Underworked American
The Underworked American
Dear Editor,
After having read the ‘Underworked American’, I find that this article was very one sided. Even though you might have expected that, given from the title. I think that this should not just criticize the one country, but should explore the faults of other countries with their work/education and perhaps compare them. Although not everything Lexington talks about is false, as he seems to support certain views with only half-truths.
First of all I think that a lot of the opinions are stated like facts, for example, stating that students during the summer who don’t have a wealthy lifestyle will more likely end up with the situation of having ‘SLL’ (student learning loss). It is said that because of the amount of limited wealth they cannot afford the material needed to help them study during the summer. You then go on to talk about how some of the students with more wealth would perhaps end up with ‘SLG,’ student learning gain, saying that they can achieve this because they can afford the material. However, just because one does not have the finance to buy more material to study with during the summer, does not mean the one can’t study with the material that is already at their disposal, or give just as much effort.
Even when Lexington does compare some continents, for example Europe to America, he claims that Europe has less working hours but much longer school hours. However, stating that American children are doing even less work, even though in a later paragraph it mentions how many school days there are in different countries each year. However, compared to the school hours, with amount of lessons per-day and the various teaching methods done in each country, the results of each school in different countries will be different.
Although in the next paragraph it does mention the number of school hours, and also compares them with different countries. This is the only solid amount of facts that are stated
Dear Editor,
After having read the ‘Underworked American’, I find that this article was very one sided. Even though you might have expected that, given from the title. I think that this should not just criticize the one country, but should explore the faults of other countries with their work/education and perhaps compare them. Although not everything Lexington talks about is false, as he seems to support certain views with only half-truths.
First of all I think that a lot of the opinions are stated like facts, for example, stating that students during the summer who don’t have a wealthy lifestyle will more likely end up with the situation of having ‘SLL’ (student learning loss). It is said that because of the amount of limited wealth they cannot afford the material needed to help them study during the summer. You then go on to talk about how some of the students with more wealth would perhaps end up with ‘SLG,’ student learning gain, saying that they can achieve this because they can afford the material. However, just because one does not have the finance to buy more material to study with during the summer, does not mean the one can’t study with the material that is already at their disposal, or give just as much effort.
Even when Lexington does compare some continents, for example Europe to America, he claims that Europe has less working hours but much longer school hours. However, stating that American children are doing even less work, even though in a later paragraph it mentions how many school days there are in different countries each year. However, compared to the school hours, with amount of lessons per-day and the various teaching methods done in each country, the results of each school in different countries will be different.
Although in the next paragraph it does mention the number of school hours, and also compares them with different countries. This is the only solid amount of facts that are stated