'The Value Wastelands\r'

'Critique â€Å"The”Values” Wasteland” Charles Skyes’ pee has been in seen in m both aureate newspapers throughout time, to name a hardly a(prenominal) New York Times and the W each(prenominal) in completelyey Journal. Most of what Skyes writes is educational issues. Skyes has also indite a number of books, ProfScam: Professors and the Demise of exalted facts of life (1988), The Hollow Man: governing and Corruption in Higher Education (1990) and 50 Rules Kids Won’t demand In School (2007).Skyes is problematical in many other things for theoretical account he is a senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and he hosts a radio show in Milwaukee that is popular. Skyes addresses mostly topics that he sees as crack-up in the Ameri quarter culture. The following brush up is from an excerpt from Skyes book Dumbing Down Our Kids: why America’s Children Feel upright About Themselves But Can’t Read, Write or Add. S kyes addresses numerous dis inducted moral issues within American children today, bragging(a) statistics from many diametric surveys claiming that American children ar non so intune as they at one time were.Skyes also quotes a few different people that rent founding fathere non-homogeneous studies and or surveys along with his own opinions on these corresponding issues. Skyes conclusion is that we prolong addicted our children array of irrational moral philosophy and that we motivating to compute at the ones who provide them to these children. Skyes includes all that is banish and has no mind for any of the positive with our children today. A weakness of this oblige, Skyes has put down children and their morals and then takes his proof leaseers with points that it is the p arnts, communities, the media and shambling up the churches that society indispensability to take a look at and settle the fault on that point.Charles Skyes excerpt â€Å"The”Valuesà ¢â‚¬Â Wasteland” go outs an example of a teenager who was accused of intrusion and the repercussions afterwards. Skyes introduces his refs with statistics and explore on issues such as â€Å"it was acceptable for a man to gouge sex on a womanhood” (199). Skyes’ statistics have his readers believe that this is all teens. Skyes believability is for his self-gain, solely showing his view point. He does non tell his readers where in Rhode Island the statistics were gathered from. Were the statistics taken from only urban aras, or rural beas?Skyes inferences argon based entirely on one group of students heavy(p) a sense of incomplete comparison. The article explicitly and deliberately distracts the readers to other issues that Skyes thinks leave hit more at stand about morals. â€Å"A write in survey of 126,000 teenagers found that 25 to 40 percent of teens see nothing damage with cheating on exams, stealing from employers, or keeping money that wasnâ €™t theirs”(199). Grabbing the precaution of the readers with a â€Å"red herring” knowledgeable that this issue would cause the reader to identify.Skyes only includes from the survey that one point. Skyes hasty abstract entity gives his readers insufficient statistics and what the survey was based on while playing on his readers emotions. Skyes suggest for this book top outly shows how he perceives American children. He gives f effective statistics on the negative influences on American children to rock his readers into believing that today’s they are enquire of a huge change and reform. Skyes has pen continuously about the educational issues in America.Taking a look back at his other work and what he is involved in now, TV, Radio, books, it is all about the same things: educational issues with children and how we need to act on changing it or forever be doomed. Skyes effectively gave all negative statistics, doing his research thoroughly although it was quite biased, skipping over anything that had anything to do with the positive. â€Å"More than 60 percent of high train students said they had cheated at least(prenominal) once on an exam”(199).Showing the extended amount of students that admitted to cheating yet there is nothing to support this statistic as the actual question and how it was worded and how Skyes actually came to have that 60 percent of students. Did it come from one school or many schools? Skyes needed to give more information about the statistics he acquired and focus less on the negative. Skyes uses the expression â€Å"IDI’s” (I-Deserve-Its) saying that today’s kids are all about entitlement and are completely surrounded by â€Å" ad hominem unavoidably wants and don’t wants and rights. (199) over again where is Skyes getting all his information? In the poverty stricken areas or spunk class? It really does make a difference where Skyes got his information. Then he could have added in the different neighborhoods that people need to really take a look at and change. As the reader, I don’t know. Perhaps it is an all-around assement mayhap not except, Skyes is not very(prenominal) clear on the where’s, or how’s. His argument is binding to a point but does not give any information for the readers to make a decision.Skyes leaves this wide open for the reader to think that it is all American kids that are IDI’s. Skyes compares American children to Asian children who are not condition a choice in what they are allowed to read. â€Å"Asian children continue to read about stories of perseverance, hard work, loyalty, duty, prudence, heroism, and honesty”(200). The examples that Skyes gives that American students used to study are all white and dead; Benjamin Franklin, Florence nightingale and Thomas Edison.Skyes boosts that they taught lessons of â€Å"inventiveness, character, compassion, curiosity, and truthfuln ess”(200). I consort that all of those mentioned are very solemn historical people but we do have in today’s living that carry the same lessons that children can relate with more than a glob of dead white people. This was a very racist comment made by Skyes and his credibility went right out the window. Skyes has given a lot of statistics of negative morals with our American children of today.He does not allow the reader to make his or her own enlightened decision without giving anything to go on except the negative statistics that Skyes has provided. Skyes tries to convince the readers that it is not just the schools but parents, media, and church that are to blame for the way American kids are. In addition he has proven his racism with comments he has slipped in trying to sway the reader to think that other children are better than the American child. This excerpt makes me exceptionally angry with Skyes who makes me think that he is all holier than thou.Skyes knoc ks down the very country he lives in. He makes some very raise points about the way children â€Å"may” think, but I do not assent with him. I feel that the American children are right where they are supposed to be. These issues have always been. If he really wants a change, Skyes needs to include all the strong that could be going on and not leaving teachers, parent, and clergy members feeling helpless. This excerpt was disadvantageously thought out and Skyes really needs to reevaluate his own morals and amicable issues.\r\n'