systematic streak of failing over and over again before the final idea
arises from the ashes of failure like a phoenix.
An article written by the New York Times Editorial Board strives to describe how some of
the best countries in terms of education approach providing education to the youth. According to
a survey conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, adults in
the United States scored a great deal below the other developed countries only beating out Italy
and Spain (The Editorial Board). The article then goes on to describe how Finland succeeds.
Finlands schools differs from the United States in various ways ranging from providing daily
hot meals; health and dental services; psychological counseling; and an array of services for
families and children in need (The Editorial Board). The curriculum also differs greatly from
the curriculum provided in the United States. In Finland, which possesses one of the most
difficult curriculums in the world requires students to learn physics, chemistry, biology,
philosophy, music, and at least two foreign languages (The Editorial Board). There is one area
where the United States and Finland differ drastically and that area has to deal with teachers.
Finland decided to professionalize the teaching job which in turn made it one of the most popular
jobs in the country (The Editorial Board). According to the article, the teaching programs recruit
from the top quarter of the graduating high school class, while in the United States a report by
the National Council on Teacher Quality referred to teacher preparation programs as being an
industry in mediocrity with only 10% of these programs having been labeled as high quality.
The Editorial Board also makes a point out of the difference in pay that these teachers receive.

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They go on to claim that teachers in Finland only receive slightly more in salary than the national
average, but their salaries can increase by one-third with 15 years of experience which is higher
than the salary provided in the United States. This shows that in Finland, teachers are treated
with a greater prestige than is presented to teachers here in the United States while also
compensating teachers in a just manner and requiring a heavy dose of academic credentials in
order to teach on the higher levels of the academic ladder.
Countries such as China and Canada have taken steps to combat elitism and the disparity
between schools when it comes to funding for supplies which are desperately needed to
supplement the education of our youth. While the United States refuses to utilize the capital
provided by its place as an economic superpower to properly fund underdeveloped schools and
to fight elitism in the public school system, China another economic superpower, is distributing
its capital is transferred to underfunded schools to provide an equal footing for all of the schools.
The city of Shanghai has even taken the steps of closing down some of the poorer schools,
reorganizing the school system and merging schools together while also having the higher
performing schools take over administrative duties over some of the lower performing schools
(The Editorial Board). Elitism has no place in our education system. No school should have a
greater advantage over another school due to extravagant resources and favoritism. No student
should be disadvantaged when it comes to learning because they were not allocated the same
advantages another school has received such as more qualified teachers. Every student has a
right to a quality education in the United States. It is time that we follow this ethical principle.
The example provided by the city of Shanghai is one that the United States should follow.

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Poverty places a significant role when it comes to providing students with the best quality
education. Unsurprisingly school systems with a higher income tend to garner a higher quality
education as opposed to schools with a lower income. The way that funding is made available to
school systems can also reveal this disparity even further. For example, in the United States
many school districts are reliant on property taxes in the area in order to fund the school system
which means that higher income areas have more funding made available to students (The
Editorial Board). In Canada however, the tax revenue is distributed to the various school districts
based on the size and the needs of each individual district (The Editorial Board). This system
ensures that the tax money allocated for education is not kept captive in higher income areas but
instead it is distributed fairly so that all schools are given an equal opportunity to succeed.
According to a federal report, 40% of American public school students live in concentrated
student poverty (The Editorial Board). An equal distribution of funding ensures that no district
will have a significant advantage given to them purely based on where the district is located in
relation to a higher income area. This plan would surely be able to be replicated here in the
United States. Both federal and state funding could certainly cover the costs for all districts if it
were to be distributed evenly based on need. A quality education is not one that is supposed to be
given to the richest of the richest but is a universal right in order to bolster the United States
economy as a result.
In an article published on the Atlantic by Julia Ryan, a former producer for
theAtlantic.com, she references the results of the Programme for International Student
Assessment in 2012 in which the United States ranked 26th out of 34 in terms of math. These
results are quite surprising when you take into consideration that the United States spends about
$115,000 per student while Slovakia which scored at a similar level to the United States spends

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$53,000 a year on average per student (Ryan). Poverty has always played a significant role in the
disparities between scores. According to the same report, the socio-economic differences have
also played a role in the below average math scores, with 15% of the score variation being
attributed to socio-economic differences among students. In contrast, countries such as Finland,
Hong Kong, Japan, and Norway had less than 10% of the variation in scores attributed to the
same socio-economic differences.
Yet another problem present in our education system has to deal with the fact that todays
education is training yesterdays students as stated by Scott Gerber, entrepreneur and writer for
Time. He goes to suggest that more resources should be allocated for developing more
entrepreneurs, which he claims is vital to supplementing our economy. He makes an especially
good point when he shows that our current K-12 system does not adequately educate students in
financial literacy or business, two sectors that are the driving forces behind business here in
America (Gerber). From personal experience, no core class or required program discussed
financial literacy or how to file income taxes. The only way that I was able to learn about
important financial concepts was to sign up for a principles of business and finance class which
is an elective course. Business and financial literacy are largely absent from the core educational
requirements in our society which is problematic when it comes to raising a generation of
entrepreneurs and businessmen. Even programs that strive to adjust this problem such as Junior
Achievement are underfunded (Gerber). In a survey conducted by Gerber, he found that of the
college students that he interviewed that 97% of those who responded found entrepreneurial
education to be very important, however only 38% were offered a class related to
entrepreneurship with 62% of students claiming that it was not adequate if they were to attempt
to run a business after they graduated (Gerber). Entrepreneurship is vital to the growth of the

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economy and if entrepreneurs are absent or afraid to start a business on their own, the economy
as a whole can suffer as a result. A vast majority of businesses present in the United States are
small businesses run by small time entrepreneurs trying to get it big. Programs which support
entrepreneurs and support financial literacy and understanding should be funded if the United
States is to remain a powerhouse in the world of business.
Our education system needs to change from a series of standardized tests and should
better encourage innovation in our country. There needs to be a focus on providing students an
equal playing field by distributing wealth to all who need the resources to learn. A student should
never be at a disadvantage educationally due to the fact that they live in a lower income
neighborhood. Policies such as the one being put into practice in Canada offers a fairly simple
solution to this problem. In terms of combating elitism, the city of Shanghai, China serves as an
excellent template. Shanghais willingness to close poor schools and consolidate the students into
the higher income schools is a great way to combat elitism in education where it has no place. An
importance and a respect for quality teachers is also paramount to the development of a quality
education system as is present in Finland where teachers are treated in a professional manner and
are compensated justly for their service to educating the youth of Finland. Tony Wagner of
Harvard has gone far to drive the point home that our education system is killing innovation by
standardizing students to think only about GPAs in a system where taking risks is gravely
discouraged, a skill which is vital to the eventual success of innovation. Only through education
and a focus on improving the individual will America finally be able to cement its place as a
dominant educational superpower in todays world.

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Works Cited
Board, The Editorial. "Why Other Countries Teach Better." The New York Times. The New York
Times, 17 Dec. 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
Gerber, Scott. "Here's the Real Problem With America's Educational System." Time. Time, 2
June 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
Ryan, Julia. "American Schools vs. the World: Expensive, Unequal, Bad at Math." The Atlantic.
Atlantic Media Company, 03 Dec. 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
Strauss, Valerie. "Poll: Most Americans Oppose Key Tenets of Modern School
Reform." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 23 Aug. 2015. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.
Swallow, Erica. "Creating Innovators: Why America's Education System Is Obsolete." Forbes.
Forbes Magazine, 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.