Conclusion

   In the end, American exceptionalism is just another way of saying nationalism, only more narcissistic. Every nation has a sense of nationalism, in fact, every nation must at least have some of this, otherwise, they wouldn't be a  nation. It is easy to be prideful, but hard to be humble. the challenge lies in not being exceedingly humble, but to acknowledge one's strengths and weaknesses, and the strengths and weaknesses of others, and being cold-truth honest with oneself about these things. This applies to both individual people, and whole nations. However, it also important to look at history from the perspective of the timer period, and those who lived it, while some of us today may think American exceptionalism and its other variations like Nativism and manifest destiny dint work in today's modern world, it is important to keep in mind that back when these ideas were first conceived, people actually truly believed in them, and thought those were the right ways to think. Therefore only once we acknowledge each other's strengths and weaknesses can we truly be rid of this idea of exceptionalism, and ensure we don't enter its entitling trap again.

outline

I.                    Introduction

A.      What is American exceptionalsim

B.      Why is it important

II.                  Our education system

A.      Why it is failing

B.      How American exceptionalism can be applied

C.      Adult influence on student’s attitude

III.                What America has done (both right and wrong)

A.      Help ourselves and other countries 

B.      Bad things we done to ourselves and other countries

IV.                Other similar beleifs

A.      What they are

B.      How they relate to American exceptionalism

V.                  Conclusion

A.      First American’s perspective

B.      My thoughts

C.      Close

What America has done (both right, and wrong)

          Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as perfection, at least from a religious viewpoint as perfection from a non-religious human perspective can vary depending on the person. The same  goes for nations, it seems some of us have deluded ourselves into thinking that we have only done good, and what evils we committed in the past were trivial. This has happened slowly throughout our nation's history, and no doubt happened in other countries. 

Even though my bias in this subject may be more directed toward the discrediting of American exceptionalism as being just a way for Americans to make themselves feel special, and give them the "right" to edit, and change written history to make America look better as  a whole while discrediting and demonizing other nations throughout history, America is indeed a nation, and just like other nations and people, we have both accomplished a great amount of good, and wrought a great amount of destruction upon ourselves and other countries, therefore I find it appropriate that we take a step back and  realize that among America’s wrongdoings including: enslavement of the Africans, the forceful, and even brutal removal of native Americans from their lands, segregation and an extensive amount of racism against African Americans that extended into the 20^th century, and we can’t forget the horrendous bombings of japan at the tail end of world war 2, we must also recognize the good that America has done. This includes: the efforts to rebuild japan after World war 2, inventing the airplane, having the perseverance and endurance to become our own country, playing the main role in the creation of the internet, the mere fact that we as a country offer freedoms that many, but not all other counties don’t have including: freedom of speech, press, and right to fair trial. See? America while has done great good, isn't quite the ideal batman or superman, but like any superhero, every country has its conflicts. 

In conclusion: it is important to recognize both the good we have done, and the wrong we have done. If we spend too much time on one or the other, or self esteem as a nation will become unbalanced in either direction, and either way, that is not good, as too much national self esteem will make us think we are better than we really are, and can do more than we really can, or we may believe that our nation is worthless, and can't contribute anything noteworthy to either our citizens, our country, or both, it would leave the nation in a hole so to speak, one that would take tremendous teamwork and a mega-sized shovel to get out of. 

Introduction

    American exceptionalism is dangerous, as is any other extremist national view. American exceptionalism is best described as the belief that America is a symbol of perfect morals and values that never waver, and never make a mistake, while being a sort of "beacon of light" for the whole world. This idea is by its very nature very narcissistic and therefore dangerous. While a overly humble and modest idea might be more beneficial for a nation, it is also not without flaws, as anything in life is. we must also look at the origins of this belief, which lie in 17th century England. This first example of modern nationalist ideas were created by the puritans during of the time period. 

Works cited

Works Cited

"American Enterprise Institute." American Exceptionalism. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://www.aei.org/module/1/american-exceptionalism>.

"American Exceptionalism and Human Rights [electronic Resource] / Edited by Michael Ignatieff." N.p., n.d. Web.

"Foreign Policy Magazine." Foreign Policy. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/10/11/the_myth_of_american_exceptionalism>.

Gutfeld, Arnon. American Exceptionalism: The Effects of Plenty on the American Experience. Brighton [England: Sussex Academic, 2002. Print.

Ignatieff, Michael. American Exceptionalism and Human Rights. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2005. Print.

Lipset, Seymour Martin. American Exceptionalism: A Double-edged Sword. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Print.

"The Myth of American Exceptionalism." Commentary:. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-myth-american-exceptionalism-9223>.

Söderlind, Sylvia, and James Taylor Carson. American Exceptionalisms: From Winthrop to Winfrey. Albany: State University of New York, 2011. Print.

