Left Behind, Way Behind (Text Response Week 3)

The article “Left Behind, Way Behind” is a believable argument.  First of all, the author of the article is Bob Herbert.  He is a columnist for The New York Times that writes on issues such as politics, urban issues, and social trends.  He is a credible source of the information because he has knowledge about the countries educational issues.  The author’s tone towards the article is negative towards the educational issue.  He uses strategies during his writing.  He starts off his paper by saying “First the bad news.”  He wants his audience (parents and school goers) to believe that this is the only bad part about our educational system, but the very next paragraph he hits the audience with “Now the worse news.”  The author states his point of view about the problem at the beginning of the paper and uses facts and statistics to back up those views.  The claims that the author is using is claims of fact.  He uses examples and statistics in the examples to show America’s educational system at its finest.  The percentages show that the school faculties are not doing their jobs of teaching young children and making them successful in life.  Another strategy that he uses is a comparison.  He compares snoop dogg and Paris Hilton as children’s role models.  He shows his audience the startling facts of the affect others have on children.  His strategy is to convince his audience the importance of school for children.  The author ends his article with ways to help the problem.  This type of support gives great evidence towards the thesis that the problem can be reversed with simple steps.