A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college.

Essay topics:

A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college.

The author suggests that a nation should set a standardized, national curriculum that all students will follow--from the start of their education in elementary school until they graduate high school to go to college. For the sake of clarity, I assume that adopting the same national curriculum means setting strict standards on which classes students are required to take, with little to no room to take different classes aside from what is prescribed. I take issue with such a sweeping statement that would impose the a common set of requirements for all students, and I think that there is no need to set a strict national curriculum for all students.

While it is important for all students to have access to a well-rounded education, with access to the basic maths, social sciences, and arts, it is crucial for students to explore topics which they find most interesting. When students take the time to branch out to take extracurricular classes which they find most interesting, they have a much higher chance of future success. A 2010 study from Columbia University found that high school students who took at least one AP-level STEM class were much more likely to be accepted into a university for study in a STEM field. If students are not allowed this freedom of exploration in study in middle school and high school, then they will be much less likely to be confident in what to study when entering college.

Furthermore, setting a single national curriculum is an ardous task to take on. The people who set the curriculum may decide on a very biased education. If the curriculum entails that students must take high-level math classes and eschew history lessons, the result may be a generation of people who are not well-educated in history and a whole set of unfilled jobs which require knowledge of history.

Moreover, the author's argument makes a very large assumption in that all students will be going to college. While the rates of student enrollment in undergraduate degrees has been steadily rising in the US, there is a plethora of careers in high demand which do not need a college education. Students who are interested in careers in high-demand fields such as plumbing will not enjoy the benefit of a national curriculum which is focused on funneling students into college.

However, if we assume that the above points were proven to be wrong, then the author's argument could potentially provide a more level playing field for college admissions. When the curriculum is set to be equal for all students, then it is easier for the students to know what they have to do in order to get into college. Unfortunately, this case may lead to it's own problems, where students seek to differentiate themselves from their peers through means such as taking extra courses of study outside of the high school system. This could lead to wealthy students having an even more unfair advantage of college admission.

The idea of a single national curriculum could be beneficial given a certain set of conditions, but following my arguments above, I believe that it is in the student's best intention to have freedom in their course of study.

Votes
Average: 5.4 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 516, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'a' is left.
Suggestion: the; a
... a sweeping statement that would impose the a common set of requirements for all stud...
^^^^^
Line 13, column 15, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...nowledge of history. Moreover, the authors argument makes a very large assumption ...
^^^^^^^
Line 17, column 79, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...oints were proven to be wrong, then the authors argument could potentially provide a mo...
^^^^^^^
Line 21, column 159, Rule ID: THE_SUPERLATIVE[4]
Message: A determiner is probably missing here: 'students the best'.
Suggestion: students the best
...ents above, I believe that it is in the students best intention to have freedom in their cour...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, furthermore, however, if, may, moreover, so, then, well, while, at least, i think, such as

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.5258426966 128% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.4196629213 121% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 14.8657303371 40% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 24.0 11.3162921348 212% => Less relative clauses wanted (maybe 'which' is over used).
Pronoun: 35.0 33.0505617978 106% => OK
Preposition: 79.0 58.6224719101 135% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 12.9106741573 93% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2642.0 2235.4752809 118% => OK
No of words: 534.0 442.535393258 121% => OK
Chars per words: 4.94756554307 5.05705443957 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.80712388197 4.55969084622 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.76482447418 2.79657885939 99% => OK
Unique words: 247.0 215.323595506 115% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.462546816479 0.4932671777 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 817.2 704.065955056 116% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59117977528 94% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 6.24550561798 112% => OK
Article: 6.0 4.99550561798 120% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 3.10617977528 225% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.77640449438 169% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.38483146067 46% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 20.2370786517 89% => OK
Sentence length: 29.0 23.0359550562 126% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 52.2272160733 60.3974514979 86% => OK
Chars per sentence: 146.777777778 118.986275619 123% => OK
Words per sentence: 29.6666666667 23.4991977007 126% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.27777777778 5.21951772744 101% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 4.97078651685 121% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 7.80617977528 51% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 10.2758426966 88% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 5.13820224719 117% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.83258426966 62% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.35485943604 0.243740707755 146% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.11500861972 0.0831039109588 138% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0782613209005 0.0758088955206 103% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.177920773667 0.150359130593 118% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.078038718044 0.0667264976115 117% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.7 14.1392134831 118% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.5 48.8420337079 103% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.1743820225 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.02 12.1639044944 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.21 8.38706741573 98% => OK
difficult_words: 106.0 100.480337079 105% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 19.0 11.8971910112 160% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.6 11.2143820225 121% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.7820224719 119% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 54.17 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.25 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.