Newt Gingrich (2014). Get Schools out of 1890s. Atlanta, Georgia: Cnn

Sevda Mammadzada                    

WRIT 101                                                                                                

29.03.2016

Critical Analysis- Final Draft

 Review: Newt Gingrich (2014). Get Schools out of 1890s. Atlanta, Georgia: CNN.

 Education system is probably one of the most spoken topics after weather. Everyone consider themselves as a shareholder of a company called “Education System”. Therefore one can meet thousands of articles by people who are not even a part of education system. Most of the discussions are complaints of people that give their own solutions to change the system.  One absorbing article about this topic has been presented by Newt Gingrich under the name of “Get Schools out of 1890s”. The article expresses weakness of education system, and Gingrich shows solutions that are the only way for him to save students from this system-“blended learning”. Despite of the fact that this solution may help most families who live in poverty to send their children to schools, article consists of biased ideas, does not show any student’s idea, surveys, and does not express side effects of this way of learning.

  In his article “Get Schools out of 1890s” Newt Gingrich claims that today’s  schools are the same with 19th century’s and symbol of insanity, therefore, “blended learning” that is innovative and digital version of schools is a saver of students. Giving Khan Academy, Udacity, and Coursera as an example Gingrich wants to show new approaches to education system for new generation. As the article indicates, “blended learning” is a way of learning that involves both teachers and digital learning system. Cathy McMorris Rodgers put forward this idea in Congress, and author supports her idea because this investment demands less than any other traditional schools as it requires fewer teachers to teach children. Moreover, Gingrich shows an imaginary student- Susie and her failing steps that traditional methods cause. The article also indicates success of KIPP Empower Academy which scored 991 points out of 1000 in Los Angeles County. This academy is one of the schools that adopted blended learning. In addition, author claims that another advantage of blended learning is fewer discipline problems, so students can focus on only their lessons. For a conclusion, Gingrich recommends to support this idea suggested by McMorris Rodgers.

  Despite of his utilitarian position, Gingrich’s idea about blended learning and involving technology to education system may help many students to get education for free. As tuition fee is increasing day by day, most of families especially with more than 2 children cannot afford their children’s education fee. Schools like KIPP Empower Academy can be the beginning of new era for free education, so there will be no discrimination between poor and rich to get education. Blended learning might save the world.

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