A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position

Essay topics:

A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position you take.

A universal standard of education is vital for helping the citizens of any nation to be prepared for a fulfilled life, but this does not mean we should have a uniform national curriuclum for all school children up till college. Granted, in order to ensure that all of a country's students meet elementary standards such as achieving literacy and basic math competency, it makes sense to introduce a uniform curriculum. However, beyond these core skills, particular attention to individual students' needs and interests is necessary to ensure that education empowers the lifelong curiosity and human potential of its subjects instead of defeating it.

The trend in education over the past several decades has been an unfortunate push towards standardization of the curriculum. Educators and curriculum designers essentially draw on research to establish what the "average" goalpost for students should be, and build the school experience around that. Really though, the focus ought to be more on what each student needs to achieve his or her personal best, whatever that may look like. Otherwise, an average curriculum for a student capable of above-average performance has a diminishing effect where that student is not sufficiently challenged to grow and excel. Likewise, for the student with below-average potential, the average curriculum poses unrealistic challenges for them and sets them up for continued failure, which can translate into a lifelong attitude of feeling defeated and inadequate.

In addition to failing to account for the different levels of academic potential among its students, a uniform curriculum also fails to provide opportunities for individual interest and curiosity to flourish. Part of what education should be able is learning to love the act of learning itself, and that can only happen when students are allowed certain creative freedoms to explore topics that may be of more interest to them. A student who takes a great love of science and wants to learn more about astronomy, even though it's not necessarily in the curriculum, ought to have opportunities to explore that curiosity in school and be supported as they discover. Likewise, that student may have a lackluster interest in literature, and to punish them for their failure to love books while ignoring their incredible passion for the universe seems a disservice to the idea that schools help us reach our full potential.

On the other hand, implementing an uniform national curriculum does bring with it certain benefits. Basic reading comprehension, basic arithmetic, basic writing, basic health knowledge, and and understanding of one's duties as a citizen of that country, are essential for every student. A national curriculum helps enforce those necessary components of education. But as I have argued above, there needs to be room for other types of learning as well that are driven by the unique qualities, potentials, and interests of each student.

Some may argue that universal curriculums support social equality because they ensure that all students learn the same concepts and skills and are equally prepared for college; no student gets an unfair advantage over another because their schoool's curriculum was better. I would challenge this assumption. Equality is not the same as equity. Whereas equality espouses the idea that everyone should get the same thing, equity espouses the idea that everyone should get equal opportunity to succeed. As I discussed above, failing to provide additional support to students who require it prevents them from succeeding, even though it is ostensibly "fair" because it's equal to what they other students received. I think equity should be our goal here, because what we really want is to make sure that there are as few barriers to success in life as possible for each student.

In conclusion, I believe it this issue is not so black and white. In my opinion, implementing a universal curriculum around certain skills that every person requires in order to participate in society and pursue their own health and happiness is a great idea. However a good curriculum also leaves room for improvisation, creativity, and individualization. Students with great capacity to learn need more opportunities to do that, and students with narrower interests need to be encouraged to pursue those interests without being punished. Too much standardization in school will ultimately backfire by leaving students undersupported and undermotivated. So it is best to achieve a balance so that schools are not just about training children to meet the bare minimum, but about helping them actualize their full potential.

Votes
Average: 6.6 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 33, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'a' instead of 'an' if the following word doesn't start with a vowel sound, e.g. 'a sentence', 'a university'
Suggestion: a
...al. On the other hand, implementing an uniform national curriculum does bring ...
^^
Line 7, column 187, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: and
... basic writing, basic health knowledge, and and understanding of ones duties as a citiz...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 212, Rule ID: ONES[1]
Message: Did you mean 'one's'?
Suggestion: one's
...lth knowledge, and and understanding of ones duties as a citizen of that country, ar...
^^^^
Line 9, column 10, Rule ID: MASS_AGREEMENT[2]
Message: Possible agreement error - use third-person verb forms for singular and mass nouns: 'argues'.
Suggestion: argues
...interests of each student. Some may argue that universal curriculums support soci...
^^^^^
Line 11, column 261, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: However,
...n health and happiness is a great idea. However a good curriculum also leaves room for ...
^^^^^^^
Line 11, column 396, Rule ID: AFFORD_VB[1]
Message: This verb is used with the infinitive: 'to need'
Suggestion: to need
.... Students with great capacity to learn need more opportunities to do that, and stud...
^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, however, if, likewise, look, may, really, so, well, whereas, while, i think, in addition, in conclusion, such as, in my opinion, on the other hand

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.5258426966 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.4196629213 145% => OK
Conjunction : 28.0 14.8657303371 188% => OK
Relative clauses : 25.0 11.3162921348 221% => Less relative clauses wanted (maybe 'which' is over used).
Pronoun: 65.0 33.0505617978 197% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 95.0 58.6224719101 162% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 12.9106741573 124% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3950.0 2235.4752809 177% => OK
No of words: 737.0 442.535393258 167% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.35956580733 5.05705443957 106% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.21034969277 4.55969084622 114% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.0266915166 2.79657885939 108% => OK
Unique words: 357.0 215.323595506 166% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.484396200814 0.4932671777 98% => OK
syllable_count: 1264.5 704.065955056 180% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59117977528 107% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 6.24550561798 80% => OK
Article: 8.0 4.99550561798 160% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 3.10617977528 161% => OK
Conjunction: 10.0 1.77640449438 563% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 6.0 4.38483146067 137% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 20.2370786517 138% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 23.0359550562 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 63.6957352079 60.3974514979 105% => OK
Chars per sentence: 141.071428571 118.986275619 119% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.3214285714 23.4991977007 112% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.60714285714 5.21951772744 107% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 4.97078651685 121% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 7.80617977528 77% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 20.0 10.2758426966 195% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 5.13820224719 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.83258426966 103% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.211936828689 0.243740707755 87% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0590107693288 0.0831039109588 71% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0391654830329 0.0758088955206 52% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.119061057142 0.150359130593 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0305471428983 0.0667264976115 46% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.0 14.1392134831 120% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 36.63 48.8420337079 75% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.92365168539 141% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.6 12.1743820225 120% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.1 12.1639044944 116% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.85 8.38706741573 106% => OK
difficult_words: 183.0 100.480337079 182% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 20.5 11.8971910112 172% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.2143820225 111% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.7820224719 127% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Write the essay in 30 minutes.

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.