Shor Reading

Empowering Education
By:  Ira Shor

"Can education develop as critical thinkers, skilled workers, and active citizens?"
-This is a very important question that needs to be thought about more.  I feel like a lot of kids go to school to just get the right answers and pass the standardized tests.  These tests should be reduced or judged differently than the are today.  There should be more creative thinking and less time spent worrying about the tests. 

"School funding is another political dimension of education, because more money has always been invested in the education of upper-class children and elite collegians than has been spent on students from lower-income homes and in community colleges"
I feel like this is extremely unfair.  The funding should be spread out evenly so that all of the kids have an equal opportunity to succeed.  Giving an advantage to the upper-class does not seem fair to children in low income homes.

"Elite prejudice against the language of everyday life also limits working-class, poor, and minority students in the United States mainland."
I do not think it is fair to be prejudice to someone because of the language they speak.  The person should not be put on the spot because they speak a different language.  They should just be able to go about their day like everyone else. 

I do think that education is political.  The money that schools receives is from the government.  Without this government funded money schools would not be able to operate the same way that they do today.  Standardized test are also a government issued item that comes up in schools.  These test make sure that the students are "staying on track" and learning what they are supposed to.  I do not agree with these because they seem to make the students close minded and lack creativity.  All they care about is the right answer, when these tests should focus more on different ways of solving the questions and relating the information to other information in class.