"When Will We Learn?" by Fareed Zakaria

Excerpt from news journal response:

I hope to teach some day. That being said, the topic of education reform truly interests me, and I was particularly intrigued by this article because I had hoped it would provide some new ideas on the subject. Though Fareed Zakaria is a highly respected journalist and news analyst, I was somewhat disappointed by his article. Although well-written and seemingly more relevant than other pieces on the issue (with a nod to Steve Jobs), there wasn't anything original about the author's arguments. In providing numerous statistics and quotes about reputable sources, you would think Zakaria would offer a new perspective and, perhaps, a new solution to the education crisis.

The body of Zakaria's essay focuses on his main argument: Americans must 'work harder' and hire better teachers. Not only did I think these so-called solutions were platitudes of the political elite, but they weren't successful in supporting an authentic, strong claim. Zakaria also alienates students who do, in fact, 'work hard,' as well as teachers who didn't graduate in the bottom half of the class. He further weakens his argument by pointing to a study (which he didn't bother to cite) that claims "...if black students had a top-quartile teacher rather than a bottom-quartile teacher four years in a row, that would be enough to close the black-white test-score gap." What an offensive, antiquated comparison! I'm not naive. I know that socioeconomic gaps tend to effect some racial groups more than others, but I was highly disturbed by this statement.

In terms of appealing to his audience, Zakaria made many mistakes. His stance is very well-founded, but, as he conceded in the introduction, it is nothing original. The elevated diction and varied sentence structures appeal to an educated audience, but generalizations and assumptions greatly detract from his claims. It's a good thing he was able to inspire our patriotism in the conclusion.