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Maddie Scully
Professor Collins
ENGL 1302
3 March 2016
Education in America
Public schools have been an issue for decades, with flaws in the systems and lack of staff
and facilities. The video Dream With Me: 1 Year in Americas Public Schools aims to prove
different issues exist within Americas education systems. Different issues are discussed such as,
why a student would need an education, what people are lacking and the effects that it has,
teachers discouraging students from learning, and the effects and struggles that the students will
carry into their everyday life as an adult. In the video Dream With Me: 1 Year in Americas
Public Schools, necessary, reciprocal, sufficient, and remote causal arguments argues different
reasons why high school education in America is important and what many school systems are
lacking.
In this video, a necessary cause is used. At the beginning of the video, a student makes a
statement that You need an education in order to do anything (Dream With). This statement
is a necessary cause because it contains two directly relating things, and one happens because of
the other. According to an article by Haynes, McCrone, and Wade, high school is often the
main source of information for young people and their parents (Young-Peoples Decision
Making). Without this main source of knowledge and teachings, the student will not be able to
perform up to par in the real world in any setting or context. The skills that students are taught in
schools is analyzed and weighed on importance for their futures. According to How To E-D-U,
high school graduates right out of school make almost ten-thousand dollars more yearly than

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high school drop outs. With the high school education and diploma, students are automatically
more qualified and prepared to work in a real job and start a career. The high school education is
necessary to make a living in almost any job, just as stated in the video. This argument proves
why the schooling system in America is so important to students and their futures.
A reciprocal cause is used to argue why illiterate boys are acting out and being a behavior
issue in the classroom. The video states that boys are a behavior issue in the classroom because
they are not learning and overall dont have anything else to do. **insert quote from video for
evidence** In a study by Mehmet Teyfur, students are observed and evaluated on why they have
behavior issues at school. Many of the issues are caused when the child is not able to be
independent in the class due to parent interference or teachers not letting the child be
independent, to a certain extent, in their learning (Teyfur). The article states that teachers can
influence positive behavior by reminding classroom rules, calling the student's name, giving
advice, encouraging for apologising, warning trough eye contact, changing seats of students,
complaining about the student to his/her parents, prohibiting students from having a break,
retracing to the source of the problem, visiting the student at home, discussing the problem with
the school counselor and ignoring the behavior (Teyfur). This evidence supports the statement
in the video that children are acting out due to their situation in their school and classroom. This
argument shows the viewer why the students feel the need to act out and misbehave.
The next causal argument that is presented in this video is a sufficient cause. In the film,
it is stated that many kids are dropping out of school because the teachers are telling them that
they should not care anymore and just need to drop out (Dream With). This is a sufficient
cause because the teacher telling the kid that they should not care anymore and need to drop out
of school is enough of a cause for the kid to actually go and drop out. The cause directly causes

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the effect. Through this, the viewer is able to see the effects that a negligent teacher can have on
a student. When a teacher and mentor speak their mind and present negative and harmful
thoughts and ideas to a student, they take every word to heart and use those feelings to determine
the next action they will take. Those words can be very harmful and detrimental to a student,
especially an unstable one, due to the power and authority of a teacher. According to Haynes,
Gill, Tami McCrone, and Pauline Wade, young peoples decision-making have considered in
detail the role played by the careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG)
provided in schools ("Young People's Decision-Making). This information just provides proof
of the impact that teachers have on students and their decisions. The fact that this is an issue
within many students shows how the school systems are lacking and hurting the students within
it.
A remote cause is used to show the effects of someone who did not learn or grow through
out grade school. Because it is not a direct effect, the underlying and long term effects causes it
to be remote. The film Dream With says that kids who are drop outs in high school will not
have the skills they need to find a job and be successful at it, and will have to search for alternate
means of work to provide for themselves. This is an issue with in the school system because they
are allowing students to drop out unprepared for the real world. Without high school knowledge,
the student will not have the means to work successfully. They will not be able to comprehend
and work in a career without the slightest bit of education. Finding a job that will hire someone
without a high school diploma or even a GED will also be a struggle. According to *insert fact
and statement* Overall, this shows how the school systems are lacking by allowing and even
sometimes encouraging their students to drop out of school and go into the real world unprepared
for work and trying times.

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