"A nation should require all its students to study the same national curriculum until they entercollege rather than allow schools in different parts of the nation to determine which academiccourses to offer."

Essay topics:

"A nation should require all its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter
college rather than allow schools in different parts of the nation to determine which academic
courses to offer."

The speaker would prefer a national curriculum for all children up until college instead of
allowing schools in different regions the freedom to decide on their own curricula. I agree
insofar as some common core curriculum would serve useful purposes for any nation. At the
same time, however, individual states and communities should have some freedom to
augment any such curriculum as they see fit; otherwise, a nation's educational system might
defeat its own purposes in the long tenn.

A national core curriculum would be beneficial to a nation in a number of respects. First of all,
by providing all children with fundamental skills and knowledge, a common core curriculum
would help ensure that our children grow up to become reasonably informed, productive
members of society. In addition, a common core curriculum would provide a predictable
foundation upon which college administrators and faculty could more easily build curricula and
select course materials for freshmen that are neither below nor above their level of educational
experience. Finally, a core curriculum would ensure that all school-children are taught core
values upon which any democratic society depends to thrive, and even survive--values such
as tolerance of others with different viewpoints, and respect for others.

However, a common curriculum that is also an exdusive one would pose certain problems,
which might outweigh the benefits, noted above. First of all, on what basis would certain
course work be included or excluded, and who would be the final decision- maker? In all
likelihood these decisions would be in the hands of federal legislators and regulators, who are
likely to have their own quirky notions of what should and should not be taught to
children--notions that may or may not reflect those of most communities, schools, or parents.
Besides, government officials are notoriously susceptible to influence-peddling by lobbyists
who do not have the best interests of society's children in mind.

Secondly, an official, federally sanctioned curriculum would facilitate the dissemination of
propaganda and other dogma which because of its biased and one-sided nature undermines
the very purpose of true education: to enlighten. I can easily foresee the banning of certain text
books, programs, and websites which provide information and perspectives that the
government might wish to suppress--as some sort of threat to its authority and power.
Although this scenario might seem far-fetched, these sorts of concerns are being raised
already at the state level.

Thirdly, the inflexible nature of a uniform national curriculum would preclude the inclusion of
programs, courses, and materials that are primarily of regional or local significance. For
example, California requires children at certain grade levels to learn about the history of
particular ethnic groups who make up the state's diverse population. A national curriculum
might not allow for this feature, and California's youngsters would be worse off as a result of
their ignorance about the traditions, values, and cultural contributions of all the people whose
citizenship they share.

Finally, it seems to me that imposing a uniform national curriculum would serve to
undermine the authority of parents over their own children, to even a greater extent than
uniform state laws currently do. Admittedly, laws requiring parents to ensure that their children
receive an education that meets certain minimum standards are well-justified, for the reasons
mentioned earlier. However, when such standards are imposed by the state rather than at the
community level parents are left with far less power to participate meaningfully in the
decision-making process. This problem would only be exacerbated were these decisions left
exclusively to federal regulators.

In the final analysis, homogenization of elementary and secondary education would amount
to a double-edged sword. While it would serve as an insurance policy against a future
populated with illiterates and ignoramuses, at the same time it might serve to obliterate cultural
diversity and tradition. The optimal federal approach, in my view, is a balanced one that
imposes a basic curriculum yet leaves the rest up to each state--or better yet, to each
community.

Votes
Average: 6.6 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 57, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[1]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'a nation' or simply 'nations'?
Suggestion: a nation; nations
... curriculum as they see fit; otherwise, a nations educational system might defeat its ow...
^^^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, besides, but, finally, first, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, third, thirdly, well, while, as to, in addition, sort of, as a result, first of all, in my view

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.5258426966 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 30.0 12.4196629213 242% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 28.0 14.8657303371 188% => OK
Relative clauses : 22.0 11.3162921348 194% => OK
Pronoun: 37.0 33.0505617978 112% => OK
Preposition: 86.0 58.6224719101 147% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 12.9106741573 147% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3727.0 2235.4752809 167% => OK
No of words: 660.0 442.535393258 149% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.64696969697 5.05705443957 112% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.06857624559 4.55969084622 111% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.05521389692 2.79657885939 109% => OK
Unique words: 342.0 215.323595506 159% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.518181818182 0.4932671777 105% => OK
syllable_count: 1159.2 704.065955056 165% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59117977528 113% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 6.24550561798 96% => OK
Article: 12.0 4.99550561798 240% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 4.0 3.10617977528 129% => OK
Conjunction: 8.0 1.77640449438 450% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 11.0 4.38483146067 251% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 20.2370786517 119% => OK
Sentence length: 27.0 23.0359550562 117% => OK
Sentence length SD: 55.162119022 60.3974514979 91% => OK
Chars per sentence: 155.291666667 118.986275619 131% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.5 23.4991977007 117% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.125 5.21951772744 137% => OK
Paragraphs: 50.0 4.97078651685 1006% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 1.0 7.80617977528 13% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 15.0 10.2758426966 146% => 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: 0.193188768591 0.243740707755 79% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0625233187492 0.0831039109588 75% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0628136656332 0.0758088955206 83% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0418544234196 0.150359130593 28% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0518613113319 0.0667264976115 78% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 18.9 14.1392134831 134% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 27.15 48.8420337079 56% => Flesch_reading_ease is low.
smog_index: 13.0 7.92365168539 164% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 16.2 12.1743820225 133% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.79 12.1639044944 130% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.57 8.38706741573 114% => OK
difficult_words: 192.0 100.480337079 191% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 11.8971910112 101% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 11.2143820225 114% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.7820224719 110% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Maximum six paragraphs wanted.

Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.