…and i’ll find me a soapbox where i can shout it

In looking through my Google Reader, I came across a link to an article from the February 23 Grand Rapids Press that was mentioned in the educational blog edspresso.  The article deals with an issue that has been one of our country’s biggest political debates, in the context of No Child Left Behind – State vs. Federal Rights.  NCLB obviously advocates federal power when it comes to education, but is this an issue that should be left for the states?  U.S. Representative Peter Hoekstra believes it is.

Hoekstra plans on introducing legislation that would put education back in the hands of the states, making NCLB irrelevant.  Although he doesn’t think this type of legislation has a chance, Hoekstra is raising awareness of the issue he feels so strongly about.

“Education has always been under local and parental control. We want to empower the states so they can say, ‘We’re going to be responsible for the state education…’”.

I think that his argument is so simple that it can be overlooked.  If education is left in control of the states, they would perhaps be able to spend less time trying to conform to the standards of the country and more time improving their educational system on a local level.  The whole argument for state over federal rights stems from the idea that although we are all united, each state is very different from the next.  Should education requirements be universal throughout such a diverse nation?

There is a strong concern that education is replacing skills such as creativity and critical thinking with “how to pass a test” skills.  Holland Curriculum Director Phil Schlemmer was quoted in the article saying, “We’re all going to be there. The question is, is anybody going to be at the right place?”  It seems there are many concerned with the idea that much of the country could be successful in changing its educational policies to better conform to NCLB, yet after everything students will still not actually be receiving a better education, or sadly an even worse one.   

In a way, it seems that NCLB gives a lot of the responsibility to the states as it stands today.  After all, the standards and benchmarks that teachers have become so familiar with were determined by the states.  I can, however, understand the frustration from local educators struggling to meet the demands of an overgeneralized system that does not take the diverse status of our nation into as much consideration.  Although the states do possess some power, overall I think NCLB can only be effective as federal legislation by shifting most of its power back to the states.

It turns out that eating McDonald’s for every meal of the day is not healthy for you.  This sounds pretty obvious, yet watching Morgan Spurlock indulge himself in Super Size Me to prove a point that we all already knew is entertaining nonetheless.  The movie is more generally about obesity in the United States, but Spurlock focuses on the fast food industry, using McDonald’s as the face of unnatural chicken and fries that never seem to go bad.

 I think that using a film such as Super Size Me in a classroom can have a very influential effect on student writing.  Spurlock takes an issue that is largely ignored in America and raises awareness of this problem in a very creative way.  If you are like me, after watching Super Size Me you told yourself that you are never going to eat fast food again.  Now I am sure that I will, because in the society we find ourselves in it is tough not to fall back on old habits (as Spurlock, although maybe unintentionally, shows in this film), but I am certain that I will be eating fast food a lot less.  The power of influence is at work here; one man with one idea made something that has made so many people question their eating habits.  If students can become as passionate about an issue or something in their lives as Spurlock demonstrates in this film, their writing can be used as a tool for displaying their thoughts.

What Spurlock does in this film should raise many questions.  For example, how would things have been different if he had exercised?  Is this a fair assessment of American society?  Can we really believe everything that we are seeing?  Since the success of Super Size Me, McDonald’s has gotten rid of the Super Size option, and issued a statement calling Super Size Me “a super-sized distortion of the quality, choice, and variety available at McDonald’s.”  I think that these are issues that students should be asked to look at as well.  What kind of editing decisions would a filmmaker make when trying to sway an audience one way or another?  Is it even possible for any type of media to report anything without being influenced by those in power? 

Not only can Super Size Me be used as a vehicle to show how one person can really make a difference, but also as an example to look into deeper societal issues and question the information that we are presented with every day of our lives.  Plus students will actually be entertained through all of this – not a bad combination.

References:  Big Mac Counterattack by David Edelstein