The Main Focus in The Lost in America by Douglas McGray’s Essay

Douglas McGray's main focus in his essay "Lost in America" is the education of American children and the importance that a strong education has on the future of our country. His intended audience includes young people who are the future of America but also includes teachers, parents and those responsible for making changes in American public education system. The author points out the importance of learning a foreign language as a powerful tool of global communication. According to McGray, the new American generation is both "uninformed, and misinformed, about the world beyond U.S. borders" (352).
In his essay, McGray emphasizes the issue of isolationism in the United States public education system. He appeals to his audiences' fear and uses anecdotes, statistics and analogies to successfully show readers the current state of multicultural education in America and why it is important to have a strong education in this permanently changing world.
Rhetorically, it is important for McGray to reveal his audience how poorly educated the young Americans are about foreign culture and to warn them of the weaknesses that exist in American education. McGray begins his essay with an anecdote, a short story about a girl named Christina, "a modern, multitasking, American 15-year-old", from Oakland, California, who lacks
geographical knowledge "Christina is puzzled. 'The Philippines is an island?' she ask skeptically"'(McGray, 351). Christina's geographical knowledge are even worse when she says, "'I thought
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the Philippines was a country in China"' (McGray, 351). Beginning his essay with this anecdote, McGray shows how American children are completely misinformed about the world beyond their country's borders. In McGray's essay, Christina is the symbolic character who has been affected by the America's isolationism. The young Americans become unware of the world around them the world that lies outside the border of United States. He purposefully includes this short story to straighten his arguments that are made during the essay about American public education.
We live in a world that is becoming increasingly globalized and therefore it is imperative to know more than one language. As McGray says, "Globalization is everywhere you look", we have to be prepared to accept the challenges that this globalization offers (351). Using statistics, McGray reveals to his readers that "Two thirds of American students never studied a second language at all in the near 2000", and he encouraged them to "Take foreign languages" to gain an awareness of other cultures and also to progress in their carrier (352). By emphasizing the importance of foreign language and culture, the author urges the necessity of major changes in public education.
McGray states, "Every few years, a new survey comes out, showing that American school-children lag behind their global counterparts in science and math" (353). Here, McGray informs the reader that the American education's weaknesses put America far behind other countries in the future of growing and changing world. American children lack knowledge not only in foreign languages but also in mathematics, science, and world history or world geography. McGray argues,