I Know Why a Caged Bird Can't Read - Francine Prose

AP/IB Lang

Letter to the Editor

In the essay, I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read, by Francine Prose, she addresses the flaws that she sees in today's education system. The main flaw she emphasizes is the education systems way of suppressing children's imagination and dulling down lesson plans in order to make it easy for slower kids. This topic is one I partially agree with. I think that the educational divide between non advanced and advanced classes is too large. Students in non advanced classes are experiencing this "dumbing down" of education. The teachers do not take these classes serious enough and many fail to prepare their students for college level classes. My brother took a regular level English 3 class last year and they wrote about three essays the entire year. This greatly hurt his writing skills and failed to prepare him for harder and college level classes. This also affected him in many other subjects because writing is used in all aspects of life. On the other hand, I do not believe that AP/IB students are receiving this "dumbed down" version of education. I approve of the way we are taught and believe that, with a good teacher, our lessons are thought provoking and encourage creativity. Emerson also makes an argument that goes along-side mine when he says, “He can learn anything which is important to him now that the power to learn is secured: as mechanics say, when one has learned the use of tools, it is easy to work at a new craft.” I believe that writing is one of these “tools” that will help us with all other crafts and if we miss out on that instruction and practice it will hurt us in all other aspects of life. So in conclusion, I believe that Francine Prose had many powerful arguments that may be true in some classrooms, but I also feel that she failed to address the many classrooms that are being taught well and correctly.