"29. Manifest Destiny." Manifest Destiny [ushistory.org]. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2013. <http://www.ushistory.org/us/29.asp>.

"European Nationalism." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/405644/nationalism/66562/European-nationalism>.

" ." Finding the Root Cause of Student Apathy. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. <http://pan.intrasun.tcnj.edu/501/projects/Sanders/inquiry project.htm>.
"Getting the Message Out! Political Culture: Nativism." Getting the Message Out! Political Culture: Nativism. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. <http://dig.lib.niu.edu/message/ps-nativism.html>.

Other similar beliefs

     There exist two other particularly narcissistic beliefs that America has clung to in its early days as a nation. These two beliefs are nativism, and Manifest destiny.

   Manifest destiny is the belief that Americans had this "god-given right" to take and rule american land, while spreading their religion and ideologies across the land. This idea, while it pushed us forward towards expansion, also did its share of harm. While in the process of expanding, people would end up settling in occupied land, logically something had to be done about this, so, you know what they did? You guessed it, they removed the native Americans form their land, often by force. This belief that it was the destiny of these white Americans to take the land and "save" its inhabitants from their sinful and non-christian ways had a mostly negative impact on the Native Americans. It is also due to this belief and a lust for power and land that America decided to butt heads with Mexico over who would get everyone's favorite state, Texas.

   Nativism is an anti-immigrant belief, meaning that the only people who should get to live in America should be the Americans (the European ones, ones, not the native Americans).This belief consisted of two types of conflicts: a racial conflict between Americans and Europeans, and a religious conflict between the Catholics and the protestants. Of course as with most conflicts between two parties or beliefs, there were stereotypes, particularly ones that the white Americans held against the immigrants such as a belief that immigrants are intellectually inferior ("Getting the Message Out! Political Culture: Nativism."). Despite this opposition, immigration continued on through the centuries up to modern day, where this conflict with immigration has taken new form, and new meaning. However that's a different discussion for a different day.

At the end of the day; While our pride as a nation got us into some trouble and perhaps a few wars here and there, it was our pride that aided in pushing us into westward expansion (that and other social and economical problems including increasing population and a few economic depressions here and there “Manifest Destiny Overview" pbs.org).

   In the end, American exceptionalism is just another way of saying nationalism, only more narcissistic. Every nation has a sense of nationalism, in fact, every nation must at least have some of this, otherwise, they wouldn't be a nation. It is easy to be prideful, but hard to be humble. the challenge lies in not being exceedingly humble, but to acknowledge one's strengths and weaknesses, and the strengths and weaknesses of others, and being cold-truth honest with oneself about these things. This applies to both individual people, and whole nations. Only then can we work our way out of this rut of exceptionalism, and ensure we don't enter its entitling trap again.

American education system

This idea of American exceptionalism can even be even seen in america’s modern education system. America is lagging behind in education, but it still seems that some Americans still hold on to their country's “exceptional” values even today, this has led some Americans to become apathetic towards education, hence America’s new found position on the education list. There is also the fact that some Americans seem to have become frustrated with how poor students are doing in school, perhaps the students are not the only ones at fault, perhaps we have come to believe that since we are so great, that we should just be naturally good and educated with no effort on the part of the education. There is one major flaw with our education system, and that is that teachers are underpaid, but it is also due to again, student apathy. There could be a number of sources of this apathy one of them could be americans having more money in general, which in turn allows people to send their kids to school. This causes some, but not all kids to take school for granted, and therefore view it as a curse, than a blessing. Kids might also think that they are too good for school and therefore slack off, which might be another source of this apathy. There is a overall sense of entitlement that has invaded our modern American society, this has particularly affected some of our teenagers. Some of them come to believe that they are invincible and don’t need an education, or don’t see its benefits in the long run. Some might also be tempted to take the easy way out and rely on our government and healthcare to pay their way through life.

However, it is not merely the fault of the students as to the cause of our educational downfall, there are several other factors to blame for this educational crisis, including teachers, not because they perform poorly per say, but because of their low wages. The average salary of an American public school teacher is approximately $51,704 annually (salary.com). These poor wages mean that school cant always afford to higher highly trained and motivated teachers. This in turn affects how well educated the students are by the teachers, and how much they actually care about it as a teacher's attitude can have great influence over how much the student actually cares. There are also the parents. Parents play a huge role in a child's life as they too can have a  profound and important impacts on that child's life, including their educational performance.  

   In conclusion, American students are falling behind, whether these student's individual reasoning can be traced back to  American exceptionalism should no longer be a priority, the priority should now be turned to how to re-engage students in education, so hopefully we can wise up, humble ourselves, while giving credit where credit is due to each of our student's individual talents and abilities and together, improve our nation's education.